'Who’s willing to shed blood?' Hard coaching makes a comeback
“The best play you can run is to open up a can of whoop ass on somebody." That's how one captain puts it. These Patriots and Texans are old-school reflections of their coaches. (There will be blood.)
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — White strands of hair sprout from his thick beard, a sign of both wisdom and urgency. Morgan Moses fully understands the significance of Sunday afternoon. He has played in 189 pro games. He’s one of the rare starters on the New England Patriots to make it this far. It’d be easy for all players and all coaches here at 1 Patriots Place to hype up those “savages” coming to town.
That was Bill Belichick’s age-old strategy. He’d ramble on about a middle school two-hand touch team if that’s who his Patriots played next.
And, oh my, here come the murderous Houston Texans.
Mike Vrabel might’ve played for Belichick, but he’s not Belichick. He’s not leading this team from the same handbook. At his first press conference of the week, Vrabel was respectful of the visiting Texans. But not celebratory. It’s clear what chord this coach of the year candidate is trying to strike.
Moses is the right tackle tasked with blocking the Texans’ monstrous ends.
Bring up this defense’s trademark relentlessness and Moses hardly reacts.
“I mean, they’re like every football team out there now,” Moses says. “Right now, the stakes are high. You win or you go home. We see that every day from our defense. A bunch of guys that are willing to die for it. And we look forward to the challenge on Sunday.”
Vrabel’s approach is different.
Hell no, his Patriots do not plan on propping these Texans up as a deity.
“We put our pants on just like they put their pants on,” Moses continues. “And we look forward to a good challenge. We know they’re going to bring it. They’re riding high. They’re on a 10-game win streak. But that’s why football is the greatest sport in America because you’ve got to play football in between those lines every Sunday.”
Bring it, they will. You heard from those Texans heathens. Defensive coordinator Matt Burke warned all opponents: “You’re not getting a play off.” He knows opposing offensive linemen never leave the field, so he’s constantly shuttling fresh bodies into the game. He dares players like Moses to half-ass one snap because that one snap may wreck a game. All while linebacker E.J. Speed vows “It’s not safe out there!” and safety Calen Bullock promises “We’re going to make you hurt after the game” and cornerback Kamari Lassiter declares football “was always intended to be violent” and captain Azeez Al-Shaair says, “You’re trying to embarrass me, I’m trying to embarrass you.”
The Pittsburgh Steelers held up fine for a while up front. By the fourth quarter? They caved. Aaron Rodgers was a human piñata.
Film that could plant a seed of fear in any offensive player’s mind.
Moses cuts in.
Moses insists these Patriots have the right mentality to handle this Texans defense.
“It’s what we built,” Moses adds. “It’s the identity we play with. We look forward to the challenge that they bring.”
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A trip to the AFC Championship Game is on the line. When these two clubs congregate at Gillette Stadium, expect profanity and pain and an extra shove after most whistles. It’ll look like these two teams hate each other as they dare officials to throw flags every play. Yet as body blows are exchanged through this prize fight, I suspect a mutual respect becomes inevitable. The Patriots and Texans will realize they’re made of the same exact stuff. Both teams are coached by former NFL linebackers. Both share the same origin story.
Winter football is the direct result of summer attrition.
Moses can speak confidently — everyone can — because both New England and Houston are the product of hard coaching.
When DeMeco Ryans took over the Texans, he made the code of conduct clear. In team meetings, he’d replay laziness up on the projector screen and tell the guilty player that if that’s how they want to practice, they’re welcomed to leave. It’s unacceptable.
When Vrabel took over the Patriots, he relayed the same message to players. Vets recall the new coach pulling players aside to say he’ll help them find a new team if this new world’s too much.
Those who couldn’t hack it on either roster are now sipping margaritas in Cabo.
There’s a propensity for all of us bald middle-aged men to bemoan a younger generation that gets whatever it wants with one tap of an iPhone button: food, a ride, a date.
But that’s the beauty of football. What was true in 1966 is true in 2026: hard coaching creates hardened teams. There are no buttons to press during a 90-degree training camp practice. Coaches who are willing to test Gen Z athletes are reaping the rewards. Ryans is a soft-spoken gentleman during his press conferences. In the film room, zero punches are pulled. In New England, players know there’s no scrolling on their phones. In Jacksonville, Liam Coen pushed Trevor Lawrence. And, as we reported, No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams was not receptive to coaching as a rookie. Ben Johnson arrived. Johnson, we’re told, was aware of everything we reported in “House of Dysfunction” before accepting the job. From Day 1, Johnson made the stakes clear to his new QB: He needed to get on board. Williams responded.
