Mike Vrabel Fondly Remembers Beating Bill Belichick at His Own Game

A loophole once used by Belichick and the Patriots was used successfully against them in the Wild Card game by former Patriot and Titans head coach Mike Vrabel.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has a reputation of being one of the smartest head coaches in the league. He works diligently to set his team up for success, studying weaknesses of other teams and exploiting them to win. 

This includes finding loopholes in the rules. In a game against the New York Jets last season and winning 33-0 with 11 minutes left in the game, Belichick took an intentional delay of game penalty on fourth down at the Jets 33 yard line. This gave punter Jake Bailey a little more room to work with, but Jets head coach Adam Tase declined the penalty and the play clock did not stop. The Patriots ran the 40-second play clock to near zero, before Brandon Bolden received an offsides penalty. 

Again, Gase declined the penalty resulting in another 40 second loss in playing time before Bailey finally punted the ball. Although at the time these penalties seemed like accidents, the rare and oh-so subtle Mona Lisa smile from Belichick on the sidelines tells a different story. 

Fast forward to the Wild Card game against the Tennessee Titans, and Belichick would see his trick used against him. His former player and now Titans head coach Mike Vrabel used the strategy with seven minutes left in the game and only leading the Patriots by one point. The Titans drained nearly two minutes off of the clock before giving the ball back to the Patriots. The Titans went on to win the Wild Card game 20-13, something that neither team will ever forget. Oh, and Belichick was most certainly not smiling. 

Vrabel remembers the moment fondly, as he told Dan Hellie on his podcast "Helliepod" on Tuesday. 

"It's all relative," Vrabel said on his feelings during the game. "I was like 'Hey, we've got to finish the game and see what happens.'" 

As far as the reaction it got from his former coach, Vrabel said, “(John) Stretch does a fantastic job upstairs. He’s committed to being my eyes upstairs … He’s like, ‘You’ve got to see Bill. Bill’s losing his mind.’" 

NFL league owners banned the loophole in May, which was encouraged by Belichick himself. The rule is now gone, but it certainly won't be forgotten by Vrabel.