“For me, I’m all for player safety, but when I hear guys saying, ‘That’s the Tua Rule,’ or ‘This is a rule because of Tua,’ I don’t want to be known as that,” Tagovailoa said. “I don’t want people to label that as something I made.”

Tagovailoa received the loudest applause from fans during pregame introductions, and there were audible gasps whenever he scrambled with the ball outside of the pocket. He started strong — completing five of six passes for 60 yards on the first drive, ending with a 8-yard touchdown pass to Raheem Mostert to put Miami ahead, 7-0.

But some of Tagovailoa’s passes sailed high and off-target, and defenders dropped at least four potential interceptions. With the Dolphins leading, 16-10, with three minutes remaining in the game, Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett fired a pass to Diontae Johnson from the Dolphins’ 30-yard line. But safety Jevon Holland jumped the route and intercepted it, then celebrated in the end zone with his teammates after being forced out of bounds near midfield.

The Steelers (2-5) held the Dolphins to a punt and attempted another game-winning drive with about one minute left. But Pickett threw a pass toward the end zone that was intercepted by Noah Igbinoghene with 25 seconds left, effectively ending the game.

The Dolphins (4-3), who started the season 3-0, lost the three games that followed Tagovailoa’s concussion, an added controversy for a team beset by them.

In January, the Dolphins’ owner, Stephen M. Ross, fired Flores after he won eight of his nine final games of the 2021 season. Flores compiled a 24-25 record in three seasons leading Miami.

Flores, who is the son of Black Honduran immigrants, later filed a lawsuit against the N.F.L. and its teams after he was interviewed for multiple coaching vacancies but was not hired. In the suit, Flores cited text messages he said were sent by his former boss, New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick, that appeared to congratulate Flores for winning the Giants’ job, which he had yet to interview for at that point. Flores responded by asking if Belichick had intended the message for Brian Daboll, who interviewed before Flores’s scheduled meeting.