It’s a balance. Drill sergeants are dinosaurs. Mike Zimmer’s schtick got old fast. But over-the-top praise can also backfire. When Mike McDaniel was hired in Miami, he spliced up a 700-play highlight reel for his broken quarterback and the getting was good for a while with Tua Tagovailoa. He torched defenses. McDaniel’s quirky style was a breath of fresh air — still is, too. He deserves a second opportunity. Coaching with such exceptional positivity, however, comes with inherent blind spots. The Dolphins refused to fully account for Tagovailoa’s physical limitations, paid him $167 million guaranteed and everybody’s been fired.
Emotional sensitivities must be checked at security in Foxborough.
The result is a team that doesn’t wilt toward the end of a 60-minute game.
Don’t dismiss New England’s 15-3 record because of a historically inferior schedule. This may be the second-easiest schedule for any team in the 21st century. But they did not merely squeak by these teams — New England put belt to ass. Carolina by 29. Tennessee by 18. Cleveland by 19. New York Giants by 18. New York Jets by 32. Miami by 28. The ‘99 St. Louis Rams played a similar schedule, the second-easiest since the NFL-AFL merger. It didn’t matter for the “Greatest Show on Turf.” Into the postseason, they displayed the necessary mettle in gritty wins over Tampa Bay and Tennessee.
Will the Patriots?
Vrabel and Ryans rammed into NFL offenses a combined 369 games over 24 seasons. Up close, Moses sees a Patriots team that’s a total reflection of their coach’s play style. Young players. Old players. Two wins from a Super Bowl, this a group that has bought into their coach’s messaging. The same coach, remember, who demanded players pick up their filthy wash cloths off the shower floor.
“What we built here?” Moses says. “There’s no Houdini special thing to it. It’s us being us and us growing as men.”
Rebuilds usually take a full season or two but — with a license to spend — these Patriots spent $282 million on vets who’d not only accept Vrabel’s coaching but serve as stewards through the locker room. Into OTAs and camp, the Patriots whittled their 90-man roster down to a crew equipped for a playoff game like this. Moses credits the rookie class. Left tackle Will Campbell (783 snaps) and left guard Jared Wilson (785 snaps) have settled in. “I won’t tell ‘em,” says Moses, “but they’ve turned themselves into some pretty damn good football players.” The other three linemen up front are vets.
To Moses, this blend is the key. Patriots GM Eliot Wolf identifies players of all ages who fit Vrabel’s mold.
Moses turns 35 years old in March. He’s the oldest player on the roster.
Nobody’s safe in the film room.
“It’s about being able to accept that challenge,” he says, “without being a punk about it, and saying, ‘Oh, why is he pointing me out?’ It’s knowing, ‘Alright, this is something I can fine tune and be better at.’ You just take it as a challenge. That’s what you want. You want guys that will be able to take coaching well and make those changes and not make those same mistakes four or five times over.”
Brenden Schooler, a team captain, is one of the rare players who experienced Belichick, Jerod Mayo and Vrabel. The special teams ace makes a distinction. Yes, the Gen Z athlete may not enjoy being torn to shreds. But from May OTAs to January Football, the Patriots understand Vrabel is coaching the “position,” not the “player.”
“The rah-rah yelling?” Schooler says. “It’s not fun. Obviously. No one enjoys that. But being able to look at it as a professional and be like, ‘I’m being coached. If he wasn’t doing this to me — and he wasn’t coaching me — that would be more of an issue than him coaching me hard.’ I’d rather be coached hard than not coached at all.”
Schooler’s father is a football coach. He always told his son that the second a coach stops ripping him, he should be worried. It means the coach stopped caring.
There’s a scary inverse to this all. The much, much worse feeling is screwing up on gameday — making a mistake that costs your team — and wishing you had been coached hard back in camp, wishing you were prepared for that specific moment.
A coach may be in your earhole on the practice field, but that coach is saving you from future humiliation on an onside kick recovery, a fourth down in the red zone, pick your pressure-packed moment with millions of people watching.
As wins accumulate, players naturally yearn more answers.
“It’s holding each other accountable,” Schooler says. “Coaches to players, players to coaches. Everybody’s held accountable. Everybody’s got the same goal. So there shouldn’t be a division, there shouldn’t be ‘it’s us vs. them.’ It’s us vs. the world. There should be no division within the locker room. Coach Vrabel has done a great job of being a leader and doing it through action than just being up there talking about it and not doing it.”
Adds Moses: “We just want to be great. You understand he’s not getting on me just to get on me. He’s getting on me because he wants me to be the best that I can be.”
Josh McDaniels’ return to New England made too much sense. He coaches with the same hyper-competitiveness.
A source told us once that, as the Raiders head coach, he’d berate players in meetings. You can only imagine how hard McDaniels is on his quarterbacks day to day. Before I even finished my question, No. 2 QB Joshua Dobbs interjected: “Isn’t that what you want?” There’s a gameplan and McDaniels sticks to it. All answers to all potential questions on Sunday are presented. As a young player with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dobbs lived the opposite. Ben Roethlisberger ran the show and he felt stranded to learn the position on his own.
