Tua Tagovailoa authored the worst game of his career in Sunday night's 23-17 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, unable to find the mark and getting outdueled by Justin Herbert.
"It's very disappointing for us to go out there as an offense and kind of show what we showed," Tagovailoa said. "That's not up to our standard, that's not how we play football here, and that was very disappointing."
The Miami Dolphins quarterback completed a career-low 35.7% of his passes, going 10 of 28 for 145 yards with one touchdown for a 65.3 passer rating. Tua's 35.7 completion percentage was the worst by a Dolphins QB since David Woodley (31.0) in Week 15, 1980, per NFL Research.
Tagovailoa struggled from the outset against a Chargers defense missing a host of key pieces. He completed just 3 of 15 attempts in the first half for a measly 25 yards. Things got a little better in the second half, but the Dolphins never found a rhythm.
Tua connected on one deep shot to Tyreek Hill for a 60-yard TD. Beyond that, he completed just nine passes for 85 yards.
It's the second straight week that Miami's offense has been slowed in its trip to California, where the Dolphins lost back-to-back games to the 49ers and Chargers, putting up just 17 points in each contest.
Tagovailoa said it's not about what the defenses have done differently but rather the lack of execution from Miami that has them on a two-game skid.
"I would say the defenses that we've played have been playing exactly what we've expected them to play, that they've put on film," he said. "It really just goes back to the details of how we play our offense and we're not all dialed in with that. So, we have to go back to the drawing board, figure this out, and got to keep from losing. I mean, it sucks."
The loss pushed the Dolphins to 8-5, trailing Buffalo by two games in the division and clinging to the No. 6 seed. Miami's schedule doesn't lighten up with a short week before facing Buffalo on Saturday night and games against the Packers, Patriots and Jets remaining.
Head coach Mike McDaniel said how his team responds to the disappointing losses will define their season.
"I've been a part of teams, two teams specifically, that ended up playing in the Super Bowl that had a loss pretty similar to the one that we had tonight, where you have high expectations and take a punch to the gut," he said. "I've been on teams where it snowballed even further. I think relative to where the year's at, I think you always want to continue to progress.
"As long as we learn from all of it and start playing better football, I don't really care what it is, it is going to hurt. I think our guys' expectations from what they feel they should be, this is probably the furthest miss we have had all year. So, you really, really can't hide in these situations. You find out who you are working with and who you are dealing with. I know what they'll find out from me and I am excited about what I'll find out from them."
