Carolina Panthers 27, Miami Dolphins 24
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It's that you know on some plays to where we can get back into our flow that got called back and then as we were trying to run the ball to open some things up, we just weren't executing in that aspect of it, and so when you try to do what you say you're going to come out and do and it's not working, now we got to adjust. So I think that was the process for us as we were trying to maneuver through what we wanted to do then as the Panthers were scoring.
Q. This is a tough, tough loss.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yep.
Q. When you capsulize it, you came out on fire, were moving the ball, five punts, a touchdown. How do you wrap your arms around that type of a football game?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think you got to look at it for what it is. You got to look at it from the lens of your side of the ball first before you can look at the team in general. I know the defense doesn't want to give up those points, special teams, I know they want to be better with the penalties.
And then offense, having those opportunities to go down and score and having the amount of three-and-outs that we had when we had those opportunities from our defense... you know, that's why it's a team sport. When they give us that opportunity, we got to capitalize. When we don't, it's the NFL. You see what can happen.
Q. So you came out and Darren Waller, big plays, getting the tight end down the middle of the field and things were clicking and then all of a sudden, the middle of the field kind of closed down. What were they able to do to take that away?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think what they were doing was within their quarters they were just stacking that middle and then they were giving some depth as well with their line backers, allowing for us to not have those plays or if we were allowed to, it would have to be a perfect ball and a certain person would have to be in those areas as well, a bigger body for a catch like that.
But they were getting some depth and we just had to check it down.
Q. And so the running game wasn't what it's been in the last couple of weeks. Was it something they did? Was it schematics or was it just people not getting their blocks or people letting guys off? You were right in the middle of it, so...
TUA TAGOVAILOA: For sure. I think it's one of those whereas we're looking at the iPad, hard to gauge, hard to tell. You can ask the question to the linemen, you can ask the question to the running back what he's seeing but got to watch the film and the film will tell the truth for what we did, what we need to do better and how we can move forward from a performance like that.
Q. So you're 1-4. You got to Chargers coming. This game is going to be hard to digest, hard to get over.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yep.
Q. Can you get ready and be ready to give enough effort next Sunday on what's going to be a bad week?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Oh, 100%. 100%. I am 100% showing up, getting myself ready, getting the guys that are going to be in the game as ready as possible for us, to give us a chance. To go out there, score, what we need to do to help us win a ball game.
Q. What are your feelings toward this season right now as it stands at 1-4.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: (Deep sigh) Tough. It's tough. No one wants to start the season 1-4. It's not like our team goes out there and we want to give up this or we want to not convert our third downs in the second half. There's just so many things that go into it and we got to figure this out. We got to figure this out now, you know? This feeling sucks. It's not a good feeling.
THE MODERATOR: Anything else?
Q. Early on what was working with Waddle, Waller, when you guys were flowing on offense?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: When we were flowing, we got a gauge on what they wanted to do defensively and second half, they made some really good half-time adjustments with what they wanted to do on third down versus us and kind of keeping us off the field and not converting.
Q. Tua, I'm sorry if you have been asked this but do you feel --
TUA TAGOVAILOA: You all right?
Q. Yeah, yeah, I appreciate you.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: What happened?
Q. I don't want to talk about it.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Oh, okay. Got you. Heard, you're good, brother. Yeah, yeah, understandable.
Q. Did it feel like there's a sense of maybe getting too comfortable there after that 17-0 run to start the game?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: You know, I would say I didn't sense that feel from the guys, but, you know, we'll look at the film and we'll see and get a better gauge on we can say one thing, but is our play doing the other? We'll look at that. We'll talk about that and we'll address it. Thanks, guys.
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