The Dolphins opened Saturday night’s preseason game with a play Miami fans expect to see many times this year: Tua Tagovailoa throwing the ball to Tyreek Hill.
After a quick simulation of game action, Tua threw the ball to Hill for a 51yard gain. After the game, Tagovailoa talked about the play.
“It was good,” Tagovailoa told reporters. “Knowing Tyreek was playing, he wanted a go ball. We gave him a shot. The pitch wasn’t to my liking. All that talk. If it had been a better ball, if it had probably been more in front of Tyreek, I you know, we probably could have scored on the first play. You know, I think it’s a credit to the practices we’ve had with the Eagles and the hard work our guys have been in. Not just this week, but every field practice and OTAs. It’s great that people can finally see the hard work we’ve all been putting in together.”
Tagovailoa said that when the play was called, there was no specific direction to pick the deep option to one of the fastest, if not the fastest, players in football.
“Mike [McDaniel] he didn’t necessarily tell me who to go to with the ball, but for me it was one of those deals that if we had specific coverage on his defense, regardless of who was on Tyreek or not, we wanted to make that shot ,” Tagovailoa said. “And so we had the main aspect of what the play was about and that’s why we took the picture.”
McDaniel, who spoke at length about the sudden death of team executive Jason Jenkins at the start of the press conference (we’ll have more on that later this morning), said he was “just happy for those two people because they have invested a lot.” McDaniel added that he was “happy for the team and the organization really because they’ve invested so much” and “let’s just say it was great to see them not blink and do what they love to do.”
McDaniel was asked if the play was meant to send a message to the rest of the league.
“We’re really trying to work on our craft,” the firstyear coach said. “You don’t know what defense they’re going to have out there. You’ve got to run the play, and I was happy it was a hard look, but Tua is making that decision to throw to him while at the same time turning his back on the defense. It takes a lot of training, but we were pretty confident that if we had the right look, they would execute. That’s why they are the way they are, and that’s why we all believe in them so much.”
Tua said it himself. The launch was not ideal. But with a talent like Hill, it doesn’t have to be that way.