Mike Vrabel - Am I The Only One Who Thinks He Sucks as a Pass Rusher?

[BradyManny]

This thread is insane. Vrabel had 12.5 sacks and 5 forced fumbles. He did a great job this year, ESPECIALLY as a pass-rusher. Up is down, down is up.

No where in that post did I say Vrabel was not a great player. I was merely saying that pass-rushing is extremely important for a 3-4 OLB. He fell off at the end of the season, and as I said, I'm betting there was an injury there, but its hard to argue with his production and I'd say he's pretty much always in the argument for Patriots defensive MVP.

 

[Fencer]

because he dissappears against good competition, elite teams, and only does good against scrubs usually.

According to patriots.com, Vrabel happens to have played 16 postseason games. His stats, according to FoxSports.com, include 8 sacks, 4 forced fumbles, 62 solo tackles, 28 assisted tackles, and 3 passes defensed.

That's not "disappearing", to put it very mildly.

The Arctic winters are rather coolish
And your diagnosis is fairly foolish.

-- Ogden Nash

 

[Steamer86]

Yeah, Vrabel stinks. He didn't even get one sack in the Steeler game.

 

[marty]

Wow, just wow.
To answer the question, Vrabel is a good pass rusher.
To say he only got sacks against "scrubs" is totally STUPID STUPID STUPID.
Talk of Vrabel ridind the bench is STUPID STUPID STUPID.
I think I'm going to start doing what some others here have been doing and start calling people morons and idiots when I feel it's justified.
I read some stuff in this thread that was STUPID and MORONIC.
I hope some of the stupid does'nt give me brain damage.
No more mister nice guy.

I'd like to think that FBN's intent was to define the very fine line between our moronic and just very stupid posters on this board of late, but somehow I think the point was missed. In that case I'd like to put a word in for CrazyDave as our next moderator!!:rocker:

 

[Zeke_Mowatt]

unbelievable. Some of you guys are too much. Vrabel is a good player but he is way overated. Waaaaay overated. Probably the most overated Pats player on the team. He gets manhandled by any good tackle. His best move is falling to the ground infront of the tackle and crawling to the QBs ankles.

If you only knew how much you came off like a 12 year old who moved to NE 2 years ago, you would probably be as embarrassed for yourself as we all are for you. Not only are you wrong, you're either ignorantly wrong, or deliberately wrong, neither of which endear you to anyone. You are the classic definition of a troll.

 

[Terry Glenn is a cowgirl]

Vrabel got garbage sacks this year...

One man's trash is one man's treasure...

 

[richpats]

His job is to really collapse the pocket and force the QB to step up into the pocket and hopefully into guys like Seymour Warren and Wilfork.

That's my major gripe with our pass rush (as demonstrated on one particular play that will go unmentioned). We can position our players around the QB and force him to give, but dang it, I want to see us pop a QB one day.

 

[patsfaninpa]

It's a philosphical reason why we don't appear to be attacking qb's. We were 2nd in the league in sacks behind the Giants. So, kind of comical to be griping about our lack of pass-rush. We lose a game and all of a sudden the whole team stinks.

Back to my point. If you send your linemen upfield, you're opening running lanes to get inside. Belichick likes to keep the play in front of the defense. Read/react more than attack. I think his results speak for themselves. Of course, I would like us to get a little younger and more athletic. Then you might see more of those types of plays. But, veterans are rarely outof positions. Most big plays are because of blown assignments. Not because the defense is lacking in athletic ability.