Mike Vrabel’s Takeaways and Points of Improvement From Raiders Game | Patriots WEEI

Mike Vrabel’s Takeaways and Points of Improvement From Raiders Game | Patriots WEEI

Good morning, coach. Good morning. Uh, not the way you drew it up as they uh as they say yesterday. No, no, no. But, uh, I mean, obviously we’re we’re going to have to get some things fixed and we’ll have to uh, you know, start to look at um, just being able to take advantage of the opportunities when they’re there. And we talked about some keys and I don’t know that we all really executed them on all three levels, but there was some good and there’s some bad and there’s always the stuff that gets you beat top to bottom. So coaching, yeah, I mean that’s always what it’s going to be and we just have to do a better job of understanding, you know, about winning the second half in some of these games that are close and just getting off to a better start. You know, defensively we settled down. We had three three and outs and we only came away with three points. So that is not very complimentary football and it’s disappointing if you’re able to do that. You know, we have to be able to put some more points on the board. Um, and then obviously the X plays that we gave up defense and some of the penalties and and things that that cost us on specialties, but we hit a good kickoff return that that gave us good field position that got us going on and things that we could build on throughout the throughout the the game. Mike, you say coaching better. Take us into the mindset a little bit. It’s third and 20 and you seem like you’re a little bit aggressive there which leads to a long play. I know Davis bites on the slant and go. Why not play coverage in that situation? Well, just still trying to be aggressive and and trying to uh you know force a mistake and and probably have to play off and again just catch and tackle and rally. Uh but we feel like being aggressive right there is what what allowed us to get into third and 20 and um you know just situationally being able to you know get a get the guys off everybody looking at the football and then we know what it’s going to be and it’s going to be have to be a catch tackle and uh but with just trying to make a play and trying to be aggressive in that situation. When it comes to Drake May last season he had an issue with trying to force plays to make something happen. Did you see any issues with that yesterday? Did that lead to any of the times where he threw the ball away or or maybe put them in a tough position? The interception, of course. Well, yeah. I thought he was, you know, bumped a little bit. You know, we we’ve got to get get into these routes um and get spacing and then obviously if the quarterback gets hit, bad things happen, right? Turnovers happen or or they get hurt eventually. And that’s kind of what I’ve always said with quarterback gets hit. So, um I I thought he had some some really good decisions. I thought he was accurate at times. Uh and then I thought there was some misses and that’s how it goes. I thought we protected for the most part um fairly well. It was never perfect, never will be, but I thought there were some clean pockets and you know against um a few really good pass rushers. Pull just pull this a little closer. Sorry, you’re cutting in and out here and there and everybody wants to hear every word you say. Um, but he threw the ball 46 times. Is that ideal? No, no, no, no, no, no. That’s, you know, I mean, I think that the way that the game went and where we had to be in the down two possessions, we have to be much more balanced. We, you know, we have to run the football better, more consistently so that some of these play pass opportunities show up. Uh, I thought you saw some some good examples of that, whether that was some movement plays by Drake down down in the red zone, uh, that, you know, just a flip to hoop and he’s able to gain 10 yards and there’s some of those examples, but just, you know, being able to run it more consistently will will help us with some of those plays. Uh, what did you think of Will Campbell, his first regular season? Yeah, I thought there were there was uh I thought it was steady. I thought there were some good plays. that, you know, I don’t think there were any, you know, the couple movement times in a run game, him and Jared might have got disjointed, but I thought that they, you know, played okay on the left side. I think it was a good place to start for two rookies. Uh, you know, playing their first game on the left side of the line. I didn’t think it was penalty costly when you’re you have that forward. Yeah. I mean, again, taking that out, you know, I’m talking about the course of the game. Yeah. The mistake in in, you know, critical situational football. Yes, but I’m just looking at the overall body of work that it didn’t look like they were overwhelmed with a 21 and a 22 year old on the left side of the line. Penalties. You happy with I mean with any No, I mean we had a couple on special teams. Uh we had um you know defensively there there were a few um yeah it was less than ideal I think with with penalties. We had a couple you know the ones on the kickoff return and the punt return are are real costly. They they chew up so much yardage and take you back. Can’t start drives on the 12 yardd line and, you know, expect to to go 90 yards every single time. Drake’s performance yesterday was not up to the standard I think