Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel lost his cool during the post-game press conference following the loss to the Houston Texans.
Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel was clearly not in the mood on Sunday after his team lost a crucial Week 15 battle against the Houston Texans at Nissan Stadium.
On two separate occasions during his post-game press conference, Vrabel got aggravated by members of the Titans media pool, which is always a relatively tame group.
Titans beat writer Paul Kuharsky, who is usually the maverick of the group and not exactly a favorite of Vrabel’s, asked the Titans head coach about LeShaun Sims‘ decision to field a punt at the one instead of letting it bounce into the end zone for a touchback near the end of regulation.
And he was met with this.
“Walking in here with Stretch (Assistant to head coach, John Streicher) I said one idiot was going to ask me that question.”
— Justin Beasley (@JBeasleyOpinion) December 15, 2019
Mike Vrabel’s first question was about LeShaun Sims’ punt return late in the 4Q and he was less than thrilled to provide a response on it. #Titans pic.twitter.com/S991G9k163
Now, should that have been the first question that was asked? Maybe not, but it was certainly a valid question nonetheless.
Vrabel wasn’t finished there, as he again showed his displeasure at another reporter for asking about the pass that Anthony Firkser couldn’t handle in the second quarter that resulted in an interception and an eventual Houston touchdown.
Rarely see Mike Vrabel this upset postgame. He was a bit irritated during this presser.
— Justin Beasley (@JBeasleyOpinion) December 15, 2019
This questions in response to Firkser dropped pass near the end zone. pic.twitter.com/mTiFBxbbgR
Vrabel is never exactly friendly with the media, but clearly there was some extra frustration here, which is understandable given the importance of the game that Tennessee lost. However, these questions were rather tame and not exactly something to get that mad about.
Another crucial play in the game came in the second quarter when the Titans, who have zero confidence in their kicker at this point, were faced with a fourth-and-10 on the Texans’ 37-yard line and were clearly looking at a situation in which they had to go for it.
While I agreed with the idea of going for it, Vrabel’s decision to try a fake punt instead of leaving it in the hands of his offense made no sense. Furthermore, the execution of it — Brett Kern lobbed a deep jump ball down the sideline to Dane Cruikshank — was even worse.
Vrabel explained his decision-making on that one, per Lucas Panzica of 104.5 The Zone in Nashville.
"“Try to get Dane out there and try to create some contact, which would have been defensive pass interference. Thought that was about as much chance of converting fourth-and-10 at that point in time where we were with 14-0. Trying to get something there late at the end of the half.”"
The Titans’ offense was able to put together some long drives in the first two quarters, and even though it didn’t equate to points, leaving the offense out there still would have been a far better decision than the fake punt that was attempted.
The decision itself shouldn’t be much of a surprise. We’ve seen Mike Vrabel make plenty of questionable calls with fakes and whatnot, so this one is par for the course, unfortunately.