Mike Vrabel did not dress up a 26-19 win over the New York Jets on Sunday. The New England Patriots head coach opened his postgame news conference at Gillette Stadium by saying his team was “lucky to win,” and he followed it with a harder verdict: after two good weeks, he did not think the Patriots improved at all.
The result still counts the same. New England has won three in a row, sits at 4-2, is 3-0 at home and leads off its AFC East schedule at 2-0. But Vrabel said the team spent much of the afternoon getting in its own way, and that figuring out why is on him. In his view, his job is twofold: win games and make the roster better week to week, and on Sunday he believed only one of those happened.
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What bothered him
The numbers explain the tone. New England outgained New York 383-324 and Drake Maye threw three touchdown passes without a turnover or a sack, yet the Patriots lost two fumbles, by TreVeyon Henderson and DeMario Douglas, and let a 17-3 halftime lead shrink to 17-13 midway through the third quarter. Andy Borregales also missed an extra point, which kept the Jets within reach. The game was not settled until an onside kick bounced off A.J. Brown and he fell on it with 32 seconds left.
Brown was the subject of a pointed question. In his first game since a high ankle sprain sidelined him after Week 1, he was targeted 10 times and caught three passes for 27 yards. Vrabel said Brown could have come down with more of those throws and knows it, but he also rejected the idea that the offense was being bent around him. When a play designed for one receiver is taken away, he explained, the quarterback is supposed to move on, and the problem only became real once the ball was put on the ground.
The backups he did like
Vrabel had warmer words for the players filling holes. With linemen dropping out, Caleb Lomu, Matt Pryor and Walter Rouse finished the game up front, and he credited them for a line that still ran the ball and kept Maye clean. He also explained why Corey Kiner, not Rhamondre Stevenson, carried the closing 13-play drive that set up Borregales’ 27-yard field goal: Kiner runs hard, the coach said, and the Patriots ride the hot hand. Kiner finished with 57 yards on 11 carries.
He described Maye as unusually even-keeled for a 24-year-old and said the quarterback ran the late five-minute situation calmly. The kickoff coverage team, Vrabel added, was the best unit on the field.
A short week with a thin line
The bigger worry is availability. Three linemen went out during the game, Morgan Moses with an ankle injury, Alijah Vera-Tucker with a hamstring and Ben Brown with a knee, and so did receiver Romeo Doubs after his diving 42-yard touchdown catch, and edge rusher Dre’Mont Jones. Vrabel would not guess who will be ready. Players who do not finish a game face a quick turnaround on a short week, he said, and the staff will simply “find 48” who can suit up. The full list is on the Patriots injury update, and the box score is in the Game Center.
What comes next
New England plays again in four days, at Soldier Field against the Chicago Bears, with an 8:15 p.m. EDT kickoff on Thursday, October 22. The Game Center has the matchup, and the season so far is on the Patriots team page.
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