Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Breakdown: Will Campbell vs Myles Garrett Showdown | Rookie Exposed?

Starting point is 00:00:00 An honest evaluation of Will Campbell's play against the toughest matchup of his season. That's where we start. This is Lockdown Patriots. You are Locked-on Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcasts Network, your team every day. What's happening in? I am your host, Nick Cattles, born and raised in New England, been covering. the Pats for the past 16 years. Also co-hosted the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattels, if you want to check

Starting point is 00:00:36 that out in a sports radio veteran. On today's episode, the paths are shuffling the running back deck and we'll let you know what that might mean for the trading deadline. Also, the latest details on Mike Vrable punishing one of his team's best players. But first, the perception versus the reality of Will Campbell versus Miles Garrett. We appreciate you joining the show, making us your first listen, and for being an every day. The Lockdown Patriots podcast is a proud part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And don't forget if you're watching on YouTube to like, press that thumbs up, comment, and subscribe as we have climbed over 7,000 subscribers.

Starting point is 00:01:18 Thanks to all of you. And today's episode is brought to by Fandul. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you get $300 in bonus bets to use across. the app. There is no better individual. There is no more talented pass rusher in the NFL than Miles Garrett. He is an absolute freak, a stud, a horse, a beast. Whatever you want to say glowingly about Miles Garrett, you can say it because he's earned it. He is absolutely tremendous at the game of football. And on Sunday against the Patriots, Miles Garrett finished with five

Starting point is 00:01:56 sacks. Now, of course, if you hear that from somebody on the radio or you see it on TV, you might walk away immediately and go, man, oh man, Will Campbell must have been exposed. Miles Garrett handed Will Campbell his tookus. He whooped up on the rookie. That's what the perception might be. That's what some people on Twitter might be trying to tell you. But I am here to tell you that that is not close to the truth. That is not what happened on Sunday. Will Campbell did not get his tookus handed to him from beginning to end of that football game by Miles Garrett. As a matter of fact, I thought Will Campbell's past protection wasn't that bad. Now, if you look at the five sacks from Miles Garrett, two of those were accredited to Will Campbell. But let me give you

Starting point is 00:02:50 the context of the two sacks. The first sack by Miles Garrett against Will Campbell came on the first drive of the game. It was a third in goal, shotgun formation. Miles Garrett is lined up wide. I mean, he is wide, wide against Campbell and Campbell's friend, Hunter Henry. And I talked about this during the preview show late last week. Garrett has this move that he calls the Euro step. And if you're an NBA fan, I'm a hardcore NBA guy, hardcore Celtics guy, the Euro step in basketball is when you take that one dramatic step and then you go into usually a layup, right? The Euro step as you're getting to the bucket and then you go up. It's a dramatic kind of lunging step. And that's what Miles Garrett has done a few times this

Starting point is 00:03:42 year. He has implemented this in his game where he does this dramatic Euro step. where he just kind of leaps by the defender and then uses his speed and power to get to the quarterback. In the first sack that Miles Garrett had on Sunday, he did the Euro step against Hunter Henry, and then not only that, he does the Euro step to the inside, and then he quickly beats Will Campbell to the outside. And I'm here to tell you, that's a freak. It's a freak. This stuff happens when you are going against somebody like Garrett. and what he can do on the field. This type of play can happen.

Starting point is 00:04:23 This is an individual freakish play by Garrett, as simple as that. So that's the first sack. Yes, it was on Campbell. Yes, Garrett beat Campbell after he beat Henry. But that stuff happens. When you're going against the best of the best, you're going to get beat, especially when somebody can do what Garrett did on that play. Let's get to the second sack.

Starting point is 00:04:46 This was the second quarter, the sixth offensive possession for the Patriots. It's a second in 10, shotgun formation. Now, I will say, Drake May, I think had Mack Hollins. Watching the All-22, it looks like he has Mack Hollins open, but I'm not sure where he was in his progression. So he doesn't throw it to Hollins. And Miles Garrett ends up with the sack. Now, of course, it was Garrett versus Campbell.

