Mike Vrabel better thank his lucky stars that his defense is good.
The Tennessee Titans pulled out a come from behind win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers today. It was a game full of many negatives.
From Jameis Winston and his 4 turnovers, to the Titans being awful on offense in the first half, then to Mike Vrabel’s absolutely awful decision to run a fake FG late in the 4th quarter.
But we’ll start with Winston and him gifting 14 early points to the Titans offense. At this rate, you can’t expect Jameis to have a clean day. It’s a given he throws at least 1 INT or fumbles 1 time.
Not that that’s statistically correct, but every time you look up, it seems Winston was handing the ball over to the Titans defense. Not that the Titans are complaining though, as they turned his 2 early turnovers into 14 points.
First, Winston fumbled the ball, with Isaiah Mack falling on top of it. This set up an easy pitch and catch between Ryan Tannehill and Jonnu Smith.
Second, Winston threw an awful ball that Malcom Butler picked off. It lead to a Tannehill to Tajae Sharpe connection in the back of the end zone.
It was quickly a 14-3 game, a game that seemed to start slipping away from the Bucs.
But then, the Titans decided to play terrible offensive football and Mike Evans turned into an unstoppable force. A force the Titans didn’t have a single answer for until deep into the 2nd half.
Evans was an absolute handful for the Titans defense today. He caught 11 passes for 198 yards and 2 TDs. That’s the stat line of an elite WR in this league, which Evans clearly showed today that he is. If you haven’t appreciated the work Evans has done on a bad team throughout his career, you need your head checked.
Speaking of heads getting checked, someone needs to check on Arthur Smith and see if he’s okay. Why you may ask? It’s simply that his playcalling for the most of the game was terrible.
I don’t know, I might be stupid, but who in their right mind continues to run the football on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? It’s just malpractice at this point.
Vrabel on why the Titans ran the ball so much against a really good Bucs run defense. #Titans pic.twitter.com/YVBj6Us4uS
— TreJean Watkins (@TreWatkins099) October 27, 2019
The Bucs came into this game with the best run defense in the NFL, allowing only 68 rush yards per game. What does Arthur Smith do? Looks at his playsheet, takes a sharpie, and crosses out every single last pass play that’s on it.
He looks up, takes a breath, and calls run plays with extremely heavy sets for most of the game. Like, that seriously sounds like what Smith would do. Even then, I don’t want to hear any type of crap of “establishing the run”.
You have 2 athletic freaks at WR, another who is a consistent chain mover on 3rd down, and an athletic TE who’s playing some of the best football of his career right now.
Jonnu explains if him and Ryan Tannehill have some sort of special connection.
He’s set his career high in receiving yards in both of Tannehill’s 1st 2 starts as a Titan. #Titans pic.twitter.com/ire8t1HNkk
— TreJean Watkins (@TreWatkins099) October 27, 2019
Why in the living hell would you abandon those guys? You’re just setting yourself up to be absolutely crushed by every last outside source that actually cares enough to watch this trainwreck of an offense each week.
2 catches for Corey Davis against an awful Bucs secondary is inexcusable.
2 catches for AJ Brown against an awful Bucs secondary is inexcusable.
3 catches for Adam Humphries against an awful Bucs secondary is inexcusable.
I’ll give Smith some credit though, he did make adjustments and started to look for his WRs more in the 2nd half. That I’ll give him credit for.
Know what’s crazy? The decision to not involve the WRs early on wasn’t even the worst one.
He ran a zone read with Ryan Tannehill later in the 2nd half, that lead to Tannehill being FLATTENED. I mean what are we doing here? One bad hit and you have to turn to Marcus Mariota, who if you don’t know, just isn’t playing good football right now.
It’s absolutely maddening. This is how you get fired in the NFL. You completely do the exact opposite of what you’re supposed to do. He actually did the smart thing, and started attacking a porous Bucs secondary in the second half.
However, some damage was already done.
But man oh man. The absolute worst thing to happen today for the Titans, was Mike Vrabel AGAIN with his poor decisions late in the game.
It’s 27-23, you’re up and you just need a FG to push your lead to 7. Any other SANE head coach would kick the FG and go up 7.
But no sir! Not Mike Vrabel.
He runs a fake punt for virtually nothing, and get his punter destroyed in the process.
Vrabel on why he elected to go with the controversial fake FG. #Titans pic.twitter.com/jUKEl2btis
— TreJean Watkins (@TreWatkins099) October 27, 2019
Dude, what are you trying to gain? There’s a line that can’t be crossed. From being aggressive in smart situations to being ultra aggressive in bad situations.
Mike Vrabel almost cost his team the game by crossing over to the dark side.
This is a win for the Titans, but it came with some pretty frustrating negatives that almost lead them to leaving with an L.
We’ll see how Arthur Smith adjusts next week, against a Panthers defense that’s really, really good.
Until then, we’ll have to watch and see if this Titans staff can correctly call a game without making mistakes a 4 year old would make.
Which might be the most unpleasant thing the naked eye can see.
Featured image via Silas Walker/Getty Images
