September 8, 2025 • 20 mins
Listen as Head Coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show to discuss Sunday's Week 1 loss to the Raiders. He breaks down his positive takeaways, rookie performances, Drake Maye and his mindset going into Week 2.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, coach, not the way you drew it up.
(00:03):
They as they say yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, no, no. But I mean obviously we're we're gonna have
to get some things fixed and we'll have to, you know,
start to look at just being able to take advantage
of the opportunities when they're there. And we have some keys,
and I don't know that we all really executed them
on all three levels. There were some good and there's
some bad, and there's all these the stuff that gets
(00:27):
you top to bottom. So coaching, yeah, I mean, that's
always what it's going to be, and we just have
to do a better job of understanding, you know, about
winning the second half in some of these games that
are close and just getting off to a better start.
And you know, defensively we settled down. We had three
three and outs and we only came away with three points.
So that is not very complimentary football, and it's disappointing
(00:50):
if you're able to do that. You know, we have
to be able to put some more points on the board.
And then obviously the X plays that we gave them
defense and some of the penalty and things that cost
us on specialis, but we hit a good kickoff return.
They gave us a good field position that got us
going on and things that we can build on throughout
the throughout the game.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Mike, you say, coaching better take us into the mindset
a little bit. It's third and twenty and you seem
like you're a little bit aggressive there, which.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Leads to a long play.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I know Davis bites on the slant and go, well, yeah,
I play coverage in that situation.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Just still trying to be aggressive and trying to you know,
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 twenty, and you know, just situationally,
being able to you know, get get the guys off,
(01:48):
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 with just trying
to make a play and trying to be aggressive in
that situation.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
When it comes to Drake May, 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 or maybe put them in a tough
position the interception.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Of course, yeah, I thought he was, you know, bumped
a little bit. You know, we we've got to get
get into these routes and get spacing. And then obviously
if the quarterback gets hit, bad things happen, right, turnovers happen,
or they get hurt eventually, kind of what I've always
said with quarterback gets hit. So I thought he had
(02:35):
some really good decisions. I thought he was accurate at times. Uh,
And then I thought there was some missus 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 you know,
against a few really good pass rushers.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Just pull this a little closer. You're cutting in and
out here and there, and everybody wants to hear every word.
But he threw the ball forty six times.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Is that ideal? No? No, no, no, no, no, that's you know.
I mean they think that the way that the game
went and where we had to be in down two possessions,
we have to be much more balanced. We you know,
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
(03:27):
was some movement plays by Drake down down in the
red zone that you know, just flip the hoop and
he's able to gain ten yards, and there's some of
those examples. But just you know, being able to run
it more consistently well will help us with some of
those plays.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
What do you think of Will Campbell his first regular season?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, I thought there was there was I thought it
was steady. I thought there were some good plays. You know,
I don't think there were any you know, a couple
of movement times in a run game. Him and Jared
might have got disjointed, but I thought that they, you know,
played okay on the left side. I think it was
a good place to start for two rookies, you know,
playing their first game on the left side of the line.
(04:06):
I didn't think it was.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Penalty costly when you're you have that FOD.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, I mean again, take that out, you know, I'm
talking about the course of the game. Yeah, the mistake
and you know, critical situational football, yes, but I'm just
looking at the overall body of work that it didn't
look like they were overwhelmed with the twenty one and
a twenty two year old on the left side of
the line.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Penalty is happy with I mean, well, no, not anybody.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
No. I mean we had a couple on special teams,
we had, you know, defensively there there were a few. Yeah,
it was less than ideal. I think with with penalties,
we had a couple. You know, the ones on the
kickoff return and the punt return are real costly. They
chew up so much yardage and take you back. Can't
(04:51):
start drives on the twelve yard line and you expect
to go ninety yards every single time.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Drake's performance yesterday was not up to the standard I
think that fans and media had expected from him. It
feels from my perspective that the organization has gone out
of its way to make Drake comfortable as opposed to
try and get the most out of him.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Whether you think.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
Four series in the preseason, he's you trade the guy
that was backing him up last year. Do you think
Drake is being pushed enough to be great? And do
you think that that there's losing Does the culture of
this organization and the losing they've been a part of
the last several years. Does that impact a young guy
like Drake May trying to take over?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I really that was a long question. Just can you
shorten it down for me, because I promise you I'm
trying to get the best out of every player. But
that was just a lot there for me to unpack.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
Are you concerned at all about how important it is
for Drake May to win? Do you think it's the
most important thing for him?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
God? I hope so. I mean we again, I'm gonna
I hope winning is as important for everybody, and I
want the from everybody. I want a competitive spirit. And
if I don't see that, you know, then we'll have
to make decisions and changes at every level. I don't
(06:11):
see that. I think that he wants to be at
times perfect, and I need to get past that. We
all have to get past that. You need to be
precise and not perfect. And if you make a mistake,
it's the reaction that you have to the mistake that
everybody sees and then they're like, oh wow, that was
a that was a mistake. We have to we have
to clean our reactions up, you know, our responses have
(06:34):
to be much better. And then getting into the throw
because I'll flow because you see really good timing and
precision and accuracy, and then we see some other misses.
