Head Coach Mike Vrabel on WEEI 9/8: "We have to be much more balanced"

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Good morning, Coach. Not the way you drew it up, as they say, yesterday.

SPEAKER_2 (0:05)

No, no, no.

Mike Vrabel (0:06)

But obviously, we're gonna have to get some things fixed, and we'll have to start to look at just being able to take advantage of the opportunities when they're there. And we talked about some keys, and I don't know that we all really executed them on all three levels. There's some good, and there's some bad, and there's all this stuff that gets you beat.

SPEAKER_1 (0:27)

Top to bottom, so coaching.

Mike Vrabel (0:29)

Yeah, I mean, that's always what it's going to be, and we just have to do a better job of understanding, about winning the second half in some of these games that are close, and just getting off to a better start. Defensively, we settled down, we had 3-3 and outs, and we only came away with three points. So that is not very complimentary football, and it's disappointing if you're able to do that. We have to be able to put some more points on the board. And then, obviously, the ex-plays that we gave up on defense and some of the penalties and things that cost us on specialties. But we hit a good kickoff return, that gave us good field position, that got us going on and things that we can build on throughout the game.

SPEAKER_4 (1:12)

Mike, you say coaching better. Take us into the mindset a little bit. It's third and 20, and you seem like you're a little bit aggressive there, which leads to a long play. I know Davis bites on the slant and go. Why not play coverage in that situation?

Mike Vrabel (1:27)

Well, just still trying to be aggressive and trying to force a mistake and probably have to play off. And again, just catch and tackle and rally. But we feel like being aggressive right there is what allowed us to get into third and 20 And just situationally being able to get the guys off, everybody looking at the football, and then we know what it's going to be, and it's going to be have to be a catch tackle. And but just trying to make a play and trying to be aggressive in that situation.

SPEAKER_5 (1:59)

When it comes to Drake Maye, last season, he had an issue with trying to force plays to make something happen. Did you see any issues with that yesterday? Did that lead to any of the times where he threw the ball away or maybe put them in a tough position, the interception, of course?

Mike Vrabel (2:13)

Yeah, I thought he was bumped a little bit. We've got to get into these routes and get spacing. Then obviously, if the quarterback gets hit, bad things happen, right? Turnovers happen or they get hurt eventually. That's what I've always said with quarterback gets hit.

So I thought he had some really good decisions. I thought he was accurate at times. Then I thought there was some misses. That's how it goes. I thought we protected for the most part fairly well. It was never perfect, never will be, but I thought there were some clean pockets and against a few really good pass rushers.

SPEAKER_1 (2:58)

Just pull this a little closer.

Mike Vrabel (2:59)

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_1 (3:00)

You're cutting in and out here and there and everybody wants to hear every word you say. I'm sorry. You threw the ball 46 times. Is that ideal?

Mike Vrabel (3:06)

No, no, no, no, no, no, that's, I think that the way that the game went and where we had to be in the down two possessions, we have to be much more balanced. We have to run the football better, more consistently so that some of these play pass opportunities show up. I thought you saw some good examples of that, whether that was some movement plays by Drake down in the red zone, that just flip the hoop and he's able to gain 10 yards. There's some of those examples, but just being able to run it more consistently, will help us with some of those plays.

SPEAKER_1 (3:42)

What did you think of Will Campbell, his first regular season?

Mike Vrabel (3:45)

Yeah, I thought it was steady. I thought there were some good plays. I don't think there were a couple of movement times in a run game. Him and Jared might have got disjointed, but I thought that they played okay on the left side. I think it was a good place to start for two rookies, playing their first game on the left side of the line. I didn't think it was-

SPEAKER_1 (4:08)