FOXBOROUGH - The Patriots got a small dose of relief after Sunday’s loss to the Packers: Will Campbell’s knee injury doesn’t sound like a major setback.
Campbell, who left late in the fourth quarter and was listed as questionable to return, kept his answer short when asked how he was doing afterward.
“I’m good,” Campbell said.
The left tackle said he was “ leg whipped” on the play, describing an illegal motion where a player sticks out a leg to trip another player. He felt like he could have gone back in, but the game had already slipped too far away for that to matter. Rookie Caleb Lomu finished the night in his place.
“I think I would have went back in, but they pulled Drake [Maye] out,” Campbell said. “That’s all.”
Campbell has now started all eight games this season and has clearly taken a step forward after the end of last year, when a sprained MCL cost him four weeks and seemed to linger even after he returned. He also left the Patriots’ Week 5 win over the Raiders with a knee injury, though he was able to suit up the next week.
The bigger problem for New England on Sunday was everything that went wrong around him. The offense coughed up four turnovers, Maye was sacked four times, and the quarterback’s day swung between sharp and shaky. He finished with three touchdown passes and three interceptions.
“We just can’t hurt ourselves,” Campbell said. “We’ve got to protect Drake better and give him the opportunity to go back there and make the plays we know he can make and we’ll be fine.”
The Patriots were in trouble almost immediately. On the second play of the game, Maye threw the first of his three picks, handing the Packers the ball in the red zone. Jordan Love then scored on a scramble, and New England spent the rest of the afternoon trying to climb out of that early hole.
“Y’all know how I feel about [Maye] and I’ve made it very clear that any time he’s in the game we’ve got a shot to win it,” Campbell said. “We like our chances and you know not everything is going to go our way, but I know he’ll be back ready to go next week and learn from everything as a unit that we could have done better and just get ready to go play another good football team.”
The loss dropped New England to 5-4 and came by 18 points, the team’s second-largest defeat of the season. The Patriots had already shown they could respond to a rough outing, winning four of five after Jacksonville beat them by 29 in Week 3.
“We’ve already seen adversity this year,” Campbell said. “The same [expletive] happened in Jacksonville and everyone said the same thing.
It’s just about not hurting ourselves and playing complimentary football with each other and doing the little things right. That’s all we’ve got to do.
We have the guys to do it on offense, defense, and special teams. It’s just about doing it on a consistent basis for four quarters.”
The injury list didn’t stop with Campbell. Running back Rhamondre Stevenson also exited with a knee issue, and coach Mike Vrabel said afterward he had no update on him. Stevenson wasn’t seen in the locker room.
“He wasn’t able to return … I’m not sure the extent of what it is,” Vrabel said. “It just came off, so we’ll take a look at it, and we’ll see. I don’t want to speculate right now.”
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