Tua Topics: His Coldest Game, Staying Positive and His Foot Injury
Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa conducted his weekly Zoom media session Wednesday after being a full participant in practice.
That's noteworthy because Tagovailoa showed up on the Dolphins injury report with a foot injury.
Tagovailoa didn't seem to suffer an apparent injury during the 29-21 victory against the Los Angeles Chargers at Hard Rock Stadium, so it's difficult to determine exactly what happened to him.
During his media session, Tagovailoa did a nice job of pointing out it's the whole team that's on a winning streak when he was asked about being 3-0 as a starter — he could join Ben Roethlisberger (2004) as the only rookie QBs to win each of their first four starts.
Tua also addressed a Pro Football Talk story when he was quoted as saying that the NFL wasn't as hard as he thought it would be, though still hard (he actually kind of said the same thing in the end).
Tua also talked about his ability to stay cool under pressure, such as when he picked up an errant snap against the Chargers and proceeded to throw a 23-yard completion to Devante Parker.
Finally, Tua revealed the coldest game he's ever played was in high school in Seattle, Washington, when it was raining. The topic came up because of the Dolphins' upcoming game in Denver, though the forecast for Sunday (according to Accuweather.com) calls for a high of 52 degrees.
Here were Tua's comments on the various topics:
On beating his expectations for the start of his career, in light of his 3-0 record as a starter:
“I think for us as a team, our goal is just to take it a game at a time. And I think we've all been very fortunate to have won five in a row. And we hope to continue to do the same thing throughout this week. And that comes with our preparation, how we prepare with one another, the scout team giving us good looks both offense defensive, and then the special teams. It’s not just me, it's just a collective effort from everyone.”
On the PFT story:
“Well, yeah, I think that was probably taken out of context. Because after I said that, there was like another paragraph that I said after that. But I still have a long ways to go. There’s a lot of things that I need to learn. By any means did I not mean that the NFL was easy. Because it's hard. It's difficult to score. It's difficult to move the ball against these guys. But just from what I originally expected it was going to be as far as the difficulty, it wasn’t as I expected is what I’m trying to say.”
On the completion to Parker after the bad snap:
"Well, Coach Chan (Gailey), Robby (Brown), and all our other coaches offensively have helped me tremendously throughout the week, throughout the prior weeks as well in helping me get ready and knowing where to go with the ball, being decisive with all of that. So when the ball was on the ground, already in my head I knew where I wanted to go with the ball as far as my pre-snap read. So I got the ball, kind of took a peek a little bit before I threw it. And with DeVante, you’ve just got to give him an opportunity to go up and get it and I like my chances with giving him a chance."
On where he gets his positive attitude:
"Yeah, I would say I probably get that from my mom. My mom's (like) everything's gonna be good. She's a very optimistic person. She's very prayerful.. But, yeah, I would say I get that from my mom. When everyone else panics, Mom is the one to (say), ‘OK, everybody, relax, everything's gonna be good.’ Then she goes on and eventually they do become good, but even when they're not, they end up getting good.”
