The New England Patriots‘ head coach, Mike Vrabel, has been turning heads by finding clever ways to bend decisions in his favor. In the game against the Bills, he opted to kick a field goal at the end of the first half, even though his QB, Drake Maye, was just 1 yard from a touchdown. He now continues to find loopholes using Maye in the recent game against the Buccaneers.

“#Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had his quarterback Drake Maye purposely not score a touchdown at the 1-yard line… Tampa Bay was out of timeouts and now will not get the ball back. New England ran out the clock and scored a touchdown,” ML Football posted on X.

With just more than a minute left in the first half, the Patriots were first and goal from the 1-yard line, and that’s when Vrabel sent Maye for a quarterback sneak. At first, it appeared that Maye couldn’t get to the endzone, but after the replay, it was discovered that Maye didn’t even try to score. After taking the snap, he went straight to the ground. This move by Vrabel and Maye’s tag team can even turn out to be a game-decider for a specific reason.

The Patriots were trailing the Buccaneers by 10-7 in the first half. With Tampa Bay having no timeouts left, the Patriots smartly chose to burn the clock, keeping the Bucs from getting a chance to strike back before halftime. While fans could help but praise the clock-killing strategy, this is not the first time he has pulled such a move.

Mike Vrabel is known for his clever play-calling

In 2020, while leading the Tennessee Titans, he deliberately drew a too-many-men-on-the-field penalty to stop the clock and save crucial seconds as he set up his defense against the Texans. While the penalty gave the Houston Texans a fresh set of downs, it saved 40 seconds on the clock. The time saved paid off later in the game for the Titans. He has been competent enough to save his team from similar situations.

Back in 2018, Vrabel ran out a 12th defensive player, a move that gave the Titans enough time to pull off a dramatic win over the New York Jets. His situational calls have not only impressed the fans but also the players, as they speak highly of him.

“When you know the whole system, the whole big picture, you know what the receivers have to do, or Coach Vrabel is up there talking about the defense and what they’re angles and their thought process, you see the big picture of the game, and I think the faster you can play, the better you can play. So I think that’ll be good moving forward as a collective locker room and team meeting room where everyone knows everyone’s job,” the Patriots center Garrett Bradbury said earlier this year.