FOXBOROUGH — When a team scores 42 points, there are plenty of players that light up the stat sheet.
That was certainly true of the Patriots’ 42-13 win over the Panthers, but Mike Vrabel detoured in his postgame press conference to single out a pair of unheralded players.
Asked about production from Stefon Diggs, who caught six passes for 101 yards, the coach said that was Drake Maye throwing to the open receiver. In his response, Vrabel pointed to Pop Douglas and Christian Barmore doing things that lead to victories but aren’t found in a box score.
“(It’s) just where the ball is going,” Vrabel said. “Stef and everyone has done a nice job. If we can continue to believe in the quarterback that he’s going to throw to the guy who’s open in the progression, then good things will happen. We get down there in the red zone, and everybody’s going to score. We’ve got plenty of plays down there. If everybody just stays the course and does the right things and does all the things that helps the team, that those plays are going to come for them in the red zone.
“It’s just like the defensive line,” Vrabel continued. “They want sacks, and they want all this. Barmore is disrupting the quarterback, and he’s getting holding calls. I don’t want him to be frustrated, but I see those things. Pop Douglas would have liked to have a couple extra catches today, but he also turned and blocked (as) Hunter Henry ran down the sidelines. Nobody’s going to say it unless I say it. So those are the things that matter, not the guy catching the touchdown. That’s the easy part. The hard part’s the guy that didn’t get the ball thrown to him that turns immediately and blocks his guy and we score from the 25-yard line.”
Douglas finished without a catch and Barmore finished without a tackle, but both players left Gillette Stadium with Vrabel’s approval on Sunday.
Story by Chris Mason, masslive.com
