Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel dismissed Lions linebacker Grant Stuard’s musings about the Dolphins not being able to match his team’s intensity in a joint practice as “noise,” but one member of McDaniel’s team feels there was a lack of juice on their side on Wednesday.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa called it “a very frustrating day in regards to what we wanted to do” and was then asked to expand upon the things that frustrated him during the session.
“Some of the frustrating things like I said were we couldn’t get ourselves jumpstarted as an offense,” Tagovailoa said, via a transcript from the team. “We couldn’t gain that momentum to where, OK, all we needed was one play and then jumpstart the offense whether it was move the ball, whether it was one of the third down team periods, another team period, red zone. It just felt like we didn’t have the energy that we’re used to when we practice and when we play against opponents, so that’s what I’m talking about when I talk about it was frustrating today.”
Tagovailoa’s comments focused on the offense, but the Dolphins defense had a hard time as well and the entire team failed to met the standard they needed to reach against an NFC contender. They have a chance to show that they can find the right level on Thursday and another rough day won’t do much to support McDaniel’s shrug at the notion that his team doesn’t have the right intensity across their roster.
