Pain Can't Keep Brown from Making Big Plays
In the National Football League, winning comes down to the best players on the field making winning plays.
So, with 18 seconds remaining and the score tied Sunday at Houston, Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel told quarterback Ryan Tannehill, “Hey, at the end of the day, just maybe launch one up to A.J. [Brown]”
Fifty-two yards later, Brown had hauled in an over-the-shoulder catch with a defender on his tail.
According to the sports analytics website EDJSports, the reception was the fourth most impactful play of Week 17. In that moment the Titans’ chances of victory improved by 31.5 percent. Not long after, they actually did win it, 41-38, when Sam Sloman banked a field goal off the right upright as time expired.
“I didn’t really see the ball, and it kind of surprised me,” Brown said. “When I saw the ball, I was like, ‘Make sure you get to this ball.’ If I had to lay out, I was going to. (Tannehill) threw a great ball, he dropped it in the bucket. He threw it early and gave me a chance to run under it.”
Brown has done whatever was needed of him all season, not just on Sunday
That includes playing hurt. A knee injury caused him to sit out two games early in the season. Since then, he consistently has missed practice time because of that and, more recently, an ankle issue.
The Titans’ first offensive play Sunday was a 21-yard reception by Brown, who stayed on the turf after the play and required attention from the team’s medical staff. Minutes later, he was back on the field.
It was a scene similar to ones that played out in a number of other games recently.
“He's either really tough or he just likes us all to go out there and pick him up off the ground and dust him off and send him back in there,” Vrabel said. “I haven't figured out which one it is.”
From that point, as he had done previously, Brown made plays. He finished with 10 receptions (11 targets) for 151 yards and a four-yard touchdown. That gave him 1,075 yards and 11 touchdowns for the season. It was his second straight with at least 1,000 yards. and tied him with Drew Bennett (2004) for the most touchdown receptions in a season during the Titans era (1999-present).
Additionally, Brown became the ninth player in league history to register at least 2,000 receiving yards and 18 touchdowns in his first two seasons. A few of the others to do that: Jerry Rice, Larry Fitzgerald and Randy Moss.
Six of his catches against the Texans earned the Titans a new set of downs. Four of those came on third downs, including a handful in the fourth quarter, when the game hung in the balance.
“A.J. came up big for us all day,” Tannehill said. “Never lost faith in what he can do. He has consistently shown he can make plays for us and get himself open. Third down I threw a little bit behind him late in the game and he was able to go get it through contact.”
And for the Titans to have another deep postseason run, the Titans will need Brown to stay hot. At this time of the season, Brown’s whatever-it-takes-to-win mindset certainly won’t hurt.
“My mindset [is to] find a way when there is no way,” Brown said. “Find a way to win. That’s what I tell myself. If I get banged up, I am going to go back out there.
“I will hurt when it’s over. I will figure out what I am going to do when it’s all said and done. But while I am out there, I might as well get a reward from it.”
And this season, Brown has awarded the Titans with many winning plays. None were bigger than the several he made on Sunday.
