Alex Barth and Matt Dolloff share their analysis of the Patriots' offensive line in the pass and run games, even focusing on rookie tackle Will Campbell.
Thumbnail photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
#nfl #patriots #football
Thumbnail photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
#nfl #patriots #football
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00:00I also thought the pass protection was better than I expected.
00:02It wasn't perfect.
00:04You know, Morgan Moses had kind of a rough game,
00:06but he's going up against Max Crosby.
00:08You know, Crosby didn't feel like took over the game.
00:10He had big moments.
00:12Didn't feel like he totally took over the game.
00:14Will Campbell, because his high draft pick
00:17was always going to get picked apart.
00:19The penalties were bad.
00:21Two false starts, both came at inopportune times.
00:24You can't have those.
00:25And he did have a little bit of a penalty problem,
00:27false start problem last year in college.
00:29Didn't his first two years.
00:31So that's certainly something to monitor.
00:34And that pattern that we saw this summer of
00:36he would be good for extended stretches, right?
00:40We talk about, okay, he allowed three pressures
00:43in this entire practice.
00:45Okay, but they all came in the span of five plays.
00:49And it would kind of snowball a little bit
00:51before you could get his feet back under him.
00:53You saw that with the strip sack
00:55and then the false start late in the game there.
00:56So that's something he needs to work on.
00:58And as for the two sacks
00:59that are kind of being tied to him,
01:02I don't put him chiefly at fault for either one.
01:06So the first one, he's blocking Tyree Wilson.
01:11Drake May gets pressured from the other side,
01:13steps up in the pocket,
01:14probably climbs a little too far.
01:16Tyree Wilson simply disengages with Will Campbell,
01:19turns to his left.
01:20Drake May's right there.
01:21He sacks him.
01:22You know, do you want Will Campbell to maybe be a little more resistant
01:26in that situation?
01:27Yeah.
01:28That's going to come in time with chemistry
01:30when he learns how Drake May navigates the pocket.
01:32Talk to David Andrews a little bit about this today.
01:34We'll have more.
01:35That podcast will be out tonight.
01:37But, you know, some of that is just pocket awareness
01:39and knowing where your blockers are,
01:41the blocking blockers, knowing where the quarterback is.
01:43That wasn't a case of Andrews getting technically beat.
01:46It's a nice heads up play by Wilson.
01:47The other one is a little tougher to say
01:51because we don't know the play call.
01:52And this is the strip sack from Malcolm Koontz
01:54that puts him in a bad spot, puts him in a second and 18.
01:58So if you go back and watch that play,
02:01Campbell and Stevenson both meet Koontz at the spot.
02:06Stevenson gives him a little bit of an elbow and keeps going.
02:10If it's supposed to be a chip or it's supposed to be help,
02:14it's not enough from Stevenson.
02:16It's not a check and release.
02:18He doesn't check and release.
02:20He doesn't chip.
02:21He just kind of gives him a shove.
02:23If it's, okay, I'm running out my route.
02:26Oh, there's a pass rusher here.
02:27I'm just going to throw a little something to help out.
02:29And sometimes guys will do that, even if it's not in the design.
02:31Then, yeah, he threw a little something and that's on Campbell.
02:34But you look at how they were giving Campbell help,
02:37but sometimes in the game
02:38and just how McDaniels has called this in the past.
02:40And you look at the way Campbell sets for it.
02:43It looks like he's expecting help.
02:45So we ultimately don't know the play.
02:48My best guess is you're looking for more there
02:52from Armandre Stevenson in terms of help.
02:54They both got beat.
02:55But you're probably looking more from Armandre Stevenson there
02:58in terms of help.
02:59And that results in the strip sack.
03:00So big picture, the penalties need to be cleaned up.
03:06As a blocker, I think if that's more or less what you get
03:10from Will Campbell week in and week out,
03:11he justifies the pick.
03:13You have a starting caliber left tackle.
03:15It was two weird plays that he allowed the sacks on.
03:18And besides that, he was solid.
03:19I'm glad you brought up that first sack,
03:21but I don't put that on Campbell at all.
03:23The pressure was up the middle from Crosby.
03:25Crosby, I think, on Awenu or Jared Wilson.
03:28He kind of like splits Jared Wilson and Bradbury a little bit.