But yeah, I don't ever concern myself with with that.
I just want to better performance, more consistent, and continue
to grow as a as a leader, and make sure
(06:55):
that there is a command to what we're doing that
this is the situation, this is to play. Those are
the things that I'm focused on.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Mike helped me understand because I'm sitting here fourth and
five inside five minutes, you guys decide to punt the
football down by ten. When I'm thinking in that situation,
you guys are clearly.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
What Obviously we were going for it on fourth and five,
and then it goes to fourth and ten, and then
now I think those numbers changed drastic.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Sorry, it was fourth and five.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
It never went the fourth, fourth and tent.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
I excuse me, but it was fourth and five and
you did punt, so it never went to fourth and tent.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
We fall started and it went to fourth and ten.
Oh did it? Okay? I'm sorry. So we were on
the ball going for it and that was the that
was okay, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, And again just
trying to Again, you don't want to be in those situations.
You know, there's a percentage of the fourth and ten,
there's a percentage that you kick it, and you don't
(07:50):
want to kick it twenty one yards and you don't
want to give up an X play and all that
other stuff. So again, every whatever decision, I've learned that
whatever decision that we go with, the steps along the way,
I have to be perfect when you're down to scores
and that's you just and again if we go for it,
we still have to go and you know, kick a
(08:11):
field goal or score a touchdown and then get the
ball back. And I was trying to just pin him back,
be aggressive, uh, get the ball back and give us
a chance to to do something, and that that clearly
didn't happen. There were some good plays. I thought we'd
moved with some urgency to get down there. It was
cool to see, you know, Andy make a kick and
come back after he missed. So it's a lot of
(08:32):
good things and we just have to you know, we've
got to embrace moving on and learning from this and
and doing it quickly. This is this is a This
league doesn't doesn't rest for you. It doesn't wait around.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
You called it a game of missed opportunities? Is that
what you expect with a young with with young guys
in general, and how do you make sure that they're
able to move on from from a loss like that?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Oh, I don't That's not what I expect. That's I
don't want to be clear there. I don't think anybody
expects that. Yeah, we'll see. I think just how we
take the coaching and how we come in and the
leadership that that we have I talked about that will
we'll start to see where that shakes out. And you know,
(09:13):
but I'm confident that these guys will come back and
again that the young guys that we have to get.
It was young guys, it was veterans, it was it's
going to be every every one of us and not
just the rookies or the second year players. Uh, it's
everybody at all levels working together. And I think you
can show them the examples of when it did look
good and then the examples of you know, hey, we're
(09:36):
just not we're a little disjointed here, we're not communicating,
or we gave up too many X plays and these
were the keys that we had talked about coming into
the game.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
On Saturday night, Bill Belichick addressed the story that scouts
from the Patriots were not allowed onto the campus to
scout the Tar Heels. He said that he's not welcome here,
so why would he allow Patriots employees onto his campus?
Is Bill Belichick welcome here? And were you surprised that
he didn't allow the scouts onto campus the scout as players?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Again, nothing surprises me. I would imagine that that that Bill,
I mean, he came back for uh, the best of
my knowledge, Tom's ceremony, so that I would I guess
he's welcome back based on the fact that he was there.
