The Dolphins fell to 5-2 with Sunday’s 31-17 loss to the Eagles, but the team’s quarterback found some silver linings in the immediate aftermath of the contest.
Tua Tagovailoa told reporters in his press conference that there are “a lot” of positives to take from the game.
“Well, we learned that the little things matter and they turn into big things as they continue to build up,” Tagovailoa said. “This is a good test early in the season. People can say the penalties this, the penalties that. Like for us as a team, we aren’t throwing that out as an excuse. They went out there. They did what they had to do to win that game. We didn’t do enough to win that game so it is what it is.”
Tagovailoa added he feels like this loss will help the Dolphins as they go forward.
“To me, it felt like this game was a playoff atmosphere type of thing,” Tagovailoa said. “I think that was a good rep for us early in the season — leading down the road to when it’s crunch time.”
Tagovailoa ended Sunday 23-of-32 for 216 yards with a touchdown and an interception. It was Tagovailoa’s lowest yardage output of the season and the first time he’d averaged fewer than 8 yards per attempt at 6.8.
One of the elements at play for Miami’s offensive success is communication, which is made more difficult in a hostile road environment.
“There’s a lot of pieces that go into our offense, a lot of moving parts,” Tagovailoa said. “I have to communicate to the [offensive] line, the cadence in a loud environment. You know all of those things play a role in us going out there executing, especially with a loud environment, tough environment.
“But it’s communicating, it’s being able to go out and [execute]. It’s hard to, sort of, replicate crowd noise the way it is over here than in other places. You know, that’s the next step for us in what we are trying to do.”
The Dolphins, however, won’t have to worry about that next week when they’re back at home to play the Patriots.