Mike Vrabel assesses Patriots defense, big hit on Jaxson Dart in primetime win

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Mike Vrabel assesses Patriots defense, big hit on Jaxson Dart in primetime win

Lauren Campbell · MassLive

Tue, Dec 2, 2025 ·

2 min read

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Despite being shorthanded on defense, the Patriots still looked physical in New England’s 33-15 win over the New York Giants on Monday night .

Christian Elliss , in particular, had two big hits. The first came on quarterback Jaxson Dart and the second on Gunner Olszewski — the latter of which knocked the kick returner from the game with a concussion.

The hits didn’t sit well with a lot of New York Media as well as Giants fans, with some saying the Patriots were head hunting during the game.

“If there’s a football guy, a player running down the sidelines, we’re gonna have to hit him,” coach Mike Vrabel said Tuesday during his weekly appearance on WEEI . “And (we) go through this every week on a Friday tape, and we put it on there. It’s whatever quarterback of the week, it happens twice a week. They’re over there prancing around, and you’re gonna get hit. And then we show that to Drake ( Maye ), and our defenders are being coached the same way.

“When I say, ‘We better not get cute over there by the sidelines, because this is legal,’ I turn around and tell the defense, ‘If this is happening, we need to try to knock the (expletive) out of them as legally as possible,’” he added .

Vrabel also added that he didn’t believe anyone was going for the heads of the Giants.

Dart running down the sidelines when Elliss knocked him out of bounds with a thunderous hit. The rookie quarterback acknowledged he was going to take hits due to the physical nature of the sport.

“I understand the question, but this is football,” Dart said after Monday’s game . “Like, I’m going to get hit if I’m in the pocket or outside the pocket. I feel like I played this way my whole entire life. It shouldn’t be any shocker to anybody if you followed along with my career. We’re not playing soccer out here. You’re going to get hit. Things happen. It’s just part of the game.”

The hit on Olzewski came as he was returning a kick. Marte Mapu hit him from one direction as Tomon Fox was blocking Elliss. But Fox directed Elliss into Olzewski, causing their helmets to collide.

“You never want to see someone go down like that,” Elliss said . “For us we were just trying to get the ball back for our offense and play hard.”

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