Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa completed 19-of-21 passes for 205 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions in the first half against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.

The former Alabama All-American and Miami didn’t do nearly as well in the second half, though. But the Dolphins didn’t let Las Vegas get its offense going either in the second half, although it took a leaping interception in the end zone by cornerback Jalen Ramsey to nail down a 20-13 victory for Miami at Hard Rock Stadium.

“In an NFL game, you don’t expect to score 30 every time,” Miami coach Mike McDaniel said. “I think our crew will feel as though they have the ability to for this game, but my hat’s off to the Raiders team in general. That’s a five-win team that played as hard as anybody here at Hard Rock. …

“But when you do come up short offensively, you need somebody to pick up the slack. And to have two fumbles at the 30-ish-yard line in your own territory that equals six points, I believe, and then to have a couple of very timely interceptions, that’s what you have to do to win the National Football League.”

On the first snap of the second half, Isaiah Pola-Mao picked off Tagovailoa’s long pass for former Crimson Tide teammate Jaylen Waddle for the first interception of the Raiders safety’s career.

Tagovailoa went 9-of-18 for 120 yards with no touchdowns and one interception as Miami managed two field goals in the second half.

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But Las Vegas didn’t score in the second half as the Dolphins intercepted rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell three times. The final snaps of the Raiders’ last three possessions came at the Miami 31-, 24- and 39-yard lines as Las Vegas was stopped on downs before two interceptions.

“Needless to say, our defense was able to will us through that game and help us win that game,” Tagovailoa said. “We need to be better in the second half offensively, and it starts with me. As we came out, can’t turn the ball over the way I did. That’s what it was. The state of the union is that. We can be a better team. We can be a better offense for our team when I stop turning ball over and doing things like that.”

Tagovailoa lost a fumble at the Miami 30-yard line on a scramble to end the Dolphins’ first possession.

But after Las Vegas went ahead 3-0, Tagovailoa came back on the next series with a 38-yard touchdown pass to former West Alabama standout Tyreek Hill. A defensive-penalty holding penalty had nullified a third-down sack by the Raiders to keep the drive going.

After Las Vegas went ahead 10-7, Tagovailoa completed all six passes on a nine-play, 63-yard drive that ended with an 11-yard touchdown toss to running back Salvon Ahmed with 2:28 left in the first half.

Between Tagovailoa’s touchdown passes, Miami lost 4 yards on a completion to Hill on a fourth-down snap at the Las Vegas 3-yard line.

“I have a standard for myself just like everyone in here has a standard for themselves with how they go about doing their job,” Tagovailoa said during his postgame press conference. “I take pride in doing my job, and for me, if I’m not doing my job to the best of my abilities and to be the best in the league doing it, I shouldn’t be out there doing it. And I’m sure each and every one of you here would feel the same within your profession. And so it’s not me being super hard or me not extending grace to myself, it’s just understanding you know you can do better. And it’s to a place where I’m not beating myself up as I probably would have my rookie year or my second year just because of the people that I’ve had to help me through that. …

“I’m not blind the mistakes that I’ve made. But it’s not more so that I’m hard on myself. I know my expectation and the standard of what I can do, and it can be better. And I want it to be better. And that’s what it really is is being real with yourself.”

Miami entered Sunday as the NFL’s highest-scoring team in the 2023 season with an average of 31.7 points per game but has scored more than 20 points in only one of its past four games.

McDaniel did not agree when asked if the Dolphins had had three bad games.

“I look at a game like this as not necessarily a bad game,” McDaniel said. “… How many yards did we have? (422) That’s hard to do. Again, we’ll always be super critical. But to call it a bad game, I think, would be – I guess hat’s off to us for raising your standard.”

With a 7-3 record, Miami leads the AFC East and has short week ahead. The Dolphins return to action on Friday, when they face the New York Jets at 2 p.m. at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

“The job’s not done,” Tagovailoa said. “There’s nothing accomplished being 7-3. But as far as our focus today, we won the game and we’re going to take that and we’re going to learn from that film.”

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