Thursday Patriots Notebook 8/14: ‘Slugfest’ Against Vikings, Vrabel Sets Expectations for Dugger
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Some Patriots news and notes on this Thursday:
1) The Patriots held their first joint session with the Vikings on Wednesday out in Minnesota, with Drake Maye and the offense holding its own against a well-coached Vikings defense.
All in all, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels helped put the offense in some good spots, with Maye seemingly having some options to work his way out of several blitzes Minnesota threw at him on Wednesday.
The biggest one came on a play where they managed to draw the Vikings defense up while TreVeyon Henderson slipped behind them and was left all alone, with Maye hitting him for what ended up being a 70-yard touchdown.
One thing we’ve learned so far. If you get Henderson in the open field, he’s gone.
“I think they just didn’t account for them and just trying to give it to him an easy ball to let him catch and run,” said Maye on the play. “I think it’s hard to catch him once he’s in the open field.”
Maye also hit Mack Hollins on another long score, with the offense having a relatively solid outing. That’s essentially what they needed after a couple of difficult days back in Fobxoro, with a change of scenery clearly doing the offense a little bit of good. The fact it happened against a pretty good defense certainly didn’t hurt, either.
“I think it was good for us,” said Maye on the practice after it was over. “It was good for us to see a defense that does a lot of things. They got us a few times, feel like we got them. So it’s good for us to see that and experience a new defense, and kind of very different from Washington and very different from our defense.”
Overall, reporters who were on hand had Maye finishing the afternoon completing 16-of-25 in team drills, along with some nice plays, including those two long touchdowns.
Granted, it wasn’t all perfect. Maye did have a ball that was nearly picked and likely would have taken a couple of sacks. But the fact the recognition and adjustments were there to the point they had good production was a positive sign, and certainly one to build on as they head into today’s session.
2) Phil Perry provided some good perspective during the most recent episode of the podcast he and Tom Curran released following the session. Perry painted a picture of what was apparently an intense ‘slugfest’ between the two teams on Wednesday.
“This was a knock-down, drag-out slugfest between the Patriots offense and the Vikings’ defense,” said Perry. “Just haymakers everywhere. If there wasn’t a Viking sack, and there were a bunch of them, then there was a Patriots explosive play. That just felt like how the practice went.”
“It was almost an all-or-nothing type of affair. And so from my perspective, as someone who thought it could look really, really ugly for this Patriots offense, specifically, their young players on the left side of the offensive line, their young pass protecting running back and their second year quarterback in a new system, I thought it could go horribly, quite frankly, for them. And it did at times, but it wasn’t that way throughout. And I think they should be encouraged to a degree by that because they got theirs.”
“They were sacked six times. The Drake Maye offense was sacked six times, but he threw two long touchdowns to TreVeyon Henderson and Mack Hollins. He had a couple of other explosive completions to Pop Douglas. So a very up and down day, roller coaster day, plenty of bad for Mike Vrabel to critique, but enough in the way of explosive success moments that you come away from it saying, ‘Okay, we held our own there,’ in my opinion, if you’re the New England Patriots.”
Perry noted that most of those sacks came in the early part of practice, and that they did get better later in the period.
“There were a bunch of flags mixed in there,” said Perry. “Pop Douglas had a fumble, but 13 for 21 in the passing game with six sacks. Now, four of those sacks came in the first 10 plays. So in the second half of 11 on 11 action, they got a lot better. I think they allowed two sacks on their next 14 or 15 drop-backs. So that’s not great either, but it was better.”
“It got a little bit better as it went on, and they almost closed on the Henderson long breakdown, which is about a 60-yard catch and run. He was wide open, wheel route, good throw from Drake Maye. He just outran everybody to the end zone. That was supposed to be, it sounds like, the end of the two-minute period for the top Patriots offense. Vrabel brought them back out for another two-minute period that did not go as well. But they had their share of success, which, to be quite honest with you, surprised me a little bit today.”
3) One thing that was interesting on Wednesday was the fact that Mike Vrabel was pretty candid when it came to Kyle Dugger, which, given Bill Belichick’s history with things like that, was definitely a different experience.
After seemingly dropping down the depth chart, Vrabel was asked about what Dugger needs to do in order to work his way back in with the starters during his press conference yesterday. Vrabel said there are some things he needs to work on, albeit he praised Dugger’s attitude during the process.
