A lot had been made this offseason of the “new” Tua Tagovailoa – a more vocal quarterback than he had been in his first four seasons with the Miami Dolphins.

At halftime of their opening game on Sunday, the Dolphins got an example of that and returned to the field to rally for a 20-17 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“It was a cool moment,” Miami coach Mike McDaniel said, “because it was genuine and it was not anything but constructive. There are details that lead to execution in terms of how we are organized and communicate who’s in the huddle, how those players go from the huddle to the line of scrimmage, and just executing the nuances of our job that, I guess at the time, he definitely felt that there were several guys that were loose there. I couldn’t deny that at all, and I was really pumped to hear him constructively lead.

“It wasn’t ‘Let’s win’ or ‘Let’s make plays.’ It was ‘Let’s adhere to our standard,’ which is what a captain and a franchise quarterback has to be that voice, so it was cool to have him beat me to the punch.”

The Dolphins trailed 17-7 at halftime, with Miami’s touchdown coming with 64 seconds left in the second quarter. The Dolphins’ previous four possessions had included two punts and two fourth-down failures.

“There’s just a lot of minutia for a lot of us,” Tagovailoa said, “because there’s a lot of personnel that guys got to hear who’s who, who’s where, and so it’s just calling it fast and then they got to go out and line up, and we only have about 10 seconds to do all these motions, so it’s a lot of that that we kind of collectively came to – I kind of addressed it to the entire offense with the coaches included.”

An 80-yard touchdown pass from Tagovailoa to wide receiver Tyreek Hill triggered Miami’s comeback.

The touchdown pass came on the first snap after Miami safety Jevon Holland punched the football away from Jacksonville running back Travis Etienne just short of the goal line. On the next snap, Tagovailoa connected with Hill, and instead of trailing 24-7, the Dolphins trailed 17-14 with 2:08 left in the third quarter.

“That was very important, I would say,” Tagovailoa said about Holland’s play. “A huge momentum swing.”

Miami kicker Jason Sanders got three chances at field goals in the fourth quarter, and he made two, including a 52-yarder as time ran out.

“I think it tells you early on a lot about our team,” Tagovailoa said of the comeback, “and a lot of what we’ve tried to ingrain in each other with the relationships we’ve been building on the field, off the field. It’s just collectively ‘I got your back, you got our back.’

“We’re not shying away from what we know is true. We’re down 14. That’s what it is. What are we going to do? Nobody else can change that but us.”

After leading the NFL in passing yards last season, Tagovailoa posted the 13th 300-yard passing game of his career on Sunday. The former Alabama All-American completed 23-of-37 passes for 338 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions.

Hill had seven receptions for 130 yards and one touchdown, and wide receiver Jaylen Waddle had five receptions for 109 yards.

Hill was pulled over by police and handcuffed near the entrance to the Dolphins’ facility at Hard Rock Stadium before the game. Stephanie V. Daniels, the director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, announced during the game that as part of an investigation by the department’s Internal Affairs, one of the officers involved in the incident had been placed on administrative leave.

Hill celebrated his touchdown by mimicking being handcuffed. Hill said after the game he was pulled over for speeding, but he had “no idea” why he was put in handcuffs.

“I want to be able to use this platform to figure out a way to flip this,” Hill said, “and make it a positive on both ends – on my end and also Miami-Dade, so that way we continue together and do something positive for the community.”

The Dolphins will be back on the field against the Buffalo Bills at 7:15 p.m. CDT Thursday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

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