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CraigMatson
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ramBRO
I don't believe this to be true. I was at the game (endzone) and observed Sherman primarily playing on one side (his defense's left side). I did notice him travel over to the right side once when he was matched up in man on Woods and he (Woods) went in motion.
I'm betting that you may have got Sherman mixed up with Grffin who also wears long dreds. But on that 2nd half deep route by Watkins (where he quit on the route), he was being defended by Griffin.
Two deep routes where he either beat (or would have beaten) the coverage - one where he beat Sherman, but couldn't connect with Goff, and the aforementioned play where he pulled up.
And there was a 4th quarter target to Watkins where I think it was zone coverage. There were 4 Ssahawk defenders there and Goff placed the ball right in between them. Not sure if Watkins got the proper depth there on the route.
I don't believe that they (Watkins & Goff) are on the same page.
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Yes I think your evaluation is about right on the play breakdowns and Watkins problems.
I'll add this on Watkins ..
He is not running his routes with a great degree of speed out there and I don't see much in the way of quick change of direction.
I think he is given respespect for top end speed he may not have right now or is inconsistently running things as practiced.
He looked like a fairly easy cover today and it isn't second nature for he and Goff to connect on anything right now ..
A couple of things here:
1) I recall listening to the post-game show late in the pre-season when there were questions about getting Watkins the ball. One of the hosts (maybe Eric Davis) mentioned that, if a WR isn't right with their playbook (particularly ones with 1st round talent), experienced DB's/DC's will sniff this out after a couple of games are on tape. They (DB's) will respect your ability to go deep. But anything else, they will essentially ignore you which could affect the overall offensive scheme.
2) I just caught a radio interview this morning with D'marco Farr Ram's sideline reporter. He had a back-and-forth with Keyshawn over getting Watkins the ball. Farr said that Watkins isn't comfortable with the playbook and, as a result, Goff doesn't yet trust him enough for additional opportunities. He further said that, right now if Cooper Kupp isn't on the field with Watkins when the huddle breaks, there'll likely be an alignment issue on the play.
And although Keyshawn didn't dispute the allegation that Sammy isn't right with the plays yet, he said that there shouldn't be too much of a problem with this as a Kupp and/or Woods can remind him what to do.
I think that we're gonna need to wait until after the bye week to fairly begin to judge Watkins.
