Joey Bosa could ruin Cam Newton’s potential playoff run with Patriots

The New England Patriots are fighting for their playoff life, and Joey Bosa could pose some big problems for Cam Newton in Week 13.

The New England Patriots take on the Los Angeles Chargers this weekend in Week 13 action. The Chargers' best player, Joey Bosa, may be a huge problem for quarterback Cam Newton.

Mike Debate, the host of the daily Locked On Patriots podcast, discussed why Bosa could be an issue for Newton, who likes to hold the ball for longer than he needs to:

Debate: Bosa can make plays against the run. He can make plays on short yardage. He can rush the passer. And in Belichick’s own words, especially on Sunday, Bill said, “He sacked the quarterback on play-action situations where he converted a run read and a play-action rush.” That is not easy to do, folks.

How does he do it, you may ask?

Well, he has got great hands and instincts. He has got a tremendous motor, plays hard, and never gives up. He makes a lot of plays on effort and hustle and in terms of the physical prowess that he brings to the table, strong hands and he can control the blockers. He knows how to find the ball. That is really the best thing that I can say about Joey Bosa. Every time it's snapped, he never loses sight of it and he has always got his eye on trying to recover the football.

Now, Bosa does not have an extensive history against the Patriots, but he has played against them twice. Once in 2017, he had one sack, four tackles, and one quarterback hit. The Chargers did lose that game 21-13 against the Patriots, but he did make life difficult for Tom Brady.

The other, of course, was the 2018 AFC Divisional Round contest. He did not get a sack, or a quarterback hit. If any of you are out there paying attention to Twitter, you are probably seeing the video circulating around social media, Bosa going up to Tom Brady and saying quit throwing the ball so fast. If there is kryptonite to Joey Bosa’s Superman, that’s it, folks. Get rid of the ball quickly. That is something that the Patriots are going to want to do.

And we bring it back full circle to the problems that we discussed earlier with Cam Newton. That has not been a strong suit over the last few weeks. Not getting the ball out quick enough has led to sacks and other bad outcomes. The Patriots need to correct that.