Here, Drake Maye is challenged daily. After completing 72 percent of his passes for 4,397 yards with 35 total touchdowns, he may now win the MVP award in Year 2 as a pro. In Chicago, Johnson made it very clear, very early how he wanted Williams to work. He held his quarterback to the same standard as everyone else — as interim coach Thomas Brown tried in ’24 — and Williams admitted their relationship was fragile. (“Like, gee, this dude, doesn’t seem like he likes me.”) On the strength of a smashmouth rushing attack and a turnover-crazed defense, the Bears strung together one miracle win after another and the former No. 1 pick was able to develop at a steady rate. Now, he’s fresh off a 361-yard playoff debut. Chicago hosts the Los Angeles Rams in this divisional round.
Eight months in, the Patriots know they put in the work. So, why show any fear whatsoever? They’ll let everyone else paint the Texans defense as some big, bad wolf.
One rookie receiver tasked with escaping the grips of Lassiter, Derek Stingley Jr. and the Houston secondary also does not appear fazed one bit.
Kyle Williams assures he has heard allll about this indomitable D.
“I feel like it’s a really good defense,” he says, “and our plan is not to play Sunday on their terms. We want to play the game on our terms and manage the game how we like to manage the game. It’s a great defense, but every defense has voids you can exploit and that’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
Oh, to be a fly on the wall behind the scenes in these offices. McDaniels helped Tom Brady decode defenses in the playoffs, and now he’s doing the same for Maye. Williams says the Patriots won’t force anything. If they need to operate at a slow pace offensively, they will. If they need to “come out slingin’ hot,” they will. Consider this Maye’s first great challenge as an NFL star. The QB knows what to expect whenever he decides to run, saying these linebackers — hello, Azeez Al-Shaair — “try to take your head off.”
Everyone’s deriving plenty of confidence from their 23-year-old quarterback.
“A competitor, A dog. Great teammate, great leader,” Williams says. “Everything you would want in a QB, he has it.”
This week, Vrabel stressed to players that 24 teams are sitting at home. When he asked how many players made it to this point last season, only ex-Eagles D-Tackle Milton Williams raised his hand. Those 24 teams are home for a reason.
Here’s an absurd stat from my former colleague at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Rob Reischel. The odds of the Green Bay Packers blowing their three double-digit leads to Cleveland and Chicago (twice) were 1 in 250,000. Yes, one in a quarter-million. The Packers led the Browns 10-0 with 3:45 remaining, then held 16-6 (2:05) and 27-16 (4:55) leads late against the Bears before self-destructing. Blame the head coach. Blame the general manager. Blame the players themselves. Meltdowns to this extreme expose a dearth of football character. Understandably, Packers players struggled to articulate why they fell apart. “That shit,” safety Javon Bullard admitted, “it’s starting to get damn-near embarrassing.”
One word came up often in Green Bay — strain. Players know they’ve got to strain through the longevity of the play.
Collapses also tend to begin with one third-and-2 or fourth-and-1 blunder in the trenches.
Offenses get cute, soften up and are bullied in the trenches.
Even these Patriots bellyflopped in such situations through 20-13 (Raiders) and 21-14 (Steelers) September defeats. In truth? Schooler notes that there’s only so many plays an offense can run on third and short. We all tend to make football more complicated than it is. That’s why Vrabel loves to cite one specific play that can work in such a predicament.
“The best play you can run,” Schooler says, “is to open up a can of whoop ass on somebody and go win. That is a play in itself. So to have these guys bought into the identity that Coach Vrabel wants for the team — and to really struggle early on in the season — was a big wake-up call for us and once we started hitting our stride and guys started looking around and believing what we can do. That’s when we really hit our stride. After that, it was, ‘We don’t need anybody else, we just need whoever’s in this locker room, whoever’s going to step in-between the white with us.’”
Schooler believes everything starts — first — with finding fighters.
This gives you a chance. This is exactly what both of these teams accomplished in the offseason. In New England’s 16-3 wild card win over the Chargers, there was Vrabel bloodying his lip after a mini head-butt with Milton Williams, the team’s top free-agent prize.
Everyone gets paid. Everyone can make plays. Sunday will boil down to which team is capable of opening that can of whoop ass in the fourth quarter.
“The biggest separation when two teams are super even is who’s willing to go the distance?” Schooler says. “Who’s willing to go for the guy next to him? Who’s willing to shed blood for the guy next to him and who’s willing to — if they must — run into a wall so somebody else can make the play? You might not be the guy who’s getting all the highlights and his name in the paper, but the people who are in the building, who matter, they’re going to see it and they’re going to know. So I think when you get two really good teams, it’s who’s willing to go the distance and who’s willing to put their identity on the line.
“Not just yourself, but the guy next to you.”
He pauses.
“Especially when you’re two wins away from the Super Bowl. Why not?”
Great stuff.
Can't believe LaFleur survived those meltdowns.
Cignetti at Indiana has the same mindset as Vrabel.