New England Patriots
The Patriots lost four fumbles in their loss to the Steelers last week.
Rhamondre Stevenson won’t be disciplined for his two lost fumbles against the Steelers in Week 3, but the Patriots are still putting an emphasis on ball security ahead of Sunday’s matchup against the Panthers.
The Patriots had some focus on ball security in every practice period this week, The Athletic‘s Dianna Russini reported Saturday.
“They have been drilling it constantly,” Russini wrote. “Every practice period had some element of ball security, with ball carriers hammering on technique and everyone else hammering on protecting the guy with the ball. Now it just has to show up.”
Stevenson’s two fumbles only accounted for half of the Patriots’ lost fumbles in Week 3. Backup running back Antonio Gibson and quarterback Drake Maye each lost a fumble as well.
While those were the Patriots’ first four lost fumbles of the year, they entered Week 4 with the most lost fumbles in the league. Losing the ball on fumbles was also a problem last year, with Stevenson recording seven fumbles last year. Maye had even more with nine.
Despite Stevenson’s alarming number of fumbles, Vrabel told reporters that the running back wouldn’t be punished with a loss of playing time in Week 4.
“If you’re asking me if Rhamondre is on some sort of discipline, no,” Vrabel said on Friday. “The discipline is we need our best players to play in a game and do their job and take care of football. And we all have to do that. Drake had an interception and a fumble. We’re not going to play Josh [Dobbs] right now.”
Still, Vrabel recognized the importance of ball security.
“We have to fix those things, the people around them have to be better and I’m confident that we will. I’m not going to talk about the alternative,” Vrabel said. “I’ll go down that road later, but those are things that we have to get fixed, but we also have to do good things with the football, make people miss, make yards and catch it and block when they blitz. So, we’re confident that those guys can do that.”
The Patriots’ turnovers wound up swinging the game in the Steelers’ favor last week. Not only did New England commit four more turnovers, but it also outgained Pittsburgh by 166 yards.
New England’s turnovers also came in critical moments and areas. Stevenson’s first fumble came on the game’s opening possession, giving Pittsburgh a short field before taking a 7-0 lead. His second fumble came right at the goal line as he tried to rush for a touchdown to tie the game in the third quarter.
Maye also had a red zone turnover, throwing an interception on a batted ball in the end zone right before halftime. He lost a fumble in Steelers territory in the fourth quarter as the Patriots were driving to try and take the lead.
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