After a rocky start to the season, the New England Patriots seem to have gotten their feet under them, winning three games in a row to move to 4-2 on the season. Despite that, head coach Mike Vrabel still isn’t happy.
In particular, Vrabel is taking issue with the turnovers. He called them out on Monday as embarrassing during an appearance on The Greg Hill Show.
“We turn the ball over at a historic rate, and it’s ridiculous,” Vrabel said. “It’s an embarrassment.”
In Sunday’s win over the New York Jets, the Patriots lost two fumbles. That included a massive one from Pop Douglas, which gave the Jets a chance to comeback and win. After the game, Douglas knew he needed to be better, too.
“I’m sick,” Douglas said. “I can’t lie. I’m sick. That gonna haunt me…I just gotta stop doing too much.”
Just How Big of an Issue are Turnovers for the New England Patriots?
Turnovers were a major narrative for the New England Patriots in their 1-2 start to the season. In particular, as it related to quarterback Drake Maye. Now, the problem is still persisting.
The Patriots have turned the ball over 13 times in six games this season. That’s second-worst in the NFL. Only the winless Los Angeles Chargers are worse, having coughed it up 15 times. That winless record is more of what you’d expect with such a big turnover issue.
On defense, the Patriots have forced 7 turnovers this season. That’s tied for 17th in the NFL, or fairly middle of the pack. But, it does mean that their turnover differential of -6 is 30th in the NFL. It’s hard to win games that way.
If you were to divide the season into two halves of three games each, the Patriots committed 8 turnovers in their first three games and had 5 turnovers in the next three. So, there has been improvement. Not coincidentally, the Patriots started out 1-2 and have gone 3-0 since then.
Next Thursday should prove to be a major test against the Chicago Bears. They’ve forced 9 turnovers on the season, which is tied for eighth in the NFL.
Patriots QB Drake Maye Has Been Allowing Fewer Turnovers
After being the MVP runner-up a season ago, Drake Maye looked lost for the Patriots to open the season. Through four games, he had 7 interceptions, not to mention some very bad fumbles.
Since then, though, he’s cleaned things up a bit. That includes avoiding committing any turnovers himself in the last two weeks.
“I think trusting what I see on film, trusting what I’m communicating to guys in the huddle, what we’re doing in the passing game, what we’re trying to get into good run checks, trusting what Coach McDaniels is having our communication and our relationship,” Maye said on Sunday. “And then just trusting what I’m seeing. I feel like I’m seeing it well and trying to throw it to the open guy. I missed a few times today, and sometimes the one to pop missed high. A.J. [Brown] missed low a couple of times. So, I’ve got to do my part, and then from there let those guys run and make plays, and they were doing that today.”
That improvement from Maye is great. Still, Vrabel is right. The entire Patriots team needs to be better, and they need to be better for the rest of the season if they want to go back to the Super Bowl.
Why Patriots HC Mike Vrabel Says His Team Has Been Embarrassing Early in Season