Dolphins look to get star playmakers more involved when they host winless Titans on Monday night

Sport

Dolphins look to get star playmakers more involved when they host winless Titans on Monday night

2024-09-29 05:24 Last Updated At：05:31

Tennessee (0-3) at Miami (1-2)

Monday, 7:30 p.m. EDT, ESPN.

BetMGM NFL Odds: Dolphins by 1.

Against the spread: Titans 0-3; Dolphins 0-3.

Series record: Dolphins lead 21-18.

Last meeting: Titans beat Dolphins 28-27 on Dec. 11, 2023, in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Last week: Titans lost to Packers 30-14; Dolphins lost to Seahawks 24-3.

Titans offense: overall (29), rush (20), pass (28), scoring (28)

Titans defense: overall (5), rush (20), pass (3), scoring (24t)

Dolphins offense: overall (16), rush (25), pass (11), scoring (32)

Dolphins defense: overall (11), rush (12), pass (12), scoring (22)

Turnover differential: Titans minus-7; Dolphins even.

Will Levis. The second-year quarterback will be making his 13th NFL start back at the stadium where he had his biggest clutch moment, rallying the Titans to 15 points in 51 seconds for a comeback victory. That was his lone 300-yard passing game in the NFL. Levis has had to learn a second offense with Brian Callahan getting used to being both a first-time head coach and play-caller. Levis already has one more interception than he had in nine starts as a rookie with with five, including a pair of pick-6s. He also has three fumbles, two off strip-sacks.

Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. The NFL's leading receiving duo from 2023 has had a quiet start to the season. Hill caught an 80-yard touchdown pass to go with 130 receiving yards in the season opener, but he has not had more than 50 receiving yards in a game since. Waddle hasn't had more than 41 receiving yards since going for 101 in the opener. The duo combined for just seven catches and 66 yards in Week 3. Waddle said teams employ a lot of two-deep safety coverages to take the two star receivers out of games early, but he added that it's up to him to get separation in one-on-one matchups to make it easier for the quarterback to get him the ball.

Titans run game vs. Dolphins run defense. Miami defensive tackle Calais Campbell said the team's rushing defense so far this season “is not our standard" after the Dolphins gave up 112 rushing yards per game and 4.5 yards per carry in the first three weeks. Miami has also been burned for huge plays on the ground. Buffalo's James Cook had a 49-yard touchdown run against the Dolphins in Week 2. Travis Etienne had a 26-yard carry against them in Week 1. Campbell said the Titans could be the best rushing team they've faced so far because of Will Levis' scrambling ability and the production of Tony Pollard, who has 158 yards on 39 carries. The Titans also are looking to get backup Tyjae Spears more involved. Spears had 118 yards from scrimmage with his pass-catching skills out of the backfield in Miami last December.

Dolphins: Skylar Thompson is day to day with a rib injury suffered against Seattle. LT Terron Armstead and CB Kendall Fuller will miss the game still in the concussion protocol. RB Raheem Mostert was limited in practice with a chest injury. ... Titans: Veteran CB Chidobe Awuzie's groin injury put him on injured reserve. Two-time Pro Bowl DL Jeffery Simmons (elbow) is doubtful after not practicing all week. CB L'Jarius Sneed (hamstring) and S Amani Hooker (face) both are questionable. Rookie Jarvis Brownlee Jr., who grew up minutes from Hard Rock Stadium, is expected to get more playing time.

Nine of the past 12 Titans-Dolphins meetings in the regular season have been played at Hard Rock Stadium, most recently on Monday night Dec. 11, 2023. The Titans scored 15 points 51 seconds in the fourth quarter of that game to overcome a 14-point deficit and win. ... The home team has won three of the past four meetings. Before their 2023 meeting, the previous time the teams met in Miami Gardens, Fla. was on Sept. 9, 2018, when a weather delay turned the matchup into a 7-hour, 8-minute game — the longest in NFL history. Then-Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill led a 27-20 win.

The Dolphins were held to three points in last week's loss, their lowest-scoring output since Mike McDaniel was hired in 2022. ... Skylar Thompson was ineffective in his first start since he was a rookie in 2022, completing 13 of 19 passes for 107 yards. ... The Dolphins were the highest-scoring offense and one of the best red zone offenses in the NFL last season but are 16th in total offense with 318.7 yards per game, just 95 rushing yards per game. Miami is also the worst scoring offense in the NFL through three weeks, averaging just 11 points. ... Hill has 1,155 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in his past 10 home games. He had 61 yards against the Titans last season. Hill also has a TD catch in three of his past four Monday night games. ... Waddle is looking for his fourth straight game with at least four catches. He has at least 50 receiving yards in seven of his past eight home games. ... DT Campbell had a sack and pass breakup last week and has a sack in two of his first three games as a Dolphins. He's third among all active players with 107 1/2 sacks. ... LB Jaelan Phillips has a sack in three of his past four home games. ... Miami is 43-44 in Monday night games. ... The Titans are 26-19 on Monday nights, winning nine of their past 12 and 3-0 against Miami. ... Levis has been sacked 15 times this season, next to most in the NFL. He leads the league with eight turnovers. ... The Titans have held their first three opponents this season to an average of 139.3 yards per game. If they keep Miami below 200 yards passing Monday night, it would be the longest streak for the franchise since the first five games of 1986. ... Five-time Pro Bowl WR DeAndre Hopkins is coming off his best game this season with six catches for a team-high 73 yards and a TD. He had a team-high seven receptions for 124 yards and a TD that jump-started the Titans. ... P Ryan Stonehouse has had 10 straight games played with at least one punt of 55 yards or longer, the NFL's longest active streak. ... OLB Harold Landry has three sacks. ... LB Kenneth Murray had a career-high two sacks last week against Green Bay. ... S Jamal Adams is three tackles shy of 500.

