Here’s what New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say following the team’s 35-31 loss to the Bills on Sunday:
On what was the biggest difference that he saw in the first half versus the second half:
“We weren’t able to get any stops. When we had an opportunity to make a play, we weren’t able to make it. Penalties, and that’s how this game goes. A few small plays make the difference. We were very prepared for this team that we were going to need 60 minutes to beat this team. This is a good football team. We had a lot of good football in there. We had a lot of plays, a few plays that we’d like to have back that we’ll have to learn from them.”
On with Robert Spillane and the fact they didn’t have him inactive today, but that he was out there and if having him was more of an emergency situation:
“Yeah, we felt like after going through the warmups and everything, that was what was going to be best for him today. We need everybody, certainly Robert, and we’ll have to try to get as healthy as we can as quickly as we can.”
On the fact he talks often about complementary football and how much of the return may be by [Bills RB Ray] Davis to start the second half, 58 yards, and some of the issues that you had with the kick return:
“Well, that has been a strength of ours. We knew going in, that it would be a good test and a great challenge. So again, just they’re too good to give them short fields and turnover, or excuse me, field position in games like this is critical, making them be able to drive it and somehow along the way get a stop. That wasn’t the only play. That was certainly one that we need to get back. Again, that’s been a strength of ours, and I’m confident that it’ll be a strength of ours going forward.”
On the two critical pass interference calls that led to two touchdowns, and the Carlton Davis one, very late flag on that, and just his reaction, and what he thought about those calls:
“The same guy thought it was a penalty the same way. I mean, it’s a judgment call. Whether I disagree with it or not, it doesn’t matter. They called it. That’s how this thing goes.”
On the fact the Bills only had 14 yards of offense in the first quarter, three punts, and then five straight touchdowns, and what changed, in his mind, for them:
“They were able to get the running game going. We missed tackles. We didn’t build a good enough wall, didn’t get off on third down, weren’t able to create any turnovers or get any stops in the red zone. It’s no secret. Called the same stuff. They called the same stuff. We just have to be able to take advantage of those opportunities that we get to get the drive stopped. Whether that’s a penalty or one play, or a third-down conversion. We just got to be able to learn from it.”
On if this an opportunity for your team to learn from this situation, second half and if that’s basically what he told them after:
“Sure. That’s exactly what I told them. I said, ‘We have an opportunity to improve like we have when we won, the same as today when we lost and came up short. But there’s a lot of good stuff in there that I’m proud of and that we’ll be able to use as a positive. A lot of stuff that we have to correct and make sure that we fix.’ We’ll do that tomorrow and try to get as healthy as we can and put a plan together for Baltimore.”
On the fact it’s two straight weeks now where a lot of the offensive production is coming in the first half, and if there are any trends he’s seeing in the second half from the offense:
“For me today, I don’t know if I’d be able to answer that. I thought, with the limited opportunities that they had, today, we hit a bunch of big plays. So again, the drive that we needed our offense to get, I was confident. I thought for sure that we’d take that football and go down and score a touchdown. And we just weren’t able to. That’s why I went for it.
On the fact they’re obviously leading the league in rushing and, specifically, when they were in base defense, what did he see there in the second half that wasn’t working the way you wanted:
“This is a big physical offensive line, and you have to be able to not give them any cracks or any holes in the wall. If you have any, Cook finds them. So we knew we’d have to get off blocks, and we’d have color separation and not show them creases. That’s really what it comes down to.”
On what he saw from them in the second half that stymied them offensively:
“Well, we knew they were going to continue to pressure. They pressured and played zone. It wasn’t enough for us to be able to … I thought there were times where they pressured and we couldn’t come clean, or we weren’t able to complete some passes, especially on third down when they pressured. We’ll have to learn from it, and we’ll have to make sure that we’re converting third downs.”
On what it is he sees about Josh Allen about why he’s able to do things like this game in and game out:
“The same things everybody else sees. He’s 6’5″, 250 pounds, runs fast, hard to tackle, hard to get down on the ground. He’s accurate, strong arm, I’m giving you a dissertation on a league MVP. It’s like, just watch all the games, and know that … it’s the same as it was last week. Had a guy free, weren’t able to make the play. Last week’s team had a guy free, weren’t able to make the play. That’s why pay him $60 million. I don’t know what to tell you. Just exactly what we knew it was going to be, that we were going to need to get a stop or be able to tackle if we pressured and we came free. So hopefully we get another opportunity to do that. But that won’t be for, I don’t know. But whenever we do, we’ll have to be ready for the quarterback that we have this week.”
On the fact they had explosive runs from TreVeyon Henderson and what he thought allowed him to be so effective:
“Well, I thought we had a good plan. I thought our coaches had a good plan, and did a great job.”
(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.
