Here’s what Mike Vrabel had to say following the New England Patriots’ win over the Bengals on Sunday in Cincinnati:
On if he had any injury updates:
“I don’t have an update on anybody right now, unfortunately.”
“I appreciate you guys all talking about the injuries this week. So thanks.”
On how much of a battle this one was:
“It was. That’s what happens in this league. You need everybody and you go through the season, you go on on the road and it’s tough. Nobody wants to talk about numbers and records. That doesn’t mean s**t.
On the kicks by Andy Borregeles:
“Huge. Those are great. I appreciate what he’s done. I think he’s … a lot of confidence there. Then the operation, we went through four or five different combinations on the field goal. I mean, you lose linemen, and now you got Pharms, and Durden, and Morgan’s … . It’s just a lot of moving parts. Give those guys credit for being able to jump in there and help us.”
On what he saw from his group after being down a double-digit deficit:
“We settled down. They gave us one back and gave us a little bit of life there defensively. We settled down. Again, it wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was, I would say, just enough.”
On Hunter [Henry] making some nice catches down the stretch:
“Yeah. Again, one big play is first and 20. We throw to Hunter and Diggs, who every receiver wants production, and the ball didn’t find him as many times a day, but he turned and blocked. We went from a holding penalty to first and 20 to then converting. And that gave us a spark there. So Hunter was huge and everybody’s battling. It’s late in the season and everybody’s beat up.”
On how frustrating it was to not get in down on the goal line and what happened there:
“What happened? We didn’t score. Again, you got to score with your man, whatever you call. It’ll be a good learning opportunity for us in a lot of phases and just how important and how critical the week of practice is and being ready to go because you never know when your opportunity is going to come and making sure that everybody’s on the same page and a lot of moving parts today.”
On if there is anything limiting Drake Maye, and the fact it looked like he was shaking his hand a couple of times:
“Limiting? No, probably … admittedly, not his best performance, but give them credit. I think he came up big with some good throws, and I’m sure there was a couple that he’d like to have back.”
On the fact he talks about effort and finish, and the play by [K’Lavon] Chaisson at the end, and the play by Carlton coming up with a couple of pass breakups:
“Yeah. Again, to have that penalty called on him and then come back and still be able to challenge and stab. I didn’t think he was too bad on the PI. Maybe it was. But again, to have that called on you and then to come over there and be able to challenge and finish is a testament to him. Being able to … Andy make the kick and make it a touchdown game allowed us just enough time to get them stopped on fourth down.”
On the fact he had a team in Tennessee that suffered a lot of injuries and what he learned from that that he can apply this year:
“Prepare as a starter and be ready to go and take advantage of your opportunity.”
On what impressed him the most by his defense on that final series:
“Just trying to mix everybody in there and try to mix in some pressure and give us, the coaching staff … just great job by them, great job by the players to be able to get the call in there quickly, mix in some pressure, mix in some man, and then in a got to have it situation there, being able to force the quarterback to get rid of the football.”
On the fact that on Friday, he talked about the speed in which the team recovers from a good play or a bad play:
“We need some work at that, everybody, me included, starting with me. I’m proud to keep coaching these guys, and we’ll respond. But I think we can focus on that, just the speed in which we recover. These are long games, long games, and they’re decided by a few plays. In the end, we made a couple more than they did.”
On talking about the joy of the game, how was it because of Jared [Wilson] going down, [Will Campbell] going down and the fact it was a tough day with injuries:
“Injuries, I mean, we talk about it, are part of the game, but we were able to share some time with Jahlani back home. So, that was cool. Again, we’ll look to rejoin him here shortly. I think that was the biggest thing. We’ll get those guys back from injury, however it is. Our staff will do a great job. Players will work hard. Got to be ready to go. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. I’m pretty sure of that.”
(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.
