Victory Formation: Why the Patriots Practiced Winning First

At the end of last week’s playoff game — as the New England Patriots closed out their 28–16 win over the Houston Texans — the team lined up in victory formation.

Then again.
And again.

As the Patriots knelt out the clock, the announcers shared something that immediately caught my attention: this was the very first thing Mike Vrabel had the team practice when he started with the organization. They added that Josh McDaniels had just reminded him of that day.

As a solution-focused mental performance coach, I paused.

Because the obvious question is this:

Why would a team coming off a 4–13 season begin by practicing a victory formation?

Why move forward to rehearsing success when there was so much to fix?

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Why This Story Is So Compelling

When Mike Vrabel stepped in as head coach
(https://www.patriots.com/team/coaches-roster/mike-vrabel),
the Patriots were rebuilding.

Most leaders in that position double down on problems:

• mistakes

• breakdowns

• discipline

• what can’t happen again

That approach has value — especially after performance.

But under pressure, a problem-focused mindset has limits.

And this is where the Patriots’ approach becomes so interesting.

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Why Practicing the Finish Works (The Neuroscience, Simply)

The brain does not organize around problems.
It organizes around targets.

When attention stays fixed on what’s broken, the nervous system interprets that focus as threat. Threat narrows attention, tightens the body, and reduces decision-making quality — especially late in games.

A solution-focused approach asks different questions:

• What does success look like?

• What state do we need to be in when it arrives?

• What do we want to repeat?

Neuroscience calls this predictive processing — the brain prepares the body for what it expects will happen next.

By practicing victory formation early, the Patriots weren’t pretending they were already winners.

They were training the nervous system to recognize success as familiar.

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Victory Formation Isn’t About the Kneel

Everyone knows how to kneel the ball.

Victory formation isn’t about strategy.
It’s about state.

It trains:

• composure when emotion rises

• discipline when relief wants to rush in

• calm execution at the exact moment pressure peaks

Most teams train how to survive adversity.

Very few train how to stay regulated when things are going right.

That’s what makes this different.

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January Made It Visible

Fast forward to January.

Two playoff wins.
A first-year head coach.
A second-year quarterback.

And a team that looks calm at the end of games.

Victory formation didn’t guarantee those wins.

But it prepared the Patriots to handle the moment when winning became possible.

Their bodies had been there before.

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The Coaching Takeaway

High performers spend a lot of time fixing problems.

But under pressure, where attention goes matters more than what you’re trying to fix.

Victory formation reminds us that:

• success creates pressure too

• the nervous system needs training for that moment

• rehearsing the finish changes how the body responds when it arrives

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A Question for You

Where in your life, leadership, or performance are you rehearsing the struggle —
but not the finish?

And what might change if your nervous system recognized success as familiar?

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Helpful Links

• New England Patriots: https://www.patriots.com

• NFL Playoffs: https://www.nfl.com/playoffs

• Patriots vs Texans Divisional Round: https://www.nfl.com/games/texans-at-patriots-2025-postseason

• Josh McDaniels: https://www.patriots.com/team/coaches-roster/josh-mcdaniels