Should Tennessee Titans rest starters vs Dallas Cowboys or look for way to win? It matters.
The Tennessee Titans' next game matters as much as coach Mike Vrabel wants it to.
After losing 19-14 to the Houston Texans on Saturday, the playoff hopes of the Titans (7-8) rest in an interesting position. The Titans are tied with the Jacksonville Jaguars atop the AFC South with a head-to-head matchup coming in Week 18. The Jaguars play the Texans next week and the Titans host the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night, but those games don't affect the Titans' playoff hopes. No matter what happens in Week 17, a Titans win in Week 18 means a playoff berth and a Titans loss means the end of the season.
The Titans are in this position because they've lost five in a row. And while a sixth-straight loss won't necessarily make things worse, a win heading into the pivotal game could help change the team's mentality. Of course, resting players who are dinged up to try to get healthy for the Jaguars game could also help swing things in the Titans' favor.
This is the conundrum Vrabel is facing.
"We’ve got some guys that have played a lot of football for us that are far less than 100%," Vrabel said. "It’s those guys that I appreciate that no matter what find a way to be here for this team. We’ll try to figure out who we have and who’s available and then make some decisions."
There's no easy answer. Think of this two ways:
The Titans need to get healthy. Their injury report two days before playing the Texans had 18 players on it. Five have since landed on injured reserve and can't return for Week 18, but that leaves 13 players who can heal by then. When everyone from quarterback Ryan Tannehill to cornerback Kristian Fulton is banged up and the team has more injured offensive linemen than healthy ones, giving players a break before a win-or-go-home game isn't the worst idea.
The Titans need to rediscover their winning ways. After starting 7-3, they've lost five straight. Injuries or not, the Titans started 5-2 in one-score games then lost back-to-back close ones. Turnovers are up, takeaways are down, penalties aren't going away. Mistakes need to be addressed and those won't be fixed by letting them fester.
Ideas like "learning to win" are tough to talk about. It's not a skill like learning multiplication tables or how to ride a bike where you know it or you don't. Sometimes players and teams that know how to win fall out of rhythm, as the Titans have. But it's also not like wiping a hard drive clean on a computer where when it's deleted it's gone forever.
It's a skill ingrained through repetition and fortified with small actions that build confidence incrementally. It's complicated and it's unquantifiable and there's no way to prove if you've learned it or if you've lost it.
That's why it's so important in the eyes of players like Titans safety Kevin Byard.
"We’ve got to find a way to win," Byard said. "Win. By any means necessary. Win every single day. Win on the off day. Win in the building. Win every single day. Just be winners, that’s what it’s all about."
Of course, healthy teams win more. Heading into Week 16, the Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings and Buffalo Bills all had players miss fewer than 150 cumulative games due to injury, making them among the healthiest teams in the NFL. They're also the four teams with the best chances of getting first-round byes in the postseason.
The Titans have lost more cumulative games to injury than any team in football. Players like receiver Treylon Burks and Fulton have dealt with multiple small injuries and players like Tannehill or defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons have repeatedly played through injuries instead of missing games when rest could've helped recovery.
For players like that, a week of rest could mean the difference between playing at 80% strength and 90% strength. It's hard to say just how important that extra 10% capacity is, but it's a consideration the team has to make.
Not that Byard wants to think that way.
"Every game counts," Byard said. "I’m a pro. I’m not going to go out there and play on Thursday night like it don’t matter. I’m going to bust my behind for this team every play like I always do every game and I think everybody should treat it that way."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Should Tennessee Titans rest starters vs Dallas Cowboys in Week 17?