03:32Yeah, it's a good play by Crosby.
03:35Crosby beat Wilson and Bradbury clean up the middle there.
03:38Jared Wilson was not as good if we're talking about rookie line.
03:40Wilson had a bad game overall.
03:42But Crosby splits him and Bradbury up the middle.
03:44Drake May steps into the sack.
03:46I don't put that on Campbell at all.
03:48The strip sack, I'm glad you brought up
03:51the expecting help part of it.
03:54Because I looked at that play at first.
03:57I was like, oh, Campbell wasn't set there.
03:58He couldn't set his feet.
03:59So he wasn't really ready for the block there.
04:02But then I re-watched it after he said,
04:04oh, Stevenson didn't give him enough there.
04:07And Campbell is sort of set as if he's expecting help to his left.
04:11That's what it looked like.
04:12Where Stevenson is.
04:13It looked like, yeah.
04:14It looked like he was getting into his stance,
04:16expecting that he was going to have Stevenson
04:17helping him there on the left side.
04:19And Stevenson didn't give him nearly enough.
04:21He gave him what he said, like just a little shoulder
04:23and I'm going out for my route.
04:25And it was a useless route because Drake May fumbled it
04:27by the time Stevenson even started into his route there.
04:30So I don't know if that was a miscommunication.
04:32If Stevenson didn't thought he was supposed to go out for the route,
04:35but he was really supposed to just stay back and block.
04:37It felt like the guys weren't on the same page there.
04:40But I'm going to put it on the fifth year player
04:42who has played in the Josh McDaniel system before
04:45over the rookie starting his first game.
04:47I don't put either of those sacks on Will Campbell,
04:50not entirely anyway.
04:51Yeah, I mean that second one,
04:52I think he probably could have been more competitive a little bit.
04:56But I, again, without knowing the play call,
04:58just having watched this offense for
05:01and going off what David Andrews said.
05:03I'll give him a half a sack between the two sacks.
05:06I think that's fair.
05:07Half him, half Stevenson,
05:09and the other one goes to Wilson and Bradbury.
05:12And again, 6 o'clock tonight,
05:13Sports Hub YouTube channel, Patriots Hub podcast.
05:15David Andrews breaks it down better.
05:17I trust his thoughts on the offense
05:18a lot more than I trust either of ours, frankly.
05:20Oh, no.
05:21Did he agree or disagree with us?
05:22No, he said, based on what he knows about the offense,
05:24it probably should have been more help there.
05:26Okay.
05:27Not to spoil the pod.
05:28We get more into it.
05:29We're on the same page with Super Bowl winning center David Andrews.
05:32I'll kind of take the benefit of it.
05:34I'll take his knowledge there.
05:36I was going to say, if he was saying the opposite of what we were saying,
05:39I will stop talking about one.
05:40Trust me, I would have opened with that.
05:42I would have opened with that.
05:43The bigger concern for the offensive line, too.
05:45So, I opened up saying the pass blocking better than I thought.
05:47Not perfect, better than I thought.
05:49The run blocking, much worse than I thought.
05:52Much like I thought it was going to be a strength of this team.
05:54They struggled to run the ball.
05:56They had only one run of more than 10 yards.
05:58And it was, credit to Josh McDaniels,
06:00really fun, cool, innovative play design.
06:03They show the tush push on third and one.
06:05Pop Travion Henderson around the edge.
06:07Drake made quick little handoff.
06:08Like, that was one of my favorite play calls of the game.
06:12After that, Henderson had a seven-yard run on his first carry
06:15in which he broke a tackle.
06:17Ramondre Stevenson's longest run was six yards.
06:19I actually posted it on my social media.
06:22They used Mack Hollins as a fullback out of the shotgun,
06:24which is kind of an interesting look.
06:26They then tried to build a pass play off of it,
06:28which didn't work,
06:29but they drew a pass interference on a fourth and short,
06:31but that's a whole other thing.
06:32Outside of those,
06:33they really could not run the ball.
06:36And look,
06:37as much as we talk about Drake May's game,
06:39the biggest problem with their pass game on Sunday
06:42was that they threw the ball 46 times.
06:44This team cannot throw the ball 46 times and win.
06:47They just, they're not built for that.
