 I want to see speed everybody fly around to the ball. That's what I need him to say. The mugs move fast. Rocklesburg is back. Jones and move it. Can of help being pushed. Cut that print this week. We're in the bet MGM studio here at Nissan Stadium, and that's because it's a short week. The Titans played the San Francisco 40 Niners right here Thursday night, roughly 48 hours away, 720 kickoff. We look forward to having you join us for this big matchup with the eight and 640 Niners for Thursday night football. Because it's a short week, Mike Vrable preparing the team. So General Manager John Robinson has been kind enough to sit in with us. John, thanks so much for joining us on the Mike Vrable show tonight on what is an unusually busy week? Yeah, these short weeks are always tough, Mike. And our coaches are busy preparing a game plan. It's a new opponent. We hadn't played these guys in a while. So they're in the film rooms. They're in the meeting rooms. Coming up with a game plan helps win. I guess the good fortune in this is unfamiliar opponent, short week, but you are at home. We are at home. That's good. It's always good to be back in Nissan, be around our fans, make the opposing team travel. It's a long trip for those guys. So we've got to use that to our advantage. Let's take a look at the six pack from Sunday's game at Pittsburgh. Some good plays in all areas for the Titans. We begin with the longest punt return of the year, Chester Rogers. Yeah, great job by Chester here, fielding it and getting north and south. He gets upfield, lets the block set up, does a good job of protecting the football. He beat the punter there, cuts back across, continues to get upfields. Secured the football, which was really important and really put us in advantageous field position for the offense. Titans actually began that drive at the Pittsburgh 25-yard line and were able to move it down and get a touchdown on a one-yard sneak from Ryan Tannehill. Here's the play that set it up, a third down completion from Tannehill to Jeremy McNichols. Yeah, nice job by Quisenberry there, running the defensive in past the launch point for Ryan. Good job by Ryan, avoiding stepping up in the pocket, getting it down to Jeremy. Heck of an effort by Cody Hollister, coming over there, throwing a block, trying to spring an extra yard or two, really big play for us to get it down there inside the five. McNichols finishing the game with 51 total yards. Still first quarter, defense gets into the act. Rookie, Naquan Jones with a quarterback sack. Yeah, nice job by Naquan there. Getting some penetration. We talk about pad level, playing low, getting on the edges of these interior players, these guards when you're rushing. Really good job by him by keeping his pads down, getting on the edge of the guard, getting into the pocket for the sack. Naquan Jones on the year now with two and a half sacks. Moving forward, we see an effort here from Deontay Foreman. He rushed for 108 yards. He also had two catches for 27. This one went for 18. Yeah, really good job there of Ryan surveying the defense. They kind of opened the umbrella there on the coverage and left Deontay opening the flat. Nice job looking the ball in, catching it getting north and south, finishing the run. I like how he finished the run there and tried to run through the defender and get a couple extra yards. Big play for us to keep the ball moving. He's an underrated receiver, isn't he, John? Yeah, he catches the ball really well. He does a really nice job at practice. Mike looks the ball into his hands. He rarely has drops in practice and he's a dependable target that Ryan draws. Tennessee Titans thrilled to have Bud do pre-back. Ben Rothlesberger not so thrilled to see him again on this play. Yeah, really good, really good get off by Bud there. Getting upfield and they tried to pull the guard around there to protect him. We're gonna move the pocket a little bit but Bud got there before the guard could get there on him. Great job with his pad level, great acceleration. Nice job, you know, plowing through Najae trying to pick him up there in the blitz pickup and a good job of hanging on. You know, Ben Rothlesberger, he's a big guy. He's hard to tackle and Bud certainly knows that having played in Pittsburgh so a good job of him getting him on the ground. Pittsburgh gained only 35 yards on the ground. The reason, efforts like this one for the Titans defense, rookie Elijah Molden with the finish. Yeah, Najae's a big back. I mean, he's having an outstanding season but I thought our defense, you know, they really worked it squirming to the football. You know, we talk about, you know, setting an edge, building a wall up front and then, and then storming to the football. I think that's a great play right there. You know, showcasing the defense's mind, the defensive mindset of trying to get as many hats to the