In their wild card game against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Miami Dolphins had one successful play. Apart from that, it didn’t seem like the Dolphins had any opportunity to compete in the game, much less win it. Tyreek Hill, a former Kansas City receiver, made a brilliant play on an underthrown pass to score.
Tyreek’s outstanding play was the sole bright spot for Miami in the final score of 26-7. In his first postseason game, Tua Tagovailoa had one of his worst games ever. Although the weather may have contributed to his bad play, he missed a number of short check-downs by a wide margin.
While Tua had his best year on the Dolphins this season, having one of the best seasons at the quarterback position in the league, the question remains of whether or not to pay the man the way the top quarterbacks get paid. The answer after half a decade of playing with the Dolphins is no.
Tua has now repeatedly demonstrated that he is incapable of winning the biggest game of his career thus far, and moreover, he has not been able to demonstrate that he can even play in a major game. This crushing landslide defeat is just one more major game-choke to be added to the record. This marks the third consecutive year-ending major game defeat.
Just a month ago they had the opportunity to be the 1 seed of the AFC and not even play during the Wild Card weekend. The team destroyed a bunch of the bad teams in the league and Tua shined in those scenarios, but the only win they got this year to a good team was against the Dallas Cowboys. After having the opportunity to secure the top seed in the conference they got
Tua did not compete in that game, but they still had an opportunity on a silver plater to win the AFC East the following week against their rival the Buffalo Bills. Tua followed that matchup with yet another terrible game in which Josh Allen gave him many opportunities to take the game. In the final quarter Josh Allen outplayed Tua and they took another loss 21-14.
Finally they finish the season with another blowout loss and the offense looking like one of the worst in the league with the only production coming from receiver Hill on a bad throw. There is no reason for head coach Mike McDaniel to think that Tua is the guy to carry this offense. Miami has to find other options than paying Tua the money that the best quarterbacks are getting.
