Based on his passing-efficiency rating, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had the worst game of his NFL career on Sunday.
In a matchup of 1-5 teams, the Dolphins lost to the Cleveland Browns 31-6. Before being pulled in the fourth quarter, Tagovailoa completed 12-of-23 passes for 100 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions for a passing-efficiency rating of 24.1, the lowest of the former Alabama All-American’s NFL career.
Tagovailoa also fumbled three times, although he recovered two of them and Miami running back De’Von Achane got the other.
“Definitely not happy, not proud of where I’m at with my play, with how I’ve gone about things this year,” Tagovailoa said. “I know I got to be a lot better, and I’ve been better for the Miami Dolphins years past. But this isn’t years past. This is this year, right? And just trying to maneuver everything and trying to build a collection of guys to kind of bring along with me, and I got to kind of be able to multitask, if that makes sense, to be able to do that. And while doing that, kind of continue to get the whatever it was last year and the years prior for myself to get going again and get in that flow.”
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The only team beaten by the Dolphins this season is the winless New York Jets.
Miami coach Mike McDaniel said “everything’s on the table” after the Dolphins became the first opponent to allow the Browns to score more than 17 points this season.
“When you go to a game you fully know that you have the capability to win and get handed a very, very humbling loss that there’s no ifs, ands or buts about, guys need to be professionals,” McDaniel said. “Guys need to step up to the plate, and every person on our team, if you’re saying ‘It’s not me,’ it’s you. That’s what I told the team. That’s what I have to subscribe to, and we will be diligent in both our cleanup of this game and the opponent for next week because you’re just not going to win games -- and our team, we say we want to win games, so we have to do the things necessary to win games. Until that happens, we will lose games.”
All three of Tagovailoa’s interceptions came in the second half. The Cleveland defense entered Sunday’s game with two interceptions in six contests in 2025.
On the opening snap of the third quarter, Cleveland cornerback Tyson Campbell picked off Tagovailoa’s throw and ran 34 yards for a touchdown as the Browns took a 24-6 lead.
Later in the period, safety Rayshawn Jenkins intercepted Tagovailoa’s pass from the end zone and returned it 9 yards to the Miami 2-yard line. Former Pike Road High School star Quinshon Judkins scored his third touchdown of the game on the next snap with 10:56 to play.
Less than one minute later, safety Ronnie Hickman intercepted a long throw by Tagovailoa, and when the Miami offense returned to the field, Tagovailoa wasn’t with it.
In his NFL debut, rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers ran the Miami offense on the Dolphins’ final two possessions on Sunday.
“I don’t want to overconclude anything,” McDaniel said about Tagovailoa’s performance. “But turning the ball over is the No. 1 indicator of wins and losses, and it negatively affects the team. I think there’s multiple factors in those turnovers. But I know at least one to two of them were extremely preventable from Tua. And he knows that. He just wasn’t good enough. So we’ll watch the tape and change our style of play if we have to.”
In their next game, the Dolphins play the Atlanta Falcons at noon CDT Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Tagovailoa said if Miami is going to win, it “starts with me. Can’t turn the ball over. Got to get the operation going with the guys regardless of whatever the situation, circumstance may be. We just got to stick together. That’s it. That’s how we move forward from this.”
Tagovailoa is hoping the 2025 season can turn out like the 2021 campaign. That season, the Dolphins won only one of their first eight games but lost only once more to finish the season with a 9-8 record.
“I would say it’s kind of in a way similar but not similar to our ’21 season when we went one and seven to start,” Tagovailoa said, “and then we were able to turn it around and finish off, I believe, nine and eight or something like that. But there’s always hope, and you just got to find ways to get the guys to stick together and continue to press forward.”
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