Ahead of his first training camp as Patriots head coach in 2025, Mike Vrabel explained that he was judging his team’s performances by three distinct categories: the good, the bad, and the s—t that gets you beat. If Vrabel looks at his team through those specific categorizations, we shall follow his lead.
The New England Patriots have finally broken their five-year streak of losing their home opener. Hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers at Gillette Stadium in Week 2, they managed to outlast their opponent thanks to a stout defensive effort and an offensive display that did enough to secure the eventual victory.
With that all being said, let’s dive into our weekly breakdown of the good and the not-so-good from the 20-3 victory on Sunday.
The good: Big plays
No two game plans are alike, but there was a notable change in the Patriots offense’s ability to generate chunk plays between Weeks 1 and 2. After the longest play against the Seahawks went for just 19 yards, the unit had six plays longer than that versus the Steelers — including a 39-yard TreVeyon Henderson touchdown run and a 63-yard Drake Maye pass to Romeo Doubs that helped set up a field goal.
“We talked about creating X-plays offensively, you need great execution and extra effort,” said Vrabel on Sunday.
The Patriots got both versus the Steelers, and not just on offense. The defense also followed suit by creating some big plays of its own. Coordinator Zak Kuhr’s group registered its first two takeaways of the season, scoring a touchdown on an Elijah Ponder fumble recovery and later registering a red zone interception courtesy of fellow edge defender Gabe Jacas.
In the meantime, the unit managed to prevent Pittsburgh and star quarterback Aaron Rodgers from hitting any explosives of their own. A 26-yard catch-and-run in the fourth quarter was the Steelers’ only gain of 20-plus yards on Sunday.
The bad: Maintaining momentum
New England’s offensive performance on Sunday can best be summed up with one word: inconsistent. While Drake Maye and company did manage some big plays, they rarely were able to string together multiple positives to consistently keep the chains moving and put pressure on Pittsburgh.
For Vrabel, that was a definitive issue. Not just from a performance perspective, but also in terms of the urgency the Patriots showed.
“We have to be able to get into a rhythm,” he told WEEI on Monday. “We cannot have mistakes. Once you get to the red zone, negative plays are guaranteed field goals. We learned that. We’ve known that for a long time. The mindset that we want to create is when we make a positive play — like, we had a couple good runs in a row — we need to keep going.
“We need to be sprinting back into the huddle, we need to be sprinting out of the huddle to continue that momentum. Or we hit a big play down the field to [Doubs], and it’s like, ‘How do we get a delay of game?’ Guys, get back in the huddle. We want to celebrate, but we also we have to continue the drive and the momentum.”
The s—t that gets you beat: Ball security
We are probably not going out on too big a limb when we say that the Patriots very well could have won their season opener in Seattle if not for three consecutive interceptions in the fourth quarter. And while the result was a different one on Sunday, their ball security issues reared their ugly head again.
Rhamondre Stevenson, who had not fumbled the ball in 13 straight games entering Week 2, put the ball on the ground on the Patriots’ fourth play in the first quarter. The fourth play in the third quarter then saw Drake Maye throw an interception while unsuccessfully targeting a bracket-covered Hunter Henry.
Those two turnovers plus the three against the Seahawks means that New England now ranks tied for second-worst in the league in both giveaways (5) and turnover percentage per drive (25.0%).
Versus a Steelers team unable to capitalize, those issues were ultimately not consequential to the outcome of the game. Still, with games against the Jaguars and Bills coming up, the Patriots need to clean up their act.
“Those things are going to end up costing us,” said Vrabel on Sunday.
