MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The list of things lost by the Miami Dolphins Monday night is long — their home winning streak, their grip on the AFC’s No. 1 seed, their aura as an elite team.
But somewhere on that list should be Tua Tagovailoa’s chances of winning league MVP.
That’s over now. You can’t play the way that Tagovailoa did in Miami’s 28-27 loss to the Tennessee Titans — one of the league’s worst teams with one of the league’s worst offenses — and think anyone is going to vote for you over the likes of Dak Prescott, Lamar Jackson, and Brock Purdy.
Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa’s Worst Game of 2023?
Tagovailoa didn’t throw a pick Monday, but he also didn’t throw a touchdown. He did lose a fumble at the goal line in the first quarter — a mistake that was ultimately the difference in the game.
But no matter how many pedestrian Tua stats from Monday you can come up with — like him needing 33 pass attempts to throw for 240 yards, or the Dolphins converting just four of 13 third-down tries — nothing comes close to the eye test.
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When Tyreek Hill was on the field, the Dolphins offense sort of looked like it should have. In the four drives he missed with an ankle injury, they managed just three points and averaged 4.6 yards per play.
“Obviously a player of Tyreek’s caliber, it hurts when he’s not in,” McDaniel acknowledged. “However, I think there was plenty of offense to be had, and we’ve got a lot of guys that I trust to do that. I think that just bottom line, you have things like that happen in a game, you’re going to lose, and those are lessons that are learned usually one way and that’s the hard one.”
The Dolphins have now lost four times in 2023. In each of the previous three defeats, they bounced back the next time out. But this might be different. Based on Hill’s comments postgame, the odds are good that the NFL‘s leading receiver will not be the same player again in 2023.
“It was just one of them things where like you just got to make your mind up, like ‘Hey, I’m going to do it, man,’” Hill said of his decision to return to the game.
“One of them (expletive) them mindsets. You feel me? And it’s going to be like that until the end of the season. I feel like at this point of the season, everybody is typically hurt, and right now I don’t need — nobody is going to give you pity for just being injured, quite frankly.
“That’s just the reality of this league. My mindset is like I’m going to go in, I’m going to dominate no matter how I feel. If I get locked up, it happens. If I drop a pass, it happens. But just know I’m out there. I’m going. That’s my mindset.”
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