Despite committing five turnovers, the New England Patriots still had a chance at the end of Sunday’s game to at least force overtime against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Trailing 21-14, the Patriots were driving into Steelers territory in the game’s final minutes and wound up facing a decisive 4th & 1 at the Pittsburgh 28-yard line with 1:07 to go. Faced with a blitz, quarterback Drake Maye got the ball out quick to receiver DeMario Douglas. Unfortunately, Douglas caught the ball just short of the sticks and then proceeded to go backwards another yard while trying to juke a defender before getting tackled well short of the first down. Game over.
After the game, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel told reporters that while it was a bang-bang play, Douglas ultimately didn’t make the right decision on it. Vrabel expanded on that Monday morning when he joined The Greg Hill Show for his weekly Patriots Monday appearance. Listen to the full interview above.
“I think we just have to make a great decision,” Vrabel said. “We have to… you know, in those vice tackle situations, we've talked all along about knifing, about knowing where the sticks are. We had a couple examples, especially last week. We had some examples yesterday. You probably just have to be able to knife and get what you need and know where you're at and be able to get to the sticks. Those are tough to try to circle those guys up in that situation.”
Basically what Vrabel is saying is that instead of taking a step back and trying to juke a defender or two, Douglas needed to find the right angle to take to just dive forward for the half yard he needed once he made the catch.
Douglas tied for the team lead in receptions last season with 66, but has been used much less this year and is seemingly being phased out of the offense. After playing 63% of the offensive snaps in Week 1, he has played less than 40% of the snaps the last two weeks. For the season, he has just five catches on 13 targets for a mere 13 yards.
Sunday’s game-ending mistake probably isn’t going to help Douglas get any more involved moving forward.