Mike Vrabel when asked about Drake Maye's game vs. Steelers: 'You're not going to ruin my Sunday'

Back at 1-1 thanks to a defense that thoroughly outmatched the Pittsburgh Steelers' offense , New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel dismissed concerns.

His offense had net 327 yards and 13 points one week after 285 and 10. With the Patriots' defense strip-sacking Aaron Rodgers and returning the takeaway for a touchdown, New England won 20-3.

So when Vrabel was asked whether he is concerned about quarterback Drake Maye and the Patriots' offense, he revealed a bit of chippiness.

"Nope, just trying to win the game," he told the Boston Globe reporter who asked. "You're not going to ruin my Sunday, but I'll come back to you tomorrow. Thanks, bud."

Another reporter began to ask a question about Maye.

"You neither," Vrabel interrupted. "You're not going to ruin it, either."

Vrabel was correct that as head coach, his top job is to lead his team to victory, which the Patriots accomplished against a Steelers team that never found its way to the end zone.

Yet Vrabel's disinterest in publicly unpacking offensive inconsistencies varied dramatically from Maye's remarks.

"Yeah, definitely not where we want to be …" Maye began his postgame statement. "[We did] little things that just hurt ourselves, and it's going to end up coming back to bite us. So it already bit us once last week. So our defense [was] playing great, and shout out to — fun watching them play.

"We got to match it and have more urgency, and [it] starts in practice."

Maye completed 14 of 22 pass attempts for 208 yards, zero touchdowns and an interception Sunday. He rushed four times for another 17 yards.

The game was cleaner than Maye's season opener, in which he threw three interceptions in a 13-10 loss to the Seattle Seahawks . But as Maye, even if not Vrabel, acknowledged: The Patriots' offense looks far less rhythmic than it did a year ago, when Maye's MVP runner-up campaign helped the Patriots to a Super Bowl berth.

So while he's not — and shouldn't — panic about the gaps in cohesion, Maye knows the Patriots' offense can't settle for what it has shown so far this season.

"You got to be excited and enjoy the win," Maye said. "But at the same time, you realize that playing like this isn't going to end up with offensively us leading our team to wins. …

Patriots limited to one offensive touchdown vs. Steelers

Perhaps the most helpful unit for Maye on Sunday was the Steelers' offense.

Aaron Rodgers' unit converted on just two of 12 third downs and made the Patriots' errors less costly.

When running back Rhamondre Stevenson lost a fumble in the first quarter, the Steelers responded with a three-and-out that let the Patriots off the hook. When Maye was nailed for a sack on a Jalen Ramsey blitz in the first quarter, Steelers outside linebacker Alex Highsmith 's defensive offside penalties negated the loss.

And after running back TreVeyon Henderson missed the season opener due to an ankle injury, the second-year Patriot returned Sunday to rip off a 39-yard touchdown aided by a DeMario Douglas downfield block.

"TreVeyon's touchdown had everybody blocked up," Maye said. "Pop made a huge block, and you just see the extra effort when it works. And when we strain a little bit harder, good things happen."

No more offensive touchdowns came in the 53 minutes that followed.

Instead, Maye took three sacks on the day, had four passes batted and sailed a 23-yard pass short of tight end Hunter Henry . Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen intercepted it instead.

"I just got to give him a chance farther with the linebacker kind of panicking back, but at the same time, I can get it underneath and keep the drive going once we get into that almost high red-zone area," Maye said of the interception he threw 33 yards from the end zone. "Trying to take a shot and kind of hit one, but at the same time, got to know that that's not always the time to take a shot on first down."

The early third-quarter pass left Patriots fans wondering if another unraveling, a la the blown lead vs. Seattle a week prior, was pending. A stalled drive that led to a missed field goal continued those questions. But the Steelers failed to score off either error, setting up Maye's best move of the day.

Escaping the pocket to his right with 2:12 to play in the third quarter, he hit receiver Romeo Doubs 47 yards down field, and Doubs took the pass another 16 yards before completing the 63-yard play.

"Obviously great play-call by our OC," Doubs said. "DBs guess in this league, and I had leverage, and it was just a great ball, great catch situation."

The Patriots still finished the drive with only a field goal, but their lead was widening, and a scoop-and-score strip sack of Rodgers awaited from their defense.

"You have to affect the quarterback each and every week, and we have to do a better job and continue to do a good job of helping our quarterback be efficient," Vrabel said. "And he has a large part in that, but we know that that's the formula."

Maye's production wasn't the top force carrying the Patriots to Sunday's win. But he also didn't detract from that goal, as he blamed himself for doing the prior game.

"I can only imagine what it's like being a quarterback in the National Football League," said Vrabel, who played 14 years as an NFL linebacker. "And so again, he's the one that's going to orchestrate and conduct everything that we do and make sure that everybody believes that the play that we're running is going to be the one that's successful. And not every time it is. But he has to be able to take that demeanor and spread it to the football team, throw to the guy that's open, and again, make great decisions.

"I'm always going to trust his decision."

Some of Maye's sacks reflected a lack of open receivers downfield, not unrelated to his top receiver A.J. Brown landing on injured reserve due to a high ankle sprain. Maye also lost his right guard, Mike Onwenu, to injury at the end of the first quarter, shuffling an already-shuffled-from-last-year offensive line.

It's common for NFL teams to need multiple weeks early in the season to develop a rhythm. So perhaps long-term concern about Maye is not warranted. But in the short term, the Patriots' production has dipped from last year's prolific season. Maye's accuracy and reputation for mistake-free football have slipped since December.

Maye tossed just eight interceptions, compared to 31 touchdowns, in 17 regular-season games last season. In four playoff games and two 2026 regular-season games since then, he has thrown eight picks.

After losing three fumbles in the regular season last year, he lost seven in the playoffs.

So as the Patriots face a tougher schedule, the question will linger: Have defenses gotten a bead on the blueprint to handle Maye? Are the Patriots simply facing more difficult opponents than their light schedule last season? Perhaps both elements are relevant.

Vrabel, as he said, will "come back to [that] tomorrow." On Sunday, he was more interested in celebrating returning to .500 ahead of games against the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Buffalo Bills , each of whom won their opener after making a playoff appearance last season.

Doubs, who caught the 63-yard pass a week after a nationally televised drop, said his team will keep improving.

"I thought our jump from last game to this game was much improved," he said. "I look forward to finding ways to get better moving forward."