Head Coach Mike Vrabel 9/9: “We never accept losing, but we have to embrace moving on"

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Just what do you make up the performance in the second half, particularly the three interceptions in the fourth quarter?

Mike Vrabel (0:08)

Yeah, we didn't win the football game in the second half, and that's really when you have to win these games in this league, is finding a way to make some plays in the second half in critical situations. We didn't do that, and we can't turn the ball over, and we have to create more turnovers. And that's a broken record.

But we got to have a chance, we got to be great in that situation. We've got the field goal. Offense did a great job of battling back and fourth down conversion, and putting ourselves in a position. And again, we want to be aggressive and just not reckless, and they did a nice job and made a play. But there's a lot of fight in there, there's a lot of good things, and there's going to be a few things that we have to eliminate that get you beat in this league. So great test, great challenge. I thought we did some things really well. We got off to a great start. We got some stops defensively.

We handled the environment enough. It was unfortunate back there on the punt team, and we had maybe one other start. But all in all, for the first week on the road here at this place, I thought we handled the environment pretty well. What was your message to the captain? It's just a long season. You know what I mean? Like we're going to hold our head up high, and we have nothing but the utmost confidence in him and everybody on this football team, and he's going to make a lot of plays for us.

SPEAKER_3 (1:42)

And just that final drive, you had a lengthy drive for a couple of fourth-times perversions. So in that case, they're just great. We'll be trying to do too much or we're going to throw away hard enough in that situation when you get the field goal?

Mike Vrabel (1:54)

Well, I mean, we're trying to be aggressive and obviously win the football game, but not reckless. And, you know, again, you don't get any do-overs, but we'll have to learn from it and, you know, stick together. Never just about one guy. I think everybody knows that by now.

SPEAKER_1 (2:09)

How's Adrian doing?

Mike Vrabel (2:11)

I don't have any update yet. Wasn't able to return, obviously.

SPEAKER_4 (2:15)

Mike, up 10-0 with the ball, with 9 minutes left and a third. Do you think if you would have ended every possession with a kick, like you guys were in a good spot at that time?

Mike Vrabel (2:25)

I mean, I think you're just trying to, you know, if we could kick them, we would have gotten in position. I just, you know, I think that, you know, that's probably fair to say. I just don't know if, you know, you're going to be able to end every possession in a kick. And, you know, I mean, if you did that in 10 possessions, you'd have 30 points. I don't know how realistic that is for the entire game. So, you mean like being able to punt the football? You know, I don't know. You know, I mean, you were going to have to score, you know. But I felt like our defense responded.

You know, I mean, you can't throw three interceptions. You know, Drake knows that. You know, we put ourselves in some long yardage situations on the one, you know, that we probably forced. And I think the guy made a great play on the last one.

SPEAKER_5 (3:15)

Did you feel like with your blood, Smith and Jiggles left so open on some of the good plays there?

Mike Vrabel (3:21)

On the fourth down?

Yeah, I mean, we were selling out on the run and had missed tackle. And, you know, I mean, again, if they gain six yards, it's the first down, you just can't gain 50 So, you know, that's, you know, I mean, you got to be able to stop them, you know, like we did on third down and then, you know, be able to get them on the ground if, if they throw that on fourth down.

SPEAKER_5 (3:43)

What did the Seattle Seahawks do to make it so hard to establish the run?

Mike Vrabel (3:47)

Okay, number two in the league in run defense last year, so I'm sure they probably picked up where they left off. I thought we had some decent runs. Again, not necessarily good enough, but I thought we had some positive runs. Had a few negative ones.