Blocking future Pro Football Hall of Famer Myles Garrett is no easy task. Rookie left tackle Will Campbell learned that the hard way on Sunday.
Despite a 32-13 victory for Campbell’s Patriots, Garrett had a career afternoon recording eight pressure, five sacks and a forced fumble. That included five pressures and three sacks — including one strip sack — against Campbell in 13 rushes.
“He’s a really good player,” Campbell said. “He beat me a few times. It’s just part of the game. He gets paid a lot of money. He got me a couple times. I had to keep coming back and keep fighting. I’m just glad we got the win.”
Garrett became the fourth player in NFL history to lose a game despite recording five or more sacks, also being the first to lose by multiple scores.
His early pressure helped force New England into three first half field goals, but the tide turned in the second-half as Drake Maye led three touchdown drives in the third quarter.
“We just had to finish the game,” Campbell said. “Last week, we didn’t come out and finish the game the way we wanted to against Tennessee. That is some of what we talked about during the week is playing 60 minutes of our game. Even when things weren’t going our way in the first half, to come in at halftime, talk about it and just come back out.
“Defense made a bunch of great plays tonight. They’ve been playing their ass off, making it easy on us, giving us short fields at times. Kudos to them, they’re playing really, really well.”
Campbell pitched a clean performance against Cleveland pass rusher not named Garrett across 20 pass blocking snaps. New England hopes Sunday’s matchup was a learning moment for the 21-year old rookie, who will rarely see a talent like Garrett again.
“I mean, he’s strong,” Garrett said of the Campbell. “You want to set the tempo and the pace of the game. He was able to be pretty firm in his stance and keep me from knocking him back, and just trying to hit him with different looks, try to keep him off guard. I watched a lot of tape of him versus Will Anderson, and I know he had a difficult time with Will, and I considered that in mind. I had to try to take some things out of his book and, you know, work them into mine to have success.”
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