football as possible to get in on a tackle. More John Robinson, when the Mike Vrabel show continues as we preview San Francisco, our first look at the Niners next. After eight games, many people had written the San Francisco 49ers off. They were three and five. But as they hit town for Thursday night's game, they're now eight and six. They've won five of their last six games and their offense has kicked it into gear. John Robinson sitting in for Mike Vrabel tonight. Talk to me about quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and what he's been doing over the last few weeks for the Niners. Yeah, he's really playing good football, Mike. I mean, he's distributing the football. They've got a lot of playmakers over there on offense. The run game that they have, they lean heavily on that run game. There's a lot of motions, a lot of shifts that they do to try to keep defenses off balance, create space for their targets. And he's been good. He's thrown 18 touchdowns. He's done a really good job of taking care of football. He's got a high completion rate. I think he's over 67%. And he's still, I mean, he's a mobile player. He can get out of trouble and put himself in a good position to get the ball downfield. And you touched on it a little bit. He has a lot of weapons. Have the Titans had a chance to see an offense this year that features more weapons than what the 49ers will bring to town? Yeah, I don't know, Mike. They've got a lot of them. You know, they've got a good stable of running backs there. Juice check, the fullback is, he's probably one of the top fullbacks in the league. And Wilson's running well for him. Mitchell may be back who was off to a great start as a rookie. Iukes making plays for him at receiver and at punt returner. I mean, the two big, you know, big timers there are George Kittle, certainly a tight end, probably the best tight end in the national football league. And Debo Sam, but this guy's electric with the football in his hands, you know, played over South Carolina. They play him at running backs some. He plays slot, he plays outside. Just really dangerous football player with the ball in his hands. Their defense, big attacking front. Nick Bosa is the leading story because he has 15 quarterback sacks on the year. But this defense is a lot more than just Nick Bosa, right? It is. I mean, it's a stout front seven, Mike. You know, you touched on Nick and what he's done there. And he's got a lot of tricks as a pass rusher. He's got outstanding getoff. He can rush with power. Armstead's a long disruptive player on the inside. DJ Jones is plugged in at nose form when Ken Lowe went down. It becomes a speed rusher off the outside that's really disruptive. Fred Warner, I think he's got three fumble recovery. So he's around the football a lot. Both safeties are really involved. Tart, you know, he's got an outstanding skill set. And Josh Norman, they picked him up to veteran corner. I think he's called seven fumbles. We got to be aware of that when we catch a ball on the outside. But it's an attacking style defense. There's a lot of playmakers on that side of the football. What should we expect from Richard Hightower's San Francisco special teams unit? Well, they're fast and they're aggressive. You know, they've got Gould at kicker. It seems like he's been kicking for 100 years. He's one of the better kickers that would put a foot on the ball. But they're aggressive on the cover units. Like I said, he's the primary punt returner. Haste, he's a kickoff returner. He's a compact back out of Baylor. Fast explosive. He also covers kicks. Their linebackers are involved in the cover units down there. Pretty good. Warner, a tight end who played at Georgia. He's in there on a lot of the coverage plays. So it's an aggressive special teams unit. Overall, we take a look in our next segment at how the Titans win this football game with our Nissan Keys. John Robinson, our special guest tonight on the Mike Brable Show. Stay with us. Tennessee, San Francisco Thursday night at Nissan Stadium. How do the Titans win this football game and get to 10 and 5 overall? Well, John Robinson is going to give us the Nissan Keys to victory. Number one, stop the run. Yeah, I mean, that's going to be a key point for us. Mike, we touched on it a little bit earlier about how they like to run the football. They build their play action pass game off running the football. They do it from a lot of different formations. A lot of different people are involved in the run game, whether it's the receiver, Samuel, use check, Wilson, Mitchell, the running bat. Every how they build it, there's a ton of motions and shifts. So we've got to do a really good job of shutting down the run game. Key number two in our Nissan Keys, take care of the football. That seems pretty obvious, but it's vitally important. Yeah, pretty self-explanatory there, Mike. You don't