Dolphins 16, Steelers 10
Q. How did it feel to be back?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It felt good. It felt good running out the tunnel. The atmosphere was great. Got a lot of support from the fans, and just being able to be out there with my teammates, it was awesome.
Q. As the Steelers are driving for a potential go ahead score, what's going through your head on the sideline?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, situational awareness of things that could possibly happen if they do score, if they had to kick a field goal, things like that.
I would say I was prepared for whatever happened, if they did kick a field goal, and then we got the ball back, or if they scored and we got the ball back.
The time, what that looks like with two time-outs that we had left. So going over situational awareness.
Q. When you see Noah get that toe-tagging grab in the back of the end zone, corner of the end zone, what emotions are coming upon you at that point?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, it's gratifying. I think the defense played their asses off throughout the whole night. They gave us many opportunities offensively to go and put points on the board for our team so that we wouldn't be in the situation we were in late in the game where it was 10-16.
A lot of things that need to be corrected offensively. Obviously starts with me. But we'll take the win. We're extremely happy about that, and we'll go back to the drawing board when we come back in.
But to what you said -- you know, a situation was coming to mind, as well, when Noah did get the interception because we thought he was probably down at the half yard line, maybe 1-yard line. I'm not too sure. That situation we probably have to quarterback sneak or do something like that to get out of the end zone and just run the clock down. But they called it a touchback, so we were able to kneel the ball.
Q. What was working so well early, especially in the middle of the field, and how did that close up as the game went on?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, I think they made really good adjustments defensively, but they were just little misses here and there that we had offensively. A lot of the misses could have turned into really big plays.
Just better execution, and it starts with me, like I said.
Q. You finally had the opportunity to meet with Bob Griese for the first time. What did you take away from that experience?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: He's a cool guy. We just said, what's up. He said, Are you going to ball out tonight? I said, That's the plan. We just had that kind of conversation back and forth. Really cool guy. Really awesome to kind of be around him and the other guys. It's a great opportunity to be around a team and a group of guys like that, an undefeated season in the NFL. That's hard. It's hard to win games in the NFL.
It's greatness that I was able to shake their hands.
Q. How did it feel getting out there? Are there any adjustments at this point in the season or because it's this point in the season you just (indiscernible)?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, not being able to play two games does have an effect on my performance in a way that I haven't seen full speed reps in practice where guys are coming to hit me, tackle me. You know, so kind of getting used to that, and really just being able to help our O-line out, trying to get the ball out faster, trying to make quicker decisions for our guys, just so the defensive line doesn't get comfortable with their rush patterns and kind of finding the spot of where I'm dropping at.
Yeah, there are some things that you do kind of have to just see when you play the game. You don't get some of the looks in practice.
Q. You said some plays could have turned into big plays. Did you feel fortunate that there were some potential interceptions dropped? Do you need some of that to win a game?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I wasn't talking about their defense, I was talking about our offense. Miscues with ball placement, communication with a route that this receiver thought was this look and I thought was that look. Just miscommunications on our part with that. We just couldn't find our rhythm again.
Yeah, that's something we'll have to work on.
Q. You had two times where you lowered your shoulder and you were the aggressor there, lowering the head. You had said this week that was something you might want to avoid. In the moment is it too hard to avoid?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, situation, I can see the 1st down, and to me there were close calls where it's like, okay, maybe if I do just put my shoulder down, hopefully I can get forward progress with this. But that was all it was. I wasn't trying to be Superman or a superhero out there. I was just looking at the situation.
The second one was a 3rd down, try to run and lower my shoulder hoping to get through the guy to get the 1st down. That's all it was.
Q. Did you talk to (indiscernible) after?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Nope.
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