NFL

Breakout Tua performance no surprise to Dolphins on day of NFL comebacks

By Sports Desk September 19, 2022

Tua Tagovailoa's career game led the Miami Dolphins to one of three remarkable fourth-quarter turnarounds in the NFL on Sunday, but his team-mates were not surprised.

Tagovailoa is now in his third year as a professional having been selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft – falling that far only after dislocating his hip at Alabama.

Even as the Dolphins' established starter, there had been concerns the quarterback would never get over that injury, showing only middling form prior to Sunday's game against the Baltimore Ravens.

But Tagovailoa set career highs in completed passes (36), passing yards (469) and passing touchdowns (six) as he led Miami to a remarkable fightback.

The Ravens had led by 21 points at the start of the fourth quarter, yet Tagovailoa threw four TDs in the final 15 minutes alone in a dramatic 42-38 win.

With the New York Jets also recovering to stun the Cleveland Browns and the Arizona Cardinals recovering against the Las Vegas Raiders, this was just the second example of three teams recovering from 13-point fourth-quarter deficits on the same day in NFL history (also October 4, 1992).

However, within that improbable sequence of results, Tagovailoa's team-mates did not doubt his ability.

"We expect that from him," wide receiver Jaylen Waddle said. "We're confident in him; he's confident in himself.

"It's good for you all to see, but we kind of expect that."

Waddle finished with 11 catches for 171 yards and two TDs, while Tyreek Hill had 11 catches for 190 yards and a pair of scores.

The Dolphins therefore became the first team in NFL history with at least 400 passing yards and five passing TDs from a quarterback and at least 170 receiving yards and two receiving TDs from two team-mates in the same game.

Hill added Tagovailoa had "really showed me who he is as a leader" in the sensational finale, although he overcame adversity even within that game.

Tagovailoa threw a pair of interceptions in the first half but kept coming back, with three of his six TD passes having at least 20 air yards – as many deep TD passes as he had thrown in his career up until that point.

"This is huge," said coach Mike McDaniel. "Because he stopped worrying about the last play and he went and played and took his responsibility to his team-mates seriously.

"It is what you get into sports for. I think it was a moment that he'll never forget that hopefully he can use moving forward, because we basically had to play perfect complementary football to come back from a deficit like that against a really good team. I couldn't be happier for him."

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