For the Patriots, it might be easy to forget, now that the team has racked up six straight wins and holds the No. 2 overall seed in the AFC at 7-2, that this very same franchise is coming off back-to-back years of 4-13 football. We are not yet at Week 10, and New England is within one win of not only matching last year’s win total, but matching the total for the past two years.
So it’s a bit of a head-scratcher when the team’s current perch among the best teams in the league, even after the unsightly second half of Sunday’s 24-23 win over the Falcons, in which New England scored just three points in the final two quarters, comes under question as being largely undeserved because of the softness of the Pats’ schedule.
The combined record of the Patriots‘ opponents is, at this point, 27-49. But when coach Mike Vrabel was asked about the schedule on Monday morning on his weekly appearance on “The Greg Hill Show” in Boston, he was clearly annoyed by the question.
Mike Vrabel: ‘That’s Just Mind-Boggling to Me’
Said Vrabel: “You want me to comment on the schedule, or you want me to comment on my message to the team? What are you trying to say? You’re working a lot into there. Is that the national perspective, or is that –I can only coach one team at a time. I don’t make the schedule. Every team beats every [team], you know what I mean? Like, that’s just mind boggling to me, in the National Football League, that there be strength of schedule.”
And, he pointed out, every team is operating with the same financial and draft constrictions, while also expressing his annoyance with Chris Curtis, the Boston radio personality who asked the question.
“You got a salary cap. Everybody spends the same amount of money. So you guys know in this league, that that doesn’t really mean anything,” Vrabel said. “I love your little smirk over there. You know, like, you come up with this question and you want to ask me about the strength of schedule and my message.”
Patriots Have Logged Some Big Wins
Again, it should be pointed out that the Packers, for example, have lost to the Browns and Panthers, two teams the Patriots beat. There’s also a sterling win in Buffalo in Week 4.
Vrabel has been consistent in the things he tells Boston media when he is asked about his message to Patriots players. He repeated that on Monday.
“It’s that we have to put everything that we have into each week, that everybody has to prepare as a starter,” Vrabel said. “I love our practices and the way that we compete, and then you go and play the game. And, you know, to see the talent that Atlanta had. That’s a talented football team. How many first round picks? I don’t know, 10 or 12 on the roster? Good skill players. So I’m never gonna apologize for our guys winning.
“Now, we have to play better. We took that nap at the end of the first half. … We have to play better.”
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