Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had a rough outing against the Green Bay Packers on Christmas Day.
Although the 24-year-old threw for 310 yards in total and had the Dolphins in good shape to win the game at halftime, it was all Green Bay in the second half, and turnovers were a major reason why.
Tagovailoa threw three critical interceptions in the fourth quarter, and as a result, the Packers escaped Miami with a 26-20 win.
After the game, Tagovailoa spoke about the three interceptions and explained what went wrong on each one.
“On the first one, I tried to throw it over the defender, but I ended up really throwing over the defender and Tyreek [Hill], so that one got away,” he said. “The second one, I might have said the wrong play — I’m not too sure. But there was just some communication errors on that. And then the third one was just not a good ball for my receivers to have been able to make a play on that.”
Tagovailoa made it clear during his presser that he was disappointed by his performance.
The past few weeks haven’t been pretty for the former first-round pick. Over his past four games, Tagovailoa has completed just 52.6 percent of his passes for 984 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions. The Dolphins have gone 0-4 during the stretch.
It wasn’t long ago that Tagovailoa was being mentioned as a possible MVP candidate this season by some folks. He still leads the league in several key categories, but given his recent struggles, a lot of the positivity that surrounded the quarterback earlier this season is seemingly on pause now.
The good news is that there’s a pretty simple way for Tagovailoa to get that positivity back: by leading the Dolphins to the playoffs. The team isn’t making life very easy on itself, but Miami is still in good shape mathematically to make the postseason.
The Dolphins have two games left — one against the New England Patriots on the road and one against the New York Jets at home. Miami still controls its destiny to make the postseason.
The team is looking for its first playoff bid since the 2016 season and first playoff win since the 2000 season.
