PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL

PRESS CONFERENCE
December 15, 2025

Q: The defense allowed touchdowns on five straight possessions. What do you have to do to get that unit back on track?

MV: Well, it's not just that unit. I think the one thing that we've done in victory has been to play very complementary, and I would say that to give the third-ranked offense the field position that they did is tough. It is tough. And, again, we have to play better defensively. We have to play much better. We have to play much better in all three phases to beat good football teams or beat anybody. So, again, we talked about getting the drive stopped. We talked about finding ways to create some turnovers, continue to hunt for turnovers, hammer, tip and try to have to knock it away from somebody, and then just figure out what we can do when they get down there to get the drive stopped. Had too many touchdowns on third down, and where we had some positive plays, had everybody in tune, playing well and getting a stop, and then giving up a touchdown on third down. So, that's a long answer to say that we are disappointed but not discouraged, and there's a lot of good snaps of defense, but not enough, and good snaps offense and not enough, and some good snaps of special teams, but not enough. Give them a lot of credit. We knew that they weren't going to go away. We weren't able to, ultimately, do enough there at the end of the game.

Q: They had a big advantage in terms of time of possession. Did you feel like the defense was fatigued at all?

MV: I mean, you just don't want to be out there that long against them and against a big offensive line that can kind of lean on you and wear on you. So, again, that's the complementary phase that we talked about. The best defense against a good offense is being able to possess the football, and we didn't do that. We didn't do that in the second half. We didn't put drives together. We didn't convert when we needed to.

Q: Mike, we really don't bring up special teams unless it's really good or probably really bad. The returns – even when you were doing well – the returns were there for Buffalo. Was it structural in looking at the plays? Did Buffalo do something?

MV: Well, there was a new scheme on the first one, and then after that I thought we did a nice job against the double team over there on the sideline after the first one. I thought Anfernee [Jennings] adjusted really well to that, made it cut back and we tackled it. And then there's like a fit here and a fit there, and if they – this is not an indictment on the officiating, I know what this is – and if they're going to grab you, they grab you like this, and we stand there head-to-head and nose-to-nose with them, that's not holding. It's not holding in this league, and I don't want it to be. And so, you have to do enough to cause restriction at the point of attack so that they see that, and it gives them a reason to consider throwing a flag. So, we have to understand that, we have to be able to shed and we have to be able to create restriction at the point of attack. We didn't do that, and so they blocked us, and we were content with that too many times.

Q: It was upsetting, but Rhamondre [Stevenson] had the penalty after a play.

MV: Yeah, that's a bad decision.

Q: What's the messaging to the team when things get chippy like that?

MV: That that's a bad decision. That's what I told them in the moment. That's what I'll tell them again at 12:30. There's nothing else. It's what it is. He made a good play, good positive play. I don't think they did anything wrong. He hit them at the sideline, stood there and we made a bad decision.

Q: It looked like there was a wrinkle where they had an offensive lineman lead blocking on one of the kick returns. Was that a wrinkle you were expecting, and does that change your approach at all when you have a big man in the game like that?

MV: Well, that's a copycat from earlier in the season. They hadn't shown that, but we have to be prepared for things that show up on tape and being able to adjust. Again, that's been a strength of ours on the kickoff coverage, and that was a strength of theirs coming in. We knew that that was going to be a challenge. A 98-yard touchdown against the Texans a few weeks ago, and we weren't good enough in that matchup.

Q: Mike, how unexpected was what happened with Robert [Spillane] in the pregame warm-up, or was that sort of part of the plan, just knowing what he was –

MV: Well, I mean, I just think it was just to see what we can get, see whether he was going to be able to do it or if he was going to be in an emergency role. There's not a lot of depth there outside of him, and could have had a few guys up, but didn't think that that was really going to make an impact on the game day roster. It felt like, whether it's the sixth outside linebacker, the sixth receiver, the fourth tight end or whatever it may have been, I just didn't feel like that that was going to make that much of a difference or a difference at all.

Q: Mike, with Milton [Williams] out – and obviously you guys have a nice rotation of players that have done a good job. You've mentioned Cory [Durden] repeatedly – but does more of a burden fall, or do you expect more from Christian Barmore in terms of his playing ability?

MV: Yeah, I mean, we expect that in this league – we've said this – that your best players have to play good for you to win, and we consider him one of our better players, just like our quarterback. We expect the quarterback's going to have to play good for us to win. Whoever we consider to be our best players, they have to play good in this league. That's what this thing comes down to. So, we'll continue to find ways to make production, get production and get stops, and show everybody the good ones and the things that we need to improve on.

