Mike Vrabel on Key Learning Points in Loss to Steelers on WEEI | New England Patriots

Mike Vrabel on Key Learning Points in Loss to Steelers on WEEI | New England Patriots

Hey, coach. Morning. Uh, frustrating to watch. So, it must have been uh even more frustrating to coach that one yesterday. Well, I you know, it’s never frustrating to coach it. It’s frustrating to watch it, you know. I mean, you’re in the moment and you’re trying to uh, you know, keep everybody together. You’re trying to get some stops. You’re trying to uh focus on the situation, you know. So, it’s never frustrating to to coach it. It’s frustrating to to watch it. you I’m sure happy with at least from a perspective of those guys not giving up, not getting frustrated by by the turnovers. No, you know, I mean, we can polish the turd however we want to and and just understand that it you know, you got a 5% chance to to win a game where you have that many turnovers. You the average margin of victory in those instances is probably 18 points. Um and and to think that we still had a chance. So there there’s a lot of good stuff in there. There’s stuff that’s very detrimental obviously and we have to uh we got to correct it and and we have to be able to to move on, but we have to be able to to to coach it and acknowledge it and then fix it. First five turnover game for the New England Patriots since 2008. And I think you were playing in that game. I don’t know if you remember it. That’s a long time ago. I I I I don’t uh I’m pretty sure I didn’t have one of them, which was probably a good thing. Yes. No, that is a good thing. Yes, absolutely a good thing. Mike, take us through the operation cuz we’ve been sitting here and we’ve been kind of discussing the Pop Douglas play. It looks like that they bl bring bring a blitz and Drake May got to get the ball out hot. Looks like Pop could be running a little flat route. Is if there’s something where he should have went a little bit deeper or because of the blitz it caught him in that position. what happened on that fourth and two play. Well, I think uh you know I think we just have to make a great decision. We have to uh you know in those vice tackle situations. We’ve we’ve talked all along about knifing about knowing where the sticks are. We had a couple examples especially last week. We had some examples yesterday. You know, you probably just have to uh to be able to knife and and get what you need and know where you’re at uh and be able to get to the sticks. I I didn’t uh again, you just can’t, you know, those are tough to try to circle those guys up in in that situation in that I mean, but in that situation, did he not excuse me realize where he might have been on the field? Like, shouldn’t he be thinking about that pre- snap? Okay, here’s where the first out marker is. I think we’re close. I think we’re close. We probably just need to get another revolution. And then if we’re not, you know, if we we stop, uh, we have to be able to knife. we have to be able to get the the the yardage that we need. So certainly want to be able to get to the sticks and if we’re not and we got we’re not matched be able to sit down which he did and then during the you know being able to knife through the defender or get a half a yard. I know after the game yesterday when you were asked about Raandre Stevenson you said that you need you guys need to fix it uh when it comes to ball security but this has been an issue for him under Bill under Gerard now under you. How do you fix something like that? Well, it starts with with everybody else, you know. I mean, it starts with him, but it also starts with the, you know, protecting the guy with the ball. And so, uh, we’ll have to do a better job of that. If you look at, you know, the second guy coming in or somebody else is making a play or not finishing. Certainly, it’s easy to look at the guy with the ball and that that’s has to be where it starts and u you know our technique, but it’s also, you know, it’s got to be put on everybody else to make sure that uh they’re protecting the guy with the ball and that the guys aren’t coming off of of plays late and diving in there or, you know, trying to avoid those. Just as you can see, there’s times where they can make the guy miss when you can see him and when the guy it’s the guy that you don’t see. uh and we have to protect him from the guy that he can’t see him and and be able to block. So, it goes on all of us. It goes on everybody out there and then we’ll keep keep repping it and uh just unfortunate. Three pass plays at the end of the half from the two yardd line with three timeouts. Why? Well, there was, you know, there was some called alerts, right? And I think just getting into the to a play that gives us the best chance, you know, they loaded us up pretty good. Um, and it was, you know, and Drake canned it, you know, to to one or had an alert for a run if we we had a favorable look. Um, and I didn’t I didn’t hate the the calls. Again, certainly the the execution has to be better, you know, knowing what we’re going to get down there from them, having a good idea. Um, just as the same way as they came back and and blitzed us on the other fumble, right? And so you want to make sure that you have bodies in there, that you have pieces in there, and that if they they one up you and they go with, you know, a defense that that brings, you know, blood zero, that you have options. And and again, we didn’t execute down there. So, you know, we’ll have to stay um sound and and try to predict what they’re going to do and give give