Mike Vrabel
Mike Vrabel
Michael George Vrabelis a former American football linebacker and current linebackers coach for the Houston Texans in the National Football League. He played college football at Ohio State University, where he earned consensus All-American honors. He was chosen by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the third round of the 1997 NFL Draft. He also played professionally for the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs. After spending three years coaching linebackers and defensive linemen at Ohio State, Vrabel joined the Texans...
ProfessionFootball Player
Date of Birth14 August 1975
CityAkron, OH
The Patriots have sort of become the measuring stick in the NFL, but that stick isn't very high right now.
When we went to the 4-3, I thought we gave them some problems. We're going to make changes every week on the fly. We've got a lot of different ways of being aggressive.
When we went to a 4-3, it gave them some problems. We're going to make changes every week -- between series and on the fly.
We got to 10 wins and I still think there are things we need to tighten up.
We'll find out ... as this season progresses. We've always had the ability to change things simply to give us the best chance to win. It's not done just to get a guy into the game.
You look over there and guys are warming up the whole game.
We do seem to be able to handle these situations pretty well.
We lost last week. We had to bounce back. It so happened it was the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Win, lose, win, lose . . . we've been doing that all year. We've got to start stringing a few of these together.
This will be a great test. It?s a division opponent, so there?s a lot of familiarity from the head coach right on down. This is a team that?s physical and has gone on the record as saying they want to play physical, dominate people and run the football, and it shows. They are doing that. It?s impressive, so it?s going to be a huge challenge.
It's always good to win, because a win in this league is worth a lot. We can play so much better than that. But this is our football team. No matter who's not here, this is it. The team we suited up tonight is the team we've got all year. We've got to accept that and get on with it.
If I stood here and I had eight sacks and four picks, something like that, then I could say, 'Well, some other guys need to step up.' That's not the case. We all have to play better. We all realize that. We've got the guys in here that can do it. Guys have proven that they can do it.