that fans and media had expected from him. It feels from my perspective that the organization’s gone out of its way to make Drake comfortable as opposed to try and get the most out of him. whether you think four four series in the preseason, he’s they you trade the guy that was backing him up last year. Do you think Drake is being pushed enough to be great? And do you think that that does does losing does the culture of this organization and the losing they’ve been a part of the last several years? Does that impact a young guy like Drake May trying to take over? I I really that was a long qu just can you shorten it down for me because I I promise you I I’m trying to get the best out of every player but that was just a lot there for me to unpack. Are you concerned at all about how important it is for Drake May to win? Do you think it’s the most important thing for him? God, I hope so. I mean we again I’m going to I hope winning is important for everybody. Um and I and I want the best from everybody. I want a competitive spirit and if I don’t see that, you know, then we’ll have to make decisions and and and changes at every level. Um I I I don’t see that. I think that he wants to be at times uh perfect and I and I need to get past that. We we all have to get past that. You need to be precise and not perfect. And if you make a mistake, it it’s the reaction that you have to the mistake that everybody sees and then they’re like, “Oh, wow. That was a that was a mistake. we we have to we have to clean our reactions up, you know, our responses have to be much better and then getting into the throw because uh flow because you see really good timing and precision and accuracy and then we see some other misses. But um yeah, I I don’t ever concern myself with with that. I just want the better performance, more consistent and and continue to grow as a as a leader and and make sure that there is a command to what we’re doing that this is the situation. This is the play. Those are the things that I’m focused on. Mike, help me understand because I’m sitting here fourth and five inside five minutes. You guys decide to punt the football down by 10. When I’m thinking in that situation, you guys are clearly going to go for it. But obviously, we were going for it on fourth and five and then it goes to fourth and 10 and then now I think those numbers change drastically. Sorry, it was fourth and five. It never went to four fourth to 10. I excuse me, but it was fourth and five and you did punt. So it never went to fourth and 10. We false started and it went to fourth and 10. Oh, did it? Okay. I’m sorry about that. So we were on the ball going for it and that was the he alluded to right after the Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and again just trying to again you don’t want to be in those situations. You know there’s a percentage of the fourth and 10. There’s a percentage that you okay kick it and you don’t want to kick it 20 on yards and you and you don’t want to give up an X play and all that other stuff. So again, every whatever decision I’ve learned that whatever decision that we go with, the steps along the way have to be perfect when you’re down two scores. And that’s and you just and again, if if we go for it, we we still have to go and, you know, kick a field goal or score a touchdown and then get the ball back. And I was trying to just pin him back, be aggressive, uh get the ball back and and give us a chance to to do something. And that that clearly didn’t happen. There were some good plays. I thought we moved with some urgency to get down there. It was cool to see, you know, Andy make a kick and come back after he missed. So, a lot of good things and and we just have to, you know, we got to embrace moving on and and learning from this and and doing it quickly. This is this is a this league doesn’t doesn’t rest for you. It doesn’t wait around. You called it a game of missed opportunities. Is that what you expect with a young with with young guys in general? And how do you make sure that they’re able to move on from from a loss like that? Well, I don’t that’s not what I expect. I that’s I don’t I would want to be clear there. I don’t think anybody expects that. Um and we’ll see. I think just how we take the coaching and how we come in and the leadership that that we have. I I talked about that. We’ll we’ll start to see where that shakes out. And um you know, but I’m confident that these guys will come back and and again, the the young guys that we have to get. It was young guys, it was veterans, it was it’s going to be every every one of us and not just the the rookies or the secondyear players. Uh it’s everybody at all levels working together. And I think you can show them the examples of when it did look good and then the examples of, you know, hey, we’re just not we’re a little disjointed here. We’re not communicating or we gave up too many X plays and these were the keys that we had talked about uh coming into the game. Uh on Saturday night, Bill Bich addressed the story that scouts from the Patriots were not allowed onto the campus to scout the Tarheelss. He said that he’s not welcome here, so why would he allow Patriots employees onto his campus? Is Bill Bichc welcome here? And were you surprised that he didn’t allow the scouts onto campus to scout his players? Uh again, nothing surprises me. I would imagine that um that that Bill I mean he came back for uh to the best of my knowledge