Mike Vrabel’s Honest Patriots Take After Jets Win: ‘Lucky We Won’ originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Mike Vrabel did not try to dress up the Patriots’ 26–19 win over the New York Jets.
“Lucky we won, happy we won,” the New England coach said after Sunday’s game, according to Mike Reiss.
It was a short assessment, but it captured the tension of an afternoon when the Patriots built a lead, let the Jets back into the game and needed one final play to protect the result. New England got the win and its third straight victory. Vrabel also made clear that the performance left plenty to review.
A lead did not make the finish comfortable
The Patriots went into halftime ahead 17–3 after Drake Maye threw touchdown passes to Romeo Doubs and DeMario Douglas. New York answered after the break, scoring 10 points in the third quarter and turning the fourth into a genuine test.
Mike Vrabel: Lucky we won, happy we won. https://t.co/gOw6yKp506
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) October 18, 2026
New England pushed its lead back to 10 when Maye found Hunter Henry for a touchdown, but the Jets kept coming. After a Jason Sanders field goal made it a one-score game, Andy Borregales’ 27-yard field goal gave the Patriots breathing room with 1:13 remaining. New York added another field goal, making the score 26–19, then tried an onside kick.
Douglas recovered it. That play ended the Jets’ final chance and allowed the Patriots to close out a divisional win that had become much closer than the first-half score suggested.
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Vrabel knows the result does not erase the problems
The Patriots also had to manage a difficult day up front, with multiple offensive linemen leaving because of injuries. New England lost a fumble during the Jets’ second-half push, giving its opponent another opportunity to make the comeback real.
Those are the kinds of sequences that help explain Vrabel’s blunt reaction. The Patriots made enough plays to win, including the late field goal and Douglas’ recovery, but they also gave the Jets room to stay in it.
That mix of relief and dissatisfaction is a useful snapshot of where New England stands. The Patriots have won three straight and improved to 4–2, yet Sunday was not the kind of clean performance that lets a team move on without corrections. Vrabel’s message was simple: enjoy the result, but recognize how close the game came to turning the other way.
The schedule gives the Patriots little time to sit with it. They travel to face the Chicago Bears on Thursday night, making the quick turnaround an immediate test for a team coming off a physically demanding win.