So I'll just go by that. Since his departure as
(10:26):
the head coach here, he's been back and I'll leave
it at that.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Has he maybe been out shopping or something at Patriot
Place and and not allowed.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
To not allowed to walk? Does I don't know? Does
his key card still work? Well? No, the when when
you get fired? The key card does not work. I
tried it, I went by, I went back to Tennessee.
It doesn't work. They call the fingerprint doesn't work, the
key card doesn't work. What happens?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Chance you get Christian Gunzales.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And again we'll see he's working extremely hard. I know that,
you know, we'll get him in here on on a
Monday today and evaluate him and see where he goes.
And you know, Christian is working hard and he wants
to be back. I do know that.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Oh I got to always ask these questions every week. Temperament,
stepp digs not not that involved. Yesterday he okay afterwards,
feel good about where he's at.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah, I saw some energy from him. I saw some passion.
And you know, everybody just wants to win. And I
don't think that it's too caught up on production. I
think that we want to win and that make the
plays that we're supposed to make. Him. When the ball
comes to you and find you, uh, you know, we
have to be able to do something with it. That's
how this thing goes. Mike.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I would say one area where you guys really looked
good was your ability to get out to the quarterback
talk a little bit about you know what that means,
especially for your front seven, that when you can create
pressure and make a quarterback uncomfortable uncomfortable, what that means
for the team.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Well, I mean I think that the more times that
you're able to pressure the quarterback, just we talked about
with Drake or weren't getting hit the more that you
can a quarterback. You know, obviously that can lead to
turnovers and hopefully you know that that's the the quarterbacks
accounted for sixty five percent of all the fumbles last
year in the National Football League, So that's the number
one target to try to get the ball away from him,
(12:13):
to be able to hit in the pocket or as
he's scrambling or whatever it may be. So you know,
that was a good good to see. We need to
if we pressure him, we need to be able to
tip some passes. We need some pass rush PBUs and
ball production is really what we're looking for. And I'm
glad that we were able to hit him at the
times that we hit him and sack them, but we
got to take the next step to get.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
The ball out real game action. For Travon Henderson, how
do you feel like you fared well?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I think we got to give him some space. I
think that there were a few times where you know,
maybe he should have gone maybe one time on a screen,
he probably should have kept it outside instead of you rush,
you know, cutting it back inside. But you know, I
thought Travion tried to play fast, and you know we
got to open up some holes on the on the
kickoff return too. We got to use that as a
web in and try to be better there. We're much
(13:02):
better in preseason than we were yesterday. We had the
good the one good one, but not not consistent enough.
And you know, Travis gonna keep working and it'll be
a big part of what we do.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Max Crosby kind of hit Drake may barely hit him
out of bounds, then made the hands to the eyes
crying emotion was or motion?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Was that directed to you? I don't know. I are
you ready to throw if you have to? No? I
didn't even notice the Max did that. I okay, okay,
we don't care about that. No, I don't know, don't
care about any You talk.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
You talk about the run game and wanting to get
more out of it. What do you think kind of
took away from that? Because the score was relatively close,
so you feel like it was maybe you just got
to stay after it more.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Do you feel like you better that we are able
to move it and not just gain a yard or two?
I mean, I think that you have to have a flow.
I mean, you got to see some some space. You know,
you got to give the runners some space, and you
have to be able to move the line of scrimmage.
And you know they play a defense and there's a
guy in every gap, and you don't move them or
(14:09):
you don't create some space, there's you know gonna be
There's not gonna be much. There's gonna be a wall.
So you know, we had a couple of glimpses and
they were moving and when they move we got to
take advantage of that as well and try to come
off and climb to the second level. So we'll need
a more consistent and just fine tuned run plan that
(14:31):
that we believe in and worrying about some things like
you know, hey, they're in this front. We can't run this. Well,
maybe we can, and we'll just we'll get back to
to to the basics and trying to move people off
the ball and give our back some some space, uh
to run and then we'll have to go get the
support and receivers be a part of that as well.
(14:53):
On to Miami. They didn't look so great yesterday.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
What issues does that team create?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Well, it's always been a fast team. It's always been
a very fast paced offense with their skilled players and
what they do that the quarterback winning rhythm has been
very accurate. We'll have to disrupt the timing of him.