Tom’s ceremony. So that I would I guess he’s welcome back based on the fact that he was there. So um I’ll just go by that since his departure as the head coach here he’s been back and I’ll I’ll leave it at that. Has he maybe been out shopping or something at Patriot Place and and not allowed to not allowed to walk? Does I don’t know. Does his key card still work? Well, no. The when when you get fired, the key card does not work. I tried it. I went back I went back to Tennessee. It doesn’t It doesn’t work. They call that a manini. No, the fingerprint doesn’t work. The key card doesn’t work. No, that’s not how it happens. Chance you get Christian Gonzalez back this again. We’ll see. I He is working extremely hard. I know that, you know, we’ll get him in here on a on a Monday today and evaluate him and see where he goes. And you know, Christian is working hard and he wants to be back. I do know that. Um, oh, I got to always ask these uh questions every week. Temperament. Steph Diggs not not that involved yesterday. He he okay afterwards? Feel good about where he’s at? Yeah, I saw some energy from him. I saw some passion and you know, everybody just wants to win and I don’t think that he’s too caught up on on production. And I think that we want to win and that make the plays that we’re supposed to make and when the ball comes to you and finds you, uh, you know, we have to be be able to do something with it. That’s how this thing goes. Well, Mike, I would say one area where you guys really looked good was your ability to get after the quarterback. Um, talk a little bit about, you know, what that means, especially for your front seven, that when you can create pressure and make a quarterback uncomfortable uncomfortable, what that means for the team. Well, I mean, I think that the more times that you’re able to pressure the quarterback, just like we talked about with Drake or when getting hit, the more that you can hit a quarterback, you know, obviously that can lead to turnovers and hopefully, you know, that that’s the the quarterbacks accounted for 65% of all the fumbles last year in the National Football League. So, that’s the number one target to try to get the ball away from to be able to hit in the pocket or as he’s scrambling or whatever it may be. So, you know, that was a good good to see. We we need to if we pressure him, we need to be able to tip some passes. We need some pass rush PBUS and ball production is really what we’re looking for. And I’m glad that we were able to to hit him the times that we hit him and sack him, but but we got to take the next step to get the ball out. Real game action for Trayvon Henderson. How do you feel like he fared? Well, I think we got to give him some space. I think that um there were a few times where you know maybe he should have gone maybe one time on a screen he probably should have kept it outside instead of you know rush you know cutting it back inside but you know I thought Tayvon tried to play fast and you know we got to open up some holes on the on the kickoff return too. We got to use that as a weapon and and try to be better there. We were much better in preseason than we were yesterday. We had the good the one good one, but not not consistent enough and, you know, Tayvon’s, you know, going to keep working and he’ll be a big part of what we do. Max Crosby kind of hit Drake May uh barely hit him uh out of bounds, then made the uh hands to the eyes crying emotion was or motion. Was that directed at you? I don’t know. I I Max. Were you ready to throw if you had to? No, I didn’t even notice that Max did that. I Okay. No. No. Okay. We don’t care about that. No, I don’t we don’t care about any of that. Well, you you you talk you talk about the run game and wanting to get more out of it. Uh what do you think kind of took away from that? Because the score was relatively close. So, you feel like it was maybe you just got to stay after it more. Do you feel like you better able to move it and and not just gain a yard or two? I mean, I think that you have to have a flow. I mean, you got to see some some space, you know, you got to give the runner some space and you have to be able to move the line of scrimmage. And, you know, they play a defense and it there’s a guy in every gap and if you don’t move them or you don’t create some space, there’s, you know, going to be there’s not going to be much there’s going to be a wall. So, you know, we had a couple glimpses and they’re moving and but when they move, we got to take advantage of that as well and and try to come off and and climb to the second level. So, we we’ll need a more consistent and um just fine-tuned run plan that that we believe in and worrying about some things like, you know, hey, they’re in this front. We can’t run this. Well, maybe we can and we just we’ll get back to to to the basics and and trying to move people off the ball and give our back some some space uh to to run and then we’ll have to go get the support and receivers will be a part of that as well. On to Miami. Um, uh, they didn’t look so great yesterday. Uh, what issues does that team create? Well, it’s always been a fast team. It’s always been a very fast-paced offense. Uh, with their skilled players and what they do that the quarterback winning rhythm has been very accurate. We’ll have to disrupt the timing of him. We’ll have to go on the road. This will be our, you know, first regular season game on the road going down