Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa scorches Chargers for 466 yards and three TDs in Week 1 win as Miami QB bounces back from concussion issues while Tyreek Hill dominates San Diego’s DBs

Tua Tagovailoa appears to have recovered from the concussion issues that plagued his 2022 season, as the Miami Dolphins quarterback threw for 466 yards and three touchdowns in a 36-24 win over the visiting San Diego Chargers.

The left-hander got help from wideout Tyreek Hill, who hauled in 11 passes for 215 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the day.

Most importantly, Tagovailoa’s four-yard throw to Hill in the right corner of the end zone with 1:45 remaining kept the Dolphins ahead.

“I was super excited to be back there,” said Tagovailoa, who completed 28 of 45 passes as the Chargers surrendered the most passing yards in team history. ‘It’s the first match. You don’t necessarily know what to expect from their team.

‘They give us the best of ourselves. They ran almost everything we saw while watching movies. So it feels good.’

He connected with Tyreek Hill for 215 yards and two touchdowns during the game against LAC

Hill, who said during training camp that he wants to be the first receiver to reach 2,000 yards in a season, is off to a great start. He had 215 yards — the third-best Week 1 total in league history — on 11 receptions and two touchdowns.

Los Angeles put up a franchise-record 466 yards, thanks in large part to the connection between Tagovailoa and Hill, but that huge number was just the beginning of the Chargers’ misery.

The Chargers gave up 536 total yards, the most they have ever allowed in an opener.

‘I wanted to play quickly and thoughtfully. I kind of went into a zone there,” said Hill, who had his third 200-yard receiving game. “Even at halftime, Tua got the boys going. Towards the end he leaned on me a little bit and that meant more targets.”

Hill had two receptions on the decisive eight-play, 75-yard drive. On third-and-10 from the Dolphins 25, he beat Ja’Sir Taylor on a go route and caught a pass for 47 yards after Tagovailoa stepped into the pocket and made an accurate throw.

“I’m glad we started this game,” Hill said. ‘Last year those boys put pressure on us very well. So I feel like this year, like I said, we had an opportunity to go back and get a full understanding of the offense. And you can see that the results were different.’

Different would be an understatement. In last season’s 23-17 win in Week 13, the Chargers held the Dolphins to 219 yards, including 119 in two plays, and didn’t let Miami get into the red zone.

“I don’t think we made the right impact in the secondary and I didn’t think we rushed the quarterback effectively enough,” coach Brandon Staley said. “It became a track meet in the passing game.”

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill (10) catches a pass for 47 yards and loses his helmet

Chargers edge rusher Khalil Mack blamed the defense for the loss, but also recognized the brilliance of Tagovailoa and Hill.

“I feel like it’s a rare occurrence when you have two guys like that on the field at the same time, racing up and down the field,” Mack said. “We just have to look at it and get better, make sure we get better at the back end as well as the front end.”

Miami had nine plays of at least 21 yards. Those included Hill’s 35-yard score late in the third quarter that put the Dolphins ahead 27-24.

Raheem Mostert had 37 yards rushing, including a 2-yard touchdown in the first quarter. Jaylen Waddle had four receptions for 78 yards. Jason Sanders made three field goals.

After Hill’s late TD, the Chargers handed it over on downs. Justin Herbert was assessed an intentional grounding penalty and was sacked twice in the final series. He finished 23 for 33 for 228 yards with two touchdowns (one passing, one rushing).

Tagovailoa came through for 466 yards and three touchdowns in his first full game back on the field

Los Angeles rushed for 234 yards and three touchdowns, the fourth time since the team moved to Los Angeles in 2017 that it has surpassed 200 yards on the ground.

Austin Ekeler had 117 yards and a score, the fourth 100-yard game of his seven-year career. Joshua Kelley added 91 yards and had a 2-yard touchdown a minute into the fourth quarter to make it 31-27.

“I think we had some explosions, some explosive runs. That always helps when you have guys like that running down the field, it opens up the passing game,” Herbert said. “To see the offensive line move the ball like that, I thought the offense was really good for us.”

Cameron Dicker kicked two field goals for the Chargers.