New England Patriots - NESN.com
An ESPN analyst identified one critical part of the field to watch when the New England Patriots play the Houston Texans.
Mina Kimes will monitor the left side of New England’s offensive line in Sunday’s AFC Divisional Round game at Gillette Stadium. The analyst named a matchup between left tackle Will Campbell against Texans stars Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter on Friday’s “SportsCenter,” but the “NFL Live” panelist is also paying attention to fellow rookie left guard Jared Wilson.
“We know how terrifying this Texans’ pass rush is,” Kimes said. “We also saw the left side of the Patriots’ offensive line struggle in the last round against the Chargers’ pass rush. Both Campbell and the left guard, who is also a rookie, Wilson. So I think that’s something that Houston is gonna try to take advantage of.”
Campbell struggled in pass protection during his postseason debut, allowing six pressures in a game that saw Drake Maye take five sacks. The No. 4 pick bounces from one difficult matchup to another when lining up against Anderson and Hunter, who tallied 27 combined sacks during the regular season.
“Will Campbell has had a good rookie season,” Kimes noted. “It was just a tough matchup. Gonna see if he bounces back. That’s gonna be huge, of course, against this Texans pass rush.”
Campbell acknowledged that he didn’t have his finest performance when dismissing social media critics earlier this week. The 22-year-old is eager to turn the page from his Wild Card Round showing.
“I can’t be worrying about last week, because quite frankly, the second after it happened, it doesn’t mean (expletive) anymore,” Campbell said. “There’s not anything I can do about it, the people in the stands can do about it. You just have to move on and keep playing. You can’t let one play turn into 10.”
