Dan Campbell goes full-on amateur hour and other leftover Patriots thoughts
BOSTON -- Let's start with this: Dan Campbell is cool as heck. Very likeable. Big, strong fella. Someone you'd want on your side in a dispute. A closer look behind the scenes in this year's "Hard Knocks" shows that for all of the bluster and all of the muscle shirts ... Campbell's heart is in the right place.
Now, with that being said, in the name of remaining fair and balanced, we are required to acknowledge this: Dan Campbell turned the end of Sunday's game into amateur hour.
Following the Lions' sixth failed fourth down of the day (no, nobody's ever gone 0-for-6 on fourth-down attempts in NFL history before Sunday, if you were curious), the Patriots gained possession at their own 18-yard line, leading 29-0 with 3:02 left in the fourth quarter. The game -- for every single intent and every single purpose -- was over. There's no coming back from 29-0. And after getting waxed on the scoreboard and decimated by injuries (Salvion Smith was taken off the field in an ambulance, and the game stopped four other times to allow trainers to tend to Lions injuries), every single Lions player was likely eager to hit the showers, lick their wounds, and hop on a plane back to Detroit.
The Patriots were happy to help with this, too, calling an inside handoff to Rhamondre Stevenson on first down. It gained 7, and it could have brought the clock down to 2:16. Another couple of runs, and the Patriots would either run out the clock or punt it back to Detroit with about a minute left to play.
Yet for some inexplicable reason, as soon as Stevenson hit the turf, Campbell put his hands in the shape of a T, calling a timeout with 2:55 left in the game.
Was this an accident? Surely this adult man with a Texas A&M education and almost 30 years of NFL experience understood that this game was over, right? Perhaps he had a brief lapse in judgment, temporarily forgetting the game situation. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Based on the fact that he assumed a ready position on the sideline while chomping on something (I'll assume it was a hunk of steel), it's probably safe to say that Campbell still had some competitive juices coursing through his ever-bulging veins.
Ah. But. On second-and-3, Stevenson again ran up the middle, this time gaining four yards and giving the Patriots a fresh set of downs. Surely, if the game was over before, it was really over now. There's simply no need for the Lions to do anything but watch as Bailey Zappe takes some kneeldowns to run out the clock.
But Dan Campbell. Called timeout. For reasons unknown.
What a joke.
This time, Campbell waited two seconds after Stevenson hit the turf to call timeout, perhaps indicative of a man realizing that what he was doing was foolish and useless -- and unnecessarily dangerous.
Forced to run plays for some reason, the Patriots called a pitch to Stevenson, who juked Bobby Price out of his shoes en route to gaining 11 yards. For a new set of downs. This thing was over. So over.
But Campbell, once again, called timeout.
What a joke.
In doing so, Campbell forced 22 players to risk injury for literally no reason, as Stevenson plunged into the line for a gain of a yard, allowing the clock to run down to the two-minute warning.
Fortunately from there, the Patriots went into kneeldown mode, running the clock down to 35 seconds before punting it away. And in keeping with the fortunate theme, Campbell wasn't foolish enough to make his offense run plays with 22 seconds left in a 29-0 game, instead calling for a Jared Goff kneeldown to end the game.
Why Campbell called these timeouts in this situation is anyone's guess. Most likely, he was employing a high school coach's mentality of NEVER GIVING UP, NOT CEDING ONE INCH TO THE OPPONENT, NEVER QUITTING ON ANY PLAY OR ANY GAME, AHHHH I AM GONNA RUN THROUGH A WALL, FELLAS. It's not really a mentality that works in pro football. Or high-level college football. Or high school, really.
It's just plain stupid.
And for as much as he's a likeable guy who can inspire a room, he's now 9-24-1 as a head coach in the NFL, and he's 4-17-1 as head coach of the Detroit Lions. When his time in charge eventually comes to an end (as it does for all coaches), moments like this will stand out as particularly egregious amateur moments in what is supposed to be a professional sporting league.
Not sure why I dropped 800 words on that. The mind works in mysterious ways. Let's get to all of the leftover thoughts from the Patriots' thumping of the Lions.
--I want to start with Nick Folk. Yes, the kicker. The 37-year-old was 5-for-5 on field goals and 2-for-2 on PATs on Sunday. He's now successfully kicked 63 consecutive field goals of less than 50 yards. That may not amaze anyone on the surface, what with kickers booting field goals from 60-something yards at all times these days. But think about this: Can you do anything 63 consecutive times without messing up once?
Roll up 63 pieces of paper and see if you can toss them all in a trash can 10 feet away. You'll miss a few times.
Wouldn't something -- a sneeze, a slip, a weird hold, a butterfly passing through -- disrupt his kicking process at least once during that stretch? And wouldn't nature demand that one of the kicks would blow wide right, or spin sideways, at some point? Wouldn't the probability say that at some point, one of those kicks would have to clank off the upright, ricocheting to the turf?
Apparently not.
Folk's last miss on a sub-50-yard kick came in Week 1 of the 2020 season. That's insane. So yeah, we started with the kicker this week. Deal with it.
