Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa returned to NFL action on Sunday night for the first time since suffering a concussion on Sept. 29.

The former Alabama All-American helped the Dolphins end a three-game losing streak with a 16-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Tagovailoa didn’t give any indication that the frightening scene in Cincinnati 24 days ago had made him skittish about the rigors of the NFL.

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On Miami’s second possession, Tagovailoa scrambled for 5 yards on a second-and-9 snap at the Pittsburgh 11-yard line. He didn’t slide at the end, but tried to slam through Steelers inside linebacker Devin Bush Jr. He had two more scrambles in the game, and on both, he tried to power for a first down only to come up 1 yard short.

“I can see the first down,” Tagovailoa said. “To me, they were close calls. It was like, ‘OK, maybe if I do just put my shoulder down, hopefully, I can get forward progress.’ That was all it was. I wasn’t trying to be Superman or a super-hero out there. I was just looking at the situation. The second one was a third down. I tried to run and lower my shoulder hoping to get through the guy to get the first down.”

Tagovailoa left the turf at Paycor Stadium on a stretcher and was taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center on Sept. 29. The Dolphins lost that game to the Bengals 27-15 for their first setback in four games this season.

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Without Tagovailoa, the Dolphins lost to the New York Jets 40-17 on Oct. 9 and the Minnesota Vikings 24-16 on Oct. 16.

But Tagovailoa had the Miami offense clicking to open Sunday night’s game. He capped a nine-play, 71-yard march on the first possession with an 8-yard touchdown pass to running back Raheem Mostert with 10:45 left in the first quarter.

Tagovailoa completed 6-of-7 passes for 68 yards on the opening series, and Miami would go on to have three of its four remaining first-half possessions result in field goals.

“It felt good,” Tagovailoa said. “It felt good running out of the tunnel. The atmosphere was great. Had a lot of support from the fans. And just being able to be out there with my teammates, it was awesome.”

But the Steelers shut out the Dolphins in the second half. After completing 14-of-23 passes for 180 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions in the first half, Tagovailoa was 7-of-12 for 81 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions in the second half.

“A lot of things that need to be corrected offensively,” Tagovailoa said. “Obviously, that starts with me. But we’ll take the win. We’re extremely happy about that, and we’ll go back to the drawing board when we come back in. …

“I think they made really good adjustments defensively. But there were just little misses here and there we had offensively. A lot of the misses could have turned into really big plays.”

On Miami’s first second-half possession, Tagovailoa clicked on passes to wide receiver Jaylen Waddle and Mostert for 25 and 18 yards, respectively. But the drive ended on downs at the Pittsburgh 14-yard line. After that, the Dolphins generated only two first downs for the remainder of the game.

“It wasn’t one thing,” Miami coach Mike McDaniel said. “We were doing some good things and players were doing some solid things. But then there were key mistakes, whether it was a bad play call or it was a guy making a play here or there. We just weren’t really coming together. We lacked that rhythm, especially after we had in the third quarter that first drive that we went for it on fourth-and-3 in the tight red. Felt like right after that, we kind of hit a lull that we can all learn from because it was like we got punched in the stomach or something.”

McDaniel praised Tagovailoa’s play in his comeback.

“It’s not an easy thing to do because we were on a Thursday night game in Cincinnati when he last played,” McDaniel said. “Those games, you don’t have full-speed practices, so his last full-speed practice was before the Buffalo game, which was our third game of the season. It’s to his credit. If he wasn’t so prepared and hadn’t put himself in the position of playing quarterback when he was out, he wouldn’t have been able to have any sort of success like that. It was a legitimate couple of weeks where you’re not playing football. I think he did a tremendous job.

“I know he’s a competitor and a perfectionist. There’s some stuff particularly in the second half that was getting him frustrated to a degree, but he did everything it took to win the game and that’s all that matters.”

Tagovailoa thought the layoff while going through the NFL’s concussion protocol and return-to-play program for concussed players did have an impact on his play.

“Not being able to play two games does have an effect on my performance in a way,” Tagovailoa said. “I haven’t seen full-speed reps in practice where guys are coming to hit me, to tackle me. … There are some kinds of things you have to just see when you play the game. You don’t get some of the looks in practice.”

The Dolphins visit the Detroit Lions on Oct. 30 in their Week 8 game.

Will McDaniel talk to Tagovailoa about sliding before then?

“He’s a competitor and he’s trying to get a first down for his team,” McDaniel said. “I’m never going to totally encourage that at all, probably going to advise him to slide every time. But when push comes to shove and a guy has the ball in his hands, it’s going to be tough to get him to completely turn it down, although I will try.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.