Pressure Point: Dolphins are Tua’s team now

The rush to judgment on Tua Tagovailoa after a debut start with training wheels on was not only premature it was laughable.

Coach Brian Flores made that clear at midweek when he brushed off as nonsense the notion that the Dolphins were giving the quarterback they supposedly tanked to get in the draft a 10-game audition to determine whether they should draft another quarterback in 2021.

If it is an audition, Tagovailoa passed with flying colors Sunday in his second start.

The Dolphins not only pulled off a remarkable comeback win, 34-31, on the road against a tough Arizona Cardinals team, they can confirm to have indeed found their quarterback. The outside noise can stop right there.

It was entertaining and exhilarating to watch. How long has it been since the Dolphins not only kept pace in a wide-open shootout but came out ahead?

It sure conjured memories of Danny Boy flinging it in his prime.

Tua made plays down the stretch

Tua got his first win last week on the coattails of an opportunistic defense. Afterward Flores said that one day Tua would bail out the team. Sunday he did just that in leading his first comeback win with 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.

Make that Tua-and-0.

“I thought he made a lot of plays for us, a lot of big plays for us, especially down the stretch. We needed it,” Flores said. “They made plays, we made plays. The stage wasn’t too big for him tonight. He played well. But we had a lot of guys play well. … It was a team effort.”

Kudos to the defense for producing the first touchdown and making a vital fourth-down stop. And for field goals of 56 and 50 yards by Jason Sanders, who set a franchise record with 20 consecutive made kicks.

But the 10-play, 93-yard drive to the tying touchdown made it clear this is Tua’s team now.

The drive, which began with the Dolphins down by a touchdown, gained impetus with Tagovailoa, in the shadow of his own end zone, converting on third-and-9 with a 14-yard completion to DeVante Parker.

what a throw by tua on third down pic.twitter.com/IxGiE94SFI

— josh houtz (@houtz) November 8, 2020

It featured Tagovaila twice scrambling for first downs. The first he converted on third down by juking past a defender. The second was a stunning escape from pressure for 17 yards to the Arizona 11. The following play he tossed a pinpoint strike to Mack Hollins to tie the game.

Then, following a fourth-down stop by Zack Seiler, Tua moved the Dolphins close enough for Sanders’ decisive 50-yard field goal.

Tua dazzled on the run

The runs were eye-opening, especially considering the hip injury that ended Tagovailoa’s college career.

“I think the dolphins organization, with everyone from the medical staff, if they felt that they would be putting me in a bad situation if I had to go and make a play on the run, I don’t think they’d let me go out there and play.

“I had self-confidence I would be able to go out there and if I needed to make a play with my legs, I would.”

He added with a laugh: “That was probably the slowest I ever felt. Oh, my goodness, I felt like I was running in quicksand.”

tua is special pic.twitter.com/58ipuu3UQn

— josh houtz (@houtz) November 8, 2020

The Tua and Kyler Show, a renewal of college rivals, delivered beyond expectations. Tagovailoa and Arizona’s Kyler Murray combined for 672 yards.

Tua did his part in matching skills and scores with the superlative Murray, whose accuracy and ability to evade tacklers is uncanny.

The No. 1 draft pick in 2019, Murray has been performing for a season and a half the way he did Sunday. He threw for 283 yards and three touchdowns with a passer rating of 150.0.

Tua keeps pace with Murray

Tua? Frankly, it was uncertain what to expect other than that he would be asked to do a lot more than in his first start.

All he did was complete 20 of 28 passes for 248 yards, two touchdowns and a 122.3 passer rating. His 35 yards on seven rushes were second on the team.

But the passing was what everyone wanted to see, and Tua delivered on every type of throw that could be asked of him.

He did it with a limited receiving corps. Preston Williams left with a foot injury in the first half after catching a touchdown pass and getting jumped on by man-child defensive lineman Christian Wilkins.

But Tua not only made effective use of his best receiver, Parker, who made all six of his receptions after Williams left, he threw that spot-on tying touchdown to Hollins, who had no previous receptions as a Dolphin.

Tagovailoa show he can setp up in the pocket and deliver completions. He threw accurately on the run.

In the first half, he made a deep throw to Williams for 35 yards on the first touchdown drive. On the second scoring drive, he found Williams on third down near the goal line for a touchdown.

He found tight end Durham Smythe over the middle on the third look for 19 yards and a first-and-goal that set up Miami’s first touchdown.

Just the beginning for Tua

“Tua did his part. It wasn’t a perfect game. He made some mistakes like we all did,” Flores said, but added, “He fought back, we fought back as a team and gave ourselves a chance to win at the end.”

The Dolphins have now won four in a row for the first time in four seasons. At 5-3, they are very much in the playoff chase, perhaps a season sooner than expected.

When you look at the bigger picture, the future comes into much brighter focus. Just two starts into his career, Tagovailoa has already demonstrated he can be the quarterback of the Dolphins’ hopes and dreams.

And he is going to get better than he was Sunday.

Craig Davis has covered South Florida sports and teams, including the Dolphins, for four decades. Follow him on Twitter @CraigDavisRuns