take care of the football in this league. It's just it's hard to win football games. And unfortunately, we've come up on the short end of that a couple of times this year. And we've got to get back to playing stylistically the way that we know how to play. And that's at the front of that, is taking care of the football when we've got it offensively. Nissan key number three is about field position and utilizing the return game to take advantage of good field position. Yeah, absolutely. It's certainly paid a dividend for us in the Pittsburgh game. When you can get a return like that, it really sparked the offense and conversely limiting the return game for the other opponent. They got two pretty good returners and Aiyuk and Hasty back there that can really go. And we've got to do a good job of maximizing that phase of the game and creating those extra yards offensively for our offense and putting our defense in an advantageous position as well by limiting what they do. Those are our Nissan keys to beating San Francisco on Thursday night at Nissan Stadium. Now we shift to Mike Vrabel's favorite part of the show. It's Delta dentals. Can you guess this Titan? John Robinson pinch hitting for the head coach tonight. He gets the opportunity to continue what has been a very good hot streak when you have guessed it on this show. I don't want to say you're better than the head coach but your record is. So let's take a look and see if John Robinson can guess this Titan. As we go to break, do you have an idea? Don't say yet. You got a clue? Feel good about it? Maybe, small one, small one, Mike. More coming up on the Mike Vrabel show from the Bed MGM studio at Nissan Stadium. Stay tuned. Short week and so Mike Vrabel is not with us. General manager John Robinson pinch hitting. Mike Vrabel's biggest regret is that he is not here to play Delta dentals. Can you guess this Titan? John Robinson, I'm turning to you and I'm asking, can you guess this Tennessee Titan based on that fantastic smile? Yeah, absolutely. I don't know if it was the mustache or the slight Michael Strahan gap he's got there, but it's a money hooker. I mean, I could guess that one 100 times out of 100. Oh, a money hooker. Number 37, parrot at safety with Kevin Byard. He is a guy that continues to show up. Thought he had a takeaway on Sunday with a big hit. Nearly had an interception in the game against Jacksonville. Hooker is this close to make it some big things happen, John. He is. I mean, he's a guy that comes to work every day and works on the details. He's intelligent. He's a good teammate. Joyce playing. He plays hard. You touched on it. He had a great hammer in the Pittsburgh game. Ball came out. We just happened to have a penalty on it that negated the fumble recovery. He's around the football. He's smart. He's got good range. He's a good tackler. He's an important part of our football team. He also claims that he is the best basketball player on the Titans roster. As a man who evaluates talent and knows all the facts and figures, is that a boast, or do you buy that? Well, I mean, I would say probably, Mike, if you were to poll every single player, 85% of them are going to say that they're the best basketball. They're the best, yeah. I mean, that's the way they're wired. And they're all as good as they should be playing on the Lakers or the Bulls or somebody like that, if they weren't playing pro football. But he's a good athlete. I would certainly probably put him up there. I don't know if he can shoot or not, but it seems to be the name of the game in basketball. Well, we're glad Amati Hooker's here playing well for the Titans. And they need to see him have a big, big game on Thursday night against these talented 49ers specialists who can make things happen. John, thanks for joining us on the show tonight. Absolutely. Thank you, Mike. When we come back, Amy Wells and a very special Titan smile, it's the big guy. And I'm not talking about Santa Claus. Stay tuned. When things are going well for the Tennessee Titans, Mike Vrable is very good. He may be even better when things aren't going so well. And that's the reason that bad times don't seem to last long around this franchise. Mike Vrable is about more than just X's and O's and calling plays. He's about people. He gains their trust. He gains their respect. And because of that, they give him all that they have. Since he's not here, we're going to brag on him a little bit. Amy Wells with the Titans Files, about the namesake of this show, Mike Vrable. If you're with John, just don't take the cheese, right? If all comes out, then let's all get some death. When Mike Vrable set out to tackle his fourth season as head coach of the Tennessee Titans, he had no idea what was in store. Sure, he knew there would be some protocol changes due to COVID-19's continued presence. Yes, he was aware the Titans were facing the 13th