NASHVILLE – Titans Coach Mike Vrabel wasn't in the mood to reflect on the 2023 season on Tuesday.
With a game left – on Sunday vs the Jaguars – Vrabel had no interest in doing an assessment on the season, or player evaluations, during his Tuesday press conference.
Those takes, or any type of "review", will come when the season is over.
Vrabel's mindset heading into the season finale at Nissan Stadium is to win, for no other reason than he hates losing.
"It sucks to lose," an animated Vrabel said. "It (expletive) sucks, losing. Awful. That's why I want to win. Because you don't sleep. You want to win for the players that bust their tail, that's it. It's not about, 'we'll go into the offseason with a good note.' Nobody knows what you did on January 7th in April when you come back. But, you want to see it all come together. Just put four quarters together, win a game."
Vrabel's emotional response came when a reporter asked him about earlier quote – "We need to win for a lot of reasons" – concerning Sunday's game.
The Titans are 5-11 heading to the finale.
"Every game is a big game," Vrabel said earlier in the presser. "I just want us to finish strong, to do everything we possibly can to finish the year off the best that we can. That's what the focus is."
During Tuesday's presser, Vrabel was asked to evaluate the rookie season for quarterback Will Levis, who is questionable for Sunday because of his foot injury.
Vrabel was also asked if he's given much thought to the possibility that Sunday could be running back Derrick Henry's last game with the team.
Vrabel kept the focus on the present – and the importance of winning.
"With all due respect to our season, and to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the reflection and the improvement hasn't been there for any of us, not enough if it. Whether that be me, the coaching staff, the players, we just have to continue to strive to improve and clean up the things we see that can affect whether we win or lose, so that's what we're going to try and do this week," Vrabel said.
"We are all disappointed and frustrated by how this went this year, but we're just trying to make sure this is as professional and classy as we finish, that we put the players in the best position to go out there and win, but there's also a lot of guys who are playing for personal accolades as well, and I am absolutely OK with that. We've always said that when you have enough guys that have personal success within what we are trying to do as a team, we are going to have plenty of team success. Those things have to co-exist, and I want them to one more week."
