The New England Patriots lost a tough game to the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday, 21-14. It was a winnable one for Mike Vrabel and his Pats, but some mistakes were too big to come back from. Most notably, they turned the ball over five times, including four fumbles in a nightmare of a contest.
Advertisement
Perhaps the most painful thing for Patriots fans is that they clearly outplayed the Steelers. They held them to just 203 yards of offense while putting up over 350 yards themselves. But a stretch of four turnovers in the span of five drives kept Pittsburgh in it long enough to steal the game with a late fourth-quarter touchdown. Vrabel must be fuming over the result.
When NFL analyst Mike Florio got around to analyzing the game, he talked about the Steelers’ opportunism despite being outplayed.
“The Patriots outplayed the Steelers, but the Steelers were opportunistic. 5 turnovers. Cam Heyward told me afterwards that they were very aware of the career fumbles on that side of the ball,” Florio revealed on ProFootballTalk.
The player in question, who was prone to fumbling, was none other than Rhamondre Stevenson. The Patriots’ running back went into yesterday with 14 career fumbles. He came out of it with 16. That’s right, Stevenson not only fumbled once, but twice. One led directly to a touchdown, and the other came on the Steelers’ 2-yard line.
Florio’s co-host, Chris Simms, naturally echoed the same sentiments.
“They clearly outplayed the Steelers. I mean, the Patriots, Mike Vrabel, he must’ve had his head in the toilet bowl last night and this morning. How could he not? You gotta be sick after that one,” Simms said
It’s not just how Vrabel probably feels this morning, but many New England fans. When you lay it all out, it was a game that they should have been winning 9 times out of 10. But because of their youth, they lacked the composure to navigate the turnovers.
Simms then went in-depth on specific moments when Vrabel’s Patriots could’ve maintained control.
“There was so many opportunities. They controlled the football game. They gave the Steelers a short field with the early Rhamondre Stevenson fumble. Then, we had one good drive by the Pittsburgh Steelers. I’m telling you, after that, 13:49 left in the second quarter, they couldn’t do anything on the offensive side of the ball… But the Patriots kept messing it up,” Simms stated.
They’re hard sentiments to disagree with. Vrabel and his defense looked up to snuff when it came to stopping Aaron Rodgers. On the offensive side of the ball, they were moving the chains, but they just couldn’t find a way to punch it in for touchdowns, turning the ball over twice near the goal line. Because of this, they didn’t win the football game. And quite frankly, they didn’t deserve to.
We’ll see if Vrabel can correct these inadequacies in Week 4 against the Carolina Panthers. But being a defensive-minded coach, he probably doesn’t have all the answers when it comes to fixing the issues. Now, he needs to rely on his offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, to iron out any kinks in the system.