We'll have to go on the road. This would be
our first regular season game on the road going down
(15:21):
there in a division opponent, So I would expect a
very challenging and difficult game and one that we'll have
to find a way to win in the fourth quarter.
Do you agree with Wiggy must win? Now? I don't know.
I mean again, I like to think that they're all
must win. If you look at it like that, you
know that we only get so many opportunities, and we
(15:42):
only get so many opportunities to to win and continue
to improve. It is must improve week, and I think
that when you do that, then that will lead to victories.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Well, you seem calm and collected after a loss, so
you're not a throw things around the office.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
It would be really you know, by my demeanor and
and what I do, I think is gonna be a
reflection of everybody else in here around the building, and
I'm pretty sure everybody feels bad. It's not gonna do
any good for me. It starts throwing everything around. I'm
sure everybody else. They don't need me to feel worse.
I think that everybody wants to win. They put a
lot into it. We want to win for the players,
(16:21):
want to win for for fans that have supported us,
and and that's that's our job, and that's what we're
going to continue to try to do. Good crowd yesterday
and again, I want to be able to thank them
when they're a loud on third down and we get
a stop and we win the football game and we
make it hard on the other team. But you know,
we weren't able to win. But yes, it was great
to see, even in the rain, and everybody out there
(16:45):
very appreciative of that. I appreciate you mentioned.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
In that well you got, like you said, you got
some young guys and the must win, the importance of
obviously the conference games and now a divisional game, you know,
getting some of these young on the road, getting something
these young guys to understand that, you know, some of
these guys come from college and they don't know the
magnitude what what some of your I guess you know,
tips are what you'd be telling some of those young
(17:10):
guys about the importance of the divisional games.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Well, I think that that's where you know that you
can steal. When you steal some divisional games on the road,
you really have a chance, you know, to make up
some ground because that's the fastest way into the playoffs
is by winning your division. And maybe they don't quite
understand that, like you said, and so you know, just
(17:32):
showing them the how you how you the percentage you know,
I mean, I'll look up the percentages of the road
road winds in the side of the division and how
that leads to success later on down down the year.
But really, I think we're going to focus on making
the corrections here today and then I think when we
come in on Wednesday, really have a concrete plan on
(17:56):
letting these guys understand the vision and the road games mean,
and the road environment and all these different things that
we have to talk about.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Do you think the second half was in any way
a reflection of a lighter camp. A big storyline postgame
was the team had not as many players playing preseason,
not as much hitting as last year, and then the
second half of fallouf.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Does that have any relation now? I don't think so.
I meant when he started driving through interception and they scored.
So I don't really think it did. I thought we've
had the last two weeks. I mean, we've practiced over
thirty times. We had three joint practices in an intersquad scrimmage.
(18:43):
That's the history of the football team. We just didn't
do enough in the second half, and I don't think
that that did. It's certainly anybody's opinion. I don't, but
I'm telling you how it went. We got a couple
first downs, and I thought it was great that we
got a couple first downs. We started on a twelve
yard line, we had a penalty on kickoff return. I
(19:04):
don't know if that had anything to do with it,
but we started driving a football through a pick and
they scored. So that's really to me how the second
half started. And then it was kind of we traded
back and forth and then we got you know, we
got into the action late and kicked the field goal,
and you know, but that was the disappointing part, just
as the emphasis that we made on the second half
(19:27):
for the last you know, two weeks, since we were
you know, starting on the raiders of just how many
of these games were going to be one score games
and how many come down to the second half and
the team that was going to be able to you know,
come out and do it. That's kind of how the
game went. We just weren't the team that was able
to win the second half. Well, yeah, go ahead, Booty
(19:49):
had a good game.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
I just wanted to ask because we were all holding
our breath when he went out. Briefly, what did he
bang up in the very beginning of the game and
were you impressed with the way in which he came back.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I mean, he's had a great camp and he's done
a great job. So I'm not going to get into
injuries or anything that they were looking at, but he
was evaluated, uh, and then he was able to go
back into the game. So he did a nice job.
