TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel's Postgame Press Conference 11/9

Here’s what New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say following the Patriots 28-23 win over the Buccaneers on Sunday.

On TreVeyon not being sure if he should go down on his touchdown run, and his explosive plays:

“Well, those are important. We needed it. Situational football. We’ll talk through all those things. And again, he was thinking the right thing. And today in the game, the way that it was, they needed two touchdowns. I think it was okay, but we made it a little closer. We knew it would be difficult coming down here, but two explosive plays. And then I think really, Kyle’s [Williams] play early. We really needed that one. That was the one that we were talking about, just needing one play, and he hit it. It was great to see him have that success.”

On how much he liked the fight with his team in this one:

“I always love the fight. That’s why I love coaching them, is that they fight and they compete. It’s not always perfect. It’s never going to be perfect. But I love the way that they compete. You’re going to have some time when if you strike out, you got to go to the dugout and be pissed for a couple of seconds, and then you got to go play the rest of the game. We tell them, ‘Take 30 seconds, be pissed, but we got to go play.’ It was a long game. It was a tough place to play. It was warm, and they’re good.”

On the fact that they had three touchdowns of 50+ yards that were all scored by rookies and what it says about their dependability:

“We’re going to need everybody throughout this season. We’re going to need everybody as this thing goes on. With Kayshon being out that was an opportunity for Kyle with Rhamondre being out. It led to more opportunities for TreVeyon. They battled through. I got wore out running out there to see how our guys were doing as many times as I did. But I’m proud of the guys that battled and competed and laid it on the line.”

On the end of the first half sequence and if he told Drake [Maye] to go down on purpose on first down:

It was a huge play for us on fourth down. Got confidence in our guys. To be able to have confidence in them at that moment and then come through, that’s about players and not necessarily play. I was really excited and proud of Stef and Drake for scoring when we were and being able to end the half with the football in our hands.”

On if they were working clock because of their timeout situation:

“Like I said, we’re just really excited that we could end the ball in our hands at the end of the first half and then be able to come out in the second half. We have to do a better job of trying to double them up. But we got some stops defensively. We went three and out a few times offensively, but in the end, we got the stops when we needed it.”

On how important was the touchdown before halftime:

“Huge. I mean, obviously, with no points. … I made a decision to go for it. I trust our players, and they came through. They made me look good.”

On why it’s important for him to coach with an aggressive style:

“Well, I think that anything in life, you’re going to have to certainly put some chips in the pot to be able to win something. You can’t sit around and wait and hope that they just hand it to you. Sometimes you can, but most of the time in life, you got to be able to risk something to get something in return. So you can’t win nothing you don’t put in the middle.”

On them getting points, and then coming back and getting points:

“Huge. Then we got-Again, the first drive and the last drive were the worst ones of the game. Other than that, we got some stops in the red zone when we needed it. We got some three-and-outs. Guys played hard, and they earned being tired, and they are tired, and we’ll have to get them back. We got a short game, short week, and excited to move on.”

On Drake Maye’s interception in the end zone and if that’s a teaching moment for him:

“Yeah. Again, a lot of things happen quick down there. Situationally, it’s important there that if we don’t come out of there with a shutdown, we have to leave there with points. We got to make it a touchdown game. We got to be able to make it a seven-point game there. Again, we want to be aggressive. We just can’t be reckless. I think that that probably bordered line on a bad decision. We’ll continue to improve, and we can learn from that, and we can go from there”

On his thoughts on the all-out blitz on the fourth down play:

“The one we stopped them? Yeah, great call, great execution if we stopped them. If we don’t stop them, it was a bad call.”

(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.)

About Ian Logue

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.

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