‘The Five’ Goes Off the Rails As Dagen McDowell and Jesse Watters Battle Over Dolphins Playing QB Tua Tagovailoa

Dagen McDowell and Jesse Watters argued on The Five after the former defended the Miami Dolphins for playing quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in Thursday night’s game.

Tagovailoa struggled to stand after a hit on Sunday during a game against the Buffalo Bills. He was not pulled, which outraged fans and pundits. When the quarterback started Thursday after a short week against the Cincinnati Bengals, the criticism was harsh.

Before halftime, Tagovailoa was sacked by Bengals defensive tackle Josh Tupou and knocked unconscious. Questions about why the quarterback was even playing in the game carried much of Friday’s news cycle as pundits in news and sports shared their collective outrage.

The subject came up on Friday’s edition of The Five on Fox News, and McDowell defended the Dolphins for allowing Tagovailoa to play.

Watters first ripped the team for risking Tagovailoa’s health in an early season game with no big picture ramifications.

“They’re talking about a criminal investigation,” he said of public outrage about the way the situation was handled. ” There are people that should be fired within the organization, the team medical unit.”

McDowell responded, “I have the complete opposite opinion,” before she and Watters went back and forth for several minutes while the rest of the panel watched.

“This is Twitter hysteria, uninformed hysteria, and unhinged lunatics going off in the blue check world,” she said.

“It is not anything about Twitter,” Watters fired back. “Everybody in the NFL and ESPN, former players and agents are saying this is horrible.”

McDowell said for Watters’ opinion to be correct, he would have to believe there was a conspiracy between the quarterback, the coaches, the league, and doctors to allow Tagovailoa to play. She added the quarterback said his back was merely hurt after Sunday’s hit.

“It doesn’t matter what Tua says!” Watters responded. “Players will say whatever they will to get back on the field.”

McDowell argued no player would risk his career for such a game, and added, “This is uninformed hysteria by ESPN.”

“You are wrong,” Watters shot back. “It is not uninformed. People are upset with what happened.”

The duo talked over one another for several more moments before Greg Gutfeld stood up from his chair and said, “I’ll see you guys later, I’m gonna go to the bar.”

Watch above, via Fox News.