Film Study: WHAT A MESS: What went WRONG for Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins Vs the Colts

Film Study: WHAT A MESS: What went WRONG for Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins Vs the Colts

All right, let’s talk about the disaster that was the Miami Dolphins offense against the Indianapolis Colts. Good defense as well. We’ll talk about it all. Uh just a lot of this stuff where it’s a zone coverage concept. Receiver going over the middle. Okay, we’ve seen the Dolphins hit on this a million times, right? Tua is going to take the snap. So far so good. Receiver is open on this play. So like, okay, everything seems to be going well. And sometimes these things are miscommunications where you you know it’s uh you think your receiver Tyreek Hill on this play is running a little bit deeper. I don’t think that’s what’s happening here though. And also Tyreek Kell cut before Tua got in the throwing motion. So I don’t think that would really be an excuse here either. It’s just a high throw and ends up getting picked off right there and so like okay mis throws happen. I think that’s what happened is one just got away from him. But when you’re usually I feel like I mean even the knock against Tua has been health. It hasn’t been like he is bad usually, right? So, it is very uncharacteristic to see him making these types of mistakes so frequently like this next one’s going to be another one where it’s a a zone coverage concept once again that the Colts are in. And again, in the Mike McDaniel Tua era, like they want zone coverage. They this what they they feast off of. Tua is going to take the snap. He starts off looking uh towards his right, then looks over here. And I think it’s actually no looking this pass it looks like because he’s I think he’s trying to sell to the Colts player who is more over the middle that he’s going to be throwing closer towards the top of the screen even though his receiver is running towards the bottom of the screen. But in doing this, he’s not going to be able to see the field very well. Watch as safety comes in and nearly picks that football off. So that one wasn’t a turnover. So I guess that’s good. better than a lot of these other plays, but like it’s still not good football. And you know, for Tua, when he was, you know, just getting into the league, there was a lot of like, is he big enough? Can he see over the middle? Can he like, you know, does he have big enough arm to zip it through some of these tight windows? And I think the past two years have shown like, okay, no, he can still work even with those potential limitations. But like, it certainly wasn’t working in this game. This play, a third down and three, they’re down 20. But, you know, again, early on in the third, you’re thinking like, okay, can they maybe get something going? Nope. Again, zone coverage, just not seeing a player who kind of moved more towards the bottom of the screen, going back more towards the middle of the field. Ends up being an interception. Again, these are good plays by the Colts defense for sure, but also like what is Tua doing here? What is he seeing? Why is he struggling so much at what usually is his strength? You know, it’d be if we saw Lamar Jackson week one like look slow or something like, you know, usually he’s fast. Like what’s happening there? Like usually this is what Tua excels at and he’s struggling. It’s very confusing. I guess the one thing you would hope if you’re a Dolphins fan is like maybe this was just one bad week. Like I mean I hope it was just one bad week cuz it was a disaster, right? Uh maybe. But like yeah, very bizarre. I can’t tell you why. I can tell you what happened. We could all try and scratch our heads and figure it out. But yeah, uh rough stuff there. Also, heading over here, that was not the only issue that was at play. There was also protection issues. And like, listen, uh sometimes the offensive line was just getting beat. What are you going to do? Like, you don’t have a lot of talent in that offensive line group. Like, it’s kind of what you have to deal with. But then there’s stuff like this where this one’s a little bit of a tough play, but still worth mentioning. you have a play action and you see the the Colts player who I’ve circled in white, he’s going to be blitzing on this play. Cornerback blitzes are always tough because you’re just you’re not expecting that as a uh as a an offense like it it can you can get fooled pretty easily. So, it does happen, but but nonetheless, you still have to be able to pick it up to some degree. It’s Devon Achan who again the back who they’re going to run play action to has to then pick this up. However, when Tua takes the snap right here, you see Han just not not looking in that direction, not aware of this. And Tua isn’t looking in that direction and isn’t aware of this. So, like, you got to be again, you got to be aware. Somebody has to notice this. Even if it’s just the quarterback who notices this, who can then, you know, figure out, okay, I got to throw this ball into the dirt, live