Ryan Tannehill filled in for the injured Will Levis as the Tennessee Titans hosted the Seattle Seahawks at Nissan Stadium on Sunday afternoon. But it’s fair to assume Titans head coach Mike Vrabel would have preferred the rookie given how the veteran performed in crunch time.
With the Seahawks holding a 20-17 advantage and 57 seconds left in regulation, Tannehill was tasked to lead the Titans’ offense into field goal range and hope Nick Folk could send the game into overtime. Instead, Tannehill took two last-minute sacks, including one with 29 ticks left, and made a mind-numbing decision to not spike the ball with 11 ticks left.
Rather than spiking it, Tannehill inexplicably threw a 3-yard pass to Colton Dowell, who was unable to get out of bounds. Titans wideout DeAndre Hopkins clearly expected the ball to be spiked as he lined up off the line of scrimmage with no intention of running a route.
Vrabel clearly was disgusted with how it went down. The broadcast showed a frustrated Vrabel ripping off his headset and walking onto the field with four seconds left on the clock.
The veteran head coach was more mild-mannered when he spoke publicly after the loss, but confirmed those are plays the offense would like to have back.
“I don’t know you’d have to ask Ryan,” Vrabel told reporters, per AtoZ Sports Nashville. “I don’t know.
“Certainly, those sacks are tough to overcome in two minutes. Talked to our defense about sacks really make it difficult, especially when you use your timeouts. So got to make sure we try to get rid of it, try to get open quicker and try to protect a little bit longer.”
Tannehill completed 18 of his 26 passes for 152 yards. Tennessee dropped to 5-10 with the loss.
