Titans HC Mike Vrabel: 'We’re going to need to run the football' vs. Bengals
The Tennessee Titans earned the top seed in the AFC and, thus, watched from home as the Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Las Vegas Raiders in Saturday's wild-card showdown. Tennessee head coach Mike Vrabel now knows the Bengals are coming to town for this Saturday's playoff matchup, and he left little question about what his offense must do to advance to the conference championship.
"We’re going to need to run the football," Vrabel explained during Monday's media availability, according to Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk. "We’re going to need to do that to be who we are and be at our best and not be one-dimensional."
The assumption is that Titans All-Pro running back and former Most Valuable Player candidate Derrick Henry will return to the lineup for the first time coming off the foot injury he suffered on Halloween:
Henry was leading the NFL with 937 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground when he went down for the remainder of the regular season, and Vrabel said the two-time rushing champion will first have to successfully complete practice sessions without encountering any setbacks before he's cleared for Saturday's game.
Per ESPN stats, D'Onta Foreman finished the regular season with 566 rushing yards and three touchdowns, and he's the next man up on the depth chart against Cincinnati if Henry isn't ready to be RB1 by the weekend.
More must-reads: