Mike Vrabel continues to make terrible in-game decisions

Mike Vrabel makes at least one terrible decision every time the Titans are in a close game. Today he made two in the span of about 2 minutes. The Titans were up 27-23 with just over 4 minutes left in the game. They faced a 4th and 2 from the Buccaneers 28 yard line. The easy decision is to kick the field goal to go up by 7, right?

What does Mike Vrabel do? Well first he has his team go up to the line and make a half-hearted attempt to draw the Bucs offside. Of course they didn’t fall for it, and the Titans had to waste a timeout that they could have needed if Tampa Bay would have scored when they go the ball back. That was terrible decision #1. The Titans have tried this at least a million times this year and it has worked exactly zero times.

After the timeout, instead of kicking the field goal, Vrabel decides to call a play where Brett Kern, arguably the Titans best offensive weapon (with the way they play offense), tries to run it for a first down. He was nearly decapitated.

The Titans were also really lucky that the officials were terrible and missed that Kern obviously fumbled on the play. It should have been a touchdown for the Buccaneers.

Taylor Lewan said after the game that he thought Kern was dead:

This is the hit Kern took:

These 2 decisions are just the latest in a long line of terrible in-game decisions by Vrabel. The one today could have absolutely cost the Titans the game if it weren’t for bad officiating. He is the the champion of making the worst possible decision when faced with a tough decision late in the game. The fact that he never learns from these decisions tells me that he doesn’t have what it takes to be a successful head coach. There is no way the Titans will do this, but they should absolutely move on from Vrabel (and Arthur Smith).