Considered one of Mike Vrabel’s acknowledged targets for the New England Patriots in 2025 is to make the most of unhealthy soccer.
However Vrabel noticed extra sloppy play from his personal membership than his opponent Sunday.
Vrabel’s first recreation as Patriots head coach resulted in a 20-13 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders that included a Drake Maye interception, a missed discipline objective by Andy Borregales, 9 penalties for 70 yards, and several other different miscues throughout a wet afternoon at Gillette Stadium.
For sure: not precisely what Vrabel was in search of.
“We had too many missed alternatives, too many penalties, the turnover,” Vrabel informed reporters after the sport. “Did not make the most of unhealthy soccer after which have been capable of have unhealthy soccer ourselves.”
New England utterly overhauled its roster this offseason, so it could take a while for this staff to search out its rhythm. However with a extra skilled teaching workers led by Vrabel, the expectation was the Patriots would remove a number of the bone-headed performs that led to their 4-13 season in 2024.
We noticed extra of the identical in Sunday’s loss, nevertheless, which is regarding to Patriots Insider Phil Perry.
“The Patriots are nonetheless not ok to make the most of unhealthy soccer,” Perry mentioned on Patriots Postgame Dwell. “In truth, they will produce a good quantity of unhealthy soccer this season based mostly on what we noticed at the moment.
“You had a strip sack, you had a penalty out of your No. 4 general decide (left deal with Will Campbell), you bought beat deep one way or the other on a third-and-20 to actually sort of ice the sport, you had a missed kick within the first half, missed throws in every single place out of your quarterback (Drake Maye).
“What Mike Vrabel wished to do for this staff by way of establishing an id of an clever soccer staff that is going to provide you a foundational degree of play, an ordinary of play that they’ll adhere to — they did not try this at the moment.”
That third-and-20 conversion was an absolute back-breaker: Raiders broad receiver Dont’e Thornton obtained veteran cornerback Carlton Davis to chunk on a slant-and-go transfer, and Geno Smith discovered Thornton for a 36-yard acquire that basically sealed Las Vegas’ victory.
Davis’ blown protection was a microcosm of the Patriots’ failure to execute in key moments on either side of the ball, as Patriots Insider Tom E. Curran famous New England made “a litany of errors” all through the sport.
“So many chunk performs (allowed on protection),” Curran famous. “Geno Smith averaged greater than 10 yards per try. He is a great quarterback, however you should not give him that many down-the-field throws.”
We should not overreact to 1 recreation — keep in mind when Jerod Mayo’s Patriots received their 2024 season opener? — and there is loads of time for Vrabel’s membership to proper the ship, particularly in Week 2 in opposition to a Miami Dolphins staff that simply misplaced 33-8 to the Indianapolis Colts.
But when New England needs to be a distinct staff in 2025, its prime precedence ought to be eliminating “unhealthy soccer.”
Try the video under for extra postgame response from Phil Perry, Tom E. Curran, Ted Johnson and Michael Holley on Patriots Postgame Dwell.
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