Colts' Xavien Howard on ex-Dolphins teammate Tua Tagovailoa: We knew he'd go into 'panic mode'
Published in Football
Longtime Miami Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard, who is now with the Indianapolis Colts, left his former quarterback in Miami with a parting shot Monday after his new team’s convincing 33-8 victory in the season opener.
Howard didn’t hold back in his assessment of Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and why the Colts were successful forcing him into turnovers Week 1.
“We knew,” said Howard, according to ESPN. “He gets the ball out pretty quick, and once we take away his first read, I feel like it’s panic mode after that. And it showed (Sunday).”
Tagovailoa threw two interceptions and had a lost fumble on a strip-sack, which was recovered by Howard, in a game that quickly got out of hand on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“We don’t want to overreact. We don’t want to underreact to this,” Tagovailoa said of the turnovers after the game. “We want to get this right so we make sure this never happens again.”
First, Tagovailoa missed high to wide receiver Tyreek Hill on the Dolphins’ opening drive for an interception. He then had a fumble forced by nickel cornerback Kenny Moore that was recovered by Howard.
“That’s just not how you start the game,” Tagovailoa said. “Interception. We come back out the next drive, turn the ball over with the strip-sack. Next drive, we just can’t get anything going. How do you build off of that, is what we’re looking forward to.
Tagovailoa was seen tapping Hill on the helmet after the play.
“Just a throw I sailed on Tyreek. I maybe hung on to it a little longer, probably should’ve progressed on that. My feet were telling me to progress on that. Probably would’ve had Jaylen (Waddle) on that throw.”
Early in the second half, Tagovailoa was intercepted by defensive end Laiatu Latu dropping back into coverage.
“I did see him,” said Tagovailoa, who off the high throw to Hill didn’t didn’t get it over the underneath defender. “That was terrible, is what it was.”
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