Here’s what New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say following Sunday’s win over Carolina.
On Marcus Jones lighting the fuse today for them:
“Well, I think that that’s what we’ve been looking for. I talked about that throughout training camp and how those return units need to be a weapon for us. We’ve got the one kickoff return, but to be able to do that on the punt return, a fantastic effort by Marcus [Jones] and everybody else out there. But I think a lot of that was just his own individual will, skill, and effort. And so, again, that has to be a weapon. It was something that we felt like could be through this season and getting ready for this year.”
On what is it about Marcus that makes his skillset so superior:
“Well, I think he’s not the biggest player, but he’s got great play strength, I think, with the football on his hand. He’s got great vision. And again, you have to be fearless at some level to catch that punt and know that you’re going to make the first guy miss. And we’re confident in that. I think it’s just a natural skill. That’s hard to teach. I mean, it’s hard to teach with all those bodies in traffic and catching it first and making great decisions with it back there. So it’s a lot of comfort with him back there, and we need to continue to make it a weapon.”
On coming off of last week’s loss, how much did they need a performance like today, and how good does it feel to be able to put together a performance like this:
“Well, you always need…I mean, you only have so many opportunities. So whatever you do in one week, it doesn’t really matter. It’s about what you do the next week moving forward. Hopefully, we take that same approach, whether we win or we lose. And I think that’s what I’ve tried to do is, whether you win or you lose, we’ve got to embrace moving on. We have to do that. We have to prepare here for a division opponent on the road. It’s going to be a great environment, and hopefully, we’ll see where we’re at.”
On the Defense, they gave up that opening score, but then bounced back and pretty much shut them down the rest of the game, and what the adjustments were they made, and how they were able to take control of the game on that side:
“Just settled down. Just settled down a little bit. They did a nice job early on moving guys around. We have to continue to disguise better and tackle better and all those things. I guess if that’s the trade-off for playing great defense the rest of the way, then we’ll have to go through those growing pains early in the game. I don’t anticipate that we should, but it was good to see us respond, and we’ve done that. I’m proud of our guys for not going in the tank or complaining or point a finger or anything like that.”
On what he saw from Drake today and the way that they were able to spread the ball around on the offense:
“Just throw to the guy that’s open in the progression as soon as he’s open. Then if not, quickly progress through. Those are the things that quarterbacks have to do, and they have to have a command of it, and we did that. I think the red zone clearly is a big factor. Our ability to convert those chances into touchdowns was important. I saw a lot of extra effort, guys blocking downfield, springing guys. Again, I like when everybody is involved, and the quarterback just throws with a guy that’s open every play, no matter who it is.”
On him wearing the T-Strong t-shirt and what does it mean to get a ‘W’ when [Terrell Williams] is going through something obviously pretty serious here:
“I don’t think that those things are really comparable, right? I mean, we got one situation where somebody’s fighting and we’re playing a game. We care deeply about Terrell, and we’re going to do everything that we can to help him and to support him and make sure that he gets what he needs and competes and fights, and that we take care of him as people and support. That’s the big thing there. Then the other side of it is just the game. We understand how critical the wins and losses in, and we’re here to win. But I don’t look at it like, ‘Oh, we have to win because this is a Crucial Catch.’ We just have to win so that we can continue to build a program that can stand, that can withstand everything that goes on in this league.”
On when he mentioned moving on and referenced Buffalo next week, and he said, ‘Hopefully, we’ll see where we’re at’ and what did today tell him about where the team is right now:
“Well, that when we don’t beat ourselves and we take care of the football and we play complementary football and we get stops on third down, the return… I mean, the special teams are a factor, and we score touchdowns in the red zone that it can look like something. So again, that’s not guaranteed every week, but certainly we can see the difference in how critical those phases are and putting them all together.”
On the fact Marcus Jones has played offense here at points before, given how dynamic he’s been with the football on his hands if that’s a possibility that he’d ever consider using again?
“I mean, we’d consider anything that would help us win or score points, certainly.”
Has he considered it?
“We consider everything. Again, we got a lot of guys that are producing over there, and we’ll see where that goes and how it translates.”
On the fact it looked like he had some starting defensive linemen on the field on Marcus’s first return score and if they were anticipating a fake on that play, and what was it that maybe led to that decision:
“We like that grey team. That grey team can be just as good. Whether you’re trying to think it’s a fake or you like those guys pushing in there. You got two choices in punt return. You can either hold them up or you can knock them so far back that it takes them a little while to get down there and cover, and there’s some displacement in the lanes. We’ll continue to mix those up and try to use everybody where we see fit and how they can help us. But whether it’s just trying to go rush a punt with some bigger guys or try to manufacture a return.”
“Should I expect a breakdown of those plays in that unit? Good. I want that on my desk by 6: 00.”
On this being a big game from Stefon Diggs, and if that was that an emphasis this week, a matchup they saw, or just where the ball was going?
“That’s just where the ball was going. Stef and everybody has done a nice job. If we continue just to believe in the quarterback that he’s going to throw it to the guy who’s open in the progression, that good things will happen. We get down there in the red zone and everybody’s going to score. We got plenty of plays down there. If everybody just stays the course and does the right things and does all the things that helps the team, that those plays are going to come for them in the red zone.”
“It’s just like the defensive line. They want sacks and they want all this. But Barmore is disrupting the quarterback and he’s getting holding calls. I know I don’t want him to be frustrated, but I see those things. Pop Douglas would have liked to have a couple of extra catches today, but he also turned and blocked, and Hunter Henry ran down the sidelines. Nobody’s going to say that unless I say it. Those are the things that matter, not the guy catching a touchdown. That’s the easy part. The hard part is the guy that didn’t get the ball thrown to him that turns immediately and blocks his guy, and we score from the 25-yard line.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This transcript was done based on the available footage and is subject to typographical errors. If you spot anything, please let me know in the comments below.)
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
