Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel. George Walker IV-USA TODAY Sports

Titans' Mike Vrabel: Controversial penalty vs. Bengals was right call

By Zac Wassink | Last updated 11/28/22

Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel didn't blame officials regarding a controversial late penalty in what became Sunday's 20-16 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.

"Any time you do that, that’s going to be a penalty," Vrabel said Monday about Tennessee's Kevin Strong earning an unnecessary roughness foul, per Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. "We have to be careful. They’re only looking for certain things. Make sure you don’t cover him up and make sure you don’t have the appearance of hitting him in the head or neck."

Replays showed that the referee who witnessed the contact on the long snapper immediately threw his flag. The penalty allowed the Bengals to run the rest of the clock out and improve to 7-4 on the season:

Here is a look at the play that ended the #Titans-#Bengals game. Looks like the correct call to me, and could have reasonably been called on Strong or Tart.

Risking penalty there was foolish on Tennessee’s part pic.twitter.com/7LNEF0J3ma
— Easton Freeze (@eastonfreeze) November 27, 2022

According to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN), Strong said shortly after the game he was "totally shocked" by the call.

"Once he hikes the ball and has his head up, you can come through," Strong commented about the long snapper at that time. "I was just trying to get in the A gap. I wasn't intentionally trying to hit him in the head. I made a mistake, and I take that one and put it on me. I just have to do better for my team."

However, Titans safety Kevin Byard seemed to have no problem with the referee's decision.

"It looked like two guys hit the snapper," Byard said after the defeat, as shared by David Boclair of FanNation's All Titans. "I don’t know what else we should expect. They threw the flag. … That’s something that we talk about on the field. We can’t hit the snapper or nothing like that. Frustrating way to end the game. Obviously, you want to give the offense a chance to go out there and score a touchdown and try to take it to overtime. That’s not the way it played out."

Things get no easier for the 7-4 Titans, as they will next play at the 10-1 Philadelphia Eagles this coming Sunday.

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