everybody options just like we did, you know, last week. We got the look that we wanted. We were able to plow it in there and this this week we we did we weren’t able to score. I know you said on this show last week or the week before penalties not a key indicator when it comes to winning or losing, but you sounded frustrating halftime wise interview about the the penalties on Well, it’s it’s the the ones that uh you know again that are third down and and you and you’re not all penalties, right, are created equal. And so certainly the ones that are critical that extend drives um or or give them you know the ball the technical errors I I think that um you can be going hard and playing hard and and and have a mistake and and jump off sides and and then the technique that doesn’t get fixed is is frustrating. You know the technique that we choose and the things that they’re looking for. I think that uh those are the things again the ones that extend drives on third down. We’ve had we had a couple of those defensively you know and then there were times where I you know the Carlton I thought he played with with good technique good defense and was looking and playing the football and she she chose to to throw a penalty and maybe we could agree or disagree but we move on. It’s just the How is that possible with the ball landing five yards out of bounds? I don’t know. You’d have to ask them too that I’m with you that when I said I wrote four down and you you said five. I wrote I wrote four yards down. So, um you know, again, I’ve heard that that they use that that big white stripe that if it lands outside of that that maybe it was uncatchable, but they didn’t see it that way. When was the last time we seen a pass interference where they actually said it was uncatchable? I feel like just the Chiefs games. Yeah. Don’t do it. But Mike, in the the the interception, you know, turnovers are always a killer, right? And especially when they lead to points or they take away points. The Drake May interception at the end of the half, should that have been a back pylon throw? Uh, it shouldn’t have been a flat one, you know what I mean? Obviously, just having an idea of where that guy is and and be able to put some put some air into it. No, and I think that uh those are things we have to be able to see and again get the spacing that we need and and be able to keep it out of harm’s way to end a half like that for Drake and come back out and not spiral. I think a lot of fans find that impressive from him from a young quarterback. Do you see that the mental game is there for Drake that if he has a bad pass, if he has an interception that you don’t see him spiral out there? he continues to fight and again th those are good qualities. We just can’t keep testing it over and over and over again. But but I do appreciate the resiliency uh of him and this football team and our ability to uh continue to fight and continue to stay in it and and compete. It just has to be uh cleaner so that we’re not always in that situation. Can you coach pocket presence or is that something that you either have or you don’t? I just think that uh you know you can do some drills and make sure that you know we’re good with the football and and you have to be able to create a pop pocket to to be able to work through and be able to transfer up into it and do it with with ball security. And then once you, you know, get going, that the journey’s probably over. And we have to either get down and and be okay to take a a loss or or be able to get rid of the football in times where where it’s loose. And again, there’s there’s opportunities for guys to finish. I don’t know how long the guy’s going to be have the football. That’s why we say we have to finish longer than the guy with the ball. And there’s a lot of examples of that and thinking that the play’s over. And sometimes the play isn’t over. So, it’s easy to say, “Well, you got to have better ball security.” And it’s going to be really easy for me to say we have to finish longer than the guy with the ball because we didn’t on occasions. Giant nuts on you going for it on fourth down early in that game. Just trying to figure out ways to to help us and uh you know, I got you know, we’ve done pretty well in short yardage lately. First week wasn’t too good. Last two weeks have been good. So, you know, feel good about some of these plays as a head coach when you make that decision. Is that to show confidence in your guys? Is that a part of the decision-m for you? I I just think it’s it’s that we can get these and that we have to have an attitude that we’re going to be decisive and and aggressive and, you know, we put a drive together and then unfortunately it ends the way that it ended. Um, you know, I think it’s a balance of where you’re at in the game and trying to jump start it and and let these guys take ownership of it. Mike, I saw this stat when I was watching the game. I don’t know how accurate it was, but they said that you guys are the fourth youngest team in the NFL. Uh does that attribute to maybe some of the close uh games that you have when you come out on the wrong end of that just guys maybe not having enough experience of situational football under their belt yet? Uh I mean I think I mean we better be used to it. The whole league is is is how it’s going to be every week. So take your heart pills and and be good in situational football. Mike, you just got here for all this, but the last 19 games in this building, the Patriots have won three. Yeah, I know that that that we have to start winning