FOXBOROUGH - Will Campbell wasn’t perfect in his first playoff game as a pro. He was beaten for a strip sack and allowed five total pressures by my count. So as he stood at his locker Wednesday afternoon, facing a media throng three or four deep, I started asking him a question about wanting to play perfectly, but knowing that’s hard to do. But as the words were coming out of my mouth, “how do you deal with...(I was going to say your own expectations versus the reality)” he cut me off.
“With what? What people have to say?” he interjected.
Sure, I acknowledged, figuring he had something he wanted to get off his chest. And he did.
“I don't give a shit what anyone says, to be honest with you,” he replied. “It's easy to type behind a Twitter account that you know is fake, and - I hold myself to the highest expectation of anybody. I want to be perfect, and it's hard for me to get told that it's going to be hard to be perfect. The Chargers, obviously, I didn't pitch a shutout. I had two or three plays that I wish I could have back, but that's $300 million dollars of defensive ends. I got a ton of respect for those dudes, and it's going to be like that every week in the playoffs. They had a good group.
“This team has an extremely talented group. We win, and the next group is going to be just as good. And it's just playoff football. These are the best teams with the best defenses, the best offenses, the best players. They're in the playoffs for a reason. So, like Coach Vrabel said, I'm sure y'all heard him, you've got to be willing to spill a little blood and violence, and you just got to hope you don't spill more than they do. And that's the name of the game.”
Campbell, like his teammates, has shown a good ability to rebound from one game to the next or to make in-game adjustments. There’s no getting comfortable against the level of talent he’s facing. This is life as a left tackle in the National Football League.
“It's my job. That's what they pay me to do,” Campbell said of needing to bounce back. “I can look at it and be like, Yeah, I wish I had two plays back last week. That's wasting energy towards this week. And somebody told me that, and it's very true, I can't be worried about last week, because, quite frankly, the second after it happened, it doesn't make a shit anymore. There's not anything I can do about it; the people and the fans 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. You know, one play, you learn from it. You see what you did wrong. You go to the sideline, you make adjustments, you fix it, and you learn from it. Like I said. I mean, you know, it's not going to be perfect. Won't be perfect this week. These guys are extremely talented.”
You can see why Mike Vrabel loves Campbell, and why Drake Maye calls him “Big Country.” The 22-year-old (he just had a birthday last week) brings a certain play style and demeanor to the field every day, much as the head coach did himself. But he’s also honest about how he played and what’s in front of him. What that is is a pair of demons in Texans edge rushers Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter.
“They're great players,” Campbell said. “I played against Will my freshman year in college, and I've watched Danielle since I was a kid, and he was at LSU. So, a ton of respect for those guys. They are who they are for a reason.”
There isn’t a better edge duo than these two. Hunter had 15 sacks (3rd in NFL), and Anderson had 12 (T-8th). That made the Texans the only NFL team since 2020 to have multiple players with 12+ sacks in a season. But even when they weren’t sacking the quarterback, they were omnipresent as pass rushers. In fact, Anderson had 85 pressures, which was 2nd in the NFL behind Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson. 48 of those pressures came on 3rd down, which is the most in a season (per Next Gen Stats).
“They have great talent, great scheme,” Vrabel said. “They play hard, and I respect how hard they play. And they're not only talented, but they have a play demeanor that I can appreciate.”
The Texans allowed just 6 points and 175 total yards in their Wild Card round win at Pittsburgh on Monday night, overwhelming the Steelers with speed and sheer brutality. That kept with a theme that has been present nearly all year: when that defense surrendered the fewest yards per game and the second-fewest points per game. Vrabel mentioned the scheme, but they are much more of a do-what-they-do unit, at least until later downs.
“Maybe the volume isn't as much,” Vrabel said when I asked about DC Matt Burke’s defense. “I think the volume increases on third down, where you'll maybe get some multiple looks and pressures and different things. But I think we pretty much would have an idea of where they're going to be on first and second down. They'll mix in pressures, and then they match you up, and then we'll get into the zone. But I think the volume probably comes more in on third down.”
That will be a major test for a second-year QB in Maye, and a left side of the offensive line that is in their first year. But let’s be clear, there can be no weak links against a unit this formidable.
“Everybody on offense, we've got to have a great week,” Campbell said. “Everybody's got to do their job to win a game like this.”