He's put a lot into it. It's good to see
him get, you know, get the reward for for working hard.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
All right, we'll let you get get to work this morning.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Okay, guys, I really appreciate it. Thank you for taking
the time
Good morning, coach, not the way you drew it up.
(00:03):
They as they say yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, no, no. But I mean obviously we're we're gonna have
to get some things fixed and we'll have to, you know,
start to look at just being able to take advantage
of the opportunities when they're there. And we have some keys,
and I don't know that we all really executed them
on all three levels. There were some good and there's
some bad, and there's all these the stuff that gets
(00:27):
you top to bottom. So coaching, yeah, I mean, that's
always what it's going to be, and we just have
to do a better job of understanding, you know, about
winning the second half in some of these games that
are close and just getting off to a better start.
And you know, defensively we settled down. We had three
three and outs and we only came away with three points.
So that is not very complimentary football, and it's disappointing
(00:50):
if you're able to do that. You know, we have
to be able to put some more points on the board.
And then obviously the X plays that we gave them
defense and some of the penalty and things that cost
us on specialis, but we hit a good kickoff return.
They gave us a good field position that got us
going on and things that we can build on throughout
the throughout the game.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Mike, you say, coaching better take us into the mindset
a little bit. It's third and twenty and you seem
like you're a little bit aggressive there, which.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Leads to a long play.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I know Davis bites on the slant and go, well, yeah,
I play coverage in that situation.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Just still trying to be aggressive and trying to you know,
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 twenty, and you know, just situationally,
being able to you know, get get the guys off,
(01:48):
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 with just trying
to make a play and trying to be aggressive in
that situation.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
When it comes to Drake May, 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 or maybe put them in a tough
position the interception.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Of course, yeah, I thought he was, you know, bumped
a little bit. You know, we we've got to get
get into these routes and get spacing. And then obviously
if the quarterback gets hit, bad things happen, right, turnovers happen,
or they get hurt eventually, kind of what I've always
said with quarterback gets hit. So I thought he had
(02:35):
some really good decisions. I thought he was accurate at times. Uh,
And then I thought there was some missus 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 you know,
against a few really good pass rushers.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Just pull this a little closer. You're cutting in and
out here and there, and everybody wants to hear every word.
But he threw the ball forty six times.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Is that ideal? No? No, no, no, no, no, that's you know.
I mean they think that the way that the game
went and where we had to be in down two possessions,
we have to be much more balanced. We you know,
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
(03:27):
was some movement plays by Drake down down in the
red zone that you know, just flip the hoop and
he's able to gain ten yards, and there's some of
those examples. But just you know, being able to run
it more consistently well will help us with some of
those plays.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
What do you think of Will Campbell his first regular season?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, I thought there was there was I thought it
was steady. I thought there were some good plays. You know,
I don't think there were any you know, a couple
of movement times in a run game. Him and Jared
might have got disjointed, but I thought that they, you know,
played okay on the left side. I think it was
a good place to start for two rookies, you know,
playing their first game on the left side of the line.
(04:06):
I didn't think it was.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Penalty costly when you're you have that FOD.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, I mean again, take that out, you know, I'm
talking about the course of the game. Yeah, the mistake
and you know, critical situational football, yes, but I'm just
looking at the overall body of work that it didn't
look like they were overwhelmed with the twenty one and
a twenty two year old on the left side of
the line.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Penalty is happy with I mean, well, no, not anybody.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
No. I mean we had a couple on special teams,
we had, you know, defensively there there were a few. Yeah,
it was less than ideal. I think with with penalties,
we had a couple. You know, the ones on the
kickoff return and the punt return are real costly. They
chew up so much yardage and take you back. Can't
(04:51):
start drives on the twelve yard line and you expect
to go ninety yards every single time.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Drake's performance yesterday was not up to the standard I
think that fans and media had expected from him. It
feels from my perspective that the organization has gone out
of its way to make Drake comfortable as opposed to
try and get the most out of him.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Whether you think.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
Four series in the preseason, he's you trade the guy
that was backing him up last year. Do you think
Drake is being pushed enough to be great? And do
you think that that there's losing Does the culture of
this organization and the losing they've been a part of
the last several years. Does that impact a young guy
like Drake May trying to take over?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I really that was a long question. Just can you
shorten it down for me, because I promise you I'm
trying to get the best out of every player. But
that was just a lot there for me to unpack.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
Are you concerned at all about how important it is
for Drake May to win? Do you think it's the
most important thing for him?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
God? I hope so. I mean we again, I'm gonna
I hope winning is as important for everybody, and I
want the from everybody. I want a competitive spirit. And
if I don't see that, you know, then we'll have
to make decisions and changes at every level. I don't
(06:11):
see that. I think that he wants to be at
times perfect, and I need to get past that. We
all have to get past that. You need to be
precise and not perfect. And if you make a mistake,
it's the reaction that you have to the mistake that
everybody sees and then they're like, oh wow, that was
a that was a mistake. We have to we have
to clean our reactions up, you know, our responses have
(06:34):
to be much better. And then getting into the throw
because I'll flow because you see really good timing and
precision and accuracy, and then we see some other misses.
