Tua Tagovailoa injury: Teddy Bridgewater opens up on ‘very scary’ situation after having concussion last year

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Teddy Bridgewater tried to not allow himself to think about how his 2021 season ended when he watched Tua Tagovailoa get carted off the field on Thursday night. Bridgewater was carted off the field with a concussion last December against the Bengals, the same team that Tagovailoa sustained his injury against on Thursday night.

Bridgewater and the rest of his teammates stood in silence as Dolphins trainers aided Tagovailoa after he sustained head and neck injuries near the end of the first half of Thursday night’s game. Tagovailoa was treated at a nearby hospital before being discharged and was expected to fly back to Miami with his teammates.

“It’s very scary,” Bridgewater said of the situation. “That’s a part of the game that sucks. It’s fun to score touchdowns and make plays, but it’s one side of the game that really sucks.”

Bridgewater said there was “a lot going through my mind” after watching Tagovailoa get carted off the field. He was able to temporarily put those thoughts aside and helped Miami take its first lead entering the fourth quarter. Three consecutive Bengals scores in the fourth quarter, however, lifted the home team to a 27-15 win while the Dolphins fell for the first time this season.

“I knew that I had to just snap (out of it) and try to lead this team to victory,” said Bridgewater, who threw for 193 yards with a touchdown and an interception. “Knowing that so many guys were counting on not only myself but us to just go out there and finish that game and trying to get a win. Ultimately, we came up short.”

Bridgewater and his teammates received good news upon entering the locker room when they were told that Tagovailoa was being discharged from the hospital.

“You could see guys’ spirits lifted,” Bridgewater. “That was some great news. Especially after the results of the game. It was great news.”

While he too was carted off the field after suffering a concussion, Bridgewater can’t speak as to what was going through his mind as he was being carted off the field.

“I can’t answer that because I didn’t remember anything until I woke up at the hospital,” he said. “They said I woke up in the back of the truck, but I don’t remember anything until I got my CAT scan and MRI.”

Bridgewater did his best to focus on his job while playing the entire second half of Thursday night’s game. While they were not able to win the game, Bridgewater is proud of the effort that he and his teammates put forth given the circumstance.

“There’s so many things throughout the night that happened that we’ll be able to learn from moving forward,” Bridgewater said. “Especially with something that tonight, it can either put you on eggshells or you can just be mentally stable and be able to just hey, I just got a job to do. … I knew that there were a ton of men on our sideline who are dependent on me to go out and compete.”