Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa says he and center Aaron Brewer both share blame for the mishandled snap that resulted in a costly safety against the Arizona Cardinals. But he also made it clear Wednesday that he isn’t interested in hearing criticism from fans about the play.
“I’d like to see a lot of other people go in the back there and try to catch that ball,” Tagovailoa told reporters. “You’ve seen it – it wasn’t [Brewer]’s best and ‘Brew’ knows he can get it better, but it wasn’t my best as well. But I’m just saying to give perspective, it’s not as easy as what it looked like sitting down on your couch eating chips.”
Tagovailoa, 26, was credited with three fumbles in his first game back from the injured reserve. Two were mishandled exchanges with Brewer and the other happened when the ball was swatted out of his hands by a Cardinals pass rusher.
The Dolphins got back on top of two of them, but the third was scooped out of the back of the end zone, cutting Miami’s third quarter lead from 10 to eight.
“Brew would say he should have taken a little steam off of it, and Tua said he should have caught it,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said of the play earlier in the week. “The bottom line is backed up, we can’t have those type of issues. You can’t just give free points to people.
“Tua’s hand-eye coordination’s outstanding, so he’ll be up for the challenge, but you just can’t expect to win a close game [with plays like that]. That ended up being the difference in terms of points.”
In Week 9, the Dolphins will play their second matchup of the year against the Buffalo Bills, seven weeks after they were beat 31-10 by the Bills at Hard Rock Stadium. Tagovailoa threw three interceptions in that game, including a pick-six, before exiting in the third quarter with a concussion.
“You just can’t do that,” Tagovailoa said Wednesday. “Can’t worry about what the defense does, they’re going to do what they do. We’ve got to eliminate turnovers, eliminate takeaways in that sense. We’ve got to stay ahead of the sticks, take what they give us.”