“I think just making sure that he’s where he needs to be and understanding that the coverage concepts and everything we do, keep working and keep progressing,” said Vrabel. “A lot of this is the guys that have earned a right to take a look with that first unit. And again, there’ll be different lineups and different things.”
“It’s a little just focus on the reps that you get. Right now, his attitude has been great. And he’s had a long, long recovery in the offseason. So just keep …he’s been out there and he’s continuing to get better and work. I think the more that he practices, the better he’s going to feel and the more that it’s going to translate onto the football field.”
Dugger, at least to this point, has been playing behind rookie Craig Woodson, and he feels like a player who may be in a tough spot by the time we get to the end of training camp. Vrabel said back in the spring that it’s a clean slate for everybody and that guys who are on the team will need to earn their role. What that means for Dugger remains to be seen, but it definitely feels like he’s got his work cut out for him.
4) Vrabel was asked about the fact that he’s continued to push Maye when it comes to his leadership, and whether or not he feels that part is lacking. Vrabel explained that isn’t necessarily the case, but he emphasized that there will be times where things may not be going their way and that Maye’s approach will be a big key in them working through that.
“Well, it’s not that it’s lacking. I just always want more,” said Vrabel. “I think I have to as a coach. I think that we always want to try to take a player, and we want to meet them where they’re at and then be able to improve on that. So there’s no finished products no matter what. We always can continue to work on things, focus on our reaction, our response to things.”
“As a quarterback or any player, you want it to be perfect, and it’s never going to be perfect. And you can sit there and paralyze yourself sometimes by mistakes. We need to focus on our responses to those mistakes that are so critical. There’s so many snaps in the football game, there’s certain things that can go up and down, and performance is one of them, and our attitude and our effort is something that can’t.”
Maye was asked if it gets annoying having Vrabel push him in that way, but the second-year quarterback said he actually enjoys it.
“No, I think I want that,” said Maye. “I want somebody to push me to do more for the team, have more of an impact with the guys around me. I feel like if I have that, and I feel like I’m not showing it myself, then I need somebody to push me along.”
When asked if being a captain was something that mattered to him, Maye said that it’s something he hopes to be, but certainly not something he takes lightly.
“I think it’s a great honor,” said Maye. “I think it’s something that you don’t take lightly around here, especially with this Patriots teams in the past with the captains they had. It’s an aspiration to be a captain, but there’s a lot of guys on this team that deserve that and have played a long time in this league.”
The Patriots did have some players sit out this one, with Rhamondre Stevenson, Hunter Henry, Marte Mapu, DJ James, Kendrick Bourne, Ja’Lynn Polk, Christian Gonzalez, and Jahlani Tavai all sidelined, while Christian Barmore was a notable name as a player who was limited. … This marked another day Stevenson’s been sidelined, and Vrabel was asked if he’s dealing with anything that could be ‘a long-term thing.’ “I don’t think so,” said Vrabel. “No. I mean, hopefully we’ll get him back here sooner rather than later. I don’t think it’s anything that’s significant.” … Jaylinn Hawkins garnered some praise from Vrabel on Wednesday. Hawkins has been getting some time with the starters, and Vrabel said he continues taking advantage of his opportunities. “I think he’s done a nice job of coming in and communicating and playing pretty much all the different techniques that we’ve asked these guys to do on the back-end,” said Vrabel. “I think he’s playing with some speed and plays with some physicality. You saw a couple of passes out to the perimeter that he was on in tight coverage in the game. I just really evaluated him and decided to get him back from last year. He did a nice job and played all special teams, played a lot of defense when guys went down. So he’s continuing to take advantage of his opportunities and then see where that goes.” … After Vrabel provided his explanation on Dugger’s situation, the safety apparently spent the session working again with the second group, with the veteran having a tough outing after drawing a pass interference penalty. … Kicker Andres Borregales had a better day Wednesday, hitting 5-of-6 with his lone miss coming from 54 yards. John Parker-Romo didn’t see any attempts, which likely means Borregales will have to sit back and watch him take all of the club’s attempts today. … Meanwhile, today is Vrabel’s birthday, with the head coach turning 50. He was in good spirits yesterday, noting that, “It’s a good place to work up here,” he said. “That’s why when we came up here before in Tennessee, good experience, excellent experience to come back. Plus, I like the cheese curds.”
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