Vrabel’s in-game adjustments in snow prove critical in AFC Championship Game

Mike Vrabel has accomplished a ton in his first season as Patriots head coach, and one of the hallmarks of his staff has been their ability to adjust as games go along.

In Sunday's AFC Championship win over the Denver Broncos, Vrabel made perhaps the ultimate in-game adjustment: he took the game out of his players' hands entirely.

As snow battered Mile High Field over the course of the second half, it got to the point that it wasn't even worth trying to run plays. Rhamondre Stevenson practically faceplanted before he could even take a handoff, and Vrabel said that's enough of that. Stevenson ran into the line for one play, Drake Maye rolled out for a designed throwaway on third down, and the Patriots punted.

The strategy proved sound. The Broncos, needing to score, had no choice but to continue to try running actual plays. Quarterback Jarrett Stidham scrambled into field goal range on the next possession, but then the Patriots' Leonard Taylor III got a hand on Will Lutz's field goal try. The Patriots continued their "no plays" strategy, handing it to Stevenson three times for three glorified kneeldowns. Another punt, now with the Broncos having only about three minutes to get back on the scoreboard. And that's when Stidham heaved a desperation ball on second-and-10, and Christian Gonzalez made a redemptive interception to all-but seal the win.

The fourth quarter was the rarest of the rare. It became entirely about coaching and adjusting to the situation. Had Vrabel said eff the snow and tried to sling the ball down the field, there's no knowing whether the Patriots would have executed. Players play, and players win most of the time in the NFL, but the snowstorm revealed the importance of coaching across the league, and reminded fans why coaching matters, arguably more in that league than any other.

And perhaps even more importantly, the players had long bought in on Vrabel's message. Just sit on the ball? Run the clock out? No problem.

“I think that’s why you actually do this. You have to believe things, and sometimes before you can see them," Vrabel said. "When you have to believe that what you’re doing is the right thing and if it’s not, you have to recognize it and make adjustments and changes to the program and everything else. We’ve got a great group of guys and they continue to, again, believe in the things that we did. They formed and created an identity, and they tried to protect it.

"Then today was just another example of as things kind of change and unfold, our ability to adjust. [offensive coordinator] Josh [McDaniels] and [defensive play-caller] Zak [Kuhr] and [special teams coordinator] Jeremy [Springer] did a great job leading their units, and the players executed when they had to. I know there’s going to be a lot of questions about this and that and the other thing. We did enough to win the football game in tough conditions, and when we got that field goal, [the] defense [I was] talking to them and I said, ‘If they don’t score, it’s going to be hard for them to win the football game obviously.’ We took care of the ball, and then the five-minute drive when we were able to run it just enough and then came up with a big call there at the end of the game to seal it.”

The conditions were so bad that simply avoiding mistakes was impressive on its own. The coaching staff arguably won the game by calling a clean game. But the same can't be said for Broncos head coach Sean Payton, who is no doubt facing scrutiny over his decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 in the second quarter. Instead of attempting what would've been a 32-yard field goal, when the conditions were still relatively clear, Payton not only went for it but tried a rollout pass instead of a short-yardage running play. The Pats read it the whole way, and those three points obviously proved to make the difference in the game.

“Yes, it just felt like we had momentum to get up 14. It felt like we had a good call. What were we at yard-line-wise there? Yes, I think the feeling was, ‘Man, let’s be aggressive,"’ Payton said. To get up 14, I was just watching the way our defense was playing. Look the turnover on our end resulting in a touchdown, and outside of that, I thought we did a good job in containing them. There’ll be a number of things when we watch the tape I’ll look at. You know, critique and pay close attention to. But it was a hard-fought game, and we didn’t do enough to win it.”

Payton outcoaching Vrabel was the Broncos' only hope of winning the game in the first place, considering the circumstances at quarterback. Their head coach essentially lost them the game by coming up short in the decision-making and playcalling department.

Vrabel, meanwhile, has rebuilt the Patriots' culture in just one short, magical season. They may not ultimately hoist the Lombardi Trophy, as the Seattle Seahawks will be the best all-around team they've faced all season. But there's no questioning Vrabel's impact on them getting to that stage.