💥 BREAKING NEWS: The Patriots are suddenly playing with a ruthless edge that proves Mike Vrabel’s identity has taken over the entire franchise ⚡. DH
New England’s first-place team has characteristics of the coach’s old teams in Tennessee. Plus, notes on Abdul Carter, the Cowboys’ offensive line and more.
New England PatriotsEmpty heading
There are a lot of things that can be said about the Patriots coming out of Monday’s 33–15 rout of the Giants. Many of them are different from what you might’ve said in August.
But one thing, as I see it anyway, has been consistent going all the way back to the summer. The reality, too, is that it’s consistent with what you saw over six years from the Titans. And that’s Mike Vrabel’s teams have an unmistakable playing style.
All things aren’t equal, of course. Drake Maye and Ryan Tannehill are different, as are TreVeyon Henderson and Derrick Henry, or Will Campbell and Taylor Lewan, or Milton Williams and Jeffery Simmons. How all-in all those guys are/were playing for Vrabel, though, is a clear and present commonality—and became even more clear Monday, with the Patriots, who’ve had great injury luck in 2025, playing without Williams and Campbell.
New England was fast and physical from the jump, immediately putting the Giants in a chase position. A long kickoff return gave the Patriots’ offense its first possession near midfield, without far to go to get in field goal range. Then, the special teams struck again, with Marcus Jones’s 94-yard punt return touchdown. A three-and-out punctuated by a borderline-but-statement-making hit by Christian Elliss on Jaxson Dart followed that. And the offense then took advantage of a short field created by a shanked punt to make it 17–0.
The Patriots, at that point, had run just 16 plays and scored three times, putting a two-win team with a rookie quarterback into that three-score hole. The game was, effectively, over.
Every cylinder was firing, and that, above talent, is culture. What every player or coach who’s played against the Patriots will tell you is that they play smart, fast and physical, like Vrabel’s teams in Tennessee. And if you talk to those guys who are on the other side of that fence, that are in it with Vrabel, they’ll tell you that’s no mistake.
Three years ago, NFL Films captured video of Vrabel greeting Titans center Ben Jones in the tunnel, after Jones played through a significant knee injury (he’d been unable to stand in the huddle at one point, yet missed only one play). The coach, in tears, hugged Jones and said, “I never seen anything like it. I have never seen anything like it. I love you like my f—ing own.” The clip went viral. A lot of people may have forgotten about it.
But that moment is the crux of what Vrabel builds. He’s in it—genuinely in it—with the people he works with. That’s why coaches such as Shane Bowen, Zak Kuhr and John Streicher have followed him, going all the way back to his start as a coach at Ohio State under Luke Fickell and Urban Meyer. It’s why players such as Harold Landry III, Robert Spillane and Jack Gibbens have come with him to Foxborough. It’s why there are still people in Tennessee loyal to him.
It sounds corny, but it goes deeper than football, too—with how he knows the names of the kids of his staffers and players, and how he’s there when people need him most (like he has been for DC Terrell Williams in his cancer battle this fall, or like he has been for dozens of NFL people when they get fired, or are going through things like Williams).
As I see it, the reciprocation of that is what you saw on the field Monday night.
It’s a team that plays with its hair on fire, maximizes its talent, follows its coaching and is a pain in the ass to face in just about every way. It’s happened fast, too, and that’s a good example of how on board everyone in that facility is with what Vrabel’s trying to build.
Again, maybe this is corny, but the Patriots are selling out for Vrabel, mostly because they know he’s doing the same for them.
