NFL Week 7: Dolphins Earn First Win Over Jets as Browns Stun Titans at the Death

Two games, two late twists, two seasons reframed

Week 7 of the 2026 NFL season, played on Sunday 25 October, produced two results that will be remembered less for their beauty than for what they changed. In East Rutherford, the previously winless Miami Dolphins beat the New York Jets 28–25 at MetLife Stadium, earning their first win of the season and handing the Jets a defeat that deepened a growing crisis. In Nashville, the Cleveland Browns beat the Tennessee Titans 27–24, on a 32-yard field goal by Andre Szmyt as time expired, spoiling a three-touchdown game by Titans running back Tony Pollard and keeping Cleveland atop the AFC North at 5–2. Neither game was a classic from start to finish, but both turned on late moments that revealed a great deal about the teams involved.

Dolphins 28, Jets 25: Miami finally holds a lead — and keeps it

Miami, coached by Jeff Hafley, drove 76 yards in seven plays for a touchdown on its opening sequence — its first lead of the season. After the Jets tied the game, Miami responded with a 14-play, 60-yard touchdown drive for a second lead, one they never relinquished, taking a commanding 21–7 lead into half-time. The Dolphins had not even reached 21 points in four of their first five full games. By half-time, the Jets' defence, which outside a dominant Week 5 performance against Cleveland had been a liability for much of the past month, had been unable to stop Miami at all.

The architects of Miami's best offensive day of the season were young players. Quarterback Malik Willis completed 14 of 21 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns, both to rookie receiver Caleb Douglas, who caught the first two touchdowns of his young career after returning from injury, and Willis also found the end zone on the ground, accumulating 245 all-purpose yards and accounting for three touchdowns in total. Second-year running back Ollie Gordon II rumbled for 103 yards and a touchdown on 4.1 yards per attempt. The offensive line deserves credit too: Miami allowed Willis to take only two sacks, and the balance between run and pass kept the Jets' defence off balance for most of the first half.

The second half was less comfortable. Miami's defence gave up big chunk plays, and allowed New York to cut an 11-point lead to three points in just over a minute in the fourth quarter. The decisive late moment came with under five minutes to go, with Miami leading 21–17 and the Jets needing a stop to get the ball back with a chance to take the lead. Instead, Willis completed a pass to a wide-open Douglas near the left sideline, and Jets safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who had a chance to stop Douglas for a short gain, took a bad angle and missed the tackle entirely. The play became a back-breaking 63-yard touchdown that gave Miami a late nine-point lead, and although the Jets fought back to 28–25, they could not complete the comeback. Miami also intercepted Jets quarterback Geno Smith once, forced a pair of quick punts, and benefited from a missed 40-yard field goal by Jets kicker Jason Sanders that proved to be the difference.

For the Jets, who dropped to 2–5 after losing five of their last six games following a double-digit road victory over Tennessee, the defeat raised familiar questions. Entering Sunday as home favourites, they lost outright to a previously winless team, and the manner of the loss — spotting Miami 21 points in the first half, failing to get star wide receiver Garrett Wilson involved early, and missing a tackle that decided the game — will fuel scrutiny of the coaching staff. Wilson did not have a single target in the first half, and finished with just three targets, catching two for 26 yards. There were positives: rookie wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr., the 2026 first-round pick, continued his emergence as a legitimate second option behind Wilson, leading the Jets with five catches for 115 yards and a touchdown — his second consecutive game with a touchdown — including a tremendous 60-yard catch that set up his three-yard touchdown catch. Tight end Mason Taylor added two touchdown grabs. But positives in defeat are of limited comfort to a team that has now lost the one game it could not afford to lose, and that faces growing speculation about its head coach's future.

