South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Feeling the pressure?
There’s a lot of it on Dolphins, Tagovailoa against Jaguars, Lawrence in London
It’s a 1-4 team against an 0-5 team in another country. How much pressure can there be?
For quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins, there’s a lot of it — even if he may not be feeling it or at least admit he feels it.
It may not be fair to Tagovailoa, who cleared another hurdle toward playing by being activated off injured reserve on Saturday. He didn’t put the Dolphins in this 1-4 predicament. In the team’s four consecutive losses, he only played a total of two series. On a fourthdown incompletion to conclude that second drive against the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 19, a walloping hit from A.J. Epenesa fractured his ribs, causing him to be carted off the Hard Rock Stadium field that day and miss the ensuing defeats to the Las Vegas Raiders, Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But the Dolphins, with Tagovailoa expected to make his return Sunday, can go one of two ways in the 9:30 a.m. kickoff against the Jacksonville Jaguars at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: They can either start turning the season around with Tagovailoa back behind center; or, in the ultimate doomsday scenario, his comeback still leads to a loss against rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence and the winless Jaguars, which haven’t won a game since Week 1 of the 2020 season.
Play out the two scenarios in your mind. If the Dolphins win: Tagovailoa’s return impacted the team enough to snap a fourgame losing streak, albeit against an opponent that any team that started the season with playoff aspirations should beat.
If they lose: His presence didn’t affect enough change. And you thought losing to the 0-3 Colts at home two weeks ago was bad? Try handing Lawrence and coach Urban Meyer their first professional win, suddenly bumping them, in theory, ahead of what Dolphins coach Brian Flores and Tagovailoa have already been building — not to mention putting Miami one loss away from its 2020 total by mid-October.
Tagovailoa did lose his lone college meeting with Lawrence in the national championship following the 2018 season. Ironically enough, second-year pro
Tagovailoa was a sophomore with Alabama then while Lawrence, a rookie, was a freshman.
Tagovailoa, who will get three starts before the NFL’s Nov. 2 trade deadline for a franchise that has been linked to troubled Houston Texans star quarterback Deshaun Watson, has deflected the pressure that comes with the moment.
“I don’t think it necessarily takes one person to change the outcome of a game,” said Tagovailoa following Friday’s practice in England after two in Miami this past week. “We all 11 have to go out there and do our jobs individually but collectively, if that makes sense, in order for the play to be successful. We have to string all of those good plays and keep stringing them together in order for us to be successful.”
Before Tagovailoa’s hip injury that cut his 2019 season and college career with the Crimson Tide short, leading him to fall in the draft to the Dolphins at No. 5, he was the sure-fire top pick of his class. Joe Burrow’s emergence at LSU that year also had something to do with it, but fan bases of NFL teams needing a quarterback debated if it was better to “Tank for Tua” ahead of the 2020 draft or “Tank for Trevor” the following year.
While Tagovailoa’s NFL stats may not wow you, one thing he has done is win when pinned against one of the young quarterbacks he’s been compared to. In maybe his best professional game to date, he topped the Arizona Cardinals and former Oklahoma quarterback and the No. 1 pick in 2019, Kyler Murray, last November. The following week, he beat Justin Herbert, taken one pick behind him in 2020 and putting up far better numbers, and the Los Angeles Chargers. In this year’s opener, a contested decision between he and former Alabama backup turned New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones also went his way.
“[Lawrence] has shown steady improvement every week,” Flores said of Jacksonville’s rookie signalcaller. “Better feel for the game, better feel for what other teams are trying to do to him defensively. He is talented, big arm, athletic, smart and yeah, he’s getting better every week. He’s a good quarterback. He’ll be a good quarterback, for sure.”
But Tagovailoa’s point is correct. It doesn’t all come down to the quarterbacks.
The Dolphins defense faces Lawrence without All-Pro cornerback Xavien Howard, already ruled out with groin and shoulder injuries. Opposite cornerback Byron Jones, dealing with Achilles and groin issues, is questionable to play. The secondary struggled last week against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers’ receiving corps as Howard and Jones tried to play through their ailments.
And Miami is going to have to start stopping the run against one of the NFL’s top rushing attacks, led by running back James Robinson.
“He’s a good back,” said linebacker Elandon Roberts. “He’s got real good like, once you hit him, center of gravity. He catches his balance all the time. Last year, when we were playing them, he bounced off a couple tackles.”
Getting their own running game going could assist Tagovailoa, especially since his reinsertion could mean more run-pass option opportunities. Running back Myles Gaskin is coming off a big game in Tampa, scoring two touchdowns through the air, but he has not seen an abundance of carries.
In addition to officially activating Tagovailoa off IR on Saturday, the Dolphins elevated wide receivers Isaiah Ford and Kirk Merritt from the practice squad. With DeVante Parker out, Will Fuller on injured reserve and Preston Williams questionable for Sunday, Tagovailoa won’t have a deep receiving corps to throw to, but the Dolphins can also utilize their depth at tight end and pass-catching backs on Sunday.