Starting point is 00:05:16 This was the sack where Drake May fell to the football, got back on it, and, you know, it wasn't the worst for wear, thankfully. But if you watch this back, Hunter Henry chips Garrett, and it takes Garrett about four seconds, if not longer, to get to Drake May. And when you are blocking against somebody like Garrett, if it's anything beyond three seconds, that's a win. I almost don't even count that against Campbell. If you give anybody the class of Miles Garrett four seconds to get to the quarterback,

Starting point is 00:05:52 I don't care who the tackle is going against Garrett in that situation. Garrett is most likely going to get to the quarterback. And a number of Garrett's sacks on Sunday, they were four seconds or longer. So the context matters. It's not like Will Campbell was getting his butt-whooped. and I thought Campbell was pretty clean in the second half. Pass protection, especially. Now, there are two issues for Campbell.

Starting point is 00:06:17 We've talked about some of this, but his consistency or lack thereof against stunts, the games that defenses play, in dealing with guys helping him. Doug Kide posted Mike Vrable on some of the chip plays, the team used against Miles Garrett on Sunday, that gave Will Campbell trouble, quote, probably need to close the space a bit.

Starting point is 00:06:38 if you give the athlete, like Garrett, too much space, that's a danger zone. And some of these chips, it seemed like, threw Campbell off his game a little bit, and there was just too much space there after the chip for Garrett to operate. Doug Kide on Pro Football Focus wrote, Campbell was the Patriot's fourth highest graded offensive player. So PFF, take it forward it's worth, thought Campbell was the fourth best offensive player on the field on Sunday. And here's what Garrett said about Campbell in the post game, quote, he's strong.

Starting point is 00:07:11 You want to set the tempo and the pace of the game with power. He was able to pretty firm in his stance, to be pretty firm in a stance and keep me from knocking him back and just trying to hit him with different looks, try to keep him off guard. I think Will Campbell's been just fine, especially for a 21-year-old left tackle in his first season in the NFL. And I thought on Sunday, he did a pretty respectable job against the best pass rusher he's going to face all year long. And maybe the best pass rusher he will ever face in his NFL career. Some other thoughts from the All-22. The other rookie offensive lineman Jared Wilson, I thought, was good, especially in the run game,

Starting point is 00:07:55 getting to the second level multiple times. I thought the defensive backs were really good. When you watch the All-22, yet there were a couple of miscommunications. early in this game. But on balance, the defensive backs, the coverage was really good. Whether it was zone, whether it was man, I thought the Patriots DBs played pretty well. Jalen Hawkins, I thought was good. Marcus Jones, again, aside from a miscommunication or two, I thought he was really good.

Starting point is 00:08:24 Pro football focused, by the way, had Christian Barmore for eight pressures, had Milton Williams for six pressures. The interior defensive line continues to. haunt quarterbacks and shut down run games. And here's a name that I want you to keep in mind. Corey Durdon. Now, he's made a couple of plays here and there up until this past weekend. On Sunday against Cleveland, I thought Corey Dirden was a problem.

Starting point is 00:08:50 Run and pass. He's starting to get into the backfield more often. The defensive discipline also was very good. You had the two trick plays. did not trick the Patriots defense whatsoever. Fantastic eye discipline. Understanding your responsibilities, not biting and giving up a big play. So again, Marcus Jones everywhere, defensive backs, really good.

Starting point is 00:09:20 I thought Morgan Moses had a pretty rough day. If there was an offensive lineman that was getting beat a decent amount, it was Morgan Moses, but he's been really. really good this year. So I'm not going to start freaking out about it. But I thought he had a pretty rough day. So those are some thoughts from my rewatch of Cleveland, New England on the All-22. All right. One of the Pat's best players gets punished by Mike Vrable. We will have the very latest. And whether or not there's reason for concern next, this is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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Starting point is 00:11:25 was asked about Barmore not starting and then entering the game later in the first half and he said in the post game quote I had to make a decision my job is to protect the team when there are actions that I don't feel like are in line with what we want to do here I got to make a decision and we move on unquote Vrable then followed that up Monday morning on the Greg Hill show WEEI he said quote just like everything else that I do whether that's in life whatever we've moved on we've addressed it there's no issues moving forward with me or anyone else, that's how we have to operate, unquote. Andrew Callahan made a note in the locker room that Barmore declined to speak to the media,

Starting point is 00:12:08 and he left. On Sunday, he bounced. Thanks, but no thanks. I'm going to pass on talking to all of you wonderful people. Not sure if that's what Barmore said to the media, but I'm going to pass on having any conversations with you today. I'm going to move on and goodbye. So what's up here?

