All 22 Film breakdown of Tua vs Arizona and his second ever career start

All-22 Breakdown: Tua vs the Cardinals

Tua’s first game left quite a bit to be desired for a lot of Dolphins fans I think. Miami’s game-plan centered around giving Tua as little to do as humanly possible. This week against the Cardinals we saw OC Chan Gailey start to remove the training wheels from Tua a bit. 

Make no mistake this offense is still very much a work in progress. There aren’t a ton of full-field reads and there is a lot of taking easy throws against soft coverage still. With that said, we saw a significant uptick in creativity and passing attempts for Tua which give us a much better idea of the type of QB he will be. 

This was the first play of the game that made say “Tua looks back to me.” The Dolphins line up in 12 personnel with Mike Gesicki slightly off the line and Preston Williams out wide. This is a simple play-action crosser to Tua’s strong side. 

The boot action completely fools the Cardinals EDGE defender who bites down to try and tackle the RB giving Tua a free release to the outside. Arizona came out with a cover two look but rotated into a single high look post-snap. This left a good amount of space in the intermediate area of the field. 

The LB gets sucked in by the PA fake too giving Miami even more of a hole to Gesicki too. The LB tried to retreat once he saw Tua pull the ball but it was already too late. 

As for Tua, he throws a rope on the run into a decently condensed window for the completion. He leads Gesicki to the ground because of the roaming safety over the top who was protecting against the vertical route on the right side. 

This is a great play call and everything from the fake to the throw was perfectly executed. 

 

Speaking of good play calls this play is probably my favorite play call of the entire season so far. This is a modern offense and ripped straight out of the playbook of the Kansas City Chiefs. Not only was the call great but so was the execution. 

Miami comes out in 11 personnel with Durham Smythe as the only TE lined up to the left. They have a WR out wide to each side and Jakeem Grant in the slot to the left. Grant comes in motion before the snap behind the backfield to the right side for what looks to be a swing pass. 

He pulls his defender to that side of the field as the Cardinals appear to be in Cover-2 man across the board. Tua fakes a throw to Grant and then RB leaks out the left like he’s running a screen that catches the eyes of both LBs. They come out of position to the left leaving a huge hole in the middle of the field. 

Tua fakes the screen to the RB in the flat and then comes back to the middle where Durham Smythe has just come off a block uncovered with plenty of room to run in the middle of the field. Grant pulled the eyes of the defense right and took away a CB and then the screen pulled them left leaving the middle wide open. 

This is what I meant when I said Miami is taking the training wheels off. They are starting to get into the bag, and I love it. 

 

This play is extremely important for two reasons. Firstly, Tua missed this throw against the Rams last week and earlier in the game against the Cardinals. I think he’s still adapting throwing to jump ball receivers instead of natural separators. 

He’s got a tendency to lead his guys into space on nine balls by throwing them on the outside shoulder, but Preston consistently wins inside leverage off the snap meaning the ball needs to be on the inside shoulder. 

Well, Tua learned his lesson here and floated a beautiful ball to Williams on the correct shoulder for a big gain. If Tua can get this part of his game down, Miami will get even scarier because this was one of my bigger questions about the offense with Tua vs Fitz. 

The other great part about this throw is Tua looking right first to hold the safety in the middle of the field. He needed to do that too because this was a touch pass giving the safety plenty of time to make a play on it if he saw it right away. 

All around this will be something to keep an eye on the whole season but we have some good progress. 

 

A lot of what Tua did on Sunday is getting recognized all around the country, as it should. I think this throw gets lost in the shuffle a bit because of some plays he makes later in the drive, but they never happen without this throw first. 

There is nothing overly insane about this play but it’s vital to the Dolphins win. It’s third and long inside the 10-yard line. The momentum of the game is very much with the Cardinals who with a stop probably win the game here. 

What does Tua do with his back against the wall? Throw an absolute dart to Devante Parker who ran a hitch route right at the first down marker. What makes this a noteworthy throw, outside of the situational aspect, it Tua’s placement. 

Parker is decently covered here. Traditional wisdom says to throw the hitch route into the center of the chest but Parker has a defender on him. Tua sees this and throws the ball on his outside shoulder allowing him to separate a bit and make the catch. Not to mention he’s got a defender coming unblocked off a twist right into his face. 

Awesome stuff all around. 

 

One of the things I loved most about Tua coming out of Alabama was his pocket movement skills. I felt like he was elite at avoiding pressure and extending plays with his feet. 

The Cardinals bring five rushers and are playing man coverage across the board. Tua looks left for his best matchup which is Gesicki, doesn’t like what he sees, and then feels the pressure coming from his right because Robert Hunt set way too deep on this play basically putting him in Tua’s lap right off the snap. 

Tua also spins himself into a sack but he shows off that escape ability of his and is able to avoid a sack and then run through a super small gap in the OL for a big gain. I’m not going to lie this wasn’t perfect pocket management but we are going to have to live with taking a sack every once in a while for a play like this. 

 

Obviously, I had to include the game-changing fade route to noted Dolphins WR Mack Hollins. The OL is running blocking on this play which tells me Tua was given an option to throw the ball if he liked his matchup on the outside. 

That’s a decent amount of trust to put into your rookie QB making their second start on such an important play. Tua sees Arizona is in Cover-1 man across the board, and he liked his matchup with Mack Hollins so he gave him a shot. 

The touch on this throw is about as good as it gets. Perfectly placed right over the head of the CB with enough loft for Hollins to get to his spot and turn around right as the ball is arriving. The important part of this play is Miami’s staff trusted Tua to make the choice to throw the ball, and he rewarded them.

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