--Nobody saw a shutout coming, not against the NFL's No. 1 offense. But there was a good indication that the Patriots were in for a special sort of defensive day when the field looked like this following their first fourth-down stop of the day:
Have you ever seen so many Patriots on the field at one time? This team was fired up -- like, actually fired up, not told to be fired up by their head coach calling timeouts at the end of a blowout -- for this one.
--Those of us who are fortunate enough to spend 3 hours watching a game know what happened. But let's say you're not so lucky, and you still want to know how the game went. LUCKY FOR YOU, there's a 26-second video that captures the spirit of this entire game in one neat package:
That'll do it.
--Everyone's going to do a Bailey Zappe thing this week. It's understandable. We are freaking obsessed with quarterbacks in this nation of ours. And hey, if you can't have fun with a little stat manipulation ...
... are you even living??
While Mac Jones' job isn't in jeopardy, you did have to like what you saw out of Zappe. Mostly, that involved the poise displayed by the 23-year-old. Sure, starting at home against the Lions is technically a less daunting challenge than facing the Packers at Lambeau. But having a whole week to process being the starting quarterback of the New England Patriots can weigh heavily on a young man. Zappe seemed genuinely unaffected.
And Zappe was good! He was ridiculously accurate, completing 17 of his 21 passes. He was effective, averaging 9 yards per attempt. He was opportunistic, reading the defense and throwing a perfect touchdown pass to Jakobi Meyers when the Lions showed the look he expected to see. And his interception, as everyone would agree, was not his fault at all. (Nelson Agholor is responsible for three turnovers in five games. Not good.)
Maybe I'm a fool, but I was most impressed with one of Zappe's incompletions. On the Patriots' first drive, they faced a third-and-8. Zappe tried to fit a pass into the tightest of windows, as Hunter Henry was covered pretty well by Alex Anzalone. Zappe reared back and whipped it ... and it almost worked out. If not for a great effort from the linebacker in coverage, it would have been a heck of a third-down completion.
While the form was a bit ... unique, that was a fearless throw from a kid who seemed largely unfazed by everything going on around him. A solid showing.
--Zappe also gave No. 2 overall pick Aidan Hutchinson the okey-doke, escaping a dead-to-rights sack situation and rushing for a gain of five yards:
--Rhamondre Stevenson is really, really good. He may not get the proper shine nationally, because he's not a good fantasy player or something. But his ability to jump cut and change directions in a flash, with that speed and that size, is a truly rare ability.
In that sense, it was good to see him get the biggest opportunity of his young career, with Damien Harris going out after the first quarter with a hamstring injury.
He turned this moment ...
... into a 49-yard run. Which is a rare talent. And he racked up 161 rushing yards, and he ran through the Lions' defense even as Dan Campbell called a bunch of foolish timeouts late.
"Love him," Bill Belichick said of Stevenson, before repeating himself: "Love him."
Some well-deserved flowers for the second-year back.
--Here's something that's kind of funny: After the lack of playing time for Kendrick Bourne has become a major story line all season long, he finally got to play more than four other wide receivers. And he ... had one catch for one yard, while also committing two penalties and getting yelled at on the sideline by his head coach.
That won't help matters.
If you were wondering, Bourne played 57 percent of the Patriots' offensive snaps, more than DeVante Parker (52 percent), Tyquan Thornton (42 percent), Lil'Jordan Humphrey (23 percent) and Nelson Agholor (12 percent). Only Jakobi Meyers (80 percent) played more.
--The Patriots won 29-0 despite getting hosed on a couple of major penalty calls.
After Marcus Jones returned a punt late in the first half, the rookie returner was clearly speared by Josh Woods. That penalty wasn't called, nor was Anthony Pittman's late push on Myles Bryant. Only Josh Uche's retaliatory hit on Pittman was flagged, when clearly the Lions had earned some yellow, too.
The other one was the roughing the passer call on Mack Wilson, in which Goff seemed to simply come down from a leap with his facemask grazing Wilson's helmet. It was a rough one, but you do generally see the flags fly whenever there's helmet-to-helmet contact ... even if it's mostly the result of the quarterback succumbing to the laws of gravity.
The Patriots overcame both, driving for a field goal after Uche's penalty and stopping the Lions on four straight plays after the Wilson penalty. Which speaks to both their execution level and the Lions' futility on this particular day.
--Here are some of Jared Goff's passes on one drive late in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter.
First-and-10 from the Patriots' 24:
Second-and-14 from the Patriots' 17, with the Patriots' cheerleaders being the intended target:
Third-and-14 from the Patriots' 17:
That's not to dump on Goff -- even though he was awful in this game. It's just indicative of a defense that dialed up a ton of pressure and made life miserable for the visiting QB.
--Bill Belichick can tie George Halas for second on the all-time head coaching wins list next week. Where are the Patriots playing next week? Why, wouldn't you know, it's Cleveland, Ohio.
That's pretty cool. To celebrate, here's a quick look at Belichick rocking some impeccable early '90s fits on the Browns' sideline:
No need to thank me, but you're welcome. See you next week.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
