There was a lot to like and even more to love from the Commanders’ win over the Bucs on Sunday night, but there was one big issue that was noticeable: Marshon Lattimore didn’t look like himself, and in a marquee matchup against Mike Evans that he’s had many times over the years, Evans had seven catches for 92 yards and a touchdown, both the receiving totals game highs.
So what’s going on with Lattimore?
“You have to understand when you play the comeback position, it's a flawed position from the door. Understanding that this guy was acquired mid-season and you ask him to come in and be your No. 1 guy, the one thing Champ Bailey told me the first week I made it here was if you're gonna be a No. 1 corner, you need to realize that you're gonna get 12 to 14 attempts, because they're not gonna stop throwing to their No. 1 receiver just because you’re lined up on them,” Fred Smoot told the Junkies Monday. “That’s a challenge inside of itself. People don't understand how hard that job is, and what Marshon gives you is a guy that's willing to fight. If you got a guy that's willing to go out there and fight, you got a guy that's gonna go out there and give you a chance to win.”
Smoot also compared being a corner to being a hitter in baseball, where 4-for-10 is Hall of Fame numbers, and Bish admitted that on a few throws, Baker Mayfield just beat him (like the TD pass over Quan Martin). And sometimes, it’s just that way.
“When you’re dealing with receivers over 6-foot-2, they have what we call a big catch radius, and they also can catch badly-thrown balls because they do have that,” Smoot said. “When you're talking about Mike Evans, you're talking about 11 consecutive years with 1,000 yards, so he's done this to everybody. The one person that's kind of been his Kryptonite is Lattimore, but you also got to understand that it's just a thin line when it comes to that position. He wanted to play with vision, and to do that, you have to step up and play like six or eight yards off to get your pedal so you can read. They actually match coverage with the corner and the safety, certain routes get handed off and certain routes don't. But he held him to under 100 yards, and in the playoffs, every team deserves to be there, and they did go out and win the game.”
Take a listen to Smoot’s entire visit, as he also discussed the issues in the running game, looks ahead to Detroit, and more!