Brian Flores doesn’t want a quarterback controversy. But after Thursday’s game, in which Tua Tagovailoa ended up playing after all, he’s got one – perhaps of his own doing.
When a pair of Baltimore Ravens defenders collapsed on Jacoby Brissett’s knee less than a minute into the third quarter on Thursday, it forced the Dolphins to insert Tagovailoa, who is still healing from a fractured finger in his throwing hand. Brissett had started for a second consecutive game – but Tagovailoa was still active as the backup.
Tagovailoa entered the game on the next drive, completed his first pass to Jaylen Waddle for nine yards and helped Miami upset the Ravens on “Thursday Night Football” with a 22-10 win. The Alabama product finished 8-for-13 for 158 yards, in addition to a rushing touchdown, while Brissett — at the time he exited — had produced an 11-of-23 passing line for 156 yards.
Even after Brissett “probably was OK to go back in,” Dolphins head coach Brian Flores said that he decided to keep Tagovailoa at quarterback throughout the rest of the game.
“We felt like we might as well just leave him in there,” Flores said.
When addressing reporters on Friday morning, Flores reiterated that Tagovailoa is “our quarterback,” according to NFL.com. But he declined to commit to the second-year quarterback as the starter for his team’s game next week against the Jets.
“I said this last night: We try to protect players from themselves, trying to avoid that situation with (Tagovailoa) banging his finger last night,” Flores said. “So we gotta take it day-to-day with both players. We’ll see how that goes … We’re not trying to turn this into a controversial situation where we don’t want this certain player to play.”
Tagovailoa said postgame that he encountered difficulties gripping the ball because of the fractured finger.
“It doesn’t feel good. I can tell you that. I got it banged up in the game,” he added, according to ESPN.
He scored Miami’s lone offensive touchdown with just over two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, rushing the ball in from one yard out to give the Dolphins a two-possession lead.
It’s another weird entry in a saga between player and team. Last season, Flores’ handling of Tagovailoa was questioned after he benched the then-rookie in favor of veteran backup Ryan Fitzpatrick during multiple close games.
Then, leading up to the trade deadline, Deshaun Watson’s named was tied to the Dolphins despite accusations against the Houston Texans quarterback for sexual assault and misconduct — forcing Flores to reiterate multiple times that, amid the rumors, Tagovailoa would be Miami’s quarterback for the rest of 2021 barring an injury.
Tagovailoa’s fractured finger, which has complicated Miami’s quarterback situation the last two weeks, has served as his second injury roadblock this season. But if he was healthy enough to be active, why wasn’t he starting? It’s all so strange.
Miami’s victory over the Ravens gave the Dolphins their first set of back-to-back wins since Week 15 and 16 of last season. They now sit at 3-7.