Big time players make big time plays — or so the saying goes. And for the Miami Dolphins, finding the big time players to consistently finish games with a big play has been a tough chore as of late. Miami’s past decade featured one winning season and the team’s biggest and brightest stars — such as Cameron Wake, Reshad Jones, Brandon Marshall, Lamar Miller, DeVante Parker and others — failed to move the needle enough to routinely place Miami’s games into the win column.
The Dolphins have been painfully average, which is why the arrival of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has so much appeal. Tagovailoa has been anything over than average over the course of his three seasons in Tuscaloosa with the Tide — Alabama won a National Championship on his left arm thanks to a glorious 2nd and 26 toss for a game winning strike in overtime.
Tagovailoa was a freshman at the time.
Over the course of Tagovailoa’s career, he went 22-2 as the Tide’s starting quarterback. But how did he play in the biggest of games? Tagovailoa’s second half comeback against Georgia in the 2018 National Championship game is his most popular win — but he’s had plenty of other big showdowns throughout the course of his career. Here are Tagovailoa’s games versus ranked opponents as a starter between the 2018 and 2019 college football seasons:
2018 vs. #22 Texas A&M (45-23 win) – 22/30 passing, 387 yards, 4 touchdowns
2018 vs. #4 LSU (29-0 win) – 25/42 passing, 295 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception
2018 vs. #18 Mississippi State (24-0 win) – 14/21 passing, 164 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception
2018 vs. #4 Georgia (35-28 win) – 10/25 passing, 164 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 interceptions
2018 CFB Playoff vs. #4 Oklahoma (45-34 win) – 24/27 passing, 318 yards, 4 touchdowns
2018 CFB Playoff vs. #2 Clemson (44-16 loss) – 22/34 passing, 295 yards, 2 touchdowns, 2 interceptions
2019 vs. #24 Texas A&M (47-28 win) – 21/34 passing, 293 yards, 4 touchdowns, 1 interception
2019 vs. #1 LSU (46-41 loss) – 21/40 passing, 418 yards, 4 touchdowns, 1 interception
Tagovailoa’s only two college losses came to eventual National Championship programs as a starting quarterback — including a 41 point performance against LSU in 2019, highlighted by a brilliant performance in the 2nd-half to will Alabama back into contention. The Tide were one defensive stop away from a potential comeback victory, but No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow was unstoppable that day.
In gleaning over Tagovailoa’s resume as a starter, it’s clear why he has the reputation he does — he’s made big plays in big moments and claimed ample hardware for his effort; even if the Tide’s 2018 SEC Championship win against Georgia came with a little help from former teammate Jalen Hurts.