Tua Tagovailoa Says Darius Slay Interception was "Just an Underthrow"
It was 3rd and 8 with 11:30 remaining on the clock and Miami pushing to tie the ballgame at 24. Instead, Darius Slay made what ended up being the key defensive play of the night:
BIG PLAY SLAY! pic.twitter.com/2sUrQnIu6e
— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) October 23, 2023
The Eagles took possession, went on a 13-play, 83-yard scoring drive, and shut the door on the Dolphins.
Three quotes on the sequence:
Tua Tagovailoa:
“It was just an underthrow. That’s all it was. It was nothing more than just an underthrow.”
Big Play Slay:
“Coach called a great defense where I could have great eyes, see the vision of the quarterback and the receiver. (Jaylen) Waddle ran a route that led me to the running back, so, shoot, I just covered my dude, but had vision of the quarterback, so I just came off my dude and made a play… I was covering my guy, my guy ran a double move, and I was in position and was like, ‘oh he might be throwing to him.’ Then (I’m thinking) ‘oh, it’s too short.’ Then I saw the running back coming my way too, and I’m like ‘this was not intended for Waddle,’ so I could come off my guy and try to make a play, which I did.”
Mike McDaniel:
“That one in particular, there was a couple double moves that are kind of built for man coverage, so it kind of disperses that way where they’re kind of close together. That’s something that we’ve been working on for a while. You know, those are the things you have to learn from in terms of that particular play with Tua because playing quarterback in this league is tough enough, but getting used to adjusting when you don’t have protection versus when you do. On that particular play, I thought we do have solid protection there, and so when Tua watches the film, I’m sure he’ll be critical of himself as the leader he is and where he’s at in his career. He’s pretty overly accountable for throws and he kind of let that one fly on his back foot. So, I was hoping Raheem could step back and make a play. He had an issue doing so with apparently what was legal contact down the field. That’s definitely not why we lost the game. For sure, that play, I thought Tua had a very, very good game all things considered and made a ton of plays under some duress.”
Tua calls it an underthrow, which suggests he was going for Jaylen Waddle and not Raheem Mostert. The Eagles got interior pressure and put him on his back foot, which played a big role. Pretty impressive considering that Miami kept a tight end in to chip before releasing. Just a solid nickel look with numbers back. Should be a good all-22 clip to analyze once the video comes out, and yeah, there was some contact there, which McDaniel mentions, but doesn’t blame for the loss.
Nick Sirianni also noted that Darius Slay took the injured Zech McPhearson out to a recent Phillies game:
Slay has it all, right. Football IQ, athletic ability. I can’t tell you how good of a leader Darius Slay is. He’ll be mad I said Darius Slay, but I can’t tell how big of a leader he is. I’m so glad he’s on this football team, that he’s a captain, because he works at it. He works to bring the young guys up.
Shoot, I’ll say it, he brought – Zech McPhearson’s down, right? When you go through injuries, you’re going to be down. It’s tough. He brought him to the baseball game the other day to spend time with him. Like that’s something you guys want to know and I feel comfortable saying that, because I want people to know how good of a leader he is. Everyone knows how good of a player he is.
He’s tough. I just want everyone to know how good of a leader he is. When you have good leaders on your football team, you’ll be able to handle the ups and downs of a season. Man, we got great leaders on this football team.
That’s cool to see. Seems like a solid teammate, Slay.