Despite fumbling twice, turning the ball over to the Pittsburgh Steelers both times, New England Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson is a valuable part of the team, said his head coach and fellow players.
“He’s one of our best players, I think there’s nothing … he can do that would change my view of him as a player, as a teammate. He does everything the right way,” said Patriots quarterback Drake Maye after Sunday’s game. “He knows just as much as we know — ball security — that’s the number one thing as a running back.”
The Steelers capitalized on those two fumbles and three other turnovers at Gillette Stadium for a 21-14 victory over the Patriots. Head coach Mike Vrabel focused on the bright spots from his team during the loss with a “fix it and move on” mentality.
Red sky at night, Steelers delight pic.twitter.com/6r6nvbzpWL
— Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) September 21, 2025
But sports writers in New England called the loss excruciating and maddening with plenty of self-inflicted wounds. A few fans booed the team as they went into the locker room at halftime down 14-7.
It was the team’s worst game since Vrabel took over as head coach, according to NBC Sports Boston. There was some bad football at the end of the game as the Patriots final chance to win slipped away, wrote Michael Hurley.
“It is utterly insane that the Patriots were in a position to win Sunday’s game at all,” Hurley wrote. “With five turnovers — most of them being of the devastating variety — they had no business having a chance to steal a win against Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
Patriots 2025 theme: Make life much harder than it needs to be, but hang tough and keep swinging, and there’s a chance to win in the fourth quarter.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) September 21, 2025
The Patriots have experienced five turnovers in a game before — Nov. 30, 2008, in a 33-10 loss to Steelers, the winners of the Super Bowl that season, wrote Bryan DeArdo from CBS Sports.
“While the stats won’t show it, the Steelers’ offense showed some subtle improvements, especially on its first two drives and on its final drive,” DeArdo wrote.
Meanwhile, Stevenson’s issues holding onto the ball resurfaced — he had seven fumbles in 2024, Sports Illustrated reported. He finished the day with four carries for 18 yards.
Another fumble for Rhamondre Stevenson, and at the worst possible place on the field. Can’t have it. Disaster of a game for him.
— Andrew Callahan (@_AndrewCallahan) September 21, 2025
Still, Vrabel told reporters the team needs the running back.
“I gotta hold onto the ball to have value, to have value on this team,” Stevenson responded. “If I can’t hold onto the ball, they don’t need me.”
The game was marked with chances for the Patriots to take over the momentum, but the Steelers capitalized on too many opportunities to keep it, Vrabel said.
“We don’t need to learn a lesson, we don’t need to learn a football game, we know that turnovers are very hard to overcome,” he said. “They erase all the good things that you do, take away momentum, take away points, give them field position. We didn’t need to turn it over as many times as we did to learn a lesson.”
Renatta Signorini is a TribLive reporter covering breaking news, crime, courts and Jeannette. She has been working at the Trib since 2005. She can be reached at rsignorini@triblive.com.
