Tua Tagovailoa struggles in Miami’s loss to Chargers

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa went into last week’s game against the San Francisco 49ers as the top-rated passer in the NFL. But he had a tough outing against one the league’s top defenses.

In the Dolphins’ 33-17 loss, the former Alabama All-American completed 18-of-33 passes for 295 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

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Tagovailoa described the end of Miami’s five-game winning streak as a “poor performance on my part.”

“No one really to blame but myself,” Tagovailoa said. “We’ll be better from this.”

But the quarterback and the Dolphins would have taken that performance in a heartbeat in Sunday night’s 23-17 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

At SoFi Stadium on Sunday night, Tagovailoa completed 10-of-28 passes for 145 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions.

Tagovailoa became the first NFL quarterback to throw at least 28 times and complete no more than 10 passes in the past five seasons. Eli Manning also went 10-of-28 on Dec. 31, 2017, in the most recent such performance, but the New York Giants beat the Washington Redskins 18-10 in that game.

“It was very disappointing for us to go out there as an offense and show what we showed,” Tagovailoa said. “That’s not to our standard. That’s not how we play football here, and that was very disappointing. …

“To go out and play the way that we played, especially on my part, is unacceptable.”

Before Sunday night, Tagovailoa had only two games in his career in which he completed less than half his passes. On Sept. 19, 2021, Tagovailoa was 1-of-4 against the Buffalo Bills when he left the game with fractured ribs. In a 34-3 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Jan. 2, 2022, Tagovailoa completed 18-of-38 passes.

Tagovailoa got 60 yards on one pass against the Chargers when he connected with wide receiver Tyreek Hill on a touchdown throw with 6:23 left in the third quarter. The only touchdown produced by the Miami offense on Sunday night reduced the Chargers’ lead to 17-14.

At halftime, Tagovailoa had completed 3-of-15 passes for 25 yards as the Dolphins trailed 17-7.

When asked what had gone wrong for Miami, Tagovailoa said: “Everything. From the communication to getting the details right with our guys and just being able to make plays for our team. Like I said, it was very disappointing for us to go and do what we did. We work too hard to put up a performance like that, to not be in rhythm, on time with certain throws, to not be able to execute some plays and just not look like the football we’ve been playing earlier in the season.”

Tagovailoa also ran for 28 yards on three carries against Los Angeles.

Miami dropped to 8-5 to fall two games behind the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East standings with four games remaining on the regular-season schedule. Buffalo strengthened its hold on the division top spot by beating the New York Jets 20-12 on Sunday.

The Dolphins visit the Bills at 7:15 p.m. CST Saturday.

“This is another opportunity for us as a team to face this and look at it head-on and learn from it,” Tagovailoa said. “There’s no other way you can go around it. We’ll look at it straight in the eye and see what we can learn from it. We’ve got to turn the page quick because we’re playing a really good team next week as well.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.