The New England Patriots were ready to turn the page on their first joint practice with the Philadelphia Eagles almost immediately, but Mike Vrabel nonetheless made sure to hammer the point home. And not just that.
The second-year head coach actively challenged the team, and especially its defense, to come back stronger after what had been an uneven outing on Wednesday. Whatever **** ons he managed to push by doing so, it worked: New England's defense had a solid outing on Thursday.
For linebacker K.J. Britt, it all started with Vrabel's messaging and how it energized that side of the ball.
"We had energy today. It didn't matter who we played against today on defense," Britt explained. "We can win a lot of games with the energy we played [with] today. That started from Vrabel just challenging us earlier this morning, challenging us last night. Just the culture here, how everybody wants to play football. It's a football team."
How exactly Vrabel challenged his team, Britt was not willing to share.

#defense #energy