Mike Vrabel (AKA Mini-Belichick) Has Mastered The Intentional Penalty As A Winning Play For The Titans

Let's just say it. Mike Vrabel is the fucking man. 

Remember back to the Patriots v Titans playoff game? If you’re a Patriots fan, you’ve probably blocked it out (sorry Jerry Thornton). 

One of the key moments in the game came not from any of the TItans players, but from their coach Mike Vrabel, aka Belichick Jr. or Mini-Belichick. 

Earlier in the season during a blowout of the Jets (LOL), Belichick had tested a loophole in the system by taking intentional penalties to waste time. 

Well, like all good students, Vrabel studied that CLOSELY and in the fourth quarter against the Pats, with the season on the line, Vrabel took two intentional penalties back-to-back that burned nearly two minutes off the clock (1:46 to be exact). Darth Belichick? He was NOT happy about Vrabel’s mental gamesmanship.

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This move eventually meant that Brady and the Pats had only 15 seconds left in the game to drive the length of the field at the end of the game to save their season.

We all know how that turned out. Pick six. Patriots season over, Tom Brady to Tampa. It was a whole thing. 

Vrabel was back to his old tricks yesterday, and once again, it was a major factor in the Titans win over the Texans.

At this point the Titans were trailing 30-29 with 3:00 minutes left on the clock. It was 2nd and 1 on the 25, which meant FOR SURE a run, and a significant amount of clock tick tick ticking away. Because the ball was on the 25, it meant the Texans could get two potential first downs, and that meant game over. 

To counter this, Vrabel sent out Josh Kalu to save the day. Intentional 12 men on the field. 5 yard penalty. Not only did the penalty stop the clock, serving as a defacto time out, but with the ball on the 20, the clock issue swung significantly toward the Titans. 

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How do we know it was intentional? Josh Kalu has played a total of 10 defensive snaps ALL YEAR and never in critical situations. You can even see Vrabel motioning that “it was OK” for 12 guys to be out there 

Can you imagine if Bill O’Brien was there to watch this scheming? His head might explode from the confusion of how a Titans penalty caused HIS TEAM to lose. 

The game yesterday was a disaster for the Titans in that our own Taylor Lewan may have suffered an ACL injury, and after he left, the team kind of fell apart. But Titans fans can hold on to hope, because it’s very clear that Mike Vrabel knows what the hell he’s doing and as long as he’s got Derrick Henry and a pocket full of trickery, this team is in EVERY game.