Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins were hit with a rather massive reality check on Sunday, falling to Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills by a score of 48-20 and seeing their undefeated start come to an end.
The loss comes on the heels of the Dolphins’ 70-20 win over the Denver Broncos last week that prompted an understandable Super Bowl buzz around South Beach.
While the Dolphins fell flat in their first real test of the season, quarterback Tagovailoa is viewing the blowout loss as a learning experience.
“I promise you one thing: We’ll definitely be better from this,” said Tagovailoa, according to David Furones of The Sun Sentinel.
Tagovailoa was far from terrible on Sunday, but he certainly wasn’t great, going 25-for-35 with 282 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
On the season overall, the 25-year-old has thrown for 1,306 yards, nine touchdowns and three picks while completing 71.3 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 114.4.
A look at the numbers reveals that the Bills and Dolphins were relatively even in most categories on Sunday. Buffalo only outgained Miami by 21 yards of total offense and only had four more first downs. Also, time of possession was almost the same between the two clubs.
However, the Dolphins committed two turnovers to the Bills’ zero, and Buffalo simply cashed in on more of its opportunities and made the bigger plays throughout the afternoon.
It also is worth noting that the Bills seem to have the Dolphins’ number of late. While Miami won the first meeting between the two clubs last year, Buffalo has now came on top in three straight matchups between the two squads, including its victory over the Dolphins in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs last winter.
The silver lining for Tua Tagovailoa and Co. is that Week 4’s meeting was in Buffalo, so the Dolphins will get another crack at the Bills in South Beach during the final week of the regular season.
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