When Los Angeles Rams linebacker Christian Rozeboom intercepted a Tua Tagovailoa pass on Monday night, the Miami Dolphins quarterback made the tackle to end the return.
After the game, Tagovailoa said: “I wasn’t planning on using my head to go hit him.”
But he did, and because Tagovailoa missed five games during the 2022 season with two concussions and four games this season with another, Dolphins fans had collectively held their breath as the quarterback went low to bring down Rozeboom and caught a knee to his helmet.
“I would say it didn’t feel as bad as what it probably looked like, may have looked like,” Tagovailoa said on Wednesday. “When we watched it, our coach had said that ‘He sort of kneed you in the head.’
“Essentially you’re out there playing football. I didn’t necessarily feel that, and I wasn’t just going to jump out of the way for him to just run down the sideline and potentially score, so you’ve got to make decisions. And I should have never threw the pick in the first place, so that’s it.”
The former Alabama All-American said he wouldn’t have a second thought about trying to tackle an opponent if the situation occurs again.
“I’ll make the tackle,” Tagovailoa said. “That’s what I’ve got to do. It is what it is. It’s hard to score in this league.”
To questions about his form, Tagovailoa said he doesn’t practice tackling.
“Maybe could do some things differently with tackling,” Tagovailoa said, “but I’m not looking to be making tackles like that a lot of times within games.”
Miami coach Mike McDaniel said he thought Tagovailoa might make some changes.
“I don’t think he was disregarding his body in a stubborn manner,” McDaniel said. “I think he had a situation occur where he thought he was protecting himself. I think he’s visually seen how he was a little vulnerable, and I expect him to make the adjustments as he’s made all sorts of different adjustments in his game that aren’t strictly just how he protects himself, but how he plays.”
Tagovailoa threw an interception and lost a fumble in the first half against the Rams, but the Dolphins went on to defeat Los Angeles 23-15.
“It really is sort of like the Seakeeper mindset is what we have in our quarterback room,” Tagovailoa said about his reaction to the turnovers. “So if anyone in here has a boat or anyone knows much about boats, boats that don’t have Seakeepers and there’s waves, the boat will start to rock. You turn the Seakeeper on while there’s waves, the boat kind of -- there’s like a gyroscope thing in there that sort of counters the weight of the waves and how the boat is moving.
“So that’s essentially what we sort of have. It’s like turn the Seakeeper on. That play is over. Just move on to the next play and just continue playing.”
