Titans stun Dolphins; Hill hurt
Rookie Will Levis threw for a career-high 327 yards and directed two touchdown drives in the final 4½ minutes, and the Titans rallied to stun host Miami, 28-27, on Monday night, knocking the Dolphins out of the top spot in the AFC.
The Titans 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. Raheem Mostert ran for TDs of 3 yards and 5 yards to put Miami ahead, 2713.
Levis, a second-round draft pick making his sixth career start, took over from there. He led a nine-play, 75-yard 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 1-point lead.
The Dolphins took over with no timeouts left and got to their 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.
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’s 31-yard field goal that tied it at 13 at the beginning of the fourth. Hill, who leads the NFL in receiving yard, was in and out of the game from there and finished with 61 yards.
Tagovailoa was 23 of 33 for 240 yards and had his streak of 21 consecutive games with a touchdown pass snapped.
Giants win at the buzzer
Tommy DeVito threw a 32-yard pass to Wan’Dale Robinson to set up Randy Bullock’s 37-yard field goal as time expired, and the Giants beat Green Bay, 24-22, at East Rutherford, N.J., 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 go-ahead drive was set upbya Saquon Barkley fumble.
DeVito rushed for 71 yards in the third straight win for the Giants (5-8).
Chiefs coach still miffed
Chiefs coach Andy Reid was still baffled Monday by an offside penalty called on his offense that wiped out a go-ahead, 49-yard touchdown pass against the Bills, taking the officiating crew from Sunday’s game to task for throwing a flag rather than issuing a customary warning in that situation.
The play came with just over a minute left and the host Chiefs trailing, 20-17. Patrick Mahomes threw over the middle to Travis Kelce, who was about to get tackled when he lateraled to Kadarius Toney, who ran untouched for the score.
The Chiefs began to celebrate the touchdown, only to see an official had thrown a flag on Toney for lining up offside.
“There are no excuses on this thing. That’s not what I’m saying,” Reid said. “I’ve always had a good working relationship with these guys, and that’s the important part. They know when they tell me something with a guy, I’m going to address the guy — like, right now — and make sure it gets changed. When you’re talking about inches, those happen in the game.”
In fact, there were numerous instances throughout Sunday’s game in which players on both teams — and both sides of the ball — were lined up in the neutral zone. Bills pass rusher Von Miller was offside more than once, and more egregiously than Toney, who may have been at most 3 inches beyond the line of scrimmage when the ball was snapped.
WR Jefferson may play
Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson avoided internal injury from the airborne hit he took while catching a pass that cut short his return to action and has a “good chance” to play this week, coach Kevin O’Connell said Monday.
After missing seven games with a hamstring strain, Jefferson was sidelined again Sunday at Las Vegas when he went high for a 15-yard completion in the second quarter and was smacked hard from the side by Raiders safety Marcus Epps.
Jefferson immediately clutched his lower back, jogged gingerly off the field for a breather, and wound up in the blue medical tent for closer examination. The Vikings wound up sending him to a hospital as a precaution for further testing after what they announced as a chest injury.
Steelers Watt, Highsmith out?
The Steelers could be without star outside linebackers T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith as they prepare for a pivotal visit to Indianapolis.
Watt and Highsmith are both in the concussion protocol following a loss to the Patriots last Thursday.
Watt took a knee to the facemask from Patriots running back Ezekiel Elliott on the first play from scrimmage. The perennial All-Pro was slow to get up after the play, then went to the sideline briefly to be examined by team physicians.
Watt returned for the end of the drive and then was examined by an independent neurologist shortly thereafter and cleared, playing with a tinted visor the rest of the way on a night he played 52 of Pittsburgh’s 57 defensive snaps.
It wasn’t until Watt self-reported concussion-like symptoms when he arrived at the team's facility on Friday that he was placed into concussion protocol.
And Mitch Trubisky will make a second straight start for the Steelers while Kenny Pickett recovers from right ankle surgery.
Shooter dies in prison
A man who had spent two decades in prison for firing the shots in a plot by then-Panthers player Rae Carruth to kill Carruth's pregnant girlfriend has died. Van Brett Watkins died Dec. 3 at age 63, according to online prisoner records from the state Department of Adult Correction. Watkins, who had been at Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C., died at a hospital from natural causes, department spokesperson Keith Acree said. Watkins received more than 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to his role in Carruth’s effort to kill Cherica Adams in 1999. He was sentenced for second-degree murder, conspiracy, and other charges. His projected prison release date had been in 2045, the correction records show.