The Patriots celebrated a 42-13 victory in Week 4.
The New England Patriots saw several noteworthy performances during their 42-13 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
Marcus Jones set a new single-game franchise record for punt return yards; Drake Maye had one of the best games of his career; Stefon Diggs posted his first 100-yard outing in almost two years; Christian Gonzalez made his season debut and looked good doing so. The game’s highlight reel is filled with them.
For Mike Vrabel, however, those are not the only players worth discussing. During his postgame press conference, he made sure to put the spotlight on those who had some under-the-radar contributions on Sunday.
Two players — defensive tackle Christian Barmore and wide receiver DeMario Douglas — were specifically named by New England’s head coach in what originally started as the answer to question about Diggs.
“If we can continue to believe in the quarterback that he’s going to throw to the guy who’s open in the progression, then good things will happen,” Vrabel said . “We get down there in the red zone, and everybody’s going to score. We’ve got plenty of plays down there. If everybody just stays the course and does the right things and does all the things that help the team, those plays are going to come for them in the red zone.
“It’s just like the defensive line. They want sacks, and they want all this. [Christian] Barmore is disrupting the quarterback, and he’s getting holding calls. I don’t want him to be frustrated, but I see those things. Pop Douglas would have liked to have a couple extra catches today, but he also turned and blocked and Hunter Henry ran down the sidelines.”
Statistically, neither Barmore nor Douglas stood out against the Panthers.
The former did not register a single tackle or sack, even though his five quarterback pressures led the team and allowed others to make plays. The latter, meanwhile, played a season-low eight snaps and besides not touching the ball was not even targeted by Drake Maye.
And yet, Vrabel made sure to recognize the roles that they played.
“Nobody’s going to say it unless I say it,” he explained. “Those are the things that matter, not the guy catching the touchdown. That’s the easy part. The hard part’s the guy that didn’t get the ball thrown to him that turns immediately and blocks his guy and we score from the 25-yard line.”
Category: General Sports