most difficult schedule in the National Football League. But one thing that he did not anticipate that no head coach can anticipate is injuries. Injuries happen. There's nothing we can do about it. You know, if there was a way to stop injuries, every single team in the NFL would do it. How many we've had this year is just a super, you know, super unfortunate. But Vrable, every single week, harps on the team keys, puts guys in there. Our coaches do a great job of, you know, if we have our whole starting offensive line, putting more in the offensive line, we have our whole receive record, putting more in them and plugging and playing guys and teaching them the game plan to where they know what's going on and they can go play fast and aggressive. I think Vrable and this whole entire coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for that. The Titans have persevered throughout the season and overcome adversity time and time again, no matter the opponent, no matter the obstacle, the Titans are always ready for the challenge. Why is that? Well, ask anyone at St. Thomas Sports Park and they'll tell you it's because Mike Vrable always has a plan. Incredible leadership and consistency. He paints a great picture for us of what it's gonna take to win games and then holds us to that standard, you know, and that's all you could ever ask for out of a head coach is tell me what you need for me to help this team win and then hold me accountable to doing it. And he certainly does those things. We gotta win, we gotta get some pressure. Does a great job of giving us a game plan and explaining, you know, throughout the week, you know, what they're asking for us to do, depending on position, and he does a great job of giving us tips and stuff, you know, keys and stuff that can help us be productive. And then just overall, the atmosphere in the room has been great with him leading the way. Putting together a winning game plan is a crucial part of the head coaching job, but to be a great head coach, that takes a little bit more than just X's nose. The ability to establish relationships, to earn trust, to develop a brotherhood, that is a rare skill set that separates the good coaches, really the good teams from the great ones. I think the biggest thing that I see is, I mean, he cares about the guys. Like he truly is genuinely caring about each individual player on this team, whatever their role might be, whatever situation they're going through. And I think when you care about guys, that's when you start to earn their trust and their respect. And ultimately they're willing to do whatever for you, right? If I know somebody's got my back, regardless of what it's going on, like I'm gonna do everything I can to make them right and be there for him and do what he's asking me to do. Honestly, I just think that, you know, the brotherhood that he creates, as obviously being a former player, he just has a different level of understanding how things look and how things should work. Not only just that, but also he does a great job of every single week preparing us for every single team. Cause I mean, obviously we have our team keys, effort and finish, all that good stuff, but just be able to break every team down and make us confident going to the game to head. We just accomplished these things, we'll win the game. But he has a lot of great qualities, honestly. But I think the brotherhood, the fact that he played 14 years, it's so easy to buy into what he's saying because if he's done it, and I want to play a long time, I'm going to do exactly what he tells me to do. I appreciate Coach Berry just for everything. I know this is a business and sometimes you don't want to get emotionally attached or tired with someone, you know, cause it's a business side of it. But man, I appreciate him so much. And people like that, I think no matter how this business may go, I think forever I'll be a friend of his and he'll be a friend of mine. But I appreciate him so much for just opening this door, just listening, trying to help me. It doesn't go unnoticed with me. So he's definitely family in my book. You see why there's no way we could run that when he's sitting right here, but it's true. That's why he's already won 40 games and only his fourth year as the Titans head coach. He's looking for 41 in 48 hours, the Titans and the 49ers, 720. Thursday night at Nissan Stadium. Join us on 104.5, the zone at six for Titans Countdown with Amy Wells and Brett Bryan. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time. It's the little things that make a difference like taking time to connect with family, helping the new team member feel welcome. And looking out for others. This season there's something small that makes a big difference. Flu vaccines protect the ones we love. Make a difference. Get your flu vaccine today. Learn more at tn.gov slash health slash fight flu.