ATLANTA -- Tua Tagovailoa has had better mornings than the one he experienced Sunday, but he turned it into a pretty good afternoon.
The Miami Dolphins quarterback was added to the game-day injury report with an illness after waking up with his left eye swollen shut. He started anyway and threw for a season-high four touchdowns in the Dolphins' 34-10 win over the Atlanta Falcons.
"Probably one of the worst experiences I've had in terms of waking up, and that happens on a game day," Tagovailoa said after the win. "My eye was swollen shut, and then thanks to the medical staff, they ended up helping with antibiotics and whatnot and so yeah, I'm just glad I was able to go out there to play."
Tagovailoa wore a visor during the game and sunglasses during warmups and his postgame news conference. He said the eye didn't impact his play in a much-needed bounce-back game for the Dolphins.
Last week, Tagovailoa was pulled from Miami's 31-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns after throwing three interceptions for the second consecutive game. This time, he was pulled in favor of Zach Wilson late in the fourth quarter with the game already well in hand.
After going three-and-out on their opening drive, Tagovailoa and the Dolphins put together a 13-play, 79-yard scoring drive that ended in a 3-yard touchdown pass to De'Von Achane.
Tagovailoa's second touchdown pass of the day came with just 11 seconds remaining in the first half, when he found Malik Washington in the front left corner of the end zone while scrambling toward the sideline. Washington had less than 1 yard of separation by the time the pass arrived, according to NFL NextGen Stats, and the play had a 33% completion chance.
The quarterback kept things going in the second half with touchdown passes of 43 and 20 yards to Jaylen Waddle and Ollie Gordon II, respectively. Tagovailoa finished the game having completed 20 of 26 passes for 205 yards -- the most passing yards the Falcons' league-leading defense has allowed this season.
Tagovailoa averaged just 4.1 air yards per attempt Sunday as the Dolphins' offense focused more on establishing the run. Miami finished with a season-high 141 rushing yards with Achane (18 carries, 67 yards), Gordon (10 carries, 46 yards) and Jaylen Wright (9 carries, 28 yards) splitting the workload.
The run game activated the play-action pass, where Tagovailoa excelled, completing 8 of 9 attempts for 69 yards and two touchdowns. He also praised coach Mike McDaniel, the Dolphins' offensive playcaller, for his game plan this week.
The past few weeks had been tough for Tagovailoa after he threw for three touchdowns and no interceptions in Miami's Week 5 loss to the Carolina Panthers. He threw one touchdown pass against six interceptions over his previous two games entering this week and has tossed 10 picks this season, tied for the most in the NFL.
He has also drawn criticism and apologized for publicly calling out teammates who were late to players-only meetings.
But Sunday marked the third time in his career that he has thrown at least four touchdown passes without an interception, trailing only Dan Marino for the most in franchise history.
Waddle, who finished with 99 receiving yards and a touchdown on five catches, said Tagovailoa played "out of his mind." The receiver said he wasn't surprised by his performance after a poor two-week stretch.
"Tua's not one to be rattled easy. He's extremely confident," Waddle said. "We're all extremely confident in him to go out there and make plays and do his job at a high level. He expects us to go out there and help him."
Miami (2-6) has a short week before hosting the Baltimore Ravens (2-5) on Thursday night.
Tagovailoa said he'll enjoy the win amid the criticism but remains focused on doing his job every week.
"It feels good, but anytime you can get a win with your team, I think that's the best feeling," he said. "People are going to talk, they're going to say what they feel they need to say. At the end of the day, this is our job, this is what we do, and we got to go out there and execute to the best of our ability. And however the cards play out, that's how they play out."