Patriots coach offers interesting response to whether December loss can be good thing

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Patriots coach offers interesting response to whether December loss can be good thing

Chris Mason · MassLive

Wed, Dec 17, 2025 ·

2 min read

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FOXBOROUGH — The Patriots had ripped off 10 straight victories before wilting in the second half against Buffalo last Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

After the game, some veteran players believed the loss presented a productive learning experience.

The Patriots are a relatively young team with a new nucleus that hadn’t faced much adversity down the stretch. Dropping the game to Buffalo could have presented a wake-up call about what it’ll take to win in the playoffs.

So how does Mike Vrabel feel about that — could a late-season loss actually be a good thing for his 11-3 Patriots?

“I would say that’s TBD,” Vrabel said. “I don’t know. It’s only depending on how you respond, how you prepare, how you practice and ultimately how you play. So, we’ll see. There’s a lot of good things in there and we’ll need all those things on Sunday night against this (Ravens) football team that’s 6-2 after their bye, and really coming off a big win last week. A dominant win.”

With a Sunday Night Football game in Baltimore as the litmus test, Vrabel said it’ll be a “huge challenge” to contain Lamar Jackson , and believes Baltimore has made significant strides on defense, too.

“Teams aren’t really running the ball on them, so they’re forcing a lot of these games to be one-dimensional,” Vrabel said. “Really good mix of veteran players and some youth. Really good interior players. I mean, they’re just big, [Travis] Jones and [John] Jenkins, and obviously they’ll rotate other guys through there, but it starts with those two. I think Kyle Hamilton is one of the best players in this league just from a versatility standpoint and what he can do at the line of scrimmage, covering. I mean, 34 career PBUs, 8 career sacks, plays nickel, plays safety, plays dime backer. So, the versatility there is impressive. The playmaking ability is impressive.”

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