Super Bowl 54 probably didn’t go the way Richard Sherman envisioned it would. The 49ers cornerback didn’t make much of an impact, and after he gave up a 38-yard reception to Sammy Watkins, NFL Twitter unloaded on the trash-talking defensive back.
The numbers did not look great for Sherman. According to Pro Football Focus, the veteran corner was targeted five times and gave up five completions for 72 yards. Both were season highs. But those numbers are a bit misleading and the heat Sherman caught following the game just goes to show how high the standard is for one of the greatest cornerbacks in NFL history.
Let’s take a look at all five of those targets. You can watch all of them here before we look at them individually.
Let’s start with Watkins’ big catch, which was certainly a play that Sherman would like back…
It appears the Chiefs were running a quick passing concept, but with Sherman in press coverage, Watkins converts his route to a fade. Sherman is really done in by the alignment.
With Watkins aligning in a tight split, Sherman is like expecting an out-breaking route. The thinking behind that is the receiver is aligning further inside to give himself space to run back outside. Watkins feints outside and gets Sherman to bite before working back inside and that provides him the step he needed to beat the 49ers star downfield.
Here’s the second big play Sherman “gave up.” It comes on a scramble drill where he has to cover Watkins for about five seconds.
No coach is expecting his corner to hold up in coverage that long. This play ultimately falls on the pass rush for not being able to contain Mahomes.
The remaining three targets let to minimal gains. Tyreek Hill’s two catches on Sherman came on short routes vs. soft zone coverage.
Hill catches the ball in the area of the field that coaches literally refer to as the “no cover zone,” so dinging Sherman for the catches makes no sense. On the first play, Hill does make Sherman look silly with a nice juke, but that has nothing to do with his coverage.
And here’s the final target, which is actually a really nice play by Sherman on Kelce, as he brought down the best tight end in the NFL for little yardage. Kelce is one of the best yard-after-catch players in the league, so that’s no small feat.
Sherman was really only beat once in coverage. Just once! Every corner gets beat. Stefon Gilmore gets beat. Jalen Ramsey gets beat. Darrelle Revis got beat.
That didn’t stop Twitter from piling on Sherman. If the standard is THAT high for him, then maybe Sherman is right: He really is the best corner in the game.