FOXBORO — Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel took accountability for a failed fake punt in Sunday night’s win over the Ravens.
Trailing 17-13 with two minutes left in the third quarter, Vrabel called a fake punt pass from punt protector Marte Mapu on fourth-and-10. The play was designed to be thrown to fullback Jack Westover, but Mapu pulled up and started to scramble before being sacked for a 1-yard loss.
“Something that we had practiced, something that I felt confident in. I wouldn’t have called it if we didn’t feel confident in it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. So it was a bad call by me,” Vrabel said. “Just told ‘Te to to throw it, give it a chance, give Jack a chance. If the guy dropped out of there, he dropped out of there. But try to give it a chance. It certainly wasn’t designed to run. And he just felt like it wasn’t there. And he made a decision. So I made a decision to try the play. I’ll make other calls and good ones, and there’ll be bad ones, as well. So, just felt like we needed something there, and it didn’t go our way. Credit to the guys who kept playing and found a way to win the game.”
The Patriots still wound up mounting a comeback in the 28-24 win.