MIAMI -- Midway through the second quarter of their game against the Pittsburgh Steelers last Thursday night, Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill drew one-on-one coverage and beat his man, cornerback Levi Wallace, on an in-breaking route.
It was open -- the nearest defender ahead of Hill was roughly 13 yards away by the time quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw the ball. But that ball came late, after Hill appeared to slow down slightly out of his break. He tried to speed up to catch up to Tagovailoa's pass but was only able to get a hand on it before it bounced to the ground, incomplete.
The play was an understandable miscue in Tagovailoa's first live game action in more than three weeks, and something Miami will look to shake before traveling to Detroit in Week 8 to face the Lions (1 p.m., E.T., CBS).
Tagovailoa started hot, completing six of his first seven passes for 68 yards and a touchdown on the Dolphins' opening drive. From there, he looked like a quarterback with some rust to shake off, finishing 21-of-35 for 261 yards and that lone touchdown -- a decent game on paper that doesn't highlight the miscommunications and four passes dropped by Steelers defenders.
"I think they made really good adjustments defensively, but there were just little misses here and there that we had offensively," Tagovailoa said. "A lot of the misses could have turned into really big plays. Just better execution, and it starts with me."
Tagovailoa spent roughly two weeks in concussion protocol after hitting his head on the ground in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 29. The hit left him briefly unconscious and hospitalized, although he was discharged in time to travel back to Florida with the team.
He resumed football activities on Oct. 12 and cleared concussion protocol three days later, although Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel held him out of that week's game as a precautionary measure. While there were some encouraging signs -- mainly his first-quarter performance -- Tagovailoa admitted the time away had an impact on his play.
“Not being able to play two games does have an effect on my performance in a way that I haven’t seen full-speed reps in practice, where guys are coming to hit me, tackle me," he said. "So kind of getting used to that, and really just being able to help our O-line out, trying to get the ball out faster, trying to make quicker decisions for our guys, just so the defensive line doesn’t get comfortable with their rush patterns and kind of finding the spot of where I’m dropping at.
"There are some things that you do kind of have to just see when you play the game. You don’t get some of the looks in practice."
The rust was quantifiable in a number of ways.
His completions averaged 4.5 yards after the catch Sunday, the 8th-lowest mark in the NFL in Week 7. Only four quarterbacks had a lower completion percentage over expectation than Tagovailoa's -6.8%.
He attacked tight windows at a high rate on 25.7% of his pass attempts but was off target on 17.1% of his throws -- slightly below his rate for the season of 16%.
McDaniel said he noticed the Dolphins' offense was out of rhythm mid-game, but he isn't concerned about it being a multiple-week issue.
"It seemed there was more than a handful of situations where our expectation is to catch something running, and that’s kind of what we work on, and we fell short because there was just a little bit of hesitation or just straying away from our fundamentals,” he said. “And when you’re able to still find a way to win, it’s awesome to have those experiences, because now you can learn from them.”
What's more difficult to quantify was the confidence Tagovailoa's presence gave the Dolphins on either side of the ball.
Safety Jevon Holland said he missed watching the quarterback "do his thing" on the field while running back Raheem Mostert said Tagovailoa brought a jolt of energy to the entire stadium.
“We felt it. When Tua came out there, you could just feel the energy," Mostert said. "That’s something that we need on this team, especially [coming off] three losses. That energy was exciting. It pumped us all up, and I’m just happy that we won.”
There's an opportunity for a big game this weekend against the Lions' NFL-worst defense in terms of yards allowed per game. The Lions' defense also ranks 29th in red zone percentage, 31st in third-down defense, and last in points allowed per game.