Head Coach Mike Vrabel 9/14: "We were willing to get into a street fight...and didn't quit"

Mike Vrabel (0:02)

Karen, I'm assuming you're here. Okay. What do you got, Jules?

SPEAKER_2 (0:08)

It looks like you're trying to keep up with Antonio on the sidelines.

Mike Vrabel (0:12)

Yeah, the official, you know, I mean, again, we, I told you we had to have those guys be a weapon for us. And we've too many times had penalties, and we didn't. And Ramandre answered, and then, then Gibby answered. And again, we had a similar situation in practice where we had a couple bad plays, and I'm like, we got to just keep going on. We got to snap the next play. But then somebody hit a play, a back hit a play. And I'm like, you see, it just takes one play. And that's exactly what Ramandre did to kind of get us out of that lull. You know, we unfortunately just gave up the punt return, but then answered, and Gibby answered, and that unit answered. So again, I felt like we were willing to get into a street fight. We had a little lull, and we didn't pack it up and quit.

SPEAKER_3 (0:57)

Like, to follow up on that, is there any bones for everybody, you've been burning one? Like, you talked about that, like, where you were when all that was happening.

Mike Vrabel (1:06)

I mean, I just was watching about the 50, and I'm just excited for these guys. I'm really excited that they could, you know, fight and compete, come on the road, you know, be in a game, get off to a good start, not be front runners, everything that we talked about. You know, we tried to get the drive stop sometimes. We ended this drive with scores, with touchdowns, we were much better in a red zone. On offensively, the only thing that stopped us today was us. So there was a lot of really good keys there. You know, again, the penalties on special teams, there's lots of coach from, but it's going to be easier to coach from a win. We'll be able to coach them hard and make sure that, you know, we're trying to fix the things that, you know, hurt us. But we got off to a good start. And again, we knew that a lot of that was just to make sure that we made them earn it. And we didn't get the drive stop on a couple of those X plays. They scored touchdowns.

SPEAKER_4 (1:58)

Mike, on the extra point, the kicker, Gorgalos, this is two extra points, but then to put it in for the 53 yarder and he nails it.

Mike Vrabel (2:06)

Yeah, got to have a lot of confidence in him. I do have a lot of confidence.

I didn't waver. It's going to go for the fourth and five to try to, you know, get it there. And then when we got backed up, I immediately just, you know, kick the field goal. And I'm happy for Andy. That's why he's here. And thought after the first two, really settle down. And that's what we'll have to have.

SPEAKER_5 (2:27)

Mike, what are your thoughts on the performance of your quarterback? I'm sorry? What are your thoughts on the performance of your quarterback?

Mike Vrabel (2:33)

I mean, I think there's a lot of good things and a lot of things that we'll have to fix. And, you know, the command, the operation, and when he feels that lull, that's when we got to tighten the screws on these guys and get them set faster, get them out of the huddle faster, and really push them. And I mean, he's a jockey, and he's got to know what the flow of the team looks like offensively. You know, we had a couple of penalties and then there was starts. And again, things that we really aren't going to be able to overcome eventually.

SPEAKER_5 (2:59)

Mike, you talked a lot this week about precise over perfect, and kind of pushing through when bad plays happen. Do you find this win revealed more about the character of your team or built on it?

Mike Vrabel (3:09)

Well, again, I appreciate the character. Certainly don't have to put it to the test all the time with mistakes and, you know, silly penalties or being off sides and having an interception. I mean, there's a lot of things out there that we have to do better. But we didn't pout, we didn't drop our head, we went on to the next play, and we kept competing, and I appreciate that. We have to learn how to compete and believe that we can come down here and win football games, and I think they did.

SPEAKER_6 (3:36)