The Tennessee Titans were down by four with the ball on the 3-yard line in the second quarter Monday night against the Houston Texans when
coach Mike Vrabel chose to go for it on fourth-and-inches.Tight end Luke Stocker
took the handoff and was immediately met by Zach Cunningham and Bernardrick
McKinney and stopped for no gain. Lamar Miller ran 97 yards for a touchdown on
the next play to make it 21-10
D’Onta Foreman Jersey , and the Texans went on to a 34-17 win."If you look at their goal-line defense and having a lot of good knowledge of what they do on
the goal line, that's one play that had worked," Vrabel said. "It didn't work
tonight and that's not the reason that we lost. That's a bad play."Vrabel spent
a good part of his postgame news conference fielding questions about the play
and why he chose to hand the ball to Stocker, an eight-year veteran who had zero
carries entering the game. In fact, Stocker said after the game that the last
time he remembered carrying the ball was in high school."I'd like to have that
back and have a chance to go lower or dive or reach the ball out or something,"
he said. "That's on me. I've got to figure out a way to convert that."Some
wondered why Vrabel didn't give the ball to 6-foot-3, 247-pound running back
Derrick Henry in that situation."That's something we've repped in
practice
Julién Davenport Jersey ," Vrabel said about using Stocker. "Just having watched that play be successful against their goal-line look, we felt good about
it."The fact that Tennessee's defense allowed the huge run by Miller seconds
after the failed fourth-down attempt was just another disappointment for the
Titans."Runs like that can't happen," cornerback Logan Ryan said. "They
shouldn't happen, but it did. We've got to learn from it."Marcus Mariota, who
missed the second half of last week's game with a stinger, was 22 of 23 for 303
yards and two touchdowns. He completed his first 19 passes before an
incompletion with just more than a minute remaining.Vrabel couldn't celebrate
Mariota's effectiveness on a night when the Titans allowed the Texans to set a
franchise record with 281 yards rushing, led by 162 from Miller."The stats are
the stats
Will Fuller Jersey ," Vrabel said when asked about Mariota's completion percentage. "The loss is really what I'm going to try to focus on. We've got to
stop the run. There's a lot of things other than guys' individual stats that
we're trying to concentrate on."The Titans (5-6) have lost two straight to drop
into third place in the AFC South behind first-place Houston (8-3) and
Indianapolis (6-5)."We've got to stick together and we've got to go win," Vrabel
said. "We're going to get as prepared as we can and we've got to go out and
play. We just didn't get it done tonight."The Titans jumped out to a 10-0 lead
before Houston scored 27 straight points to take control. Tennessee finally
scored again on a 48-yard reception by Corey Davis late in the third quarter,
but a 10-yard TD by Demaryius Thomas made it 34-17 with just more than eight
minutes left."We did a good job of coming out, but we got flat and couldn't pick
it back up," Tennessee left tackle Taylor Lewan said. "We've got the guys to do
it, but we've just got to figure out a way to stop the bleeding and get it
going." Which player mocked to the Houston Texans do you want?"With so many mock
drafts flying around, the alleged “expert choices” for the Houston Texans in
this month’s upcoming NFL Draft are all over the map. It’s like trying to
predict the weather in Texas.But since we don’t have much else to talk
about
Nick Martin Jersey , aside from Jadeveon Clowney’s contract situation, or lack thereof, we might as well take a poll and see what the consensus is for
Houston’s upcoming draft needs. NFL.com:CBS NFL:Walter Football:The Sporting
News:John Harris via Texans.com:And there are a slew of other players who
theoretically could be available, including Andre Dillard, Jonah Williams, Cody
Ford, Jawaan Taylor
Tyler Ervin Jersey , T.J. Hockenson, and just about every other player who’s considered a mid to late first rounder and not a quarterback. With all these
choices and more, let’s see who you want to get the call from Brian Gaine in the
first round next week.
