Tua 'frustrated' by play in Falcons' preseason loss

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  Marc RaimondiAug 14, 2026, 11:36 PM ET

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  Marc Raimondi's first year covering the Falcons was 2024, but it wasn't his first year at ESPN. He joined the company in 2019 and was a top combat sports reporter. He also covered professional wrestling and wrote the book "Say Hello to the Bad Guys: How Pro Wrestling's New World Order Changed America," which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2025. Raimondi also worked for the New York Post and Newsday, beginning in 2009, covering high school and college sports, plus the NFL, NFL, MLB and NHL.

ATLANTA -- Falcons quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was not pleased after his first game with the team.

Preseason or not, Tagovailoa said the Falcons' 27-7 loss to the Denver Broncos on Friday night was "definitely not up to standard, not even up to par" for Atlanta.

"Frustrated and disappointed at the way things happened tonight as we went out there," Tagovailoa said.

Tagovailoa didn't play all that much -- just two series. He was 3-of-5 passing for 22 yards with all four of his targets going to tight end Kyle Pitts.

On his second snap, out of shotgun, Tagovailoa lost control of the ball and fumbled it before falling on it. He believes that set the tone for a lethargic start. The Broncos scored 24 unanswered points before the Falcons got on the board.

"Just thinking about it, what we put out there is not a reflection of the hard work that we've put in the first two weeks into training camp and it does no justice for the work that our coaches, as well, have implemented," Tagovailoa said. "So, it starts with me, I got to be better with that. I thought off of that [second] play, [things] kind of got out of the rhythm."

Tagovailoa is in somewhat of a competition with Michael Penix Jr. for the starting quarterback job. But Penix has not been cleared to practice fully. He cannot yet do 11-on-11 team sessions. So, Tagovailoa is ahead of Penix at this stage mostly by default.

He said he didn't think how he played Friday night did him any favors.

"I'm competing," Tagovailoa said. "I'm wanting to go out there for points on the board, not go out there and we'll go three and out, three and out -- not be able to perform to the level that I know I'm able to do. So always looking at everything as a competition, but just got to be better."

Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said it was tough to fully grade Tagovailoa's performance because the plan was to only play him for a series or two. Tagovailoa ended up getting only nine plays, with just a single first down.

"I evaluate the entire offense in that regard," Stefanski said. "So, didn't move the ball well enough as an offense. Certainly, there's some things that we can clean up. We did drop a snap out there. So, those are little plays that we will continue to work on. But hard to give a grade on that fewest amount of ... sample size."

Tagovailoa and Stefanski are new faces in Atlanta. The Falcons hired Stefanski, general manager Ian Cunningham and president of football Matt Ryan in the offseason.

That new regime then signed Tagovailoa, after he was cut by the Miami Dolphins, to a one-year, $1.3 million contract.

"I thought it was great being in our building -- for a lot of us being in here for the first time, seeing what it's like in the building," Stefanski said. "I thought it was a great atmosphere for our players. I thought it just was exciting to be in front of our fans."