Unpacking Mike Vrabel's crossroad comment as Tennessee Titans enter home stretch

After Sunday's 35-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel declared his team is at a crossroad with five games left in the season.

What else is new?

The Titans (7-5) begin the final stretch of the season at Nissan Stadium against the Jacksonville Jaguars (4-8) on Sunday (noon, CBS). Following back-to-back losses against the Cincinnati Bengals and Eagles, Vrabel said this team is going to have to decide whether it can get better when the games matter most or if it'll crumble late.

"Some teams, every year, end up with a really good record and then there are some other teams that kind of toil around and they’re kind of figuring it out but then they continue to improve and there are some teams that go in the other direction," Vrabel said. "We’ve always gone in the direction of playing our best football late, improving. We have to find ways to do that."

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Indeed, none of this is new. This is the third time in Vrabel's five seasons that the Titans have lost their sixth- and seventh-to-last games of a year. Both times, including last season, the Titans finished 4-1. In four seasons, Vrabel's teams have a 14-6 record in the final five games and never have posted a losing record in December and January.

What feels different is this year's team has a noticeable lack of star power. Titans fans felt this in a number of ways in the Eagles loss. Watching wide receiver A.J. Brown, who the Titans traded away in the offseason, catch eight passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns while all Titans receivers combined for four receptions for 41 yards was the most obvious reminder. But injuries to Harold Landry III and Denico Autry were felt as the Titans struggled to affect Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts in the pocket, and the injury to offensive tackle Taylor Lewan loomed huge as the Titans surrendered six sacks, three relented by Dennis Daley, Lewan's backup.

Vrabel said Monday he's open to making lineup changes as the Titans' offense sputters and the defense tries to recover from the way Hurts and Brown exposed it for big play after big play. Daley, who is tied for the NFL lead in sacks allowed with nine, caught the brunt of the criticism after the game and Vrabel acknowledged that reserve Le'Raven Clark will be given the chance to compete for more playing time.

But Vrabel also said he doesn't think the team has any one weakness so pressing that it needs to be singled out. In his eyes, the team needs to improve everywhere. So while Daley is catching flak, Vrabel focuses on the protection issues being connected to the issues with receivers not getting separation being connected to the issues with quarterback Ryan Tannehill not stepping up in the pocket when he needs to being connected to the running game's lackluster results on first and second down being connected to the coaching and play-calling that puts the Titans in those situations.

"Yesterday there wasn’t a solution in any phase," Vrabel said.

That's the Titans crossroads. The Titans need better individual performances than players like Daley gave Sunday. They could try to replace Daley, for example, but the only options available would be his backups, players on other teams' practice squads who aren't impressing their current teams enough to make the active roster, or free agents who aren't playing football.

The likelier option is, somehow, the players on this team figure out ways to be better than the best they've shown in recent weeks.

"We have to understand what we think wins in this league," Vrabel said. "I’m going to remind you that it’s taking care of the football, it’s running the football and it’s being efficient when you pass it. Those are the three things from the past 25 years in this league that has won. That’s what I want our identity to be because I know that that’s what wins and when we’ve won, we’ve done those things."

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on Twitter @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Unpacking Mike Vrabel's crossroad comment as Titans enter home stretch