It’s fine and dandy for Tua Tagovailoa to stand up afterward and quarterback-splain the coverage and the intent on that godforsaken pass. It’s odder to also say, as he did, how he’d make that pass, “10 out of 10 times” and laud Bills linebacker Terrel Bernard for intercepting the ball thrown right at him.

But if he couldn’t play like a franchise quarterback again, he could at least sound like one and simply say, “I blew it.”

Or, “I cost us the chance to win that one.”

Or even just, “That was an awful throw at the wrong time.”

No one’s asking for a pound of despair by his sixth season, because it’s clear by now it’s not going to happen with Tagovailoa. The Dolphins are into Ryan Tannehill territory of hoping for something that’s not there by now. At least it’s not there in the manner Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Grier and coach Mike McDaniel thought when they put him in the $50 Million Quarterback Club.

They’re all on the elevator going down now starting with those three at the top after Thursday’s 31-21 loss in Buffalo. It would be a good-job-good-effort kind of night if they weren’t 0-3 now. Only four of 165 teams have made the playoffs from there — and two of them won their division. Buffalo, at 3-0, isn’t giving up the AFC East.

So, the question becomes how far down this Dolphins season goes and how anyone, at the top survives. Grier and McDaniel have swung and missed plenty. Tagovailoa doesn’t look like a championship quarterback. He doesn’t even sound like one at this point. He’s been outplayed by Indianapolis’s recycled Daniel Jones, New England’s second-year Drake Maye and, as expected, Buffalo’s Josh Allen.

Allen, again, showed what a championship quarterback looks like. He didn’t have a vintage game against the Dolphins, just three touchdowns against no interceptions and the winning scores in the fourth quarter. What’s more, you expected him to do that. It’s who he is.

For the second straight game, Tagovailoa threw a ball directly at an opposing linebacker at the end. For the third straight week, he didn’t deliver in the expected manner of a quarterback who got a huge contract.

If that sounds harsh after a night the Dolphins competed hard, the reason you put a quarterback in the $50 million club is to win some big games by sheer, individual talent sometimes. And Tua hasn’t done it so far. If that’s simplifying the Dolphins winless start, so be it.

You can look elsewhere for issues considering there are plenty of them. The defense has been mostly dreadful even if it showed signs of life in Thursday’s second half. The special teams have made brutal blunders the past two games.

On Thursday, Zach Sieler tried to do too much and roughed the punter when the Dolphins would have gotten the ball and a chance for the lead in the fourth quarter. Instead, Buffalo kept the ball and went ahead, 28-21.

“I can’t do that,” Sieler said, showing how accountability is done.

For all that, the game was up for grabs when Tua went to throw on first-and-10 from the Buffalo 21-yard line with just over three minutes left. The Dolphins needed a touchdown. So, it was a similar situation to the finish against New England last Sunday.

He’d been asked to do the minimum for the most part Thursday. He ended the night completing 22 of 34 passes for 146 yards, mostly dinks and dunks. Can he throw deep anymore? Even medium in tight spots? The Amazon broadcast showed late in the third quarter his average passes were going a minus-a-half-yard in the air from the line of scrimmage.

McDaniel smartly leaned into the running game that had 130 yards on 25 carries. Tua had some timely passes, including two touchdowns. But from the Buffalo 21 at the end he went to pass and …

“I thought I was in rhythm and timing of the play, seeing the flat defender go over the top of Jaylen (Waddle),’’ Tagovailoa said of the Dolphins receiver. “Jaylen is turning around.”

Bernard saw it all unfold before him, too. The pass was right there for him.

“I thought it was a really good play by the defender,’’ Tagovailoa said. “And, you know, I had (a Bills defender) in my face trying to maneuver the throw as well.

“Ten out of 10 times, if we’re looking at that same thing, I think I’d still try to work that timing of hitting that spot. I think the linebacker made a great play on that.”

His former Dolphins teammate, Ryan Fitzpatrick, said on Amazon that Tua would probably walk back that comment about throwing it there every time after watching the video. Bernard didn’t have to do much except see the play he said he expected from watching video of the Dolphins.

McDaniel knew what lost the game. Two plays. One by Sieler. Another by Tagovaila. It’s on such thin margins the NFL typically decides winners and losers.

“We had a turnover in a critical situation, we had a turnover on a punt — that’s how these games are decided,’’ McDaniel said.

That interception?

“I think the quarterback has to be responsible for it,’’ McDaniel said. “I wish I could just put it on him, but it’s a tough job to do when there’s someone in your face. Everybody needs to do better.”

No doubt. Everyone does need to be better, right to the very end, when Tua should have understood what’s expected of a franchise quarterback to simply say, “I cost us that one.”

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/09/19/dave-hyde-tuas-interception-at-end-haunts-dolphins-again/