New England Patriots cornerback Marcus Jones attempts to tackle Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Warren. Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

Patriots HC Gets Honest About Main Problem

Originally posted on New England Patriots on SI
By Jeremy Brener | Last updated Sep 22, 2025 9:00 AM ET

The New England Patriots are back in the loss column after falling 21-14 to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 3 at Gillette Stadium.

The loss was particularly brutal for head coach Mike Vrabel, who had a chance to face off against the team he was drafted by as a linebacker in 1997. He was particularly critical of the team's turnover woes.

"Obviously. We've known — we don't need to learn a lesson. We don't need to lose a football game to know that turnovers are very hard to overcome," Vrabel said. "They erase all the good things that you do. They take away momentum. They take away points, give them field position. We didn't need to turn it over as many times as we did to learn a lesson. I think we knew that before. It was very unfortunate."

While the Patriots are young, they are all professional football players. Vrabel has high expectations and he expects the team to know how to take care of the football. The four fumbles lost against the Steelers makes it hard to win football games.

"You know, ball security comes down to technique. It comes down to other people protecting the guy with the ball, second guy in," Vrabel said postgame.

"Those are all things that we continue to talk about, have talked about, and will talk about. And decision making. Decision making when you have the football in your hand, whether that's a quarterback, whether that's a player that's reaching it, and it gets knocked out. We'll watch the tape and we'll clearly address the ball security. We've got to move on. Fix it and move on."

Vrabel has a point. His team is filled with some of the best players in the world, but so are the other 31 teams in the league.

Competing against the best in the world is something that a lot of players on the roster haven't done in their careers, so there is a learning curve despite things being relatively simple. If you're on offense, score, take care of the football and don't give it to the other team. If you're on defense, make the right tackle, don't get beat by your man.

Vrabel wants to simplify the game for his players, but if it was easy, the Pats would be 3-0 right now. They are not, so they need to make the moves needed in order to get back in the win column.

This article first appeared on New England Patriots on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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