Starting point is 00:12:33 Well, the first thing is, and I was trying to, you know, jog my memory on whether or not we've seen a punishment from Vrable to any Patriots player to this point. I mean, Ramadre Stevenson had his fumbling issue, never really was punished. So it's not as if this is something that has consistently happened this year. and I believe this is the first documented punishment from Vrable. Now, maybe some of you remember something else that I don't. It's cool. Leave a comment. I'm not always right.

Starting point is 00:13:05 But I was thinking back and I said, I think this is the first documented example of Vrable levying some kind of punishment on a player. And it's one of his best players. Christian Barmore has been really, really good. He's continued to get better as the season has gone on. now we can sit here and we can be concerned we can talk about barmore and we know some of the stuff that happened with him last year and i'm not talking about the blood clots the incident away from the field with you know police in rhode island and he had to apologize and he came out and apologized so you know some might say there's a big issue here or be worried about a big issue and of course there were some red flags about barmore and maybe his lack of work ethic when he was at Alabama and some of those things. But I'm not concerned. I'm not concerned yet about what happened, whatever it was. Because Barmore went out on Sunday and he performed.

Starting point is 00:14:12 He didn't let what happened bother him. He didn't let whatever infraction he had that made Vrable say to himself, we need to sit Barmore for the first quarter, Barmore did not let that issue bother him on Sunday. He did not let his benching for the first quarter bother him on Sunday. He didn't sulk. He didn't lolly gag. He didn't tap out on the field. As a matter of fact, as I mentioned, in the first segment, he went out there and got eight pressures and he had 30 snaps. He played only 30 snaps, and he had eight freaking pressures. That's pretty crazy. So the performance was there.

Starting point is 00:15:01 He put it behind him, whatever it was, went out there, competed, performed, produced. And in the post game, if you watch the Patriots Twitter on, you know, social media, I don't know if they put it on other social media platforms aside from Twitter, they probably do. but I saw it on Twitter. There's a video where they always take on the field after the Patriots win. Guys are running off the field and, you know, they say something to the cameras. Barmore seemingly was fine. He was jovial after the game.

Starting point is 00:15:33 If you see Mike Vrable and how he waits for the players outside of the locker room in the tunnel after they win a game, he was there. And in the video, you could see him embrace Barmore. Didn't seem like there was any issue between he and Barmore. So, you know, once the game started, after Barmore sat for the quarter, he went out there. He played very well. Post-game stuff seemed to go fine. As Braybill mentioned in the media, whether it was right after the game, whether it was, you know, Monday morning to Greg Hill,

Starting point is 00:16:08 whether it was, you know, Monday late morning to the media again during his usual Monday press conference. There was no ill will. There was nothing that seemed to speak of frustration. from the head coach. Now, of course, maybe Vrable's frustrated, and he's not showing it, but it was only one quarter. If it was something that was really, really bad, you have to imagine that Barmore would not be out there. That's what you would have to believe. And my buddy Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal, a hero on Sunday night, quote, I wouldn't be alarmed. I would not be alarmed about the benching for the first quarter. from what Greg was told, the infraction was, quote, fairly harmless, unquote.

Starting point is 00:16:53 So we'll see how it goes. So it was harmful enough where one of your best players gets benched for the first quarter, but it was not harmful enough to sit him out a half, sit him out a game. And whoever spoke to Greg Bedard about it said it fairly harmless. So maybe he was late for a meeting. Maybe he was late for, I don't know, a practice. I have no idea. But it doesn't seem like it rose to the level of, oh, my goodness, we really got a problem here.

Starting point is 00:17:27 Things can always change. If there's multiple infractions, if this is the beginning of some issues with Barmore, then, of course, we'll talk about it then, and the concern level will rise if this continues to be an issue. but a one-time infraction is not the end of the world. It doesn't sound like it's a big deal on either side. It doesn't sound like, you know, Barmore didn't seem affected by it. Brable doesn't seem affected by it.

