Marc Serota/Getty Images After two extended weather delays, the Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans will take part in the longest game in NFL history. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, Sunday's game broke the five-hour, 16-minute mark set by the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Ravens in 2013. Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post provided a breakdown of the game that began at 1 p.m. ET: The game restarted for the second time just before 7 p.m. ET after lightning cleared the area. To make matters worse, the play on the field wasn't all that great before delays with the Dolphins leading 7-3 at halftime. Considering the rain, the lack of scoring and the long delays, anyone still at the stadium deserves a medal or at least a free hot dog.<doc-sep>What. A. Disaster. If it could go wrong it did go wrong for the Titans as they opened the Mike Vrabel era with a 27-20 loss to the Dolphins in Miami. Believe it or not there were some winners in what was among the most depressing Titans games of my lifetime (which is saying something). Winners Darius Jennings Despite all the miserableness surrounding this game, it’s hard not to feel good for Jennings who had a 94-yard kickoff return touchdown to give the Titans some hope late in the game. It was the first kickoff Tennessee has returned for a touchdown since Darius Reynaud in 2012. Dennis Kelly, Kevin Pamphile, and the offensive line Kelly got the start in place of Jack Conklin and largely went unnoticed which is a great thing for an offensive lineman. Pamphile stepped in for the injured Taylor Lewan and played well too. Overall, the offensive line did a nice job, allowing no sacks and helping the backs to 4 yards per carry (which would have been much more had Henry’s long touchdown run not been called back for a phantom hold). Dion Lewis Lewis’ debut went exceedingly well as the Titans offseason addition rushed 16 times for 76 yards and a touchdown, adding 5 catches for 35 yards through the air. That included a few clutch 3rd down pickups. Lewis looked every bit the dynamic playmaker that he Titans need him to be moving forward. Corey Davis Davis led the Titans with 6 catches for 62 yards and regularly looked like the team’s best receiver. There was one miscommunication issue, but he otherwise appeared to be in sync with Mariota. Losers Marcus Mariota Let’s just start here. Mariota started pretty good, but fell apart before leaving with an elbow injury during the second half. His first half numbers weren’t bad, but they didn’t tell the whole story. Mariota underthrew a wide open Luke Stocker who would’ve scored if not for the ball placement, then later in the drive threw behind Corey Davis on a speed out on 4th and goal. Again, the pass was complete, but Davis scores with ease if the ball is accurate. It wasn’t all bad from Mariota early, but those two throws cost them 7. Things would get worse for the Titans signal caller as a hit from William Hayes after a Mariota handoff left him with an elbow injury. He tried to play through it, but threw back to back interceptions — one on a pass floated over Rishard Matthews and one on a poorly thrown screen pass to Dion Lewis — before giving way to Blaine Gabbert who would finish the game. We don’t know what Mariota’s injury is, but the Titans are obviously in huge trouble if he’s not ready to go for the home opener against Houston next week. Injuries Beyond Mariota, Taylor Lewan (concussion) and Delanie Walker (leg) both left with injuries. Walker’s leg injury was ugly and he’s probably done for the foreseeable future — if not the entire season — which is obviously a huge blow to the Titans offense. Lewan’s injury was suffered on a cheap shot from Dolphins defensive end Andre Branch after the first Mariota interception. Of course no flag was thrown on Branch, because... reasons. Adoree’ Jackson also suffered a shoulder injury at the end of a nice punt return, though he did return to the game later on. Again, we don’t know the severity of Jackson’s injury, but he will likely be on the injury report for most of this week. Referees I’m not sure what it is about Miami, but the Titans have been absolutely hosed by refs there the last two years. Last season it was the ridiculous offensive pass interference call and the “fumble” that just happened to fly 20 yards down field that was later returned by the Dolphins for a touchdown while they had at least 13 players on the field. This year it was a bogus unnecessary roughness call against Malcolm Butler and a completely absurd holding call against Delanie Walker that negated a long Derrick Henry touchdown run (while Walker got facemasked). The Mariota injury also came on questionable (at best) non-call as he was hit low and late while carrying out a play fake. Titans Fans Titans fans got treated to the longest, most depressing game in Titans history today. Multiple weather delays, injuries to the team’s best players on offense, and another losing round of penalty roulette made this one to forget. It’s an unfortunate way to kick the Mike Vrabel era off and I’d expect it will make for a rather lackluster crowd for the home opener next Sunday. It’s hard to imagine a more deflating start to a season. Mike Vrabel For all the good intentions about keeping players healthy and fresh to start the season, Week 1 was a stark reminder that injuries will come no matter how careful you are. Vrabel’s careful approach also showed up early in another way. The Titans tackling was horrific during the first half. They settled down a little bit later in the game, but it looked like a team that hadn’t had many reps with live tackling in the approach to the season. Additionally, there were a few questionable game management decisions from the Titans new coach. I liked the decision to go for it on 4th and goal early even though the execution let him down there. However, the Titans squandered many of their timeouts, including using one on defense on a 3rd and 21 late in the 4th quarter when they were trying to mount a comeback. It was a debut to forget for Vrabel.<doc-sep>Today’s Titans-Dolphins game, currently in its second weather delay, sounds like absolute hell for any fans in attendance: Advertisement But one brave young fan is going to get some football, even if he has to run onto the field himself to make it happen. A small boy, reportedly around 10 years old, invaded the Dolphins’ field during the extended break in the action, doing his best to elude his defenders before sliding down on the sideline. Someone find that kid’s parents, and then give him a scholarship to The U.<doc-sep>
The Titans-Dolphins game was supposed to kick off at 1 p.m. ET. It was supposed to end somewhere around 4 p.m. ET. The game kicked off as planned, but it did not end around 4 p.m. ET. On Sunday, the Titans and Dolphins made history by taking part in what goes down as the longest NFL game since the 1970 merger. In all, it took 7 hours and 10 minutes, according to the Associated Press. Let's check in with Dolphins coach Adam Gase. The game kicked off at 1 p.m. ET. But with 1:11 remaining in the first half, the game was suspended due to lightning strikes near Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. According to the Miami Herald, the first delay lasted one hour and 57 minutes. The game didn't restart until 4:10 p.m. ET, when most of the 1 p.m. games were concluding and the second wave of games was beginning. After playing out the final minute of the first half, the two teams took a shortened break at halftime, which lasted only three-and-a-half minutes, and the second half began soon after. It didn't last long. At 4:53 p.m. ET, with 6:47 left in the third quarter, the second delay hit. The game didn't start up again until 6:55 p.m. ET, when the entire batch of second games were in the fourth quarter. So, to sum up: That's nearly four hours of delays. Put another way, the delays alone lasted longer than a normal football game. Some context: Luckily, for those who decided to stick around through the delay, entertainment was provided. And better seats were offered. Sunday's game was historically long, but it actually pales in comparison to what the Dolphins went through last year. This is, of course, the second straight year the Dolphins' season has gotten off to a strange start due to Mother Nature. Last year, Hurricane Irma forced the NFL to reschedule the Dolphins' Week 1 game against the Buccaneers. The Dolphins didn't play their first game until Week 2 and were forced to go the entire season without a bye week. After what happened Sunday, the NFL should probably offer the Dolphins and Titans an extra bye week.