Mike Vrabel opens up about infamous loophole play against Patriots

Former Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel talked about an infamous loophole he used when his team faced the New England Patriots back in the 2019 AFC Divisional Round.

The Titans defeated the Patriots by a 20-13 margin and sent New England home packing in Tom Brady’s last game as a member of the organization.

Vrabel took advantage of a loophole in the NFL rulebook that allowed his team to run one minute and 49 seconds off the clock. The best part of this loophole was that they did not run a single play. This occurred with six minutes and 33 seconds left in the game, and the Titans managed to get the clock down to 4:44.

This infuriated former Patriots coach Bill Belichick, despite the tactic being perfectly legal. Vrabel opened up about the sequence during an appearance on Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take.”

“Outside of five minutes, any defensive penalty they would just wind the clock,” said Vrabel. “They would just take the yardage off and then put 25 seconds back and start the clock. So, you could take it down, you could false start or you could delay a game, then you could false start, then you could delay a game again. Eventually because, if you’re punting from the 36-yard line or 35-yard line, you don’t want to attempt a long kick in the weather.

“…The yardage really didn’t matter. It was about taking the time off and trying to give Tom Brady less opportunities, or if we get a stop, then they would have less time. We ended up stopping them, and they had eight seconds.”

This was a classic case of Vrabel beating Belichick at his own game. Belichick always found ways to exploit loopholes, and this time, it was Vrabel who managed to get the last laugh.

Tennessee managed to advance to the AFC Championship Game that year, where they were defeated by the Kansas City Chiefs.