New England Patriots - NESN.com
The New England Patriots don’t appear equipped to make comebacks…
Mike Vrabel found that out the hard way during Sunday’s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders at Gillette Stadium.
New England faced a two-score deficit with only five minutes remaining in their season opener, so you’d think the club do everything in their power to score whenever they had the ball, right?
Nope!
Vrabel elected to punt the ball away from midfield following a false start penalty, calling on his special teams unit to flip the field, his defense to get a quick stop and his offense to work with precision while cutting into the deficit — none of which happened.
Bryce Baringer sliced one off the side of his foot, netting just 21 total yards and completely flubbing the point of punting the ball away. Carlton Davis III got lost in coverage on a third-and-long and allowed Geno Smith to connect on a prayer to Dont’e Thornton Jr. Drake Maye couldn’t move the ball quick enough, which led to a field goal with just seconds remaining and a hopeless onside kick attempt.
The Raiders ultimately recovered and kneeled out the remainder of the clock…
Vrabel was asked about his decision postgame, and did everything but throw his players under the bus.
“We’d like a better punt. We had them stopped, and that was the plan, but it didn’t work,” Vrabel said, per team-provided video. “(The Raiders) hit one, and we just didn’t have enough time at the end to do anything. That was the decision that I thought was best for us at the time, and it didn’t work out. But situationally we’ll have to continue to improve…”
Vrabel was known for his clock management during his time with the Tennessee Titans, and this decision wasn’t nearly as poor as the execution on the backside — but he ultimately needs to blame for placing too much on a team that obviously isn’t capable.
It’ll take some time for them to get there, which the head coach should take into account next time he’s faced with a difficult choice.
