On Thursday night, former NFL wide receiver Hines Ward joined the swarms of people who love to hate on Richard Sherman. Ward, who works as an analyst for NBC, was not impressed by the fact that the Green Bay Packers did not throw a single pass toward Sherman. Instead, he felt the Seahawks’ game plan proved that Sherman is not the best cornerback in the league.
“Sherman is on the cover of Madden, and he spent tonight covering Jarrett Boykin,” Ward said, via Bleacher Report. “That’s not the matchup you want to see. How can you be best when you’re on a nobody? Sherman takes himself out of the game by not covering the best receiver. Sherman is top three, but he’s not in the class with the best.”
The same argument has been used against Sherman on numerous occasions in the past, and it always seems to get under his skin. Ward believes the Packers may have given the league a blueprint on how to attack Seattle.
“Sherman is very good, but the Packers showed how to play him,” he said. “They put Boykin on that side of the field, and Sherman covered him. The best DBs cover the best wide receivers. Sherman covered Boykin. Who is Boykin? You think Darrelle Revis would cover Boykin?
“I don’t understand why more teams don’t attack Seattle the way Green Bay did. Why doesn’t San Francisco do that? Arizona?”
Did Ward watch the same game we did? The Seahawks dominated the Packers. Aaron Rodgers, one of the league’s best quarterbacks, completed 23 of 33 passes for just 189 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Had it not been for a muffed punt, Green Bay likely would have gotten into the end zone just once.
If you want to argue that Sherman is not the best shutdown corner in football, that’s perfectly fine. That may be true, but don’t act like the Packers exposed his weakness in some way by sticking Boykin on him. The Packers avoided Sherman and ended up getting their asses kicked. Even if they gave teams an idea of how to play against Sherman, they certainly didn’t expose Seattle’s defensive scheme in any way. It’s still as dominant as ever.
