The Tennessee Titans shocked the world on “Monday Night Football” with an improbable comeback win over the Miami Dolphins.
The win was improbable for several reasons.
The Titans entered the game as two-touchdown underdogs and hadn’t won a game on the road the entire season. They also trailed 27-13 with under 2:55 remaining and still managed to win without overtime, making them the first team in NFL history to accomplish that feat, per Quirky Research.
And, when they trailed by the aforementioned deficit, their win probably was an insanely low .383 percent, which makes the comeback the second-most improbable one in the Next Gen Stats era.
As you’d expect, there were plenty of winners following this impressive victory over Miami, but we also found a loser and one in between.
Here’s a look at which players fell into which category after the Titans’ incredible Week 14 win over the Dolphins on “Monday Night Football.”
Winner: QB Will Levis
Levis was fantastic on Monday night and led the Titans on a pair of late touchdown drives to pull off the improbable comeback. Making it more impressive was the fact that he did it on the national stage.
There are no doubt still some things to clean up, but this was easily the most impressive performance of Levis’ career, considering how clutch he was.
The victory doesn’t help the Titans’ draft position but this kind of win will do wonders for Levis’ confidence and overall development, which trumps everything else.
Loser: CB Eric Garror
In a season full of special teams blunders, Garror committed the latest inexcusable mistake on Monday night.
The rookie tried to field a punt he had no business going after, which resulted in a fumble deep in Titans territory and ultimately a touchdown for Miami.
He then bobbled the next punt he fielded, but I can’t even blame that on him because he didn’t put himself back out there.
Thankfully, the Titans were able to erase Garror’s mistake, but the punt return job is once again in question going into Week 15, something that has become all-too familiar in Nashville.
Winner: Titans' defense
Nobody in their right mind expected the Titans’ defense to play as well as it did on Monday night. Granted, the run defense wasn’t good, but that didn’t matter.
Tennessee notched five sacks and several pressures, and the secondary was great in coverage and only gave up 240 yards and just two passing plays of 20-plus yards to the most explosive offense in the NFL.
What’s more impressive is the fact that the Titans didn’t give up a touchdown to the Dolphins’ offense until the fourth quarter, which marks the first time this season a Miami opponent has accomplished that feat.
And, if not for a pair of late turnovers that set the Dolphins up with easy scores, Tennessee’s defense might’ve pitched a shutout in the touchdown department.
This was easily the best defensive performance of the season for Tennessee, and the unit did it without the services of Jeffery Simmons and Kristian Fulton.
In between: Titans' offensive line
The Titans’ offensive line struggled in pass protection early on but got better as the game progressed and ultimately surrendered just one sack to a Miami defense that ranked sixth in sacks coming in. Truth be told, Levis made some great escapes to keep that sack number down.
The bad came in run-blocking, where the unit struggled, and there were several false starts from the tackles, with Jaelyn Duncan having one and Dillon Radunz being responsible multiple. Tennessee tackles have got to clean that up moving forward.
Winner: DL Denico Autry
Autry blocking a field goal in the second quarter proved to be the difference in the Titans’ one-point win. He also added two tackles for good measure.
Winner: CB Sean Murphy-Bunting
Murphy-Bunting had a bad defensive pass interference that set the Dolphins up at the 10-yard line in the third quarter, but then proceeded to single-handedly stop Miami from scoring a touchdown.
Murphy-Bunting came up with two tackles (one for loss) and a pass break-up in the next three plays to hold the Dolphins to a field goal.
SMB finished with the second-most tackles (seven, two for loss) and the pass defensed in what was a strong night for him and the rest of the secondary.
Winner: HC Mike Vrabel
The Vrabel magic is back! These kinds of improbable upset wins have been prevalent in the Vrabel era, but we haven’t seen them in 2023 — until now.
But Vrabel’s placement in the “winners” category also has to do with his decision to go for two after Tennessee’s first fourth-quarter touchdown, which enabled his team to take the lead after the second score.
In a season where Vrabel has been too conservative too often, he rightly pushed the aggressive button on Monday night.
Winner: RB Tyjae Spears
While he couldn’t get much going on the ground, Spears was the second-most impactful pass-catcher on the Titans in Week 14, with his 89 receiving yards finishing second to DeAndre Hopkins’ 124.
But Spears also made some clutch grabs in the final minutes.
He had catches of 12, 21 and eight yards on the first touchdown drive of the fourth quarter. Spears also added a six-yard run on the game-winning series.
There’s nothing better than seeing two of the Titans’ most promising young players make a huge impact in a massive win. Levis and Spears did just that.
Winner: WR DeAndre Hopkins
Like Spears, Hopkins also came up with huge plays down the stretch, and he was a reliable target for Levis all night long. He finished with 124 yards, one score, and had a ridiculous 45-yard catch earlier in the game.
Titans fans have seen first hand that Hopkins isn’t washed like some thought he was, and now the national media is well aware of it, as well.
Winner: P Ty Zentner
With impossible shoes to fill, Zentner did just about as great as anyone could’ve hoped for in his Titans debut, with the punter averaging 48.8 yards per punt on five attempts, with a long of 53. He also didn’t have any hiccups as the team’s holder on field goals and extra points.
Winner: OLB Harold Landry
Landry getting back to form following last year’s ACL tear has been a slow grind, but he had a huge game on Monday night.
The Boston College product tallied three sacks and five QB hits in total, and one of those sacks was the game-clincher on the Dolphins’ final offensive series.
With his impressive night, Landry is now up to 8.5 sacks on the season, just 0.5 shy of his second-best single-season total of nine, and 3.5 shy of his single-season high of 12.
