Head Coach Mike Vrabel 12/15: "We're disappointed but not discouraged"

Mike Vrabel (0:01)

Hi, Nicole, I know you'd be here. No, let me just apologize to Nicole and everybody else. I'm sure I was boring as hell yesterday. When you guys heard that the open locker room, the locker room was open, I don't blame you for wanting to take off. And I know you guys got a tough job to do, and it's hard to get those guys. So I apologize for, but I knew you'd be here today. So go ahead, Karen.

Karen (0:27)

Mike, how are you?

Mike Vrabel (0:28)

I'm great, how are you? Thank you, thank you for asking.

SPEAKER_3 (0:30)

Good. Defense allowed touchdowns on five straight possessions. Yep. What do you have to do to get that unit back on track?

Mike Vrabel (0:43)

Well, it's not just that unit. I think the one thing that we've done in victory has been to play very complimentary, and I would say that to give the third-ranked offense the field position that they did is tough. It is tough. And again, we have to play better defensively. We have to play much better. We have to play much better in all three phases to beat good football teams or beat anybody.

So again, we talked about getting the drive stop. We talked about finding ways to create some turnovers and continue to hunt for turnovers, and hammer, and tip, and try to have to knock it away from somebody, and then just figure out what we can do when they get down there to get the drive stop with too many touchdowns on third down, where we had some positive plays, and had everybody in tune, and playing well, and getting a stop, and then giving up a touchdown on third down. So, that's a long answer to say that I'd said we were disappointed, but not discouraged, and there was a lot of good snaps of defense, but not enough, and good snaps offense, and not enough, and some good snaps of special teams, but not enough. And give them a lot of credit. We knew that they weren't going to go away, and we weren't able to ultimately do enough there at the end of the game.

Karen (2:16)

They had a big advantage in terms of time of possession. Did you feel like the defense was fatigued at all?

Mike Vrabel (2:23)

Again, that was, I mean, you just don't want to be out there that long against them and against a big offensive line, and that can kind of lean on you and wear on you. And so, again, that's the complimentary phase that we talked about.

You know, that's the best defense against a good offense is being able to possess the football. And, you know, we didn't do that. We didn't do that in the second half. We didn't put drives together. We didn't convert when we needed to.

SPEAKER_4 (2:51)

Mike, we don't bring up special teams unless it's really good or probably really bad. The returns, even when you were doing well, the returns were there for Buffalo. Was it a structural, in looking at the plays, did Buffalo do something?

Mike Vrabel (3:07)

Oh, well, there was a new scheme then on the first one. And then after that, I thought we did a nice job against the double team over there on the sideline after the first one. I thought Anthony adjusted really well to that and made it cut back. And we tackled it. And then we, you know, then there's like a fit here and a fit there. And if they, you know, this is not an indictment on the officiating. I know what this is. And if they're going to grab you and they grab you like this and you're, we stand there head to head and nose to nose with them, that that's not holding. It's not holding in this league and I don't want it to be. And so you have to do enough to cause restriction at the point of attack so that they see that. And it gives them a reason to consider throwing a flag. So we have to understand that and we have to be able to shed and we have to be able to, you know, create restriction at the point of attack. And we didn't do that.

And then so that they blocked us and we were content with that too many times.

SPEAKER_5 (4:11)

It was four or seven people that from Andre had the penalty after the play.

Mike Vrabel (4:14)

That's a bad decision.

SPEAKER_5 (4:16)

What's the messaging to the team when things have shifted like that?

Mike Vrabel (4:19)

That's a bad decision. That's what I told them in the moment. That's what I'll tell them again at 1230 There's nothing else. And that's what it is. He made a good play, a good positive play.