But yeah, I don't ever concern myself with with that.
I just want to better performance, more consistent, and continue
to grow as a as a leader, and make sure
(06:55):
that there is a command to what we're doing that
this is the situation, this is to play. Those are
the things that I'm focused on.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Mike helped me understand because I'm sitting here fourth and
five inside five minutes, you guys decide to punt the
football down by ten. When I'm thinking in that situation,
you guys are clearly.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
What Obviously we were going for it on fourth and five,
and then it goes to fourth and ten, and then
now I think those numbers changed drastic.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Sorry, it was fourth and five.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
It never went the fourth, fourth and tent.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
I excuse me, but it was fourth and five and
you did punt, so it never went to fourth and tent.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
We fall started and it went to fourth and ten.
Oh did it? Okay? I'm sorry. So we were on
the ball going for it and that was the that
was okay, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, And again just
trying to Again, you don't want to be in those situations.
You know, there's a percentage of the fourth and ten,
there's a percentage that you kick it, and you don't
(07:50):
want to kick it twenty one yards and you don't
want to give up an X play and all that
other stuff. So again, every whatever decision, I've learned that
whatever decision that we go with, the steps along the way,
I have to be perfect when you're down to scores
and that's you just and again if we go for it,
we still have to go and you know, kick a
(08:11):
field goal or score a touchdown and then get the
ball back. And I was trying to just pin him back,
be aggressive, uh, get the ball back and give us
a chance to to do something, and that that clearly
didn't happen. There were some good plays. I thought we'd
moved with some urgency to get down there. It was
cool to see, you know, Andy make a kick and
come back after he missed. So it's a lot of
(08:32):
good things and we just have to you know, we've
got to embrace moving on and learning from this and
and doing it quickly. This is this is a This
league doesn't doesn't rest for you. It doesn't wait around.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
You called it a game of missed opportunities? Is that
what you expect with a young with with young guys
in general, and how do you make sure that they're
able to move on from from a loss like that?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Oh, I don't That's not what I expect. That's I
don't want to be clear there. I don't think anybody
expects that. Yeah, we'll see. I think just how we
take the coaching and how we come in and the
leadership that that we have I talked about that will
we'll start to see where that shakes out. And you know,
(09:13):
but I'm confident that these guys will come back and
again that the young guys that we have to get.
It was young guys, it was veterans, it was it's
going to be every every one of us and not
just the rookies or the second year players. Uh, it's
everybody at all levels working together. And I think you
can show them the examples of when it did look
good and then the examples of you know, hey, we're
(09:36):
just not we're a little disjointed here, we're not communicating,
or we gave up too many X plays and these
were the keys that we had talked about coming into
the game.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
On Saturday night, Bill Belichick addressed the story that scouts
from the Patriots were not allowed onto the campus to
scout the Tar Heels. He said that he's not welcome here,
so why would he allow Patriots employees onto his campus?
Is Bill Belichick welcome here? And were you surprised that
he didn't allow the scouts onto campus the scout as players?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Again, nothing surprises me. I would imagine that that that Bill,
I mean, he came back for uh, the best of
my knowledge, Tom's ceremony, so that I would I guess
he's welcome back based on the fact that he was there.
