While Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel has rightly received praise for the incredible job he did in 2021, which will almost certainly lead to his winning NFL Coach of the Year, one questionable decision he made on Saturday in particular loomed large in the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
In the second quarter, after the Titans found the end zone for the first time on the day, the Bengals committed a penalty on the extra point.
From there, the Titans had a decision to make: Take the extra point and a 7-6 lead, or go for two from the 1-yard line.
At the time, I was in the camp of taking the extra point. After all, the Titans were finally finding their rhythm after struggling mightily in the first quarter and desperately needed the momentum of a lead, something they ended up not having all game long.
Vrabel chose to go for two, and Derrick Henry was stuffed short of the end zone, leaving the score at 6-6.
When asked about the decision after the game, Vrabel didn’t go into detail, only saying that the goal was to “try to score from a yard.”
Had the Titans taken the extra point, they would have been up 17-16 in the final minutes of the game, and instead of trying to get into field goal range during their last possession, they would have been trying to run out the clock with Henry, the best closer in the NFL.
A less aggressive Tannehill probably doesn’t throw an interception to set the Bengals up with a short field, and at worst the Titans punt the ball back to the Bengals and put the game on their defense.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that things would go exactly the same way if the Titans had taken the extra point, and there were definitely bigger issues that led to Tennessee’s loss, but it’s certainly valid to second-guess Vrabel’s decision to go for two.
