Head Coach Mike Vrabel 9/7: "We have a long way to go"

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel addresses the media on Sunday, September 7, 2025.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You spoke to us about winning the second half, and uh,
that didn't quite happen, No insured in it. And again
that's that's you know, it's frustrating. You know, we have to,
you know, understand how sometimes these games are gonna go,
and you know, we we just didn't do enough in
the second half. You know, give them credit, and we

(00:22):
certainly didn't do enough with too many missed our opportunities,
too many penalties, you know, things you know, the turnover
and things that just you know, again just didn't take
advantage of bad football. And then we're able to, you know,
have bad football ourselves. So you know, we have to
We're never gonna accept winning. We have to embrace moving
on and we have to do that quickly and get

(00:44):
these things fixed and go on the road in a
division opponent.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Mike, I guess how surprised were you by that second half?
And and what do you learn from it that you
can take it to night.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
I'm not I'm not surprised. I'm not I'm not surprised
by anything. I'm surprised that you know, I just want
to see you now. We'll see where we're at, We'll
see what kind of football team we have what kind
of leaders we have to be able to come back
in here and get to work. And you know, I
think that that'll be the true test. And we always
talk about culture and everything else, and we'll we'll we'll

(01:15):
see where we're at as a culture and as a team,
and if we have guys that want to want to
work and stick together, it'll be a big challenge to
do that. I would you sass Will Campbell's performance in
his NFL debut. You know, I think that that's tough
right now, Nicole, I apologize. I got to look at
the tape. I just you know, again, there was I'm
sure there's gonna be some good plays, some players we'd

(01:37):
like to have have back that he would like to
have back. I think that would go for pretty much everybody.
And I think that there was some good football, just
certainly not not consistent enough in all three phases. And
that's kind of what it looked like for me. And
I'll try to give you a little better answer after
looking at the.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Tape, Mike. I know it's hard to match with them,
given Gente and Bowers, but they seemed to be running
pretty well when you guys went three corner and then
obviously throwing you a little bit late when they went
when you went base, and can you just talk about
the thought process.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Well, just trying to mix it. They really, you know,
we didn't think that that the you know, the run
game had hurt us. And then they you know, we
they picked us a couple of times, and you know,
they hit a couple of long ones, and they hit
some X plays, which we talked about that being a key,
so we'll get back together. And I thought we settled

(02:31):
down really well defensively. I thought the first drive was
you know, not our best, and then I thought we
settled down. I thought they played well. I thought they
played hard. We just you know, weren't able to make
enough there in the end. And again I made a decision,
you know, on fourth and ten with you know, close
to five minutes to punt and would like a better punt,

(02:53):
and we had them, had them stopped, and that was
the plan, and that that didn't work, and then they
hit one and you know, we just didn't have enough
time there at the end to uh to do anything.
That was the decision you know, that I thought was
best for us at the time, and that you know,
it didn't didn't work out. But situationally, we'll have to
continue to improve. You know, we we moved the ball,

(03:15):
we made the kick, we tried to on side. So
again it's just you can't you can't get down two
scores late in the game over here, make after after
Andy's kicking the first half, the team with nearly two
quarters without getting the Scoard scoreboard. Again, do the Raiders
do anything different on defense? And you know, I mean

(03:35):
they mixed in some pressure and you know a little
bit of you know, a little bit of mixed coverage
and you know, but again give them credit, and uh,
you know, we'll have to come back and we'll have
to be better and more balanced and be able to
run the football without you know, making it first and
twenty We overcame some of those, but you know, just
too difficult and you know, but again it's a start,

(03:58):
not the one that we wanted. And we got a
long way to go, and we're going to be resolved
to get it fixed and the people that are here
are going to be committed to getting it fixed. Together. Coach,
you mentioned the x Raiders offense. I was wondering what
from your perspective led to some of those plays and
things you can prove moving forward, well, man, just knowing

(04:19):
you know, understanding the coverage, understanding you know, eyes and
you know, we'll I think it all goes into the
Sometimes the call and they had a good call for
what we had on or you know, a guy made
a play, you know if kind of you know, when
you look at X plays in general, it's offensively scheme
them up about thirty five percent of the time, and

(04:40):
about sixty five percent of the time somebody makes a play.
And so I would say that the same would go defensively.
You know that sometimes we're not in the best call
and they scheme us up, and then other times somebody
makes a play. And just like we were able to
get our hand on a football, they go thirteen personnel
and you know, we pretty adamant that they were going

(05:01):
to throw, and they tried to hit eighty nine. We
tipped it and we made a play. But we just
have to have more of those and we have to
create some more turnovers. And Mike, I don't know if
this falls in the same category as Nicole's question, but
how would you assess Drake's performance? Looked like there were
some struggles under pressure, in this game. Again, without looking
at the tape, I thought there were some some good

(05:24):
positive plays and really good command of what we were doing. Uh.
And then there were times where you know, maybe we
or he missed somebody and you know, we'll have to
see and you know, it's it's it's challenge playing quarterback
in this league, and we we got to help them out.
We have to be more balanced, we have to use
our our run actions and being able to run the football.

(05:46):
It's it's hard to turn it into a drop back
passing game in this league. I mean that that's just
the facts. And then they're you know what they're up
to scores and they're in their third down package, and
that's that. We just don't want to ever live in
that world. So we all can be better. And whether
that's that's me and the coaching staff and and Drake
and Will and everybody that's you asked about, like that's

(06:08):
that's the the attitude that we're gonna take. That's the
belief that we're gonna take. And we're disappointed, but we
can't sit there and uh and and and hold on
to it too long. We gotta go on the road
and we got to play a division opponent, and we've
got to embrace moving on and and I think that's
that's what we're gonna try to do. So thank you.