If you’re looking for sources of frustration from the Patriots‘ 21-14 loss to the Steelers in Week 3 on their home field, there is no shortage of candidates to pick from. Five turnovers in a game in which you still have a chance to win has that effect.
But probably no frustration, with a day to process what happened on Sunday, looms greater than what happened just before halftime, when the Patriots had shaken off a 14-0 deficit to cut the lead to 14-7 and drove the ball to the Steelers’ 2-yard line for a first-and-goal. There, though, the Patriots ran three passing plays, the last of which ended with a Drake Maye interception int eh end zone.
As he has done since becoming the coach back in January, Mike Vrabel was pretty hard on Maye after having watched the play. On WEEI in Boston on Monday morning, Vrabel was asked whether the throw should have been to the pylon.
“It shouldn’t have been a flat one,” Vrabel said. “Obviously, just having an idea of where that guy is and being able to put some air under it. Those are things we have to be able to see. Get the spacing that we need and be able to keep it out of harm’s way.”
Drake Maye ‘Could Have Gave Him a Different Ball’
Frustration with the play stems from the fact that Kayshon Boutte, who has been the Patriots’ top receiver, was free heading into the corer of the end zone. As Vrabel said, Maye tried to zip the ball to Boutte, allowing Steelers lineman Cam Heyward to get a finger on it and giving defensive back Brandin Echols the chance to slide back into the passing lane for the INT.
Maye, certainly, was frustrated by it.
“I had Boutte,” he said. “I fired in there and I think 97 got a hand on it, and just kind of took it a different route. It was a good play by him, but yeah, I think I could have gave him a different ball flight, I think in the back corner of the end zone for a touchdown. Like I said, just one of those things that stings. I was thinking about it all halftime. Just got to move on.”
Patriots Testing Their Resiliency Too Much
One of the positives, it was suggested to Vrabel, is that the Patriots and Maye showed the resiliency to come back from that miscue and still tie the game up in the second half. Vrabel conceded the point. But he suggested that the Patriots might be better off not testing their resiliency quite so often.
“Those are good qualities but we can’t keep testing it over and over and over again,” Vrabel said. “I do appreciate the resiliency of him and this football team and our ability to continue to fight and continue to stay in it and compete. It just has to be cleaner so we’re not always in that situation.”
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