FOXBORO — Mike Vrabel was not pleased with the officiating in his team’s Week 2 win at Miami.
During his Monday morning appearance on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show,” the Patriots head coach took issue with multiple calls that went against New England in its 33-27 win over the Miami Dolphins.
Specifically, he was unhappy that a 23-yard third-quarter completion to Jaylen Waddle was not overturned following a coach’s challenge.
“Tough day, I guess,” Vrabel said. “We know how this thing goes. It goes (to) New York, and there’s one guy looking at three games, and there’s one guy looking at another three games. And they could tell us what they want, but for it to be expedited was shocking. I’m OK losing a challenge, but give me the courtesy of taking a look at it in the two-minute window.”
Vrabel believed Waddle “didn’t survive the ground.” CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore said the same on the game broadcast.
“Like, we know what the rule is,” Vrabel said. “He’s going to the ground. It wasn’t like he had made a third step and completed it and it came off his body. It came loose. So we’ll keep swinging. We have a good feel for how these things go in replay. But again, judgment.”
Vrabel also contested some of the flags thrown by first-year referee Alex Kemp’s crew. He said rookie left tackle Will Campbell “didn’t move” on his first-quarter false start and implied that edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson should have been warned before he was hit with a penalty for defensive offsides.
“I’m not going to go through the crew and the guy that — it’s his first year, and they made some good calls,” Vrabel said. “I’m sure that there’s ones that they’d like to have back. And we tell (our players) going in, ‘This crew, Dana over there, he calls the line of scrimmage tight.’ And if he thinks that (Chaisson) is lined up in the neutral zone, and he’s not going to warn him, and he’s just going to go throw the flag — I guarantee next week, all around the league, there’s guys that are three inches in the neutral zone, and they tell them the next play, ‘Hey, back up or I’m gonna flag you.’ That’s how this goes.”
The Patriots were called for 12 penalties for 75 yards in the win, with Miami flagged 10 times for 65 yards. New England’s 20 accepted penalties this season are its most through two games since 2014.
Though he stressed the need for cleaner football, Vrabel said he cares less about penalties than he did earlier in his coaching career, calling them “probably a bad predictor for win rate.”
“I’d focus on quarterback rating, turnovers and rushing margin, and we won all three of those,” he said.
