Tua came back to Hard Rock in red and black, and Miami booed
Seven of eight for 95 yards, one touchdown drive, two turnovers, and a preseason night that was never really about the football.
The boos started when he took the field, which is not a surprise and is not really an insult either. Tua Tagovailoa spent six seasons as the quarterback of the Miami Dolphins. Five months after being released, he walked into Hard Rock Stadium wearing Atlanta’s colors and the building responded the way buildings do.
Atlanta won 17-12 on Friday night in the preseason finale for both teams. Tagovailoa started, played three series, and finished 7 of 8 for 95 yards.
What actually happened on the field
The first drive was a good one. Tagovailoa moved the Falcons 60 yards and Brian Robinson finished it with a three-yard touchdown run for a 7-0 lead. It looked, briefly, like the version of the night everyone had imagined.
Then he fumbled the snap to open the second drive and Miami recovered. The third drive ended in another turnover when Dolphins linebacker Jackson Woodard recovered a Robinson fumble at the Miami 13. Atlanta gave the ball away three times. Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said afterward there was plenty to clean up, which is what coaches say when the quarterback competition is still open and the answer is not yet obvious.
Cooper Rush replaced him and went 13 of 18 for 106 yards and a touchdown. Michael Penix Jr., who started nine games for Atlanta last season and had returned to practice on Monday, warmed up but did not play.
The part that was not about football
Tagovailoa said the emotions were mixed coming back to Hard Rock, and that the perspective shifts once you are standing on the other sideline. He also said that whatever the reaction, he loves the city.
Both things can be true. Miami is where he grew up as a professional, where he was concussed repeatedly and came back anyway, where he threw for a lot of yards and never won a playoff game. That is a complicated legacy and it does not resolve in a preseason week three.
He signed with Atlanta on a one-year deal at the veteran minimum, which tells you how the league valued him this spring. He was competing for a starting job on Friday and, by some readings, for a roster spot.
For the Dolphins, the game was a footnote in a summer of subtraction. For Tagovailoa, it was three series to prove something in the one building where everybody already had an opinion.