Unfortunately, fumble troubles are nothing new for the New England Patriots‘ starting running back, Rhamondre Stevenson. Stevenson lost a team high six fumbles last season. His fumble troubles landed him in previous head coach Jerrod Mayo’s doghouse, with his playing time suffering because of it. However, new lead man Mike Vrabel says that will not be the case this time around.
“We have different packages. I don’t know what the first package is, but if you’re asking me if Rhamondre is on some sort of discipline, no,” head coach Mike Vrabel said. “The discipline is we need our best players to play in a game and do their job and take care of football. And we all have to do that.
In his defense, Mondre wasn’t the only Patriot to put the pill on the turf Sunday. The team turned it over five times in the seven point loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. In fact, the team did not punt after the first quarter. Every drive ended on either a touchdown or turnover.
For that reason Vrabel says it is a team issue, not an individual one.
“Drake [Maye] had an interception and a fumble [against the Steelers]. We’re not going to play Josh [Dobbs] right now,” Vrabel continued.
The focus this week is on improvement, not punishment.
“We have to fix those things, the people around them have to be better, and I’m confident that we will,” Vrabel said. “I’m not going to talk about the alternative. I’ll go down that road later, but those are things that we have to get fixed, but we also have to do good things with the football, make people miss, make yards and catch it and block when they blitz.
“So, we’re confident that those guys can do that.”
Rhamondre Stevenson Appreciates The Bode Of Confidence
There are many ways to win over a locker room. But the quickest one is to show them you trust them. After a week where it would’ve been easy for coach Vrabel to go scorched Earth on the fifth-year back, the head coach used his media availability to make his expectations known while setting his sights on the future.
This was a move that Stevenson appreciated.
“The main thing is still the main thing. I still have to take care of the ball,” Stevenson said as quoted by Karen Guregian. “I’m glad (Vrabel) still trusts me in a way. My teammates trust me in a way. But it’s up to me to have 100 percent ball security from here on out.”
Expect A Big Week From These Running Backs
As mentioned, Rahmondre wasn’t the only one with butter fingers on Sunday. Fellow running back Antonio Gibson also turned the rock over.
It was rookie TreVeyon Henderson getting all the touches after that third fumble, and his reps weren’t particularly moving. He finished with just 28 yards on 11 carries.
The whole team was put through ball security circuits this week, and Stevenson says his running back room will be better.
“I think I had a great week of practice,” he said. “I was intentional with a lot of things this week. I feel like as a running back room as a whole, we had a good week of practice.”
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