to see another down. Instead, Tua eventually sees it, but tries to step up, doesn’t protect the football, and loses the football. I mean, you have to protect the football there. you just you you have to protect the football there. Like it’s okay if you take a sack. It’s okay if a good blitz concept beats you. But again, for for a quarterback, your number one job is protecting the football. And if you don’t do that well, like you’re you’re you’re not going to win any football game ever. You’re just not I guess the Broncos won with four turnovers. That is the exception, not the rule. This play was another one where what’s going to happen on this one is this isn’t even like they have protection set. Like you can’t blame Tua. Uh there’s three players who were towards the offens’s right on this play, which again for Tua, left-handed quarterback, so this is his blind side. Um you know, center is blocking to the right. So like you have someone for everyone, but when Tua takes the snap, again, this just isn’t picked up. The tackle doesn’t read the play and now you have a straight shot once again to your quarterback on the blind side. I mean, this isn’t just bad because it could be a bad play, but it could be a fumble. And it honestly, quarterbacks can get injured this way, not being able to protect themselves. As you see, fortunately, Tuo was okay. Just took the hit. I mean, I’m sure it didn’t feel good. Uh, fortunately though, the only, you know, result of that was a sack, but it’s still like these are just errors. This is just this is, you know, again, if you don’t have the talent, you don’t have the talent, but you can fix this stuff. This is doable, right? So yeah, that’s just just kind of the the the issue there. I’ll show a highlight. There were other highlights. This wasn’t the only one. There were some nice throws from Tua, right? Like it wasn’t just a disastrous day. Like there there were if you watch the tape, there were some positives. It’s just that like he there was like I don’t know like seven or eight horrible plays, which is a lot of horrible plays. If you take out those horrible plays, it looks better, but that’s way too many horrible plays. Sometimes you’ll do that with a team that had like three horrible plays and say, “Oh, you get rid of those.” Like it was actually a solid day. Like it’s just you got to cut down on these bad plays. Like this sequence, this was essentially what iced the game. Game was basically over anyway. But again, you’re down three scores with 20 minutes left. If you can get a touchdown and two-point conversion, you’re down 15, you know, with still a whole quarter to play. We’ve seen the Dolphins and us overcome a 21point deficit in the four fourth quarter before. Uh it’s possible, right? At least like you know if you’re on the field that’s what you’re thinking. Well on the second down and six first you’re going to see it’s a really nice throw from Tua and it is going to be not quite complete there. So okay not ideal but that was a tough catch. Let’s go to third down and six here. Again you’re going to see that uh Tua takes a snap right here. He’s going to just try and hit the halfback. Gain a first down and oh no. Now that one’s dropped. Okay. Fourth down and six. Can can you get anything going at this point? Well, here I mean nothing’s open to it. Probably should have still just thrown up a jump ball earlier. Eventually decides to it is incomplete. Pressure also comes. So like listen, you’re the quarterback and you turn the ball over too much. So he’s going to get the blame. But like you can’t just say, well, if Tua plays better, everything is fixed. There were other issues. Receivers have to play better. They have to block better. I mean, legitimately, it was it was bad from top to bottom. Like every level. The receiving core didn’t play well. The blocking wasn’t good. they didn’t pick up uh the players they’re supposed to pick up. Two u you know uh missed throws, turn the ball over. It was just a disaster. And yet all that being said, like maybe this is a crazy take. I don’t think the Dolphins are like, you know, dead in the water forever. Let’s not forget they had, you know, back in the Ryan Fitzpatrick days, they had that horrible start uh with I guess Josh Rosen days, horrible start and then they ended up being competent. They played the Patriots who like, you know, they lost. I don’t know, maybe you can try to get right to some degree and they have to. If they protect the football better, these other mistakes might not seem as big of a deal, but there, you know, there’s still a lot of other issues as well. So, yeah, tough disappointing first week. You know, I was expecting the Dolphins to at least be all right uh week one. Very disappointed in what they put out there. Credit to the bu the Colts defense as well for, you know, making these mistakes, but yeah, or, you know, as in forcing the mistakes, but yeah, those are my thoughts. What are yours? Let me know in the comments below. Always love hearing from you.

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