06:49They can't do it.
06:50They had to, and that's where a lot of these,
06:51not right now.
06:52They had to,
06:54and that's where a lot of these short passes come from.
06:56It's Josh McDaniels trying to supplement,
06:59the run with the quick pass game or replace the run with the quick pass game
07:03because they couldn't run the ball.
07:05Whether you want to credit them for going away from it,
07:07not banging their head against the wall.
07:09You want to say,
07:09no,
07:09they should have tried harder to establish it.
07:11We can debate that.
07:13They're not going to win games.
07:14If they can't run the ball like that,
07:15they've got to be better.
07:17The two rookies struggled.
07:19I thought there were,
07:21there were some trouble up the middle as well.
07:23They're just,
07:24they,
07:24they never,
07:25they didn't even really get runs to the second level.
07:28It wasn't linebackers crashing down and making the stop.
07:31It was defensive linemen winning at the point of attack.
07:34They have to be better running the football.
07:36I was,
07:36yeah,
07:36I was kind of surprised that Bradbury wasn't getting as much of a push as I
07:39thought he would.
07:40Oh,
07:40I knew like those guys I thought would be better in run blocking them.
07:43Pass protection.
07:44But it was kind of the opposite of what we were expecting going into the
07:48game.
07:49Sorry.
07:49My chair is breaking on me here.
07:51Hey,
07:51you're good.
07:52But yeah,
07:53look,
07:53you know what?
07:53I thought they could have kept trying to run the ball.
07:55I know like once they got down multiple scores,
07:57like,
07:57yeah,
07:58now you got to throw,
07:59but I feel like they kind of abandoned it relatively quickly.
08:01I think they could have tried different run plays.
08:04I got going back to the film.
08:06Like I'm going to have to double check the stats here,
08:08but I'm not sure they ran it like toward Will Campbell that much.
08:13I feel like they tried,
08:14to bang their heads against the ball running it.
08:16I can actually find that if you give me a second.
08:17I think much of the trouble they had running the ball,
08:19like,
08:19and we'll,
08:19we'll see if the stats bear this out,
08:21but it felt like they had trouble running it between the tackles.
08:24It felt like that was the issue.
08:26And they didn't really have much of an answer in terms of running it
08:29around the left edge more.
08:32And you know,
08:32what play I point to is like classic.
08:34Anyone who's listened to me knows I hate the,
08:37the backward pitch on third and one.
08:39And like,
08:40this was,
08:40this is another,
08:41like,
08:41that's how,
08:42you know,
08:42Josh McDaniels is back.
08:43He throws the ball six yards backwards on third and one,
08:46but on that play,
08:47like if you go back and watch it,
08:49Stevenson could have probably followed Will Campbell around the left
08:53edge and probably,
08:55and would have a chance to get to the sticks,
08:56I think.
08:57But he tries to cut back toward the interior.
09:00And I get it.
09:00Like,
09:01it looked like there might've been a little bit of an opening there,
09:03but the tackler sheds his block and brings him down.
09:06And so,
09:07yeah,
09:07like I,
09:08I didn't think that they,
09:09they tried to run the ball as much as they should have.
09:12I thought they,
09:12they tried to run it up the middle and then that wasn't working.
09:15And so they kind of got away with it,
09:16but away from it.
09:18And there were also times where I thought the ball carrier could have,
09:20could have run toward in Will Campbell's direction a little more than
09:23they did.
09:24So I don't know.
09:25Were you able to find it?
09:26I don't know if I'm wrong about that,
09:28but it felt like the problems with,
09:30with run blogging were more up the middle than they were with on the edge.
09:35I think the numbers bear that out.
09:36I just,
09:36there's a couple of things I'm trying to pull up here to,
09:38to try to get the most complete picture.
09:41Here we go.
09:42Okay.
09:42So the way this,
09:44we're pulling up pro football focus.
09:45So we're going to use internet here.
09:47We're going to use two.
09:48So the NFL's internal statistics service,
09:51they break it down right end,
09:53right tackle,
09:54right guard,
09:55truly up the middle,
09:56off left guard,
09:56off left tackle,
09:57left end.
09:58So,
09:59so there you go.
10:00I'm vindicated on this,
10:01right?
10:01I think so.
10:02So they had one rush off right end.