Starting point is 00:17:59 So, hey, something had to be done. The coach stepped up, benched him for a quarter. Hopefully he learned his lesson. Vrable is setting a precedent for everybody else on this team. let's say if it was hypothetically Barmore being late to a meeting well now the precedent has been set if you're late to a meeting you're going to be benched for a quarter and if if you're going to bench Barmore you're going to bench pretty much anybody and everybody because again he's one of your best players on defense now it is the one

Starting point is 00:18:38 spot on defense that I think that you can get away with doing something like this and not necessarily have it harm you because you have depth on the interior of the defensive line. Milton Williams has been really good. Kyrie's Tonga was really good. This past game, he had a couple of impact snaps, the first one of the game when he's all over the screen. But Kyrie's Tonga this year has been really, really good. And even as I mentioned, Corey Durden earlier, Joshua Farmer, he was more quiet in this game. But Joshua Farmer has made some impact plays on the film as well. So when you talk about interior defensive line depth,

Starting point is 00:19:15 you feel like you've got some of that. Of course, Barmore, again, is one of the best players on the team. So you are going to take a step back a bit, but you can fill, you can fill, you know, his spot with Kyrie's Tonga for the first quarter and mix in a little bit of Durden and Farmer, and you're probably going to get through okay. So we'll keep an eye on it.

Starting point is 00:19:36 If something else is reported about this, we'll be all over it. But right now I would not have huge concern. It doesn't seem like it was a significant situation between Barmore and the team. And you just march on forward and continue to play really good football. So let's hope everything is on the up and up. No distractions needed. And it's been settled. The run game has looked better the last two weeks.

Starting point is 00:20:04 and there's one thing that has started to impress us. Find out what that is next as we continue with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Let's be real. Making excuses doesn't solve anything. We've all heard them before. It's just stress. I'm tired.

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Starting point is 00:22:09 And right now, Fandul is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to Fandul.com, sign up and play your game with Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. I've talked about this before, but I expected the run game to lead the offensive charge. at least early in the season. And that's not what happened. As we know, the run game early on through the first five or six weeks, for the most part, aside from the first half against Miami,

Starting point is 00:22:41 you would say, was pretty putrid. The last two weeks, however, we're seeing some signs of life, 175 rushing yards at Tennessee, 177 rushing yards against the Browns at Gillette this past weekend. Now, I don't want to be disingenuous. I don't want to sit here and tell you

Starting point is 00:22:58 that everything is perfect. Of course, when we look, at the 175 and the 177 in the last two weeks. We also have to account for Drake May. And May had 50 rushing yards on Sunday against the Browns. He had 62 rushing yards at Tennessee. So the quarterback is helping. But if we're going to be fair,

Starting point is 00:23:20 we would also say the Patriots in both of those games playing from ahead. And if you're playing from ahead, defenses pretty much key on the run thinking you're going to run the clock out, baby. when you're up two scores, three scores, you're going to run the clock out. So to be fair, we also have to keep that in mind. But the most impressive part of this run game to me is the versatility within said run game, the versatility of this scheme. When we think about Josh McDaniels, and we spent some time before the season kicked off,

Starting point is 00:23:56 discussing Josh McDaniels' offense and what he does, and we saw a lot during his prior 10 years as OC in New England you saw a lot of combo downhill gap running saw a lot of that it wasn't necessarily wow look at these you know little tricks of the trade that they have and they caught the team completely completely by surprise by running this certain motion or that certain motion now there was some of it because McDaniels does love a trick player too, which we saw him break out on Sunday. But what you're seeing from this run game, even while the production wasn't necessarily

Starting point is 00:24:40 there, was a lot of versatility. And, man, you saw it against Cleveland. You saw all sorts of different looks. You had a speed option from Drake May to Ramandre Stevenson. Nice little speed option play. You had a jet sweep, Pop Douglas, of course. It's nice. You had a couple of them.

Starting point is 00:25:01 One worked out great. One stunk. But you had a couple of jet sweeps called. You had pitches, pitches to the right, pitches to the left. You had tosses, tosses to the right, tosses to the left. So you're seeing some of these perimeter runs, right? The speed options, the jet sweeps, the pitches and tosses, these runs that are designed to attack the perimeter. In that third quarter, the first drive for the Patriots coming out of halftime, just look at that drive.

Starting point is 00:25:32 I mean, that drive is the perfect example of how to attack a defensive edge that is trying to get to the quarterback with your run game. There's a lot of different ways you can do it. You can do the jet sweep stuff. You can say we have a quarterback that is athletic that can run with the football. So let's throw in a speed option here or there. Let's pitch the football a couple of times to Trayvion Henderson and get him outside the tackles so he can attack. So you saw that. But you also saw some of the old schools.

