Tennessee Titans head coachMike Vrabel pulled off a brilliant stunt to save his team time late in the game Sunday against the Houston Texans.- Trailing 30-29 with just over three minutes left, and with the Texans threatening to score again, Vrabel appeared to intentionally send an extra defender onto the field in order to draw a penalty.
- While the penalty awarded the Texans five yards and a fresh set of downs, it crucially saved the Titans 40 seconds of game time without burning a timeout.
- The Texans would score, but the Titans matched with their own touchdown to tie the game in the final seconds of regulation and later won in overtime.
- It's not the first time Vrabel has used a quirk in the rulebook to his advantage in order to work the clock.
Titans head coach Mike Vrabel has done it again.
On Sunday, Vrabel's Titans came back to beat the Houston Texans in overtime after pulling off an impressive touchdown drive in the final two minutes of regulation. Chances are, the comeback would not have been possible if not for a bit of cleverness from Vrabel on the sidelines.
With just over three minutes left in the game, the Titans were trailing the Texans 30-29 with Houston deep in Tennessee territory threatening to score again.
The Texans faced a second-and-1 with 3:05 left in regulation, at which point Vrabel sent an extra defender on to the field before Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson called for the snap. The move drew a flag from the officials for too many men on the field, giving the Texans a fresh set of downs and moving them even closer to another score.
But what the move really did was save the Titans time. Knowing that the Texans were likely to score on the drive — and if they didn't, could even run the clock out without giving up the ball again, Vrabel took the penalty and saved roughly 40 seconds of game time without giving up one of his timeouts by allowing the Texans a fresh set of downs.
—Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) October 19, 2020
The Texans would go on to score a touchdown. Still, thanks to the extra time that the Titans had once they regained possession, they were able to drive the length of the field to score a game-tying touchdown with just seconds remaining and went on to win the game on the first possession of overtime.
While we can't say for certain what was going through Vrabel's mind as he sent the extra defender onto the field, it's pretty clear from how players and Vrabel himself reacted to the moment that it was a savvy play rather than an unforced error.
The players on the field are confused as to why the extra man is out there, and when the flag is called, Vrabel appears to sell the mistake by acting out his frustration on the sidelines.
The most compelling piece of evidence that this was an intentional move is the fact that Vrabel has a history of pulling off such a stunt.
—Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) October 19, 2020
Vrabel has also used other loopholes in the rulebook to help his team to victory.
In the playoffs last year, Vrabel used Bill Belichick's own trick against him, telling his players to take intentional false start penalties late in the game to burn extra time off of the clock.
Clearly, when it comes to working the rulebook to find whatever advantage possible, Vrabel is a student of Belichick.
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