Image courtesy of Patriots.com
When Matt Judon signed with the Patriots prior to the 2021 season, he was signed to be a disruptive force.
For much of last year, he was just that, but faded towards the second half of the season. Well, it appears Judon is right back to his old ways after dominating the Lions on Sunday afternoon and the NFL recognized it on Tuesday. Judon was named the AFC’s Defensive Player of the Week for the second time in his career after not only forcing a fumble that led to a Kyle Dugger touchdown, but he also set a franchise record for most sacks through the first five games in a season after he brought Jared Goff down twice, the second one leading to the fumble.
Judon’s only other DPOTW award came with the Ravens in 2017 after an impressive Week 11 performance.
The last player in the NFL to earn a sack in the first five games of the season was LB Clay Matthews with the Los Angeles Rams in 2019 when he had a sack in each of the first six games of the season. Judon’s six sacks through the first five games are second to the team record 6 ½ sacks he had in the first five games of the 2021 season.
“As a defense, you want the pressure on you,” Judon said postgame on Sunday. “Whether it’s in the fourth quarter and you need a stop or a play on fourth down. You want the pressure on you. We embrace that as a defense. We have plays called and put in to allow me just to go and sometimes I’ve got to run a game and loop things of that nature. But, when I get those calls and I hear those calls, I’m excited. But I don’t take any play for granted. I play full speed, try to full tilt, but when I know I get to go, it’s a little extra off the line. Just because I know my defense got my back.”
Moving forward, the Patriots will need him to continue being the disruptive force he appears to be if New England is going to recover from its slow start.
“As much as we want to ride this game or build off this game, next week’s going to be different and we’ve got to show up again next week,” Judon added on Sunday. “Like I said, you got to take it one week at a time. It’s difficult in this league to win games. That’s what we had to do. We had to pitch a shutout. We know that the offense got our back and we got their back. So, when we can get them the ball back in any fashion, that’s what we want to do.”