On Wednesday, Arizona Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell revealed just how excited he is to go up against Patriots backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo rather than Tom Brady in Week 1. Three weeks after that game, the Patriots will take on another stud defensive lineman. In what is scheduled to be the final game of Brady's four-game suspension, the Pats take on Marcell Dareus and the Buffalo Bills.
And Dareus, for one, is not nearly as excited to face Garoppolo. "I can't wait to play (the Patriots)," Dareus said on NFL Network's Around the NFL. "I hate that Brady's not going to be there. But when he comes back ...
"If we win, all right, we win. But I don't feel like I really won until I beat the guy. I love playing against Brady. I get up for him. I play against him every year, and he knows I'm coming. So for him not to be up there tears me up a little bit. But the second time I see him, I'm going to be excited to play against him."
This seems like one of those, "To be the best, you've got to beat the best" kind of things. In fairness to Dareus, his team is only 1-8 in games played against the Patriots in his career, so it would undoubtedly feel better if he could get that second win against one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, rather than that guy's backup.
Dareus hasn't been on the field for a Buffalo win over New England since the first game he ever played against the Patriots, all the way back in September of 2011. The Pats stormed out to a 21-0 lead in that one but the Bills came all the way back and left Ralph Wilson Stadium with a 34-31 win. The only time they've defeated New England since was in Week 17 of the 2014 season, but Dareus didn't play in that game and the Pats already had their playoff seed wrapped up by that point, so Brady threw only 16 passes before ceding the remainder of the snaps to Garoppolo.