Q: You talked about penalties this morning on the radio. I'm just curious, it did seem like some of the players also didn't agree with some of the calls. What's kind of your message to them to keep their head in the game?

MV: Yeah, there's nothing that we can do. They see what they see. They call it the best that they can. I'm confident in that. We have to know what it is that they're looking for to call penalties. They have mechanics that they're looking for, we have to understand that and we have to play to that. No more, no less. Officiating or the penalties weren't the reason that we lost the game.

Q: Mike, you guys talked about having a coordinated rush. Can you give us any insight as to what happened with the rush on the touchdown pass to [Dawson] Knox?

MV: Yeah, that wasn't coordinated. It wasn't coordinated, and it was not executed properly. Coverage wasn't executed properly, and unfortunately when you do that against a good player, they make you pay. Any mistakes that you make get magnified against an excellent quarterback.

Q: The two-minute drive at the end of the first half, any thought to be more aggressive there, or how much did just eating up the clock play into your decision?

MV: Well, I mean, we were trying to be aggressive. We were trying, and I don't think that it – I mean, we wanted to get going there, make sure that you get the first first down, and then you kind of get rolling. And then the decision, we had 23 seconds. I figured they were going to reverse that. Wanted to keep the timeout in case of an emergency. We were already in field goal range. I figured that we could use the timeout in case something happens. You get a 10-second runoff, all those things. I think it's important that you keep that timeout when you can. Went with that decision. I thought, with six seconds and one timeout, I thought that was very well executed for Rhamondre to break free there. I thought about taking a shot. And again, you just – is it 6.1 on the clock or is it 6.9? I would hate to look up there, have a go ball from the 30-yard line, look up, have it be zero and not one, and then look like an idiot. So, if it was 6.9, I would have taken a shot. If it was 6.1, I probably would have done what we did, if that makes any sense. For any of you that are interested in the technology of football, they have considered that. It came up a few years ago that I heard about having the NBA clock. This is where I think our fans would like it. I think the coaches would like it. Is there 11.9 and you don't have any timeouts, or is it 11.1? Can you get it clocked? So, that was the conversation that we had, if that's what you're referencing. But other than that, I felt like we did a good job trying to get down there. Drake [Maye] scrambled, got us 10 extra yards and ate up some time, but not a ton.

Q: Mike, on TreVeyon [Henderson]'s second touchdown run, we saw Drake sprinting down the field and throwing a block. I just want to know your reaction to that.

MV: I think it's great. I think it's great that he can run, first off. Drake wants to do anything that he can to help this football team. High-screened a guy – I don't think he needs to trip and fall. I don't think that was necessary. But I think he wants to do anything that he can do to help us win. That was good to see.

Q: On the final fourth down snap, is that a situation where you tip your cap because of the adjustment that Buffalo made, or was there something that could have been done better from an execution standpoint?

MV: Well, I mean, we didn't get off the release very good. We weren't able to throw the ball around a guy that was off spying, and that triggered. We just didn't execute. But yeah, somebody executed and somebody didn't. I thought we would take the ball, go down and score. I was confident in that. Wanted to be aggressive, didn't want to give them the ball back, and then figured if we could make them kick a field goal, if we didn't get it, we had all three timeouts, and we would need a miracle to go down there and get a touch. Not a miracle, but we would have needed to be really, really good to go down and get a touchdown to tie it up. And they got the first down.

Q: I'm just curious. Drake's been so accurate this year. Did you feel like the weather played into any inaccurate moments he may have had yesterday?

MV: No, I just think that these are decisions. You have to understand that there's going to be disguise and it's going to look differently post-snap, and being able to come off things and progress. He'll, I'm sure, tell you all those things. We'll be back, we'll coach it up and we'll get back to work.

Q: I was going to say, along those lines, just what did you see of the pass catchers and their ability to uncover. How much of that was disguise or the Bills doing a good job?

MV: We have to continue to run routes. Receivers have got a very unique job. We need them in the run game. You have to have them in the run game at some capacity when we run it. And then, when we throw it, they have to be able to recognize man or zone quickly. Talk about expecting man and reacting to zone. Some of those routes change based on man or zone. But their job is to get open and create separation or have great spacing. Their job isn't to decide if they get the ball thrown to them or not. I know that that's difficult, but for every time that somebody's open, there's usually a time where somebody's not later on in the game. So, there's a balance that you wage, and we're going to keep using everybody, we're going to keep trying to highlight their strengths and the things that they do well, and give the quarterback time to find those guys.