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‘We played for Vrabes’: Patriots relished chance to exact revenge for their coach vs. Titans
“I don’t care what he said. We wanted to win this for him."
As clear-cut as the narrative was entering Sunday’s matchup against the Tennessee Titans, Mike Vrabel spent most of the last week downplaying any sort of talk of New England’s Week 7 bout being a “revenge game” on his account.
“We’re not trying to win one for the Gipper here,” Vrabel said earlier this week. “We’re just trying to make sure that these guys are focused on improving, and I think that they are. I think they’re locked in. And hopefully we can get them as prepared as we possibly can between now and Sunday.”
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Vrabel’s measured comments stood in stark contrast to the circumstances at play in Nissan Stadium.
Sunday marked Vrabel’s first game back in Tennessee after helping to usher in one of the more fruitful chapters in the Titans’ history — leading them to an AFC title game and two divisional titles over his six seasons at the helm.
The decision by Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk to fire Vrabel in January 2024 has aged poorly for the franchise — and stood as a godsend for a Patriots squad on the rise.
Since Vrabel was handed his pink slip, the Titans have won just four times over its last 24 games.
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And as cheers of “Vrabel! Vrabel!” cascaded down from the stands in Nashville, Vrabel made his way off the field victorious — having coached New England to its fifth win already this season.
As rewarding as it might have been for Vrabel to twist the knife against a now-rudderless Titans team that deemed him expendable, he once again stuck to the script after Sunday’s 31-13 victory went final.
“I didn’t get that many tickets,” Vrabel said when asked of the chants at the end of New England’s fourth-straight win. “I don’t know. But that’s neither here nor there. I’m happy for our players. I think these guys, they’re figuring out how to win. They’re figuring out how to practice. I guess it’s humbling to have these people want to — whoever that is — cheer for us. Whether that’s the Patriots, or Drake Maye, or me, or anybody else.”
While Vrabel didn’t add more kindling to the fire in regards to delivering misery against his former employer, that same sentiment wasn’t shared by his players.
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“I don’t care what he said. We wanted to win this for him,” Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs said of Vrabel to Zack Cox of the Boston Herald.
“That’s pretty cool,” quarterback Drake Maye added of the “Vrabel” chants down the stretch. “I think that’s always cool. He downplayed it all week, which we appreciate. He was focused on us and worried about us, and that’s what matters. But I know it feels good for him.”
Maye’s continued dominance (21-of-23, 222 yards, two touchdowns) once again played a key role in New England’s lopsided result against Tennessee.
But Vrabel’s steadying presence on a Patriots team that hasn’t won four-straight games since 2021 was also evident along the sideline in Nashville.
What was once thought to be an arduous rebuilding effort in Foxborough has accelerated in short order under Vrabel’s watch.
New England was buttoned up for a majority of Sunday’s matchup — committing just five penalties in the game, including zero in the first half.
And while Maye and Co. deserve plenty of credit for capitalizing on offense, Vrabel’s aggressiveness and confidence in his players also paid dividends on New England’s final TD of the afternoon.
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With New England staring at a 4th-and-1 from Tennessee’s 9-yard line, Vrabel opted for his team to go for it instead of settling for a field goal — with DeMario Douglas moving the chains of an athletic, one-handed snag.
“We played for Vrabes, no matter what,” Douglas said. “But we always play for Vrabes, and it felt good to get this win.”
Just one play later, Rhamondre Stevenson trudged into the end zone to make it a 24-13 game at the time. New England has now converted on nine fourth-down opportunities off of 11 attempts.
A win against a cellar-dwelling Titans team may not stand as any sort of season-defining result for a Patriots team holding onto first place in the AFC East.
But based on the commentary shared by Vrabel’s players, it’s evident that New England’s roster is fully bought into what their head coach is preaching — and are more than happy to dole out some vengeance on his behalf when the opportunity presented itself.
“All week, we obviously tried to emphasize it just being a regular game, regular week,” said edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson said. “But man, when you gain such a bond with your peers and obviously with your coach, they try not to make it more than it is to keep their guys level-headed, but you know that it’s personal for them, and we just want to play hard for them and give it everything we’ve got to make sure they come out on top and they the exact feeling that they would like to feel at the end of the game.
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“So, it definitely was some extra juice on the defensive end to make sure that our guys — anybody that came from this team or was a part of this organization — they got their revenge and they came out on top.”
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