Cam Newton has been tough on the Patriots this season and called their success “fool’s gold” due to their strength of schedule.
Back when Mike Vrabel was playing for the Patriots, then-coach Bill Belichick might take some negative attention the team was getting and use it as motivation. But Vrabel, now that he’s a coach, doesn’t want to do things that way.
“What are we gonna do put Cam Newton clips up there?,” Vrabel said during his weekly appearance on WEEI. “We’d rather put our clips or the Bengals clips. I don’t think that’s even remotely close to how we should inspire our players to play better.”
Vrabel noted what Newton said wasn’t offensive.
“Nothing’s weird to me, because people can come on the radio or, you know what I mean?” Vrabel said. “It’s just (saying) things that get their attention. We are OK with that. I promise you, we were OK with it. Anything that anybody says, we are going to come to work. We’re going to focus on us. We’re going to try to improve, and we’re going to focus on the Bengals and going on the road, trying to get our 10th win. That’s all we’re going to focus on.
“Whatever it is, people are gonna have something to say which is great,” he later added. “They’re entitled to their opinion. What’s most important is what we do here and how we work.”
The Patriots are 9-2 and sit atop the AFC East standings. They’ve also won eight games in a row and have the 3-7 Cincinnati Bengals in Week 12.
There has been plenty of chatter regarding New England’s schedule — which is statistically one of the easiest in the NFL. It’s a narrative Vrabel doesn’t buy into.
“I can only coach one team at a time. I don’t make the schedule. Every team beats every (team),” he said during a different WEEI appearance. “That’s just mind-boggling to me, in the National Football League, that there be strength of schedule. You got a salary cap. Everybody spends the same amount of money. So you guys know in this league, that that doesn’t really mean anything.”
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