Why Tua Was Frustrated After First Detroit Joint Practice

DETROIT — The Miami Dolphins offense had a second difficult joint practice Thursday, this one against the Detroit Lions.

Tua Tagovailoa didn't throw any interceptions on this day after throwing three against the Chicago Bears in the joint practice Friday, but the offense struggled to make many plays and the quarterback wasn't shy about expressing his frustration after the fact.

Here's what Tua said about the practice:

Overall, how would you grade today's practice after you had to bounce back from the three-interception practice against Chicago?

"For a grade, I wouldn't give myself a grade. I don't think that's fair to grade yourself. I think that's something that, well, my assessment, I still wouldn't give myself a grade. I think that's for you guys to do with however you guys report that and whatnot. I think today offensively was a very frustrating day in regards to what we wanted to do, what we said we wanted to do came out. And we just weren't able to get things jump started. So that was very frustrating today."

What do you think the Lions can provide in looks that you might see later on?

“Well, they've made it deep into the playoffs. They made it to the NFC Championship, not just one time. So they got something good going on. And when you face an opponent like that in practice and you get to see some of those looks early on That's good for a lot of our younger guys. That's good for for our guys up front to see with how different games can look where they bring guys from inside outside and present their different looks within their pressures. So I definitely think it helps in challenging us early on for those looks when we get later in December and January.”

What were some of the frustrating things that happened?

“Well, some of the frustrating things like I said was, we couldn't get ourselves jump-started as an offense. We couldn't gain that momentum to where all OK, all we needed was one play and then jump start the offense, whether it was move the ball, whether it was one of the third down team periods, another team period, red zone. It just felt like we didn't have the energy that we're used to when we practice and when we play against opponents. So that's what I'm talking about.”

What can you learn about yourself as a group when you're going through these practices against a team like the Lions? You said that you've been in the playoffs before. What can you guys learn about yourself as a group?

“Well, it's good. I think they can learn some things. We can learn some things. This is a lot of what they did today. We're gonna go look at the film. We're gonna go watch it, see what we can correct and learn from that.”

To add to what you mentioned about the issues, how much of it was what they were doing as opposed to what you guys were not doing?

“Well, I think it was a combination of both. I think it was a combination of us communicating what we were in, what they were in, what we wanted to do protection wise, what we wanted to do in the run game. And then our timing in the past game as well off of what our past pro looks like. So yeah, that's just not a good recipe for success in this league and against a good team. Things like that are gonna happen. Like I said, it's frustrating, but we're going to go watch the film. We'll learn from it.”

How do you put this behind you? What's the key to putting this behind you?

“Well, I don't think you put this behind you. I think you’ve got to face it head on. Any of these challenges, any of these hardships that you go through as a team collectively, you got to look at it head on, you got to face it, you got to look at it for what it is, you got to learn from it. That's what it is. Then you come out the next day and then you show your teammates, did I learn from it from yesterday or did I not?”

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