uh, there and a division opponent. So, I would expect a very challenging and difficult game and one that we’ll have to find a way to to win in the fourth quarter. Do you agree with Wiggy? Must win. Uh, no. I don’t know. I mean, again, I I like to think that they’re all every must win, right? If you look at it like that, you know, that we’d only get so many opportunities and we only get so many opportunities to uh to win and and continue to improve. It is a must improve uh week and I and I think that when you do that then that will lead to to victories or you seem calm and collected after a loss. You’re not a uh throw things around the office guy or it would be really you know my my demeanor and and what I do I think is there a reflection of everybody else in here uh around the building and I’m pretty sure everybody feels bad. It’s not going to do any good for me to start throwing everything around. And I’m sure everybody else, they don’t need me to to feel worse. And I think that everybody wants to win. They put a lot into it. We want to win for the players. Want to win for for our fans that have supported us. And and that’s that’s our job. And that’s what we’re going to continue to try to do. Good crowd yesterday. I was really And again, I I I want to be able to to thank them when they’re loud on third down and we get a stop and we win a football game and we make it hard on the other team, but you know, we weren’t able to win. But yes, it was great to see even in the rain and and everybody out there. Very appreciative of that. I appreciate you you mentioning that. Well, you got like you said, you got some young guys in the must-win. The importance of obviously the conference games and now a divisional game, you know, getting some of these young guys are on the road. Yep. Getting some of these young guys to understand that, you know, some of these come guys come from college and they don’t know the magnitude. what what’s some of your uh I guess you know tips or what you’d be telling some of those young g guys about the importance of the divisional games? Well, I think that that’s where you know that you can steal when you steal some divisional games on the road, you really have a chance um you know to make up some ground, you know, cuz that’s the fastest way into the playoffs is by winning your division. and um maybe they don’t quite understand that like you said and so you know just showing them the that how you how you percentage you know I mean I’ll look up the percentages of the the road road wins inside the division and how that leads to success later on down the year um but really I I think we’re going to focus on making a corrections here today and then I think when we come in on Wednesday really have a concrete plan on letting these guys understand the vision and and what the road games mean and the road environment and all these different things that we have to talk about. Do you think the second half was in any way a reflection of a lighter camp, a big storyline post game was the team had not as many players playing. Preseason, not as much hitting as last year and then the the second half fall off. Does that have any relation? No, I I I don’t think so. Oh, I meant we started driving. Um, they threw a interception and and they scored. Uh, so I I don’t really think it did. I thought we’ve had the last two weeks. I mean, we’ve practiced over 30 times. We had three joint practices, inner squad scrimmage. You know, that that’s the history of the football team. We just didn’t do enough in the second half. And I I don’t think that that did. That’s certainly anyone’s opinion. I I don’t, but I’m just telling you how it went. And we we got a couple first downs. And I thought it was great that we got a couple first downs. We started on a 12 yardd line. We had a penalty on kickoff return. Know if that had anything to do with it, but we started driving a football, threw a pick and they scored. So, uh, that’s really to me, uh, how the second half started and then it was kind of we traded back and forth and then we got, you know, we got into the action late and kicked the field goal and, you know, but that was a disappointing part just as the emphasis that we made on the second half for the last uh, you know, two weeks since we were, you know, starting on on the Raiders of just how many of these games were going to be one-sore games and how many come down to the second half and the team that was going to be able you know, come out and do it. That’s kind of how the game went. We just weren’t the team that was able to win the second half. Well, yeah. Go ahead. Booty had a good game. I just wanted to ask because we were all holding our breath when he went out briefly. What did he bang up in the very beginning of the game? And were you impressed with the way he in which he came back? Oh, I’m I mean, he’s had a great camp and he’s done a great job. So, um I’m not going to get into injuries or anything that they were looking at, but he was evaluated. uh and then he was able to go back into the game. So, he did a nice job. He’s put a lot into it. It’s good to see him get uh you know, get the reward for for working hard. All right, we’ll let you get get to work this morning. Okay, guys. I really appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time, Coach Frael.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show on Monday, September 8, 2025.

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