Tua Tagovailoa walked off the field, game ball in his injured left hand, and waved his arms to acknowledge those chanting his name. And then he stopped before entering the tunnel to take a bow, a rare moment of celebration for the Miami Dolphins this season.
Xavien Howard forced a fumble and returned it 49 yards for a touchdown, Tagovailoa came off the bench and capped his night with a one-yard sneak for a score with 2:19 left and the Dolphins stunned the Baltimore Ravens 22-10 on Thursday night.
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“Any win is good,” Tagovailoa said. “No rumors, no external factors of noise had anything to do with what we did tonight.”
The Dolphins (3-7) got three field goals from Jason Sanders in what became their second win in five days. Tagovailoa who couldn’t start because of a fractured finger on his throwing hand threw for 158 yards in relief of Jacoby Brissett, who passed for 156 yards before departing the game in the third quarter with an injured right knee.
“I think it’s tough coming into a game, second half,” Tagovailoa said. “You’ve got to warm up, you’ve got to get your head back into the mindset of going in and playing, but that’s the NFL. You’ve got to be ready at any time.”
Baltimore’s streak of 51 regular-season games with at least 14 points – the second-longest such streak in NFL history – came to an end.
“We just played poorly and it’s because of our coaching,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “It starts with me. I didn’t do a good job getting these guys ready.”
Lamar Jackson completed 26 of 43 passes for 238 yards and a touchdown and one interception for Baltimore (6-3). Mark Andrews had the scoring grab for the Ravens, who had dominated Miami in the teams’ most recent three meetings going into Thursday, winning by a combined 137-16 score. Not this time. Not even close
“We’ve got to go to work,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve got to be a lot better.”