MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The early season offensive struggles took another ugly turn for the Miami Dolphins on Monday night.

The Dolphins scored a late touchdown that started a nine-quarter touchdown drought their 31-12 loss to the Tennessee Titans. The offensive woes continued as the Dolphins used their third quarterback since Tua Tagovailoa suffered a concussion in the second week home loss to Buffalo.

“There’s a huge gap between preparation and execution,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said. “I believe there are a large number of contributors. The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter what we do behind the scenes. That is not nearly good enough on the field.”

Miami, which has scored a league-low 45 points, finished with 184 yards of total offense.

“It’s definitely frustrating. We are definitely better than we showed on game day,” Dolphins receiver Jaylen Waddle said. “We have to be better than good when your starting quarterback is out.”

Tyler Huntley got the start against previously winless Tennessee, but the problems continued afterward last week’s 24-3 loss in Seattlewhen Skylar Thompson and Tim Boyle took the photos. Signed by the Baltimore Ravens practice squad on September 17, Huntley completed 14 of 22 for 96 yards. He also ran 40 yards on eight attempts.

Under Huntley, the Dolphins seemed out of sync. They were called for five illegal team fines, including three in one trip.

After a few big play opportunities with star receiver Tyreek Hill, Huntley mistimed passes after Hill beat his defender.

“You wish you had 1,000 reps to go through the playbook, but it is what it is,” Huntley said. “I felt pretty comfortable, but now I have to dig deeper and know the ins and outs of the offense and take the offense to another level.”

With Huntley joining the team two weeks ago, McDaniel acknowledged there were limitations and adjustments to the play-calling strategy.

“There were calculated decisions made about what he was comfortable with from the previous game plan for Seattle and some of the things he had done in his career,” McDaniel said. “It was abbreviated as far as all the things he was comfortable with.”

The Titans then also had to use a backup quarterback starter Will Levis suffered a right shoulder injury on a running play in the first quarter and Mason Rudolph took over.

Rudolph finished 9 of 17 for 85 yards and directed two touchdown-ending drives in the second half while helping rookie coach Brian Callahan earn his first NFL victory.

“He didn’t blink when he walked into the game,” Callahan said. “Our guys didn’t blink an eye. He did exactly what you want a guy like that to do in that situation: come in and operate. In terms of service, it was pretty clean.”

The Dolphins defense limited the Titans to three Nick Folk field goals before Tyjae Spears’ 7-yard run with six minutes left in the third quarter made it 16-6.

Tennessee secured the win when Tony Pollard scored from 4 yards out with 2:03 remaining in the fourth quarter.

“There’s nothing good about this situation right now in terms of where our team should be,” McDaniel said. “We have to do enough to win a football match against any opponent. This is not the case at the moment and we must resolve this quickly.”

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AP N.F.L.: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL