ALLEN PARK -- Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was hesitant to grade his performance during the first of two joint practices with the Detroit Lions this week.
But it was clear the 27-year-old quarterback was not pleased with himself or his team.
“Today, offensively, was a very frustrating day,” Tagovailoa told reporters after practice. “In regard to what we wanted to do and what we said we wanted to do, we came out, and we just weren’t able to get things jump-started, so that was very frustrating today.”
During Wednesday’s joint practice at the Lions’ training facility, Detroit overwhelmed Miami in drills, 11-on-11 and 7-on-7 work on both sides of the ball.
Lions pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson recorded two sacks, blowing through Miami’s pass protection -- something Tagovailoa later critiqued when discussing the pass protection.
In 7-on-7 periods, Grand Valley State product Ian Kennelly and Nick Whiteside each picked off Dolphins quarterback Zach Wilson, while Erick Hallett nearly had an interception of his own.
In red zone drills, the Dolphins ran roughly 17 plays, about half of them featuring the first-team offense against Detroit’s first-team defense. They failed to score on all of them.
“We couldn’t gain that momentum to where, okay, all we needed was one play and then jump-start the offense,” Tagovailoa said. “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 an opponent.”
When asked if the struggles were more about what the Lions were doing or what the Dolphins weren’t, Tagovailoa gave the Lions their flowers and said it was a bit of both.
“It was a combination of us communicating what we were in, what they were in, what we wanted to do protection-wise, what we wanted to do in the run game,” Tagovailoa said. “And then our timing in the pass game was as well off as what our pass pro looked like. It’s not a good recipe for success in this league, and against a good team, things like that are going to happen. Like I said, it’s frustrating, but we’re going to go watch the film and learn from it.”
The teams will hold one more joint practice before squaring off Saturday at Ford Field in preseason action.
Tagovailoa said the Dolphins can’t simply put the performance behind them, stressing the importance of owning it and learning from it.
“I don’t think you put this behind you. I think you’ve got to face it head-on,” Tagovailoa said. “Any of these challenges, any of these hardships that you go through as a team collectively, you’ve got to look at it head-on. You’ve got to face it. You’ve got to look at it for what it is. You’ve got to learn from it. Then you come out the next day, and you show your teammates -- did I learn from it from yesterday, or did I not?”
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