Hyde: Tua gives the Dolphins hope
That’s what you wanted to see. That arm. That accuracy. That mobility. That full arsenal of Tua Tagovailoa on Sunday was what the Miami Dolphins have spent two decades of wandering through the wilderness, turning over loose stones and Tyler Thigpens, in hopes of seeing.
No, Sunday wasn’t a finished or perfectly polished product. Even that was good new, though. There’s more in him. Sunday gave substance to the hope and support to the possibility that Tua could very well be that guy — that the long Dolphins nightmare just might be over.
The Dolphins beat Arizona for a fourth straight win 34-31, thanks in part to some non-Tua factors. The defense, namely tackle Zach Sieler and linebacker Elandon Roberts, made a fourth-and-1 stop to set up the win.
Kicker Jason Sanders made a 50-yard field goal, his teamrecord 20th straight, for the winning points.
There’s also the specter of the pandemic running around inside this team. Assistant coaches missed the game. More testing coming up could yield more positives and change the whole season.
Sunday was a franchise-changer, though. A good, new-fashioned NFL shootout broke out in Arizona. And the Dolphins didn’t get shot down for the first time in years in this kind of game.
They had the kid quarterback on their side, for once, to match what Arizona’s dynamic Kyler Murray was doing on the other side.
Murray completed 21-of-26 passes for 283 yards, three touchdowns and ran for 106 more yards. Tagovailoa completed 20-of-28 passes for 248 yards, two touchdowns and ran for 35 more yards.
Look at those numbers. There were 13 incomplete passes between them. Thirteen! It was like they were playing a highlevel game of H-O-RS-E between their running and passing feats.
“That was awesome,” Tagovailoa said of going against Murray. “I think it was fun for the fans as well, not just us competing. You know what you’re going to get with Kyler.
“You’re going to get big plays on his side of the ball. I think he might be the fastest player in the NFL right now.” Faster than you? “Oh my gosh, he’s faster than me, no doubt,” he said.
Well, it’s true. He’s not a flash like Murray. But you saw Tua escape from trouble and run the ball well on Sunday. That was a question considering the training-wheels of his first start last week against the Los Angeles Rams and his injury history.
The question was if the Dolphins were going to open the valve on his game or, when they did, whether it would be a continued cry of patience after his 93 yards passing in his opening start.
There was no waiting Sunday. He pulled off a designed run on the first series. He started winging the ball around, too. And while there were good plays throughout, the ones at the end, the ones you needed to win, showed just what they might have.
Third-and-4 in the fourth quarter? He eluded a blitzing linebacker, then made the NFL’s defensive player of October, safety Budda Baker, whiff as he got the first down.
Next play: He escaped a sure sack and ran 17 yards to the Arizona 11.
Next play: A pin-point-perfect pass to Mack Hollins at the side of the end zone for a touchdown.
That tied it at 31. That’s the kind of poise under pressure you saw. That’s how he went from a black-and-white game in his first start to full technicolor in his second start.
“There wasn’t much change throughout practice, throughout the week,” he said. “I’d say coming into the game we were able to get in a rhythm in the passing game and use that our advantage. If we wanted to get in the running game, we could do it, and we could throw in dropbacks as well.”
To add to the star quality the Dolphins might be unwrapping: Tua had a commercial in Sunday’s game. He was shaving. His dad said, “Tua, every day the gazelle must run faster than the lion or he’ll become lunch. When we wake up, we all have to be ready to run ... Son, are you ready?”
Just another example if Tua’s game is there, the Dolphins have a national star. (If not, he’s just another over-marketed quarterback like Baker Mayfield?)
The call after his first start was to see more. You saw more Sunday. It’s too soon to anoint him. But it’s not too soon to realize what you saw. You’ve seen enough quarterback slop over the past two decades to recognize the shine of quality.
The Dolphins moved to 5-3. That was good news. The better news is Sunday provided the first glimpse of a quarterback who could keep them winning for years.