Mike Vrabel: “We Just Didn’t Do Enough.” | Patriots Press Conference

Mike Vrabel: “We Just Didn’t Do Enough.” | Patriots Press Conference

You spoke to us about winning the second half and uh that didn’t quite happen. No, it sure didn’t. And again, that’s that’s um you know, it’s frustrating. You know, we have to um you know, understand how sometimes these games are going to go and, you know, we we just didn’t do enough in the second half. You know, give them credit and we certainly didn’t do enough. We were too many missed opportunities, too many penalties. um you know things you know the turnover and things that just you know again just didn’t take advantage of bad football and then we’re able to you know you know have bad football ourselves. So you know we have to we’re never going to accept winning. We have to embrace moving on and and we have to do that quickly and get these things fixed and go on the road uh in a division opponent. Mike, I guess how surprised were you by that second half and and what do you learn from it that you can take it to? I’m not I’m not surprised. I’m not I’m not surprised by anything. I’m surprised that um you know, I just want to see, you know, now we’ll see where we’re at. We’ll see what kind of football team we have, what kind of leaders we have to to be able to come back in here and get to work. And uh you know, I think that that’ll be the the true test. And we always talk about culture and everything else. And we we’ll we’ll see where we’re at as a culture and as a team. And if we have guys that want to want to work and stick together, it’ll be a big challenge to to do that. How would you assess Will Campbell’s performance in his NFL debut? You know, I think that that’s tough right now, Nicole. I apologize. I got to look at the tape. I I just, you know, again, there was I’m sure there’s going to be some good plays, some plays we’d like to have have back that he would like to have back. I think that would go for for pretty much everybody. And I think that there was some some good football, just certainly not not consistent enough in all three phases. And um that’s kind of what it looked like uh for me. and I’ll try to give you a little better answer after looking at the tape. Mike, I know it’s hard to match with them given Genty and Bowowers, but they seem to be running pretty well when you guys went three corner and then obviously throw on you a little bit late when they went when you went base. Any any can you just talk about the thought process? Well, just trying to mix it up. they really, you know, we didn’t think that that the, you know, the run game um had hurt us and then they, you know, we they picked us a couple times and, you know, they they hit a couple long ones and they hit some X plays, which we talked about that being a key. So, um, you know, we we’ll get back together and I thought we settled down really well defensively. I thought the first drive was, you know, not our best and then I thought we settled down. I thought they played well. I thought they played hard. we just, you know, weren’t able to to to make enough there um in the end. And again, I I made a decision, you know, on fourth and 10 with, you know, close to five minutes to to punt and would like a better punt and we had them had them stopped and that was the plan and that that didn’t work. And then they hit one and, you know, we just didn’t have enough time there at the end to uh to do anything. That was the decision, you know, that I thought was was best for us at the time and that, you know, didn’t didn’t work out. But situationally, we’ll have to continue to improve. You know, we we moved the ball, we made the kick, we tried the onside. So, again, it’s just you can’t you can’t get down two scores late in the game. Uh over here, Mike, um after after Andy’s kick in the first half, um the team went nearly two quarters without getting the scoreboard scoreboard again. Did the Raiders do anything different on defense and you know what? I mean they mixed in some pressure and you know a little bit of you know a little bit of mixed coverage and you know but again give them credit and uh you know we’ll have to come back and we’ll have to be better and more balanced and be able to run the football without you know making it first and 20. We overcame some of those, but you know, just too difficult. And um you know, but again, it’s a start, not the one that we wanted. And uh we got a long way to go and we’re going to be resolved to to get it fixed and the people that are here are going to be committed uh to getting it fixed together. Coach, uh you mentioned the Exp Raiders offense. I was wondering what from your perspective led to some of those plays and things you can improve moving forward. Well, man, just knowing, you know, understanding the coverage, understanding, you know, eyes, and, you know, we I think it all goes into the sometimes the call and they they had a good call for what we had on or, you know, a guy made a play, you know, kind of, you know, when you look at X plays in general, it’s offensively, you scheme them up about 35% of the time and about 65% of the time somebody makes a play. And so I would say that the same would go um defensively. You know that sometimes we’re not in the best call and they scheme us up and then other times somebody makes a play and just like we were able to get our hand on a football, they go 13 personnel and you know we were pretty adamant that they were going to throw and they tried to hit 89, we tipped it and and we made a play. But we just have to have more of those and we have to you know create some more turnovers. question. Hey, Mike. Uh, I don’t know if this falls in the same category as Nicole’s question, but how would you assess Drake’s performance? Looked like there were some struggles under pressure in this game. Uh, again, without looking at the tape, I thought there were some some good positive plays and really good command of what we were doing. Uh, and then there were times where, you know, maybe we or he missed somebody and, you know, we’ll have to see. And you know, it’s um it’s it’s challenge playing quarterback in this league. And we we got to help them out. We we have to be more balanced. We have to use our our run actions and be able to run the football. It’s it’s hard to turn it into a drop back passing uh game in this league. I mean, that that’s just the facts. And then they’re you up two scores and they’re in their third down package. And that’s you that we just don’t want to ever live in that world. So, um we all can be better. And whether that’s that’s me and the coaching staff and and Drake and Will and everybody that you asked about, like that’s that’s the the attitude that we’re going to take. That’s the belief that we’re going to take. We’re disappointed, but we can’t sit there and uh and and and hold on to it too long. We we got to go on the road and we got to play a division opponent and we got to embrace moving on and and I think that’s that’s what we’re going to try to do. So, thank you.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel addresses the media on Sunday, September 7, 2025.

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