FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Mike Vrabel spoke loudly in the fourth quarter on Sunday. He’s not happy.
You didn’t have to attend his surly postgame press conference to know it either.
With his top two backs – Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson – standing at the ready and the game hanging in the balance, Vrabel chose ex-Arizona Cardinal Corey Kiner to close out the New York Jets with eight carries for 42 yards on the final, game-icing, field goal possession.
Impressive performance by the kid
Kiner, No. 3 on the depth chart, stepped up big time.
“It feels great. To be in that position in the game, to see the smiles on my teammates’ faces and my coaches’ faces, that they can trust me,” said Kiner. “It felt great, all the hard work we have been putting in as a team and personally, it just feels great.”
Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Postgame, Vrabel noted it was a matter of riding the hot hand.
“Would you have taken him out?” Vrabel queried when asked why he stuck with Kiner, who had a big fumble against the Raiders, at such a key time.
Words meant for top pair
With each response, the coach was letting Stevenson (2.6 yards a carry Sunday) and Henderson (third-quarter lost fumble) that nothing is guaranteed in the NFL. Vrabel called the turnovers Sunday, “embarrassing” on his Monday morning radio appearance with WEEI-FM’s Greg Hill Show, so you know Henderson’s giveaway got under his skin.
Monday, Vrabel was more effusive in his praise of Kiner.
“I would tell you offensively, he was running and being very decisive. When you talk about that five-minute offense, not being a great runner, but being decisive in those moments, right?” Vrabel said. “To be able to just hit it, and knowing that they’re going to have bodies in every gap … that was something that I think we wanted to see, and when we saw that, we kept with him.”
Stepping up his game
Kiner, who has 12 carries total as a rookie in Arizona, is averaging 4.5 yards per rush on his 31 tries this year.
Stevenson and Henderson can consider themselves warned.
