Tua Tagovailoa Stars in Dolphins' Thrilling Win at Arizona
Tua Tagovailoa put on a show in his second NFL start and propelled the Miami Dolphins to their biggest win of the season.
Tagovailoa passed for 248 yards and two touchdowns and Jason Sanders made a 50-yard field goal with 3:30 left in the Dolphins' 34-31 victory against the Arizona Cardinals in a thriller at State Farm Stadium.
Tagovailoa out-dueled Kyler Murray in a shootout between the winner and runner-up for the 2018 Heisman Trophy.
Murray passed for three touchdowns and ran for another to become the first player in NFL history with both a rushing and a passing touchdown in seven of a team's first eight games.
Arizona had a chance to tie the game after the two-minute warning, but Zane Gonzalez came up short on a 49-yard field goal attempt. Tagovailoa clinched the victory when he gained a first down with a quarterback sneak with Arizona out of timeouts.
After a rough outing in his NFL starting debut against the Los Angeles Rams, Tagovailoa showed off the skills that made him the fifth overall selection in the 2020 NFL draft and the hope of Dolphins fans dreaming of a long-awaited franchise quarterback.
Tagovailoa threw two touchdown passes to Mack Hollins in the fourth quarter. Tagovailova also made some key plays with his scrambling, particularly during a brilliant 93-yard drive in the fourth quarter that tied the score at 31-31.
Sanders's game-winning 50-yard field goal gave him a franchise-record 20 consecutive successful attempts. He tied the record, first set by Olindo Mare in 1999, with a 56-yard kick on the final play of the first half.
The kick came five plays after the Dolphins stuffed running back Chase Edmonds for no gain on a fourth-and-1 from the Miami 40-yard line.
Taking the ball out of Murray's hands seemed like a strange call by the Cardinals, considering Murray rushed for more than 100 yards.
Arizona scored the only two touchdowns of the third quarter to turn a 24-17 halftime lead into a 31-24 advantage.
Murray gave Arizona the lead with a 10-yard run four plays after he converted a fourth-and-1 from its 46 with a 28-yard keeper.
The Cardinals had earlier tied the score at 24-24 with a 21-yard pass to tight end Darrell Daniels, who stole the ball from cornerback Byron Jones to turn an end zone interception into a touchdown.
The Dolphins got on the board first, thanks to their defense.
Just like he did last week against the Rams, Emmanuel Ogbah knocked the ball away from the quarterback, and this time it was Shaq Lawson who scooped it up and took back to the end zone.
The big plays kept coming from both sides, but they were mostly on offense.
The teams traded touchdowns until the Dolphins took a 21-14 lead on Tagovailoa's 9-yard pass to Preston Williams, who left the game with a foot injury after the play.
The Dolphins also got a 2-yard touchdown run from Jordan Howard, who was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch for three consecutive games. It was the fourth rushing touchdown in five games for Howard.
The Dolphins played the game without five of their assistant coaches because of COVID-19 protocols, including quarterbacks coach Robby Brown, defensive line coach Marion Hobby and secondary coach Gerald Alexander.
Arizona played without two defensive starters, linebacker Devon Kennard and cornerback Byron Murphy Jr., who landed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.
