Implicit

Vrabel wants desperately for the Titans to be and remain a dominant run heavy offense. I also think there is something intangible going on where he keeps Tannehill's success at bay. Tannehill carried this team when Henry was out early on. He displayed how successful he could be by leading the league in several categories. When Henry returned, Vrabel made it known who was going to be his star player and Tannehill wasn't going to steal any of that narrative. The running game began to get stuffed in the playoffs because everyone knew what we were going to try to do. And Vrabel chose to keep running Henry enough times hoping he would break one like he did in regular season. Vrabel didn't capitalize on what he had with Tannehill in the playoffs and even regular season at times. That is what cost this team a shot at the super bowl imo. Last season is not on Tannehill, other than one thing... the guy should break the rules and go against the narrative sometimes. He's a tough sob, physically. He needs to carry that forward with his leadership. Have the balls to call plays against what's coming in from the coaches. If they aren't going to respect you, you aren't doing any damage by going with a high percentage chance you are going to have a successful play. Go for it man. If Vrabel doesn't like it, some other team will notice what you can do. It's the only way he will overcome the stigma from playing in chains on the Dolphins and playing under the King Henry narrative. The league seems to be happy with the result of Vrabel's direction. They are happy with Tannehill pigeon holed onto a middle of the road QB. They couldn't stand having to talk about his success the first year and a half when he was looking elite. They couldn't be wrong about him all this time afterall. I hope Henry has a great year. I think he's going to come out strong this year. But i hope it's not at the expense of pushing Tannehill into a mediocre role and not allowing him to reach his fullest potential. Mark my words, if they use the same game plan and shift to primarily push the running game in the playoffs (assuming they make it), there's a very good chance it will end with the same result of falling short of a superbowl appearance.

So first off... Henry is the unquestioned current RB King. Any team would certainly want him as their feature back. The below is intended to point out the reality that Tannehill can and does take games on his shoulder when the running game falters. People should not be using that as a facet to an argument that Tannehill is not elite. The first few games of last season predictably demonstrated the Titan's desire to showboat Henry and the running game for the 2020 season. But Henry really wasn't on fire coming out of the gate in 2020 and was up and down all season aside from a few monster games. Tannehill indeed picked up the team and took care of business in most of those games. WIN vs. Denver: Henry 3.7 avg - no TDs, Tannehill 29/43 - 2 TDs - 0 INTs WIN vs. Jags: Henry 84yds 3.4 avg - no TDs, Tannehill 18/24 - 4 TDs - No INTs WIN vs. Vikings: Henry 4.6 avg - 2TDs, Tannehill numbers were BAD!!! But they don't tell the whole story. Watching the game shows he had a few MONSTER throws to set up several of the scores including a 60+, 44 , 38, and 2 20+ yard passes. The game was ultimately won by Gotskowski (6/6 field goals). WIN vs Bills: Henry 3.0 avg - 2 TDs - only 57 tot yds, Tannehill MONSTER game 21/28 - 3 TDS - no INTs - 4/42 rushing 1 rush TD. WIN vs. Texans: Henry MONSTER game 9.6 avg - 212 yds - 2 TDS, Tannehill MONSTER game 30/41 - 4 TDs. Deep balls - 53, 45 and three 20+. LOSS vs. Steelers: Henry 3.8 avg - 1 TD (meh), Tannehill 18/30 - 2 TDs (meh) You can see similar roller coaster numbers for both Tannehill and Henry thru the rest of the season. I'd say they both help each other over all. But that's true for other teams with "elite" QB/RB/TE/WRs, etc.. You can always make a case that someone else's great performance set you up for success. Any championship team BETTER have more than one elite player. It's also been clear that Vrabel's desire has been to showcase Henry as their #1 star. When Henry has faltered, Tannehill has indeed stepped up several times in 2019 and 2020. In fact, Tannehill has played more consistently game to game regardless of Henry's performance. The desire to showcase Henry more than Tannehill was amplified in December and January. You can see some of the play calling in both 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons in December and January started to force the running game in certain situations. This was the problem when Tannehill was in Miami as well. It gets predictable, the running game starts to falter, and the passing game is less successful because desperate passing downs are more predictable. That means less time to drop back and throw. But Tannehill had the perfect background (Miami) to be in those situations and has made the best of them. IMO, the losses in the playoff games were more attributed to play calling and possibly referee "errors". Course I'm not an NFL coach or OC, so what do I know? One thing I'm beginning to understand is the dislike, or at least a negative perspective toward Tannehill runs so deep in some people that they'll be pointing out how inferior he is as he continues to break record after record after record. If he can remain healthy and remains consistent, he has a shot at some pretty incredible ones. Hope the Titans get to the big game this year. They've put together something special. Let's stop the bickering and enjoy how incredible both Henry and Tannehill are. Stop squashing the joy you could have in celebrating when Tannehill throws those 40, 50, 60 yard bombs instead of saying to yourself... "self... that wouldn't be possible if Henry wasn't on the team".

Apparently whatever was bothering RT earlier in the season is done and over. The whole team is peaking at the right time. Should be a spectacular few weeks coming. Hope the D can hold up!

You can't judge a QB on one game, or even a few. And you can't judge based on one stat, or a even a few. It's hard to say if he's the bet in this franchise ever, but he has to rank right up there. Also, from someone who ahs watched Tannehill closely for his entire career, he has had a drop off this year IMO. He's lost something on his deep ball accuracy. There are a number of thing that could be causing that including play calling, offensive line, schemes, what are the coaches telling him to do in certain situations, fewer roll-outs which he is very comfortable and somehow more accurate throwing from any direction (it's the matrix). I also wonder if he's been nursing soreness in his throwing arm. I heard rumors about that earlier in the season. That can change his throwing motion significantly, or impact the "feel" of release. Last week was a good game for the team versus a struggling opponent. This week is a good test to see how they will handle going into this last stretch of games. Vrabel has historically liked to sleep on certain plays and run as conservative as possible leading up to playoffs. I'm not sure that's the best approach this year as the competition for the playoff spots is very tight. You can always hit the drawing board if you reveal something you're holding in your back pocket. And you should be drawing up new ones week to week against each opponent anyway. I expect to see a lot of Henry, and a moderate amount of passing. I like that Vrabel has been giving Tannehill some early shots down the field. I hope that continues despite the drop off at the deep ball accuracy. It'll get back to last year's form. Hopefully starting now and into the playoffs.

This was a playoff caliber game and they did it!

Wasted

3rd

Finally a pass on 1st.

puke

Somebody fucking do something.

Need a big play on D here. Momentum shifter.

What the freaking F.

Surprise surprise surprise.

Little mistakes in the passing game. Tannehill struggling with accuracy lately. It's tough to tell if he has an issue cause it is not normal for him. But some of it is routes, receivers not getting the better position, and really fucking bad hands. Then the pattern of play calling run vs pass seems too predictable in the last 3 or 4 games.

Hope they get their shit together for the second half. They played like champs the first 5 minutes, then puttered.