The running backs for both teams could be in for big games against two struggling run defenses. Dolphins running back De'Von Achane leads the team with 43 carries for 150 yards with one rushing touchdown, while Pollard is averaging 4.1 yards per carry and is having a productive season outside of being bottled up by the Packers last week.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

At least 56 dead and millions without power after Helene's deadly march across the Southeast

2024-09-29 05:29 Last Updated At：05:31

PERRY, Fla. (AP) — Massive rains from powerful Hurricane Helene left people stranded, without shelter and awaiting rescue Saturday, as the cleanup began from a tempest that killed at least 56 people, caused widespread destruction across the U.S. Southeast and left millions without power.

“I’ve never seen so many people homeless as what I have right now,” said Janalea England, of Steinhatchee, Florida, a small river town along the state’s rural Big Bend, as she turned her commercial fish market into a storm donation site for friends and neighbors, many of whom couldn’t get insurance on their homes.

Helene blew ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday with winds of 140 mph (225 kph).

From there, it quickly moved through Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it “looks like a bomb went off” after viewing splintered homes and debris-covered highways from the air. Weakened, Helene then soaked the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains, sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams.

Western North Carolina was isolated because of landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads.

There have been hundreds of water rescues, none more dramatic than in rural Unicoi County in East Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were plucked by helicopter from a hospital rooftop Friday. And the rescues continued into the following day in Buncombe County, North Carolina, where part of Asheville was under water.

“To say this caught us off guard would be an understatement,” said Quentin Miller, the county sheriff.

Water flooded Janetta Barfield’s car there as a creek overflowed, reaching her lap, before a police officer rescued her.

“It happened so fast to me and scared the life out of me because nothing like that ever happened,” said Barfield, a traveling nurse.

While there have been deaths in the county, Emergency Services Director Van Taylor Jones said he wasn’t ready to report specifics, partially because downed cell towers hindered efforts to contact next of kin.

Relatives put out desperate pleas for help on Facebook. Among those waiting for news was Francine Cavanaugh, whose sister told her she was going to check on guests at a vacation cabin as the storm began hitting Asheville. Cavanaugh, who lives in Atlanta, hasn't been able to reach her since then.

“I think that people are just completely stuck,” she said.

The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said.

It unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina, where Gov. Roy Cooper described it as “catastrophic” as search and rescue teams from 19 states and the federal government came to help. One community, Spruce Pine, was doused with over 2 feet (0.6 meters) of rain from Tuesday through Saturday.

And in Atlanta, 11.12 inches (28.24 centimeters) of rain fell over 48 hours, the most the city has seen over two days since record keeping began in 1878.

President Joe Biden said Saturday that Helene's devastation has been “overwhelming” and pledged to send help.

Helene is the deadliest tropical cyclone for South Carolina since Hurricane Hugo killed 35 people when it came ashore just north of Charleston in 1989. Deaths also have been reported in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage. AccuWeather’s preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss from Helene in the U.S. is between $95 billion and $110 billion.

Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones sometimes in a matter of hours.

Evacuations began before the storm hit and continued as lakes overtopped dams, including one in North Carolina that forms a lake featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing.” Helicopters were used to rescue some people from flooded homes.

Elin Fisher and her husband, who teach whitewater standup paddleboarding on the Nolichucky River in Tennessee, had to move their camper three times to stay ahead of rising waters.

And in Newport, Tennessee, Jonah Wark waited so long to evacuate that a boat had to come to the rescue. “Definitely a scary moment,” Wark said.

Among the 11 confirmed deaths in Florida were nine people who drowned in their homes in a mandatory evacuation area on the Gulf Coast in Pinellas County, where St. Petersburg is located, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.

None of the victims were from Taylor County, which is where the storm made landfall. It came ashore near the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of where Hurricane Idalia hit last year at nearly the same ferocity.

“If you had told me there was going to be 15 feet to 18 feet of storm surge, even with the best efforts, I would have assumed we would have had multiple fatalities,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday.

Taylor County is in Florida’s Big Bend, where salt marshes and pine flatwoods stretch into the horizon, and where the condo developments and strip malls that have carved up much of the state’s coastlines are largely absent.

The county went years without taking a direct hit from a hurricane. But after Idalia and two other storms in a little over a year, the area is beginning to feel like a hurricane superhighway.

“It’s bringing everybody to reality about what this is now with disasters,” said John Berg, 76, a resident of Steinhatchee, a small fishing town and weekend getaway.

Timmy Futch, of the Big Bend community of Horseshoe Beach, stayed put for the hurricane, only driving to high ground when the water reached his house.

“We watched our town get tore to pieces is what we done,” he said, noting that his grandfather helped found the town, where many homes have been reduced to piles of lumber.

About 60 miles (100 kilometers) to the north, cars lined up before sunrise Saturday at a free food distribution site in Perry, Florida, amid widespread power outages.

“We’re making it one day at a time,” said Sierra Land, who lost everything in her fridge, as she arrived at the site with her 5- and 10-year-old sons and her grandmother.

Thousands of utility crew workers descended upon Florida in advance of the hurricane, and by Saturday power was restored to more than 1.9 million homes and businesses. But hundreds of thousands remain without electricity there and in Georgia.

Chris Stallings, director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, said crews were focused on opening routes to hospitals and making sure supplies can be delivered to damaged communities.

Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.

Payne reported from Perry, and Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press journalists Seth Borenstein in New York; Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; and Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed.