More fumbles, but Tagovailoa, Falcons starters ‘making progress’
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Tua Tagovailoa left the Falcons’ huddle with a wave of momentum behind him and a canvas of opportunity before him.
Tagovailoa led a sharp, efficient touchdown drive on the Falcons’ first drive of Friday night’s 17-12 exhibition victory over the Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium. The second drive offered a chance to repeat. It ended before it truly began.
The snap from backup center Corey Levin never firmly connected with Tagovailoa’s hands. The ball hit the ground. So, too, did Tagovailoa in an all-out attempt to secure it. He couldn’t. The Dolphins grabbed it, staining the Falcons starting offense’s night in the process.
“You take the good with the bad,” Tagovailoa said postgame. “That second drive, I got to be better for the offense. I got to be better for Corey in receiving that snap.”
Levin, a righty, replaced starting center Ryan Neuzil, a lefty, for the second series. Tagovailoa didn’t take snaps on the sideline with Levin in between drives. That, he feels, was something of a rookie mistake.
“As a veteran, that’s what I should have done with him prior,” Tagovailoa said. “I just got to get it.”
Fumbles have become a cause for concern over the past month.
Tagovailoa lost the ball in a training camp practice Aug. 8 at Lanier High School, then dropped a snap in the team’s preseason-opening loss to the Denver Broncos on Aug. 14. He fumbled another snap in a joint practice with the Indianapolis Colts on Aug. 19.
The fumble against the Broncos came from shotgun formation. Friday night’s miscue came from under center. The first was with Neuzil, the second with Levin. Tagovailoa is the lone constant.
Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said it’s a concern any time the ball is on the ground, but he’s unconcerned about it becoming a trend.
“Plenty to clean up with an avoidable center-quarterback exchange — we have to clean that up and we will,” Stefanski said postgame. “It’s a concern anytime the ball’s on the ground, but we will work on it.”
The Falcons were marching toward the end zone on Tagovailoa’s final drive, but running back Brian Robinson Jr. fumbled on a hand-off late in the first quarter. Robinson “felt terrible about it,” Stefanski said, and wanted another drive.
He didn’t get his wish. The Falcons’ first-team offense finished its three-possession, 14-play performance with 111 net yards, averaging 7.9 yards per play and picking up six first downs against the Dolphins’ second-string defense.
Fumble aside, Tagovailoa had an efficient night in his first game back at Hard Rock Stadium since being released by the Dolphins in March, going 7-for-8 passing for 95 yards.
“I thought Tua did a nice job operating,” Stefanski said. “Obviously, moved the football there for a couple drives. … I thought he handled the game really well. There’s a lot of emotion I’m sure that comes when you come back to a place you’ve been before, and he compartmentalized it.
“And other than being on the opposite sideline, I thought he really did a nice job of handling all of it.”
During his pregame walk-through with assistant quarterbacks coach Jordan Reid, Tagovailoa often simulated releasing the pass right after hitting his back foot. Quick passes in-game followed.
None of Tagovailoa’s passes traveled 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage. He found open receivers underneath and let his playmakers do the rest. Of Tagovailoa’s 95 passing yards, 68 came after the catch.
Tight end Kyle Pitts had catch-and-runs of 16 and 37 yards, to go along with a 6-yard grab. Receiver Jahan Dotson caught two 8-yard passes and another for 9 yards. Robinson added a 9-yard catch underneath.
Stefanski said the Falcons’ game plan wasn’t necessarily designed for Tagovailoa to live only in short areas, but the Dolphins’ coverage dictated his decisions.
“That’s football,” Stefanski said. “I mean, sometimes they’re going to take away some of the options and you take what’s there. And in a short sample, that’s kind of what it was.”
Tagovailoa, who said he was “disappointed and frustrated” after what he deemed an unfruitful performance in the preseason opener, believes Friday night was a more productive outing for the Falcons’ offense.
“I feel like I got something out of it,” Tagovailoa said. “It’s cool that we were able to go out, operate, (and) we were able to communicate out there a good amount. We had a couple checks that we got into, situationally. So, yeah, I think we got some really good work.”
Collectively, the Falcons’ offensive starters looked better than they did against the Broncos in the preseason opener, during which they recorded only 22 yards in two drives. Stefanski believes his unit is “making progress” as Week 1 nears, and perhaps the most important aspect of this time of year is identifying and correcting mistakes.
When Stefanski rewinds the tape from Friday night, he’ll take solace in the general ease with which his first-team offense picked apart the Dolphins’ reserves. End-of-drive results matter, but he’ll emphasize the process beneath them just as much, if not more.
“Listen, it’s a points game, so you want to score points,” Stefanski said, “but you also have to look at the process and look at the plays that we’re running. Did we give them advantageous plays into those looks? So, we look at all of it, like anybody, any offensive coach, when you move the ball for X amount of yards, you can expect points.
“So, when the ball turns over the other way, that’s a major point of emphasis for us. We want to be all about the ball and we can’t be all about the ball if we’re putting it on the ground.”
The Falcons didn’t play their starters in the preseason either of the past two years. Stefanski philosophically believes playing in live action is the best way to prepare for the regular season, and receiver Drake London said Wednesday it helps make Week 1 not be “so much of a shock anymore.”
Michael Penix Jr., who returned to 11-on-11 periods Monday and has just three practices in team drills under his belt, didn’t play Friday night. The Falcons’ quarterback battle remains undecided, and if Penix starts Week 1, the value in Tagovailoa’s preseason reps diminish.
But if the Falcons roll with Tagovailoa, a Pro Bowler in 2023 and the NFL’s completion percentage leader in 2024, their five drives of preseason action may prove crucial come the season opener.
There were encouraging signs of efficiency Friday night. There were also worrisome aspects, namely the two fumbles and lack of downfield passing game. No matter, the Falcons feel they banked significant reps in Miami Gardens — their last dress rehearsal before the results truly matter.
“The game is the game,” Pitts said. “Practice, we could try and replicate it, but nothing compares to the game. So be out there, get your heart rate going, it’s pretty good to have those reps going into Week 1.”