Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel challenged his team after an underwhelming performance in its season-opening loss.
It is protected to say Vrabel appreciated the response.
“I am simply excited for these guys,” Vrabel mentioned after a 33-27 victory against the Dolphins at Arduous Rock Stadium on Sunday afternoon. “I am actually excited they may struggle and compete and are available on the street, be in a recreation, get off to an excellent begin, not be front-runners. All the things that we talked about.”
It wasn’t a mistake-free effort from New England. There have been pricey penalties, two missed further factors, a trio of missed tackles that led to a punt-return landing for the ‘Fins and, at one level, the protection was permitting Tua Tagovailoa and firm to achieve greater than 10 yards per play. The guests, nevertheless, battled by it.
That may have made the victory much more spectacular to the first-year Patriots head coach.
“I felt like we have been prepared to get right into a a road struggle,” Vrabel mentioned. “We hit just a little lull and we did not pack it up and give up.”
It proved to Vrabel the locker room is made up of resilient gamers, regardless of the actual fact many are taking part in their first or second season in New England.
“We’re not front-runners. That is a giant factor on this league,” Vrabel mentioned. “While you play within the Nationwide Soccer League, it’s a must to be prepared to take some punches. And that is OK. However you have to give greater than you are taking as a result of that is the character of this enterprise, having been in it a very long time.
“There’s professionals on the opposite aspect and good gamers on the opposite aspect. There’s good coaches. So, once more, I am happy with our crew. It can at all times be concerning the gamers.”
That is to not say Vrabel welcomed or appreciated the miscues, in fact. The false begin penalty on veteran proper sort out Morgan Moses that induced Vrabel to take the offense off the sphere after he initially deliberate to go for it on fourth-and-5 may have been a game-altering miscue. Particularly since that play was much like the one rookie left sort out Will Campbell made in Week 1, which did value the Pats in opposition to the Raiders.
“I recognize the character. Actually do not must put it to the check on a regular basis with errors, foolish penalties or being offsides,” Vrabel mentioned. “There’s plenty of issues on the market that we now have to do higher. However we did not discuss, we did not drop our head. We went over the subsequent play and we saved repeating. I recognize that we now have discovered how you can compete and consider that we are able to come down right here and win soccer video games.”
Sunday’s win marked the New England’s first in Miami since 2019, and was the primary time the Patriots scored greater than 30 factors in 47 video games (Oct. 16, 2022).
It additionally served as an excellent reminder of the Mike Vrabel period, which now has recorded its first victory.
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