TITANS WIN ON ROAD AT MIAMI
Tennessee’s sack of Tagovailoa seals win in prime-time battle
Rookie Will Levis threw for a career-high 327 yards and directed two touchdown drives in the final 41⁄2 minutes, and the Tennessee Titans rallied to stun Miami 28-27 on Monday night, knocking the Dolphins out of the top spot in the AFC.
Titans 28, Dolphins 27
The Titans (5-8) held Tua Tagovailoa and Miami’s explosive offense in check for most of the game but still fell behind by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, thanks to critical mistakes that gave short fields to the Dolphins (9-4). Raheem Mostert ran for TDs of 3 yards and 5 yards to put Miami up 27-13 before Levis led the comeback.
“We knew we had to something special tonight on national television,” said Levis. “Hopefully it wasn’t our last prime-time game, and hopefully America liked what it saw.
“I think we showed them the type of team we can be this season. We’ve had some lulls but we’ve got a special
locker room, a lot of special players.”
Levis, a second-round draft pick making his sixth career start, took over from there. He led a nine-play, 75yard drive that took 1:54, capping it with a 3-yard touchdown pass to DeAndre Hopkins and a 2-point conversion throw to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine.
The Titans got a stop and Levis quickly went to work, hitting Hopkins for 28 yards and Chigoziem Okonkwo for 16 yards to get into scoring position. Derrick Henry scored on a 3-yard rush and the extra point gave the Titans a one-point lead that wound up being just enough.
The defensive players
from that locker room saved the day for the Titans.
The Dolphins took over with no timeouts left and got to their own 45, but Harold Landry III sacked Tagovailoa to put the game away. Miami lost at home for the first time this season, and its three-game winning streak was snapped.
“It was a legitimate team loss. I think everybody had their hand in it,” Miami coach Mike McDaniel said.
Miami played much the game without star receiver Tyreek Hill, who sat out the second quarter and majority of the third after injuring his ankle in the first quarter. He returned and caught passes of 23 and 25 yards to set up
Jason Sanders’ 31-yard field goal that tied it at 13 at the beginning of the fourth. Hill, who leads the NFL in receiving yards, was in and out of the game from there and finished with 61 yards.
“Obviously I’ve been dealing with a lot of ankle problems this season, and when it happened I was like my ankle’s blown,” Hill said.
Tagovailoa was 23 of 33 for 240 yards and had his streak of 21 consecutive games with a touchdown pass snapped.
Levis went 23 of 38 with a touchdown pass and an interception. Hopkins had seven catches for 124 yards.
Giants 24, Packers 22: Tommy DeVito threw a 32yard pass to Wan’Dale Robinson to set up Randy Bullock’s 37-yard field goal as time expired, and host New York beat Green Bay to hand the Packers their first December loss since Matt LaFleur took over as coach in 2019.
The Giants went 57 yards in eight plays after Jordan Love threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Malik Heath with 1:33 to play. Green Bay then tried a 2-point conversion but Jayden Reed was stopped by linebacker Bobby Okereke. The goahead drive was set up by a Saquon Barkley fumble.
But the Giants came back in the final minute, thanks to the New York sensation that is DeVito.
“Just stay calm and do our operation. Every day in practice, we do the two-minute drill,” DeVito said.
DeVito rushed for 71 yards in the third straight win for the Giants (5-8). He threw an 8-yard TD pass to Isaiah Hodgins while leading four scoring drives, two of them capped by Barkley runs of 5 and 1 yards. The Giants defense forced three turnovers.
Reed scored on a 16-yard run and Anders Carlson kicked field goals of 36, 32 and 48 yards for the Packers (6-7), who had won three in a row. Green Bay dropped to 16-1 in December under LaFleur.
“Our team learned a valuable lesson. If you don’t play your best it doesn’t matter who you’re playing or where you’re playing, you’re going to lose the game,” LaFleur said.
DeVito finished 17 of 21 for 158 yards. He had a 26yard run that set up Barkley’s 1-yard TD in the third quarter, and Hodgins’ touchdown made it 21-13.
The Packers led 10-7 at half on Carlson’s 36-yarder with 13 seconds left. The drive was kept alive early by a 27-yard pass interference against Cor’Dale Flott.