some games here, and we have to give our fans a reason to get behind us. It’s got to be an advantage. Um I’m not going to start figuring out why. I mean, I have quick answers from from yesterday, but we have to uh you know, that that’s the formula. You have to to win games at home and you have to steal a couple on the road and we did last week in a division game and you know that’s uh there’ be a good good week to get back here and get a win at home. I is there I know it’s turnovers obviously kill you but is there anything positive to take away when you have five turnovers and you still have a chance to win the football game? Yeah, I think that you’re you’re uh disappointed. You’re not discouraged. U that you have to stay hopeful and understand that a lot of good stuff out there. There’s a lot of good third down conversions. There’s a lot of good runs, a lot of good defense. When we settled down, a lot of three and outs, three three and outs. I mean, they gained, I don’t know, 80 yards after the first two, you know, I mean, they really had three drives and, you know, thought we we tackled better. There was still some missed tackles, but we got off the field on third down for for most of the game. I felt like the defense just said, “Wherever the ball is, we’re going to go play defense. We don’t care.” And they did that. And I I give them credit. Not very good in the red zone, obviously, on either side of the ball. So, that’ll again be a huge emphasis this week. From listening to you this morning, yesterday, weeks past that you’ve been on. It’s very clear where you stand on penalties. Obviously, there there are different types of penalties that a team faces, but undisiplined has been a word that’s come up when it comes to this team. Do you feel like you have an undisiplined team? And if you do, how do you as a head coach fix it? Uh, I I don’t know necessarily divine undisiplined, you know, I mean, are we the second guy? Are we throwing punches? Um, you know, I don’t think we’re the second guy in. I don’t think we’re, you know, again, we always are in trying to improve uh our discipline. We we worked on, you know, offensively the the line of scrimmage, some of the movement that the defense was giving us last week. We worked on that. I thought that was better. Um, you know, did undisiplined and grabbing a a tight end. I mean, using poor technique. I don’t know if that’s undisiplined, not being very good. Mike, one of the things that coming into the season I looked at is your running back room and I think you have like three really good players there and it’s all about confidence and we’ve seen some fumbles from uh Gibson and Stevenson and you know some pass protection issues from Henderson. What’s your confidence level in that group? Well, we’ve also seen a lot of really big plays, too. um you know, got to take care of the football and uh when when we have a guy to protect, we have to be able to go and and block them. But we’ve also seen a lot of big plays from that room, too. So, goes hand in hand. And when you lose, it it sucks. And we don’t realize that they made some big plays. And when you win, we’ll tell everybody about the big plays. So, my job is to focus on both of those. And actually, the good, the bad, and the stuff that gets you beat. know that the turnovers are going to get you beat and miss blocks are got to get fixed. And then remind them of all the good stuff and breaking tackles and catching the ball and hitting X plays and returning kickoffs for 100 yards and all those other stuff. All right. Well, we’ll let you get back to work at it, coach. Well, I appreciate it, guys. I really do. All right. No good seeing you Saturday. No cayenne Cayenne pepper shots today. Your hands are so smooth. No celebration for block like block catching a smooth. That’s like they’re for catching. That’s why they know. Did you enjoy Saturday? Oh yeah. Yeah. That was really Yeah, that was well done. That was both of those guys. I told Jules before the game I saw him as I was walking out. I said, “Hey, remember halftime is only 13 minutes.” Okay. So if you time’s only 13 minutes. I was like, but it was I thought the both of them did a really good job. I thought they were going to stop playing music when Jules was giving his speech like the Oscar. Like the Oscar the whole wrap it up though. He went a long time. The light the lights back there flashing. He went a long time with his speech when he did. Yeah, he did. Yeah, it was a good one. But it was like woo. Okay. Parcels was quick. He was in and out. You know that says a lot coming from something went long. Yeah. Oh yeah. I might have done the same thing. They don’t have to start yours in the morning. Yeah. Believe that. All right. I don’t think we’ll have to worry about his speech. All right. No have to worry about Wik. All right. There he is. The head coach of the New England Patriots.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show on Monday, September 22, 2025.

Subscribe to the New England Patriots YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/2IOD2e9
For More Patriots NFL Action: https://bit.ly/2Y1e9zz

#NewEnglandPatriots #Patriots #NFL

For more Patriots content: pillar.io/patriots
Stay up-to-date on Patriots news: https://www.patriots.com/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newenglandpatriots/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/patriots
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patriots
Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@patriots
Get the app: https://apple.co/2vvd8mU