Tennessee Titans: Mike Vrabel explains why Derrick Henry hasn’t been getting touches

Mike Vrabel and the Tennessee Titans’ offense struggled on Sunday, and Vrabel explained the lack of Henry in the Titans offense.

In his Monday press conference, Mike Vrabel explained why Derrick Henry was barely used on Sunday. His explanation makes sense, but the Tennessee Titans haven’t been very successful on offense, so there’s no excuse for not getting Henry the ball.

Ryan Tannehill handed the ball off to Henry only 13 games on Sunday. In comparison, that’s 11 fewer carries than Henry’s opponent Christian McCaffrey had.

The Titans’ offense has been most successful when Henry is implemented into the offense. When Henry is a non-factor, opposing defenses know that whether it’s Tannehill or Marcus Mariota, they can’t win the game alone.

Vrabel blamed penalties as a reason why Henry didn’t get the ball. No, not penalties on Henry, penalties that set the Titans back on first and second down.

"“We had 11 plays out of the first 21 plays that were either 1st and 15, 2nd and 10 plus, 3rd and long,” Vrabel said in his weekly presser. “So those are tough spots to be in when you want to have an identity to run the football. … When we can stay on track … you can see there was some successful and good football.”"

I understand that penalties can kill a drive. A holding on third down will put you in a position where you can’t run the ball, but if any other team in the NFL had a running back like Henry in their backfield, they would not be afraid to run the ball on 1st and 15 or 2nd and 10 plus.

Vrabel said that Henry is a big part of the Titans’ gameplan, but the facts don’t lie. Regardless of penalties, if you don’t utilize your best players, then you won’t be successful.

"“He is a very large part (of our plan),” Vrabel said about Henry. “Once we were able to stay on track like we were in the second half, he was a large part of it.”"

Vrabel isn’t a coach that I’d expect to know a lot about offense. I’ve said that before and until something major changes, I will stand by that. If the Titans can turn it around, then I’ll admit I am wrong about him when it comes to offense, but I don’t see that happening.

If the Titans want to beat the Chiefs next week then they’re going to need their offense to be on top of things. That means utilizing Henry correctly. I guess we can only wait and see if the Titans make the appropriate adjustments.