So I'll just go by that. Since his departure as
(10:26):
the head coach here, he's been back and I'll leave
it at that.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Has he maybe been out shopping or something at Patriot
Place and and not allowed.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
To not allowed to walk? Does I don't know? Does
his key card still work? Well? No, the when when
you get fired? The key card does not work. I
tried it, I went by, I went back to Tennessee.
It doesn't work. They call the fingerprint doesn't work, the
key card doesn't work. What happens?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Chance you get Christian Gunzales.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And again we'll see he's working extremely hard. I know that,
you know, we'll get him in here on on a
Monday today and evaluate him and see where he goes.
And you know, Christian is working hard and he wants
to be back. I do know that.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Oh I got to always ask these questions every week. Temperament,
stepp digs not not that involved. Yesterday he okay afterwards,
feel good about where he's at.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah, I saw some energy from him. I saw some passion.
And you know, everybody just wants to win. And I
don't think that it's too caught up on production. I
think that we want to win and that make the
plays that we're supposed to make. Him. When the ball
comes to you and find you, uh, you know, we
have to be able to do something with it. That's
how this thing goes. Mike.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I would say one area where you guys really looked
good was your ability to get out to the quarterback
talk a little bit about you know what that means,
especially for your front seven, that when you can create
pressure and make a quarterback uncomfortable uncomfortable, what that means
for the team.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Well, I mean I think that the more times that
you're able to pressure the quarterback, just we talked about
with Drake or weren't getting hit the more that you
can a quarterback. You know, obviously that can lead to
turnovers and hopefully you know that that's the the quarterbacks
accounted for sixty five percent of all the fumbles last
year in the National Football League, So that's the number
one target to try to get the ball away from him,
(12:13):
to be able to hit in the pocket or as
he's scrambling or whatever it may be. So you know,
that was a good good to see. We need to
if we pressure him, we need to be able to
tip some passes. We need some pass rush PBUs and
ball production is really what we're looking for. And I'm
glad that we were able to hit him at the
times that we hit him and sack them, but we
got to take the next step to get.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
The ball out real game action. For Travon Henderson, how
do you feel like you fared well?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I think we got to give him some space. I
think that there were a few times where you know,
maybe he should have gone maybe one time on a screen,
he probably should have kept it outside instead of you rush,
you know, cutting it back inside. But you know, I
thought Travion tried to play fast, and you know we
got to open up some holes on the on the
kickoff return too. We got to use that as a
web in and try to be better there. We're much
(13:02):
better in preseason than we were yesterday. We had the
good the one good one, but not not consistent enough.
And you know, Travis gonna keep working and it'll be
a big part of what we do.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Max Crosby kind of hit Drake may barely hit him
out of bounds, then made the hands to the eyes
crying emotion was or motion?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Was that directed to you? I don't know. I are
you ready to throw if you have to? No? I
didn't even notice the Max did that. I okay, okay,
we don't care about that. No, I don't know, don't
care about any You talk.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
You talk about the run game and wanting to get
more out of it. What do you think kind of
took away from that? Because the score was relatively close,
so you feel like it was maybe you just got
to stay after it more.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Do you feel like you better that we are able
to move it and not just gain a yard or two?
I mean, I think that you have to have a flow.
I mean, you got to see some some space. You know,
you got to give the runners some space, and you
have to be able to move the line of scrimmage.
And you know they play a defense and there's a
guy in every gap, and you don't move them or
(14:09):
you don't create some space, there's you know gonna be
There's not gonna be much. There's gonna be a wall.
So you know, we had a couple of glimpses and
they were moving and when they move we got to
take advantage of that as well and try to come
off and climb to the second level. So we'll need
a more consistent and just fine tuned run plan that
(14:31):
that we believe in and worrying about some things like
you know, hey, they're in this front. We can't run this. Well,
maybe we can, and we'll just we'll get back to
to to the basics and trying to move people off
the ball and give our back some some space, uh
to run and then we'll have to go get the
support and receivers be a part of that as well.
(14:53):
On to Miami. They didn't look so great yesterday.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
What issues does that team create?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Well, it's always been a fast team. It's always been
a very fast paced offense with their skilled players and
what they do that the quarterback winning rhythm has been
very accurate. We'll have to disrupt the timing of him.
