Mike Vrabel passionately shares why eliminated Titans keep fighting

Head coach Mike Vrabel spoke with reporters Tuesday and passionately explained why the 5-11 Tennessee Titans want to do more than just play the role of spoiler during Sunday's regular-season finale versus the 9-7 Jacksonville Jaguars. 

"It sucks to lose," Vrabel directly said, as shared by Nick Suss of the Nashville Tennessean. "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, 'Hey, we’ll go into the offseason with a good note.' Nobody knows what you did on Jan. 7 or (Jan.) 8 or (Jan.) 6 in April when you come back. But you want to see just it all come together and just put four quarters together." 

Conflicting reports emerged in December regarding whether Titans general manager Ran Carthon could move on from Vrabel as soon as this Monday. Vrabel has gone 53-45 as Tennessee's head coach, but the Titans are about to miss the playoffs for a second consecutive year. 

According to NFL insider Michael Lombardi, Vrabel has two more years remaining on his contract. 

"We just (haven't) done that in the opportunities that we had that were like 'OK, we fought and we were close,'" Vrabel said about the Titans producing what he would consider a complete performance against Jacksonville. "I think that’s why (I want to win). You just put yourself in a competitive situation. Come up with a way to make a play in the second half to win the game. That’s what I hope for."

Per John Shipley of FanNation's Jaguar Report, Jacksonville can clinch the AFC South division title (via tiebreaker advantage, if needed) with a win over Tennessee. The Titans theoretically have nothing to play for at Nissan Stadium, but Vrabel clearly won't be thinking about draft positioning when he leads his players onto the field this Sunday.