Head Coach Mike Vrabel 9/15: "The best call is a decisive one"

Mike Vrabel (0:00)

What's up, guys? How are you? Good, thank you.

SPEAKER_2 (0:05)

Mike, on the radio this morning, you said there was a chance that we would see Christian Gonzalez, perhaps, he could play. Can you quantify that?

Mike Vrabel (0:18)

I don't know if I said that there was a chance, right?

SPEAKER_2 (0:22)

Yeah, is it a slim chance?

Mike Vrabel (0:24)

It's a chance. It's a chance that a lot of things could happen. And it's Monday, and we'll figure out how he progresses along the week, and we'll see what he can do and have him do what he can do.

SPEAKER_2 (0:41)

What was your progression last week?

Mike Vrabel (0:43)

Continuing to improve, working hard and trying to get back.

SPEAKER_3 (0:50)

How's Terrell doing?

Mike Vrabel (0:52)

I think Terrell's in good spirits. I appreciate you asking, Mike. So, again, Terrell will be around. I don't quite fully know in what capacity, but he will be around and involved. So we'll continue to just make sure that there's a good plan for everything that happens, just like we always have been. But thank you for asking.

SPEAKER_4 (1:17)

How did everything go with the operation defensively? You and Zach working together yesterday?

Mike Vrabel (1:22)

Yeah, I mean, good. I mean, we didn't have any, you know, when we subbed and we got into our calls. And again, there's no, talked about this before. The best call is a decisive one that the players know and believe in and that they can, they have confidence that they can execute their job. And so when we needed to get the drive stop, we got the drive stopped, you know, had a plan to play these guys and then how we wanted to play them.

SPEAKER_3 (1:52)

Some of the situational coaching calls, love to just get your mindset on fourth quarter. When you turned to Andy for that 53 yarder, it was after the start. I was thinking when it happened, like, feel, go for it. But then I was thinking, was a punt even a consideration there? What was the thought process?

Mike Vrabel (2:13)

Oh, I think, maybe, had the game been down, the time would have been less. I think maybe you could have discussed a punt in that situation.

But with as much time, I don't know, putting them on the 15 yard lines, 12 yard line is going to really matter for those guys. It just felt like either we were going to win it, or we're going to force them to have to score a touchdown. And a really big kick in a really big moment, you know, making them then have to score a touchdown is a heck of a lot different than a field goal. I think you guys can see, we all see around the league, the impact that the kickers have at the end of the game, the distance, you know, you really don't have much to defend nowadays. It used to be, you know, 32, 35 yard line. And now it's, you know, some of these cross midfield are close to it.

SPEAKER_4 (3:13)

Just kind of along the same lines, Mike, because we're kind of getting a feel for how you go through some of these decisions starting the game. It doesn't feel like it's black or white for you, like aggressive versus not aggressive, like you go forward in the fourth down early. I was wondering fourth and four late in the second quarter, to think at all about going forward.

Mike Vrabel (3:36)

I just wanted to get some points there. Just felt like points was important there and coming away with that. Had it been closer probably, but I think it was twofold. I felt like, let's get Andy one through and again, get him jump started knowing that we're going to need him in this game. But also fourth and four on the four gets to be a little dicey. It's not really a 50-50 proposition there. So, love the execution on the two-point conversion. Love the, you know, wanted to be decisive and aggressive. And I felt like we were early on. You could see how we played in short yardage situationally. You could see the ball coming out on fourth and three and Digsy, you know, being able to snap down, get it, whatever the situation called for. So there's a lot of really good examples of us doing that.

SPEAKER_5 (4:33)

Coach, Hunter Henry is now fifth all the time receiving for the franchise, just what has he made to this team? I know we talked a lot about him, but to do that in a short amount of time here for the most part.