The Tua Tagovailoa MVP train crashed Monday night.
The Dolphins quarterback had a clunker of a game that contributed to Miami’s choke job in its 28-27 home loss to the Titans on “Monday Night Football.”
Tagovailoa, while facing one of the worst passing defenses in the NFL, did not throw a touchdown pass and had a costly fumble at the two-yard line in the first quarter.
His poor showing played a large role in the Dolphins becoming the first team since 2016 to lose when leading by 14 with less than three minutes remaining, per ESPN.
“I’m a little disappointed that we put out that performance offensively and should have never been that way today,” Tagovailoa said after the game.
While Dak Prescott has emerged as the NFL MVP favorite and Brock Purdy is on his heels, Dolphins superstar wide receiver Tyreek Hill championed for Tagovailoa leading into the game.
Tagovailoa, entering Week 14, had the fifth-best odds (+800) at BetMGM to win MVP.
Facing the Titans’ generous pass defense should have been a golden opportunity for some stat-padding, but Tagovailoa literally fumbled away his chance.
Miami moved the ball down to the Titans’ two-yard line on its first drive, but Tagovailoa fumbled a snap from backup center Liam Eichenberg and the Titans recovered the loose ball.
“That was my fault,” Tagovailoa said. “I got to catch the snap.”
Tagovailoa was without Hill for large portions of the game as the speedy receiver was limited by an ankle injury suffered in the first quarter.
Hill returned to the game in the second half, but played sporadically and had four catches for 61 yards.
The Dolphins eventually grabbed a 27-13 lead on the strength of two Raheem Mostert touchdowns before the Titans rallied to take a 28-27 lead with 1:49 remaining.
Tagovailoa had his chance to be the hero, but the Dolphins picked up just one first down on the final drive.
The Titans sacked Tagovailoa on fourth-and-two at the Dolphins’ 45-yard line to secure the upset.
“It’s the NFL, anything can happen. We got to do a better job finishing the game with the time we had, while we had the ball,” Tagoviloa said. “Not allowing the opposing team offense to get that opportunity to go down and potentially score. It’s a team sport, can’t blame one side, but I would say from an offensive standpoint we could have done a lot better to not have gone through what we gone through tonight.”
The Dolphins’ loss put them behind the Ravens in the race for the AFC’s top seed and now opens the door for the Bills to catch them in the AFC East.
Miami still has a brutal schedule remaining with home dates against the Cowboys and Bills and a road game against the Ravens, in addition to this week’s home game against the Jets.
While Dolphins teams in the past have folded in December, Tagovailoa believes they won’t suffer the same fate.
“I don’t think this is the same Dolphins team that everyone thinks about,” Tagovailoa said. “We got a lot of really good players and we got really good coaches and it’s one loss. It’s not like the world ends because we lost this game. We’re human, we’ll continue to get better from this. This is the NFL, no one is perfect.”
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