We'll have to go on the road. This would be
our first regular season game on the road going down
(15:21):
there in a division opponent, So I would expect a
very challenging and difficult game and one that we'll have
to find a way to win in the fourth quarter.
Do you agree with Wiggy must win? Now? I don't know.
I mean again, I like to think that they're all
must win. If you look at it like that, you
know that we only get so many opportunities, and we
(15:42):
only get so many opportunities to to win and continue
to improve. It is must improve week, and I think
that when you do that, then that will lead to victories.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Well, you seem calm and collected after a loss, so
you're not a throw things around the office.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
It would be really you know, by my demeanor and
and what I do, I think is gonna be a
reflection of everybody else in here around the building, and
I'm pretty sure everybody feels bad. It's not gonna do
any good for me. It starts throwing everything around. I'm
sure everybody else. They don't need me to feel worse.
I think that everybody wants to win. They put a
lot into it. We want to win for the players,
(16:21):
want to win for for fans that have supported us,
and and that's that's our job, and that's what we're
going to continue to try to do. Good crowd yesterday
and again, I want to be able to thank them
when they're a loud on third down and we get
a stop and we win the football game and we
make it hard on the other team. But you know,
we weren't able to win. But yes, it was great
to see, even in the rain, and everybody out there
(16:45):
very appreciative of that. I appreciate you mentioned.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
In that well you got, like you said, you got
some young guys and the must win, the importance of
obviously the conference games and now a divisional game, you know,
getting some of these young on the road, getting something
these young guys to understand that, you know, some of
these guys come from college and they don't know the
magnitude what what some of your I guess you know,
tips are what you'd be telling some of those young
(17:10):
guys about the importance of the divisional games.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Well, I think that that's where you know that you
can steal. When you steal some divisional games on the road,
you really have a chance, you know, to make up
some ground because that's the fastest way into the playoffs
is by winning your division. And maybe they don't quite
understand that, like you said, and so you know, just
(17:32):
showing them the how you how you the percentage you know,
I mean, I'll look up the percentages of the road
road winds in the side of the division and how
that leads to success later on down down the year.
But really, I think we're going to focus on making
the corrections here today and then I think when we
come in on Wednesday, really have a concrete plan on
(17:56):
letting these guys understand the vision and the road games mean,
and the road environment and all these different things that
we have to talk about.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Do you think the second half was in any way
a reflection of a lighter camp. A big storyline postgame
was the team had not as many players playing preseason,
not as much hitting as last year, and then the
second half of fallouf.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Does that have any relation now? I don't think so.
I meant when he started driving through interception and they scored.
So I don't really think it did. I thought we've
had the last two weeks. I mean, we've practiced over
thirty times. We had three joint practices in an intersquad scrimmage.
(18:43):
That's the history of the football team. We just didn't
do enough in the second half, and I don't think
that that did. It's certainly anybody's opinion. I don't, but
I'm telling you how it went. We got a couple
first downs, and I thought it was great that we
got a couple first downs. We started on a twelve
yard line, we had a penalty on kickoff return. I
(19:04):
don't know if that had anything to do with it,
but we started driving a football through a pick and
they scored. So that's really to me how the second
half started. And then it was kind of we traded
back and forth and then we got you know, we
got into the action late and kicked the field goal,
and you know, but that was the disappointing part, just
as the emphasis that we made on the second half
(19:27):
for the last you know, two weeks, since we were
you know, starting on the raiders of just how many
of these games were going to be one score games
and how many come down to the second half and
the team that was going to be able to you know,
come out and do it. That's kind of how the
game went. We just weren't the team that was able
to win the second half. Well, yeah, go ahead, Booty
(19:49):
had a good game.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
I just wanted to ask because we were all holding
our breath when he went out. Briefly, what did he
bang up in the very beginning of the game and
were you impressed with the way in which he came back.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I mean, he's had a great camp and he's done
a great job. So I'm not going to get into
injuries or anything that they were looking at, but he
was evaluated, uh, and then he was able to go
back into the game. So he did a nice job.
He's put a lot into it. It's good to see
him get, you know, get the reward for for working hard.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
All right, we'll let you get get to work this morning.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Okay, guys, I really appreciate it. Thank you for taking
the time
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