Browns 27, Titans 24: Pollard's hat-trick spoiled at the death

Tennessee, who fell to 1–6, raced out to a 14–0 lead early, on two touchdown runs by Pollard, and looked in control. The Titans scored on their opening series for the first time this season, as Pollard carried five times for 60 yards, including a 36-yard score, and then capitalised on a 14-yard interception return by Cor'Dale Flott to double the advantage on a toss sweep from 10 yards out. Cleveland answered with two touchdown runs by Quinshon Judkins — a five-yard score with 5:32 left in the first quarter, and a second from six yards out at 2:17 of the second quarter, set up by a Denzel Ward interception of Titans quarterback Cam Ward — and a 28-yard Szmyt field goal on the final play of the half put the Browns up 17–14, after they had stuffed Pollard on fourth down at the 1-yard line with 9:34 left in the half.

The second half was a grind. Szmyt missed from 43 yards early in the fourth quarter, and Tennessee's Joey Slye tied the game at 17 with a 29-yard kick with 8:41 left. Cleveland then marched 71 net yards in eight plays, with receiver KC Concepcion Jr. bouncing off tacklers for an 18-yard gain to the Titans' 9-yard line, before quarterback Deshaun Watson found the end zone with his legs on a nine-yard touchdown run to give the Browns a 24–17 lead with under five minutes remaining. Watson finished 25 of 36 for 308 yards and an interception — his first 300-yard passing game with the Browns — and rushed for a score. Judkins carried 17 times for 96 yards with two scores, and Concepcion posted career highs with eight receptions for 129 yards.

Tennessee refused to go away. The Titans put together an 11-play, 63-yard drive to tie the game, with Cam Ward connecting with receiver Elic Ayomanor on fourth-and-8 to keep the drive alive, then finding receiver Carnell Tate for an 18-yard reception to the Browns' 1-yard line, where Pollard found the end zone for the third time with 58 seconds left. Pollard finished with 129 yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries — his seventh 100-yard rushing game with the Titans — and added three catches for 26 yards. It was, by any measure, a performance that deserved to win a game. It did not, because Cleveland had 58 seconds and Deshaun Watson.

On the ensuing drive, Watson found tight end Harold Fannin Jr. for a 36-yard gain with 28 seconds left, setting up the winning kick. The Titans tackled poorly after the catch, allowing Fannin to reach Tennessee's 19-yard line, and a five-yard penalty moved the ball closer still. Two plays later, Szmyt — who had missed from 43 yards earlier in the fourth quarter — made up for that miss by nailing the game-winner from 32 yards as time expired, for the second straight game in which he had walked off a win for Cleveland. It was also Cleveland's third walk-off field goal of the season, and Watson's fifth winning scoring drive of the season, a pattern that has earned this Browns team comparisons to the "Kardiac Kids" of 1980, who won a string of close games on their way to an 11–5 record.

For Tennessee, the numbers around the defeat are bleak. The Titans blew a 14–0 first-quarter lead, surrendering 17 consecutive points and 277 yards of offence before half-time, and were outscored 27–10 after their big early lead. They have not won back-to-back games since 2022, have fallen to 2–20 at home since 2024 and 7–34 overall since 2023, and Cam Ward finished 20 of 31 for 181 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception. Pollard's brilliance, and the late tying drive, will be remembered by Titans fans — but so will the fact that, with 58 seconds to defend a tie, the defence could not prevent a single 36-yard completion from deciding the game. The Titans next travel to the Cincinnati Bengals on 1 November, with little margin left for moral victories.

What Week 7 tells us about both winners

The temptation after a weekend like this is to overreact to two results. Miami are still 1–5, and one win over a struggling Jets team does not make them contenders. Cleveland are 5–2, but winning every game by four points or fewer is not a sustainable formula in the long run — eventually, a walk-off kick misses, a late drive stalls, or an opponent holds on. Both cautions are fair. But both results also revealed something real. Miami showed that their young offensive core — Willis, Gordon, Douglas — can produce a complete, balanced performance when the line holds up and the play-calling stays aggressive. Cleveland showed, for the fifth time this season, that they have a quarterback and a kicker who do not blink in the final minute, and a team that expects to win close games rather than hoping to.

Verifying source: The Score, 25–26 October 2026; The Tennessean, 25 October 2026; Reuters, 25 October 2026; New York Post, 25 October 2026; Dolphins Wire / USA Today, 25 October 2026.