ClutchPoints
The Miami Dolphins came under the spotlight after a tough Week 1 loss, and head coach Mike McDaniel did not hesitate to point out Tua Tagovailoa’s struggles. The 33-8 defeat to the Indianapolis Colts exposed a series of mistakes from Tagovailoa that led McDaniel to be critical of his execution.
“I think I saw a quarterback play that was less than to be desired, which Tua absolutely knows,” McDaniel said.
The quarterback completed just 14 of 23 passes for 114 yards, took three sacks, threw two interceptions, and lost a fumble. McDaniel stressed that turnovers were a major issue and that the offense could not overcome that level of inefficiency.
“He’s the captain and the franchise quarterback, and everybody kind of fell victim to something similar,” the coach explained.
McDaniel emphasized the importance of learning from mistakes and not repeating them.
“My biggest thing is I don’t want to make the same mistakes twice. I don’t want to have things happen for no reason or in vain. You make them purposeful by improving upon the things that you fail at and then making sure that your teammates do the same,” he noted, according to The Palm Beach Post.
Former Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard also offered a candid view, saying Tagovailoa tends to panic when his first read is taken away.
“We knew… he gets the ball out pretty quick. And once we take away his first read, I feel like it’s panic mode after that. And it showed yesterday,” Howard said.
McDaniel was asked about that tendency and gave a more measured response, explaining that game plans often dictate how much a quarterback relies on the first read.
The coach estimated that roughly half of Miami’s plays are designed to go to the initial option but insisted the key is execution within timing and fundamentals.
“The key is to play within the timing, the fundamentals, within the orchestrated pocket and deliver and deal so you can have all of our players participate in the end game,” McDaniel said.
Finally, McDaniel reinforced that accountability must be shared across the entire offense.
“I could have called a run play that play, too. We all have to be accountable and aggressively so if we want things to change,” he stated.
The Dolphins now shift their focus to correcting mistakes before their Week 2 matchup, fully aware that their quarterback’s performance remains central to the team’s hopes.
The post Mike McDaniel’s brutally honest Tua Tagovailoa take after Xavien Howard shot appeared first on ClutchPoints.
