Titans take a big gamble ahead of game vs. Ravens
NASHVILLE — With the Tennessee Titans set to take on the Baltimore Ravens in London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next weekend, Tennessee is taking a big gamble with it's travel schedule. The Titans will not make the flight to London until Thursday evening. They will then hold practice on Friday and play at 2:30 p.m. local […]
NASHVILLE — With the Tennessee Titans set to take on the Baltimore Ravens in London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next weekend, Tennessee is taking a big gamble with it's travel schedule.
The Titans will not make the flight to London until Thursday evening. They will then hold practice on Friday and play at 2:30 p.m. local time (8:30 a.m. CST) Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Ravens took the opposite approach and made the trip early . Baltimore flew to London on Monday with plans to conduct a full week of practices across the pond.
Why is this considered a risk for the Titans? Because it's not uncommon for teams to be effected by the time change and come out looking flat when playing international games.
Look no further than the Buffalo Bills this past Sunday, who looked "lackadaisical" in the first half in a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Buffalo's performance left many wondering if the team botched their travel plans by arriving so late in the week.
The Jaguars had played in London the week before and had the advantage of staying in London for the entire week. Jacksonville did not have to tackle a time change, and they looked more vibrant in the first half.
Titans head coach Mike Vrabel was asked by the media on Monday about his decision to hold practices in Nashville and fly on Thursday evening.
"Our experience, I think, the last time that we went over was get a lot of work in here, have everything that we need here at the facility, work ahead, make Tuesday a Wednesday, Wednesday a Thursday, Friday so on and so forth," said Vrabel. "Then get over there, get adjusted, have a Friday practice, clean up a lot of the stuff that we did and then have our normal preparation for the game. I've talked to a lot of people that have done it both ways and that's how we did it the last time. Felt like we were ready to go and just didn't end the way that we wanted to."
The last time the Titans played in London was against the Los Angeles Chargers on October 21st, 2018. Tennessee lost the game 21-20 after a failed two-point conversion.
According to Vrabel, the Titans have encouraged players to monitor sleep schedules and hydration ahead of the trip.
"You can dial back a little bit on the sleep and make sure that we're hydrated and limited on the caffeine and all those things that are going to be critical when we go and travel," Vrabel said. "Hopefully we can start to try to get a little bit of extra sleep or make sure that we're going to bed a little bit earlier."
After watching how the Bills performed on Sunday, I'd probably fall into the camp of preferring Tennessee make the trip early. Getting adjusted to the time change earlier in the week and eliminating any chance of getting jet lag close to game day feels like a smart plan.
But as we all know, the Mike Vrabel Titans can sometimes be set in their ways. They value comfort and familiarity. Tennessee did things a certain way in 2018 and they're going right back to what they know.
Only time will tell if that gamble pays off. The Titans (2-3) desperately need a win heading into the bye week.
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