Patriots get good news about Will Campbell’s knee injury

FOXBOROUGH — Will Campbell offered a two-word response when asked how he was feeling after his early exit from Sunday’s loss to the Packers.

“I’m good,” Campbell said.

The left tackle was listed as questionable to return with a knee injury but did not return to the game. The injury occurred late in the fourth quarter when the game was already out of reach.

Campbell said he was “leg whipped” during the play, referencing an illegal motion that involves a player sticking a leg out to make another player fall down. He said he felt good enough to return, but at that point in the game the decision was made for him to remain out. Rookie Caleb Lomu subbed in to finish the game.

“I think I would have went back in, but they pulled Drake [Maye] out,” Campbell said. “That’s all.”

Campbell has started all eight games this season and showed considerable improvement from the end of last season when he was dealing with a sprain MCL that sidelined him for four weeks and appeared to affect his play after his return. He left the Patriots’ Week 5 win against the Raiders with a knee injury, but was able to play the following week.

Sunday’s loss was a rough showing for the Patriots’ offense, which lost four turnovers. Maye was sacked four times, and his performance was marked by inconsistency. He threw three touchdowns 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 trailed from the very beginning after Maye threw the first of three interceptions on the second play of the game, giving the Packers the ball in the red zone. Jordan Love scored on a scramble and it was the beginning of a hole that the Patriots couldn’t dig themselves out of.

“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.” ‘

New England dropped to 5-4 with the loss. The 18-point margin of defeat was the second-highest of the season. The Patriots won four of their next five games after the Jaguars 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.”

Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson also left the game with a knee injury. Coach Mike Vrabel said after the game that he did not have any updates on him. Stevenson was not spotted 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.”

Khari A. Thompson

Sports Reporter

Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.