The previous game in which Tua Tagovailoa didn’t pass for at least one touchdown, the Miami Dolphins quarterback was in the hospital by halftime.

That was on Sept. 29, 2022, when the former Alabama All-American sustained the first of his two concussions last season.

Tagovailoa was around to the very end this time, when he was sacked for the fifth time on fourth-and-2 with 20 seconds to play in Miami’s 28-27 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Monday night.

The Dolphins entered the game with a 9-3 record while the Titans were 4-8.

“It’s the NFL,” Tagovailoa said. “Anything can happen. We’ve got to do a better job finishing the game with the time that we had while we had the ball, not allowing the opposing team’s offense to get that opportunity to potentially go down and score. It’s a team sport. You can’t blame one side. But I would say from an offensive standpoint, there’s things that we could have done a lot better to not have gone through what we’ve gone through tonight.”

Tagovailoa completed 23-of-33 passes for 240 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions and ran three times for 15 yards. He had had a touchdown pass in 21 consecutive games.

The Titans gave the game to the Dolphins, then took it back. But before that, Miami had opportunities to take the game but couldn’t.

On the Dolphins’ first possession, three plays after starting center Connor Williams went out for the rest of the game, Tagovailoa fumbled a snap with Miami at the Tennessee 2, picked up the football, then fumbled it away when he got sacked.

The Dolphins’ third possession ended in a blocked field-goal attempt. Their first possession of the second half ended with a field goal after Miami had gotten to the Tennessee 2 again. And the first points of the fourth quarter came on a Dolphins’ field goal after Tagovailoa got sacked for a 10-yard loss with Miami at the Titans 3.

“That’s a place that we’ve made a point to do a pretty good job down there, and we did not tonight,” Miami coach Mike McDaniel said. “You could point to that as the No. 1 reason. There’s several people and several phases that will say they’re the No. 1 reason, but you can point to that as the No. 1 reason we didn’t win the game.”

Tennessee tested Miami’s red-zone struggles by losing a muffed punt at its 7-yard line and a fumble on its 12 in the fourth quarter. Dolphins running back Raheem Mostert scored touchdowns with 5:34 and 4:34 to play after those Titans’ miscues to put Miami ahead 27-13.

Driven by rookie quarterback Will Levis, Tennessee drove 75 and 64 yards for touchdowns around a Miami three-and-out to win the game, getting a 2-point conversion, too, after the first TD to make the difference.

“You had a lot of yards given up in a short amount of time, you had a shorter field position and you had an offense that went three-and-out,” McDaniel said. “That’s literally the only way that that could happen, so, yeah, we all get to share the blame in my opinion, or at least I know the locker room felt 100 percent responsible.”

Williams’ injury wasn’t the only one that affected the Miami offense. Wide receiver Tyreek Hill, the NFL’s leading receiver, spent a good portion of the game standing on the sideline after getting injured in the first quarter. The former West Alabama standout returned to the field with 6:43 left in the third quarter and finished with four receptions for 61 yards.

“When you have someone like Tyreek go down, it does make it tough,” Tagovailoa said. “But when you also have a couple of your key O-linemen go down, as well, it does hurt the guys up front and sort of the way we operate.”

With four weeks remaining in the regular season, Miami still has a two-game lead in the AFC East, but the Dolphins are now one game behind the Baltimore Ravens in the conference’s playoff seeding. The No. 1 team gets a first-round bye.

Miami returns to the field on Sunday with a home game against the New York Jets, whom the Dolphins beat 34-13 on Nov. 24.

“I don’t think this is the same Dolphins team that everyone thinks about,” Tagovailoa said about the possibility of a December swoon. “We’ve got a lot of really good players. We’ve got really good coaches. It’s one loss at home this year. It’s not like the world ends because we lost this game. We’re human. We’ll continue to get better from this. This is the NFL; no one is perfect. That’s that.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.