The Tennessee Titans (8-4) are coming off their much needed bye week and are set to host the Jacksonville Jaguars (2-10) in an AFC South showdown.
Tennessee is currently the 2nd seed in the AFC and could possibly be back in first place by the end of the day should the Bills beat the Patriots on Monday night football later on tonight.
Mike Vrabel addressed the media earlier today to give some insight on how the bye week went and how his team plans on approaching everything going forward.
Here are some of the hot topics that stood out during Monday’s press conference.
What prompted Coach Vrabel to tweet at NFL officials last night?
Vrabel: “it was just my opportunity to sit there and be a fan and watch and I felt like it was a good opportunity to remind everyone the rules of the process of a catch. That’s all that was. I have that on my phone that’s on my Home Screen, the rule book, so I took a screenshot and figured out how to tweet it out so everybody that followed could understand what the process of a catch was and what it isnt.”
Are the Titans going to ramp up practices again now that they’ve finally had a break?
Vrabel: “I think so, I think it’s going to be real critical that we focus on our fundamentals our conditioning and practice with some speed as we head into December.”
How significant is it to consider Ryan Tannehill’s surroundings when trying to evaluate his play?
Vrabel: “it’s a complete thing, it’s a whole package. But we all have a Job whether it’s mine (head coach), the coordinators, the position coaches, to get guys ready to play to find ways to win football games. As the quarterback that has to be the same thing.
Vrabel also said: “the time for evaluation is not now, but it’s the time for teaching and trying to improve as we work our way here into December is probably what the most important thing is.”
How can the Titans get Anthony Firkser more involved in the red zone like they had initially talked about last offseason
Vrabel: “I don’t necessarily know that it’s (the offense) featuring any one person. It’s about being efficient and scoring touchdowns when we’re down there… If Anthony is down there and he’s open, I’m confident that Ryan (Tannehill) will throw him the ball just like if anybody else is open or whoever we hand it off to. That’s the most important thing it’s not about one guy.”
Does Vrabel think the offense can build off Dontrell Hilliard & D’Onta Foreman’s performances in New England to get back their identity of being able to run the ball?
“I think we have to continue down that path I thought there was some really good efforts, I thought there was plays that were really well blocked, but we can’t fumble. Everybody that we handed the ball off to fumbled in that game so that’s gonna lose you games.”
How is Derrick Henry doing at this point?
Vrabel: “He won’t be out there this week, but I think he’s doing okay.”
Are opposing teams doing things differently against some of the stunts & twists that Tennessee’s defense had been getting success with prior to the last two weeks?
“Well we’re No. 1 in the league in 3rd & 7-10, and we’re 24th in the league in 3rd & 3-6, so we need to get them in 3rd & 7-10 so that you have some time to execute those (stunts). 3rd & 3, sometimes the ball is off, sometimes that doesn’t apply, I wouldn’t say that we’ve seen anything other than that. The Houston game there weren’t a lot of opportunities and when we did have pressure, we saw the Quarterback run.”
How important is Bud Dupree to those stunts and twists?
Vrabel: “Well everybody is important. Everybody is important, those are about guys working together whether that’s on the defensive front, a guy working with somebody else, a guy doing their job to help somebody else get free or get themselves free.”
How hopeful is the team that by shutting Julio Jones down for a few weeks, that will help break the cycle of him being in and out of the lineup?
Vrabel: “we’re just focused on today and seeing how he responds.
Vrabel on the importance of having his team mentally stepping away from the game during the bye week
“We understand the ups and downs of this league, the grind of it, I didn’t think that we were broken by any means. I thought we were a little bent, I thought we’re a little beat up, but not broken. There’s too many good things that happened in those two losses to think that somehow we’re broken. We just have to do somethings better, do them more consistently, and eliminate some of the stuff that we’ve all witnessed gets you beat.”
Golden Tate update
Vrabel: “Golden continues to work with Rob (Moore) on his conditioning and we’ll see where his level of understanding of the offense is. He’s been a great pro, he’s been engaged and locked in at every meeting that I’ve had and I’ve enjoyed getting to know him and getting to work with him and watching him.”
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