Starting point is 00:26:03 You see some of the old school, at least formations. Eye formation with Jack Westover saw that a number of times, whether it's right in front of the running back or it's offset to the running back. You see the eye form. You see the full back in the back field. So you see that kind of different look. You see runs from the splitback formation when you've got Drake May in the shotgun and he's got, you know, two running backs, one on each side along with him. Sometimes you'll have Westover as one of the guys in the back field that's standing alongside Drake May along with another running back, whether it's Henderson or it's Stevenson. You've seen some runs from the split back formations.

Starting point is 00:26:47 You've seen throws from the split back formations. but you're talking speed options, jet sweeps, pitches, tosses, I form with Westover, runs from splitback formations, outside zone runs. You've seen the old stuff that we've seen before from McDaniels with the combos and the downhills and the gap run. You've seen all of this. Seen all of it. And I still think that McDaniels is figuring out who is best at what

Starting point is 00:27:16 and what is truly effective for this team. And I think that's why you saw against the Browns, you saw McDaniels use Henderson more as that danger guy getting to the outside, getting to the outside, to the boundary, to the perimeter and beating those edges. And so you're starting to see McDaniels slowly piece this thing together. And you've got Ramadre Stevens. You want to talk about versatility. You could talk about versatility from the backs.

Starting point is 00:27:49 Ramadre Stevenson is a versatile piece. He can run outside. He can run inside. He's been really good with past protection. We saw him as a receiver on Sunday. Henderson's not only an attack the perimeter guy. He can do some other things as well. And he's getting better every week at pass protection.

Starting point is 00:28:10 He'll slip up every once in a while. But when you compare, he had a really good block on Sunday during the Mack Holland's crossing route for the nice play, nice little chunk. play. Anderson picks up, picks up the pass protection on the edge. So he's getting better there. I mean, we've seen even a little bit of Terrell Jennings and his ability to be a hard, angry, finishing type runner, just a banger on the interior of the offensive line. So you start to see some of the versatility from the backs you have, but the versatility from McDaniels as a play caller attacking run defenses in a bunch of different ways. And as McDaniels told the media last week, you know, sometimes we're going to call a run

Starting point is 00:28:54 and it might not work, but there's a reason why we call that run. We will give a similar look later in the game. And because we've ran out of that look, this time we're going to throw out of the look. And if that pass play goes for 25, 30 yards, you might not even be thinking about the run play that was designed a quarter or two quarters ago that helped open up. that pass play to go 20, 25, 30 yards. Sequencing of plays, setting defenses up early in the game for something later. It's an art. It's an art form. And, you know, if a certain run doesn't pop, it doesn't mean it's a complete waste of the team's time, of the offense's

Starting point is 00:29:37 time. Meanwhile, speaking of Terrell Jennings, he's expected to sign on the 53-man roster. He's done with the elevations. He cannot be elevated on game day anymore. So he's going to have to sign. Vrable was asked about it on Monday. Certainly sounds like Jennings is going to be on the 53 man. He's going to be signed off the practice squad. Reportedly, Aaron Wilson reports that the Patriots are signing Jonathan Ward, a veteran running back. And that makes some sense. If you're going to sign Jennings to the 53, you've got to replace somebody, you know, you've got to place him on the practice squad. And you're going to find somebody who he can plop on there. And that for right now seems to be Jonathan Ward.

Starting point is 00:30:19 And don't forget the trade deadline is November 4th. So a week, a week from today, the trading deadline. See if the Patriots make a move at that position. They might feel like they're fine. After seeing Henderson on Sunday, Stevenson's got it going a little bit. They seemingly like Jennings. He's run well when he's been given the opportunity. So we'll see if they do anything at that position.

Starting point is 00:30:45 That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for making us your first listen and for being an everyday. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C. Radio. And don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel, hit that like button and subscribe. And for your second listen, get a double dose of the Lockdown NFL podcast with Tyler the Madman Roland and Tony Wiggins. Find Lockdown NFL on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Have a great day and we will see you tomorrow. Thank you.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Breakdown: Will Campbell vs Myles Garrett Showdown | Rookie Exposed?

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