10:05They gained one yard.
10:07They did not run behind the right tackle or the right guard.
10:11According to this up,
10:12the middle,
10:13two carries,
10:13four yards up,
10:16the off left guard,
10:17four carries,
10:18eight yards.
10:19It doesn't give the total yardage.
10:21I'm doing the math in my head here.
10:22I can't for this one off left tackle,
10:24five carries to 2.6 yards per.
10:26And then all the way to the outside,
10:28to the left,
10:29six carries,
10:305.7 yards per,
10:32but that includes that trick play to Travion Henderson.
10:35But it's really that left end,
10:37because I'm talking about Will Campbell getting out into space and then running
10:41towards,
10:41you know,
10:42toward the sideline kind of here's a run blocker.
10:45Like they didn't try enough plays like that.
10:46I don't think,
10:47I think they could have done more,
10:48you know,
10:49in that trying that kind of play.
10:51So I was able to find it for,
10:53here we go.
10:54This is for the team.
10:56So this has the Patriots off left tackle,
11:00one carry for three yards off left end,
11:04eight carries for 44 yards.
11:06But again,
11:07that,
11:07that includes the Henderson one.
11:10Stevenson,
11:10just Stevenson off left tackle,
11:12one carry for three yards,
11:14two for eight off left end.
11:17Okay.
11:17So I think I'm still vindicated.
11:19I think,
11:19I think they could have run it more to the left edge there.
11:22Well,
11:22Will Campbell going out into space on the left side.
11:25Well,
11:25they didn't run it to the right at all,
11:27but no,
11:27I think that,
11:29yeah,
11:29they could have gone more outside and less up the,
11:31is what you're saying?
11:31They could have gone more outside and less up the middle.
11:33Yes.
11:33Yeah.
11:34Okay.
11:34Yeah.
11:34I thought you said they did.
11:36I'm like,
11:36no,
11:36they ran more to the left and the right.
11:37Yes,
11:37they could have.
11:38They also probably could have run to the right.
11:40That feels a little predictable that they called one.
11:42Does PFF agree with that?
11:44PFF has them.
11:45Yeah.
11:45With one run to the right side.
11:48That's that.
11:49That's Morgan Moses and Michael and when,
11:50that's the side you should be running behind.
11:53Right.
11:54That's weird.
11:55That's weird.
11:55I hadn't even seen that.
11:56I just pulled that up.
11:57That's your experience.
11:58I don't know why they wouldn't running away from Max Crosby,
12:01I guess.
12:03So that's something.
12:03All right.
12:04Let me ask you this real or fake.
12:06The Patriots will run more to the left than the right this year.
12:09Was that a fluke week one thing or was that real?
12:12I think they're going to look at the tape and say,
12:14we got to use Campbell on in space as a run block or more.
12:17So I'd say they're going to run to the left more going forward.
12:20I think it might've been a little fake.
12:21I wonder if they were just not running towards Max Crosby,
12:24but we'll see.
12:25We'll see next week.
12:26I'm not quite following on the real versus fake.
12:28I'm just saying,
12:28I think they got to run toward the left end more than they did.
12:32So I guess what I'm saying real versus fake as a,
12:34for the season,
12:35will the Patriots heavily skew their run game to the left side?
12:39Like they did yesterday.
12:41Or regardless of how often they run,
12:44right?
12:45Just the ratio of runs to the left versus runs to the right.
12:48Will it be heavily skewed to the left side or will there be more
12:51balance than running left and running right?
12:54That's that's a,
12:55I don't know.
12:55I got to look at the schedule with that.
12:58That's fair.
12:59I was going to game plan according.
13:00Cause you know,
13:01what if the Max Crosby of the next opponent is on the other side,
13:04you know what I mean?
13:04That's fair.
13:05That's fair.
13:05But if you look,
13:06but if we're looking at it just in terms of their personnel,
13:09Will Campbell should be utilized as a run blocker.
13:11That's the point I'm making there.
13:13I don't think they utilize them enough as a run blocker.
13:15And the running backs are part of that.
13:17Stevenson like cutting back inside instead of following Campbell on that
13:20third and one play stands out to me.
13:23No,
13:23they definitely tried to hammer it more up the middle and weren't able to
13:28do that.