Warren Moon wonders why Packers didn’t go after injured Richard Sherman
Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman injured his elbow while making a tackle on the first play of the fourth quarter on Sunday’s NFC title game. He continued to play with a functioning right arm — and with his left arm bent at the elbow and held at his midsection.
So why didn’t the Packers attack him? Hall of Fame quarterback and Seahawks radio analyst Warren Moon addressed that question on Monday’s PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio.
“I definitely would have went at him because one of Richard’s strength is getting his hands on receivers and being able to redirect them, and he couldn’t lift that arm up,” Moon said. “He was able to make one tackle on one pass that they threw on a crossing route, and he was in agonizing pain from making that tackle. So I’m surprised [the Packers] didn’t go at him a little bit more, just throwing maybe a smoke route when you throw the ball to the receiver on the line of scrimmage and make Richard make a tackle or something like that. But they didn’t do any of that, and they only have themselves to look at for not being as aggressive and taking advantage of certain situations in the ball game.”
The blame possibly goes to coach Mike McCarthy for not dialing up plays that would have exploited an injured Sherman. It possibly goes to quarterback Aaron Rodgers for not sending the ball that way. And it possibly was a collective failure of the offensive unit and coaches, who possibly didn’t process the information and engage in the mental gymnastics necessary to force Sherman to use that injured arm more than he wanted to.
Maybe they just thought he was faking it. Regardless, it’s another example of how the absence of killer instinct kept the Packers from advancing to Super Bowl XLIX.