Head Coach Mike Vrabel 12/21: "This was a huge team win"

Mike Vrabel (0:00)

It must have been a big one, you can't, Karen. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_2 (0:06)

I'm doing well, how are you?

Mike Vrabel (0:07)

Better than you.

SPEAKER_2 (0:10)

Getting into the playoffs, the way that you did, what does that say about your team?

Mike Vrabel (0:17)

Well, I mean, I think that it was good to be in a game like this, where we battled and it was tied, and we got down, and momentum kind of shifted the other way. And our guys battled back, we got stops. Offense continued to attack, and our quarterback battled, and our receivers came through, and our runners, and it was great. I felt like it was a big team win. It was a huge team win. Andy kicked the ball well.

So again, it was just, we lost a lot of guys. A lot of guys went down, a lot of guys stepped up, and we're gonna have to get healthy, but I think that this was a great win for us.

SPEAKER_3 (0:57)

Mike, you get the ball with five inches to go.

SPEAKER_4 (0:59)

You know, Drake's in a similar situation as last week.

SPEAKER_5 (1:01)

He puts together a ninth play, 89-yard drive.

SPEAKER_4 (1:04)

What would you think of what they were able to accomplish and then Caleb on with the big?

Mike Vrabel (1:09)

Yeah, and I think that, you know, you learn from that, and again, you still have opportunities, and then they pressured us, and you know, we were able to hit a play against the pressure. And so I think if you learn from those things, and I think hopefully we learn from, you know, whatever happened last week, and our ability to execute in a critical situations. And, you know, and then we talked about all week, just the ball security and our ability to try to hammer it out. And I thought we tried at times, and we got, you know, we got a couple, and so I think that we talked about being able to get turnovers.

SPEAKER_6 (1:44)

Jury, you talk all season about that next man up mentality, but today you kind of truly saw him pull forward from how many guys you lost. What was that like to kind of see that come together?

Mike Vrabel (1:54)

Well, that's a group effort. One, it's on the players that go in there. Two, it's on the, you know, the training staff to work hard is to evaluate guys. And then on the coaching side, just being able to figure out what packages that we can still get into and what we're able to do. And some of the things we weren't able to do. You know, I lost a lot of defensive linemen. Give a guy like Anthony Jennings a lot of credit going in there and playing defensive line and helping us out. So I appreciate what he did and everybody else that was able to step in. How big of a role does he have?

You know, I just think that, you know, we talk about opportunities and this whole year, you know, somebody, you know, that receiving room. And I get the nature of the receivers in this league. I understand it. Been around this league for a while, and they all want the ball. And I think that that's what they're supposed to do. And when they don't get it, you know, they have to understand that, you know, they'll get it. And he took advantage of his opportunities, came through, contested catches, third down conversions. You know, it's great to see. It's great to see, you know, MacMeg plays for us. Kyle, you know, K. Sean, I mean, unfortunate for K. Sean, you know, the penalty or whatever they called over there is, you know, completely, you know, whatever they call it over there, you know, and then his ability to go down, which I thought he was competing for that ball, and I thought we were going to have that one. But, you know, K. Sean is going to help us out. They're all the receivers are going to play roles throughout this year.

SPEAKER_3 (3:27)

Did you do an explanation on why that wasn't a five?

Mike Vrabel (3:31)

No, no. Here's what the explanation I got. You have to survive the ground. So, I'm very aware of the catch rule, but that's all I got.

SPEAKER_3 (3:41)

Mike, what did you think of Drake?

Mike Vrabel (3:43)

I just thought, gritty. I mean, he got hit, he got hit. They pressured, or they got home when they didn't. And, you know, he just kept getting up and battling. I didn't flinch. And again, I think it was important for all of us to, you know, have that game, the entire team. Sorry about that. No, I'm sorry. No, I was long paused.