Over a one-minute span late in the fourth quarter Monday night, the Tennessee Titans did just about everything they could to lose the game to the Miami Dolphins.
But then the Tennessee Titans turned to their rookie quarterback, Will Levis, to rally them to the biggest upset of the NFL season.
Down 14 points after a pair of blunders that led to Miami touchdowns, Levis guided Tennessee to 15 straight points in the final 2:40 and then the Tennessee Titans held on to shock the Dolphins, 28-27, and hand them their first home loss of the season.
The Tennessee Titans’ win was the second most improbable come-from-behind victory in the NextGen Stats era.
The game was a coming-out party for Levis, the second-round draft pick who threw for 327 yards and led the Titans (5-8) on two scoring drives to win the game after a pair of blunders put them in a 14-point hole against the Dolphins (9-4).
Tennessee Titans nearly blew it again
With the score tied 13-13, the Dolphins punted to the Titans with 6:07 left in the game. After the ball bounced around the 12-yard line, the Titans’ Eric Garror inexplicably decided he’d try to field the punt. But he muffed it instead, and the Dolphins recovered at the 7-yard line to set up Raheem Mostert’s go-ahead touchdown only two plays later to give Miami a 20-13 lead.
But the Titans weren’t done making costly mistakes. On the first play from scrimmage on the ensuing drive, Titans running back Derrick Henry fumbled the pitch from Levis. The Dolphins’ Bradley Chubb recovered it at the 12-yard line.
Three plays later, Mostert was back in the end zone on a 5-yard run to put the Dolphins up by 14 points.
Tennesseee recently fired special teams coordinator Craig Aukerman after a blocked punt was returned for a touchdown and another punt led to a fumble and more points for the Indianapolis Colts, who came back and beat the Titans.
Monday’s miscues were almost as costly, but Levis’ heroics at the end helped save Tennessee from an unfortunate fate for the second straight week.
And instead, the Titans knocked off the Dolphins, who’ve fallen one game behind the Baltimore Ravens for the No. 1 seed in the AFC.