CINCINNATI — Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was taken off the field on a stretcher after sustaining an injury in the second quarter of Thursday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium.
Tagovailoa was sacked by defensive tackle Josh Tupou and lay motionless for several moments after hitting his head on the ground. The team later ruled him out for the remainder of the game with head and neck injuries.
According to Amazon Prime broadcast, Tagovailoa was conscious and taken to a local hospital.
The entire Dolphins sideline walked onto the field as Tagovailoa was placed on a backboard and stretcher.
Tagovailoa was questionable to play Thursday after sustaining a back and ankle injury in the team’s 21-19 win over the Buffalo Bills in Week 3. However, the Dolphins also faced questions about their handling of Tagovailoa’s injury after he hit his head on the ground in the second quarter against the Bills and stumbled upon returning to his feet.
Tagovailoa was taken to the locker room and listed as questionable to return with a head injury but he returned to the game at the start of the second half. He and Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel later said it was a back injury, not a head injury, that Tagovailoa sustained against the Bills.
According to multiple reports, the NFL Players’ Association asked the NFL to look into the Dolphins’ handling of the injury. McDaniel on Monday said the team would be “happy to comply” with the investigation and expressed his comfort with the medical team’s process.
“It was a completely different source of issue from what everyone else was really looking at from that prism,” McDaniel said. “They went through the protocols and in that process during the game, and it was something that we wouldn’t have moved forward in the direction we did had there been any sort of red flags. You can’t keep quarterbacks out of harm’s way, so if he had a head issue, he wouldn’t have been back out there.”
Teddy Bridgewater entered the game at quarterback with the Dolphins trailing, 7-6.
