Cardinals 28, Dolphins 27
Q. Tua, what was it like to finally actually get back out there to play the game now how are you feeling having come through?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah. Feels good. Feels good to be able to come back and play with my teammates to hopefully help in whatever way I can to get a spark going for us offensively or get the mojo going for entire team. It was good, but tough loss today against a really good team, so, you know, that diminishes not just what I've done, but a lot of what other guys have done individually as well.
Q. Did you feel like you were in a pretty good rhythm or did it take a while to start settling into a rhythm?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I would say I felt like myself. Like I said, I've been preparing for five weeks as if I were to play while I was on IR so, you know, that's what it was. So it felt normal coming out there.
Q. Come back to a tough spot, you guys are 2-5 now. What's next for this team?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: We got to keep chopping wood. That's it. Keep chopping wood. Don't look for my external motivation from anyone, just look within. What can we do to get better? What can we do to continue to encourage each other because that's what it takes. It takes everyone inside that locker room if we want to get to where we want to go.
Q. What did you think about the crowd's reaction when you had the scrambled and you slipped and the crowd roared and chanted your name. What did you think of that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I thought that was super cool. It was super cool. I think anyone would think that's awesome.
Q. You said you recognized sort of the need to make adjustments to remain available. Do I think that played out today in any way?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: What do you think?
Q. Looked that way.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, so I would definitely agree with you. Just trying to avoid the big hits if I can, sometimes they're unavoidable. If there's a free rusher and you got to get the ball out, you take a hit, but just for me putting myself in those situations, I would say just obviously for the past five weeks have been able to just really think and ponder about my decisions.
Q. A lot of good place today but one negative was the safety. What happened on that one?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Um, I got to catch the ball. That's it, so. Yeah.
Q. Do you have any lingering hesitation or nerves -- did you have any linger hesitations or nerves before you actually played?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: No.
Q. So there was nothing unresolved?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: No.
Q. How do you balance being aggressive playing without thinking but also like you were talking about having to be mindful of the positions you put yourself in?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think it's just continuing to practice that in practice, kind of having a different mind set when running the ball or when I'm trying to escape the pocket and there's nothing there, not trying to be a hero, just things like that.
Q. How well do you feel the offense played as a unit?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, I think there's a lot of things we can continue to get better at. As a unit, we look to end the drive with points every time we're out there. You know, I believe we're too talented to not end drives with points, so we got to go take a look at what we can continue to do to get better for our team, to put points on the board so that a situation like that doesn't happen.
Q. What was the feeling at the end as the Cardinals are running down the clock and it's kind of a helpless situation?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: That's exactly what I would say the team felt, just helpless. We didn't get another opportunity to go out there and give our team a chance to hopefully put some points on the board, so, yeah. It's not a good feeling.
Q. How much of an emphasis was it today to get Tyreek Hill involved in the game?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It was an emphasis to get everyone involved in the game, for sure Tyreek, but as you can see with how they played their defense, they were really keying 'Reek and trying to keep a shield over him and when they did give us opportunities we try to take advantage of those, with those one-on-ones with 'Reek. Outside of that, we were just playing the plays as they were, reading it out.
Q. 11 of 15 on third downs. What was the key to that effect you guys had there?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I would say good Thursday practices with that. I would say's been locked in with what I would say I expect of them with where to be on the field, knowing what to do in certain looks and whatnot. I would say that's a testament to the guys in studying within their play book.
Q. Is there enough time left in the season to recover?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think there's always time, brother. Always time. 17 games. That's a long time. A lot of games. So whether we're counted out or we're not, doesn't matter. We're going to continue to play football. A lot of people in here know that I don't know how many years ago we started out 1-7. We didn't have half the guys that we have, and no disrespect to my other teammates but I'm talking about the talent that we have here, we didn't have half that talent however many years ago so to give that group respect, we won the next eight games and I'm not saying, you know, we're going to do that or whatnot, but it is possible. Anything's possible. So we're going to continue to trust each other, lean on each other, believe in each other, and we're going to go do it next week.
Q. What are your thoughts as the next team you face will be the Buffalo Bills.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Got no thoughts. We got to beat them. They're good. It's the same thing over and over. You got to beat them.
Q. Tua, what happened after the -- when got the first down, those three plays after. Was there anything in particular that Arizona was doing?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, there wasn't anything new that they showed us. It was just poor execution offensively on our standpoint and I would say those are plays and that's a series we wish we could have had back.
Q. When you see the team two weeks in a row lose a game after having a 10-point lead, what is it that you guys have to do to convert that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: We just got to continue to play complementary football. That's all it is.
Q. Doesn't really have anything to do with this game -- ask on Monday. After the week two game, fans donated I think it was $18,000, $20,000 to the Tua foundation --
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It wasn't something I was aware of at the moment. I do want to say a big thank you to those fans and then I was told that a good amount of them were Bills fans as well, it was kind of a love/hate thing. Hard to hate them, hard to love them sort of deal so I really appreciate it from the Bills fans and then also to fans in general, thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports