Tua Tagovailoa’s first preseason outing in an Atlanta Falcons uniform didn’t go the way he wanted, and he made that clear afterward.
After Friday night’s loss to the Denver Broncos, Tagovailoa said he walked away feeling low about both his own showing and the team’s overall effort. The veteran quarterback is entering his seventh NFL season and his first with Atlanta after spending his first six years with the Miami Dolphins before being cut in the offseason. He later signed a one-year, $1.215 million deal with the Falcons.
Tagovailoa’s night was brief. He went 3-for-5 for 22 yards before Cooper Rush and Jack Strand handled the rest of the quarterback snaps. Even in a preseason setting, Tagovailoa expected more.
“Frustrated and disappointed at the way things happened tonight as we went out there,” Tagovailoa said.
“Just thinking about it, what we put out there is not a reflection of the hard work that we’ve put in the first two weeks into training camp, and it does no justice for the work that our coaches, as well, have implemented. So it starts with me.
I got to be better with that. I thought off of that [second] play, [things] kind of got out of the rhythm.”
Denver set the tone early and never really let go. The Broncos led 24-0 at halftime, and Atlanta’s only touchdown came in the third quarter. That score didn’t spark much of a comeback, though, as Denver controlled the game from start to finish.
Rush saw the most passing work for Atlanta and finished 7 of 19 for 62 yards with two interceptions. Strand completed 6 of 12 passes for 50 yards and also added a rushing touchdown.
Atlanta now has two more preseason games left, starting with the Indianapolis Colts on Aug. 22 at 1 p.m. ET.
The Falcons will then face the Miami Dolphins on Aug. 28 at 7 p.m. ET before opening the regular season on the road against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 13 at 1 p.m.
ET.
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