It has been additional than 23 decades since the Miami Dolphins won a playoff recreation.
Tua Tagovailoa gets a probability to quit that drought on Saturday evening.
The fourth-year quarterback makes his very first postseason visual appeal when Miami visits the Kansas Town Chiefs for a wild-card activity this weekend. The Dolphins are trying to find their first playoff victory since Dec. 30, 2000, when they beat Indianapolis 23-17 in extra time. The franchise has just a few road playoff wins and only one (at Seattle on Jan 9, 2000) due to the fact 1972.
Tagovailoa has played in significant-stakes game titles just before. He was a freshman at Alabama when he replaced then-starter Jalen Hurts all through the 2018 countrywide championship recreation and led the Crimson Tide earlier Ga for the school’s fifth national title underneath Nick Saban.
The 25-year-aged Tagovailoa has spoken about how these experiences helped form his path to the NFL, but he couldn’t rather uncover the text to explain the emotions of competing in his to start with playoff recreation.
“I really don’t imagine I could examine this to anything,” Tagovailoa explained Wednesday. “It can be all new. Almost everything is all new. This is a distinctive feeling than it was in the national championship activity. Distinct sensation than it was in the SEC championship sport. I believe they all appear with new inner thoughts. The way I cope with it is go about my business the way I’ve been heading about my business enterprise. Take care of my position and belief that my teammates will do the similar.”
Tagovailoa added that he has not experienced a likelihood to sit down and replicate on his regions of advancement this time — one particular that he concluded as the NFL’s foremost passer with a job-superior 4,624 yards — but probably just one of the greatest discrepancies is his health and fitness.
He started out each frequent-time match this 12 months for the to start with time after dealing with several injuries because moving into the NFL. He missed Miami’s playoff match very last year, a loss to Buffalo in a wild-card game, immediately after remaining identified with his 2nd concussion of the year.
“It’s a blessing that I get to enjoy the whole time,” Tagovailoa said. “I believe any person would say the same about the league that it truly is a blessing to make it this much. … I really don’t consider this for granted.”
Now he has a possibility to increase a playoff win to his listing of accomplishments in advance of a most likely valuable offseason. The Dolphins exercised the fifth-calendar year choice on his rookie deal final March, but the sides are predicted to go over the chance of a deal extension following this period.
Tagovailoa was Miami’s 1st quarterback to lead the league in passing since Dan Marino in 1992. His 69.3% completion fee was the most effective in a one time in franchise history. And he was picked to his initially Pro Bowl after guiding Miami’s No. 1 passing offense.
He also has built some crucial problems in some of Miami’s largest games, like a overall of 4 interceptions in consecutive losses to playoff teams Baltimore and Buffalo to shut the period.
The Dolphins were being 1-5 in opposition to playoff opponents this period, and Tagovailoa had a 65.1% completion level, seven touchdowns and six interceptions from people teams. He finished 72.9% of his passes versus Miami’s 11 non-playoff foes.
Tagovailoa was intercepted on the Dolphins’ final generate against Buffalo, which successfully sealed the loss.
“Just about every match is different. It’s a constant development,” Dolphins mentor Mike McDaniel mentioned. “A single thing I do know is as much, if not much more, than any participant I’ve been about, this guy has, in front of our pretty eyes, discovered and ongoing to grow, and no scenario irrespective of how significantly pounds is on his shoulders or how much sounds is out there, he carries on to come across a way to enhance.”
