Patriots QB Drake Maye wears a frustrated look after one of the team's five turnovers in Sunday's loss to the Steelers at Gillette Stadium. (AP photo)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – If you listen carefully, New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel had a message for his offense after Sunday’s turnover plagued loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Score points.

In other words, who cares how long you have the ball and how much yardage you accumulate if no points, especially touchdowns, come with it?

So what does this mean? Vrabel wants some big plays in his offense. Right now, he has none.

“We have to score,” Vrabel said when asked if the long drives established an offensive identity. “You have to score in this league. You have to – again, I’m great with the long drives. We’re toing to have to continue to use that and gain confidence, but we’re going to have to find ways to create explosive plays.”

Explosive as get to the ends zone quickly and more often. That’s because the long drives can wear an offense down just as well the defense.

“It’s hard to drive the ball 19 plays,” Vrabel said. “Impressive that we can do that. But it’s also a reminder that you have to hit some ‘X’ plays and you have to continue to score touchdowns when you get down there after 19 plays.”

But the 19 plays, like the one from their own six at the end of the first half that resulted in an interception off a tipped line of scrimmage ball, are useless.

What Vrabel wants is his receivers to break free and get long plays. So far, the Patriots are a short passing offense, and that means short passes to slot receivers and also tight ends. Hunter Henry has been spectacular – eight catches for 90 yards, 11 targets – but he’s not going to break a long one like Patriot fans were so used to seeing from Rob Gronkowski.

So the key will be to get his receivers to think big play. Keyson Boutte has in the past. Stefon Diggs was a big play guy before his knee injury a year ago. Rookie Kyle Williams was drafted as a potential deep ball threat.

Anyone see former Patriot Tyquan Thornton’s breakout game vs. the Giants on Sunday night? The Patriots waited years for that to happen and it never did.

All the focus these last couple of days are on the turnovers, the accountability, etc. But if the Patriots can’t clean up their turnovers and penalties, they need to get some instantaneous points. Does Carolina give them that opportunity this Sunday at Gillette? Maybe not; the Panthers gave up 201 passing yards to the Falcons but their defense pitched a shutout.

“I’ve also got to try to balance winning football games, gaining yards, scoring points and all those things,” Vrabel said. “We’ve just got to get it fixed. I know there’s no easy fix. The only thing I know how to do is work and we’ll work at it. If I feellike or we feel like that it’s in the best interest to limit those opportunities (i.e. benchings) then we’ll do that.”

But how does he get his receivers to become more explosive?

“There’s opportunities, we just have to be able to find them when things are there,” Vrabel said, later adding “I know receivers, they want to catch touchdowns, they want to catch the ball, but we’ve just got to continue to spead the ball around and take the football where it’s supposed to go when it’s supposed to go there, in timing, rhythm and ball placement.”

The Patriots want points. They need to unleash their offense in order to get them.