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Fans of the New England Patriots are witnessing a career-best year from linebacker Matthew Judon, and if the number of times he’s been tested by the NFL for drugs is any indication, it seems that the league is surprised by his performance.
“Another random drug test for the gang. NFL saying I know it gotta be something,” Judon tweeted on December 2, the morning after he registered only three tackles in the Patriots’ 27-7 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Heading into the game, Judon had been dominant, tallying over 40 tackles and a league-leading 13 sacks.
He followed up his tweet, joking: “At this point they building another me with all the nose swabs n pee they got from me,” he said.
A week earlier, on November 25, Judon tweeted: “How many random drug test can one have?”
According to policy, the NFL tests 10 players per week from each club, with players’ identification numbers being chosen randomly by a computer. It’s unknown how many times Judon has been randomly selected for, but it appears to be at least twice this season. In the past, some players have questioned just how random the test is.
In early November, Philadelphia Eagles receiver A.J. Brown said he was forced to take a drug test the day after he scored three touchdowns. And in 2018, the Carolina Panthers’ Eric Reid said that he’d been six times in 11 weeks, which is nearly statistically impossible if he was chosen randomly.
How Did Judon Feel About the Patriots Defense in Week 13?
With New England failing to pick up the win and Judon failing to record a sack, it wasn’t to surprising to hear that the pass rusher was disappointed in the performance.
“It’s just, we have to get stops and get the ball back to our offense,” Judon said after the game. “Let them create momentum, sustain drives. But they had too many third downs that they converted to first downs. So we have to get them stopped. Then in the red-zone, we can’t let them go 3-for-3. We can’t let them go 3-for-3. We have to force field goals. We can’t let them run it in like that.”
What Did the Rest of the Defense Say About the Performance?
Judon was far from the only player disappointed in the performance. Devin McCourty also spoke about the poor outing by the defense.
“Tough game. I think obviously did some things well, but not enough things well,” he said. “So yeah, I mean, we’ve been talking about it I think the last two weeks, these games get bigger and bigger, so when you fall short it’s disappointing. We’ve got some time, we need to try to regroup, reset, figure some things out and decide what the rest of our season is going to be.”
The team captain also discussed the continued mistakes that New England has made this season.
“Yeah, I mean some of the things you talk about is teams of the past,” McCourty said. “It just kind of is what it is, like this isn’t that and I think we’ve got to get out of the mindset of what we used to do in December and focus on just now and what we are now. I think that’s something we’ve got to improve on. The small mistakes are killing us.
“I think defensively we did a better job of that, but this is a team that they’re explosive,” McCourty said. “It’s hard to hold that offense to seven points, 10 points, but I think the biggest thing is we’ve got to get more turnovers. We had a couple of chances today, but I wouldn’t say small things were the biggest thing for our defense. It’s just making some more plays. At times we were there in position, good position to make a play, they made a few more. We’re going to get another crack at them and going forward, this long week, we’ve got to get ready to go and do something that’s not normal.
“We’ve got to go on the road to Arizona, stay on the West Coast, then play Vegas,” McCourty said. “Those will be two big games and we go to start off by focusing on Arizona, which defensively, another running quarterback, a guy that can make plays all over the field. We’ll have another challenge that we’ve got to rise to.”