It wasn’t their prettiest performance of the season, but the New England Patriots improved to 7-2 with a 24-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
Following back-to-back blowout victories, the Patriots faced a steeper test in Week 9. They committed two turnovers and nearly watched a 14-point lead evaporate, but former New England kicker Parker Romo missed a potential game-tying extra point in the fourth quarter.
Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel addressed the rocky performance in his post-game press conference.
“It’s a funny league,” Vrabel said. “We’re gonna learn from winning so that we don’t have to learn from losing.”
The Falcons caused a major swing in the first half’s final minute by recovering a Drake Maye fumble and scoring a touchdown. Vrabel had an unflattering assessment of that sequence before applauding his team for ultimately getting the job done.
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“We took a little nap, and they scored and made it a one-possession game,” Vrabel told reporters. “Give them a lot of credit, but give our guys credit for finishing and coming up big when we had to in the fourth quarter.”
The Falcons ended all three red-zone visits with a Michael Penix Jr. touchdown pass to Drake London. New England entered Week 9 tied for the worst percentage (70.6) of touchdowns allowed on opposing red-zone appearances.
Vrabel identified New England’s goal-line defense as an area for improvement over the final eight games.
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“We had our spurts. We had our moments, but we got to clean up — take care of the football and be better defensively in the red zone,” Vrabel said. “That’s been our issue. We made some good plays down there, but we got to be better in the red zone.”
Vrabel wants his team to know that winning won’t be easy, and he’s moving on to a marquee Week 10 clash against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium.
“Get ready to go on the road,” Vrabel said. “Understand that that’s how it goes in the league sometimes. It’s tough. But don’t let anybody take away the joy of what we do.”
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