Was Seahawks’ Richard Sherman really ‘exposed’ in Sunday’s loss?

Plenty went wrong for the Seahawks in Sunday’s loss at San Diego—if you missed it, you can read my takeaways from the game here—and while Richard Sherman’s play wasn’t anywhere near the top of the list of those things, the Chargers, or at least some of them, say they exposed Sherman.

The San Diego Union-Tribune passes this along from receiver Keenan Allen:

“All week we said we were going to throw at him because he’s not what he’s hyped up to be,” Allen said, adding that he enjoys going up against “the best” while making quote signs with his fingers. “I just went out and played my game.”

Allen also said, “He’s not really a shutdown corner. We definitely wanted to come out and show we could go any way we wanted to, and that we were in control of the game. Wherever we wanted to go with it we were going to go with it.”

Sherman did not talk to reporters after the game, but did respond on Twitter, laughing off the notion he was exposed by the Chargers:

Lmao Exposed? …. Complete 3 passes 0 touchdowns 0 explosive passes…. These guys make me laugh

— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) September 15, 2014

While Sherman did himself no favors by blowing off the media in San Diego—if a player is going to be brash and talk a little (or a lot) of good-natured trash, a trait of Sherman’s I’ve repeatedly defended, for what it’s worth, then he shouldn’t clam up after a rare loss—to say he was exposed is a bit of a reach. The Chargers never tested him deep, let alone beat him down field, and pretty much every catch on him was an underneath route. The way the Seahawks play defense, their cornerbacks are generally supposed to funnel receivers towards the middle of the field where linebackers and safeties can clean up, and not giving up big plays in priority No. 1.

Allen, the man most critical of Sherman, finished the game with five catches for 55 yards, while Eddie Royal had seven catches for 69 yards. No Chargers wide receiver had a catch longer than 16 yards. So for the most part, Seattle’s corners held up just fine; the big difference in the game was that Seattle couldn’t handle tight end Antonio Gates with linebackers and safeties, and Gates torched them for 96 yards and three touchdowns on seven catches.

A simple fact of playing cornerback is that the defensive player is a disadvantage pretty much every time the ball is snapped. The quarterback and receiver know where the ball is supposed to go, and the corner has to react, not to mention all the rules that favor offense in today’s NFL. If you want to dissect a game of any corner—and yes, Sherman has made himself a target for this because of his trash talking—you’re going to find plays where that corner gets turned around, looks awkward, and yes, gets beat from time to time.

Philip Rivers, who said last week he wasn’t going to shy away from Sherman, then backed it up, had a good, balanced answer when talking about Sherman on SportsCenter Monday.

“I just think it’s hard to be a complete shutdown corner in this league,” he said. “He’s a great corner though. I don’t know if he was exposed, but I do think we showed that you can throw it over there.”

Sunday wasn’t the Seahawks’ best day, nor was it Sherman’s, but to claim he was exposed because of a few short completions is not only an exaggeration, it shows a misunderstanding of what the Seahawks ask of their cornerbacks.

And if we want to extend this conversation back to Week 1, when some were questioning Sherman’s impact if he doesn’t move around the field, thus allowing teams to avoid him all together, as the Packers did, take a look at what Green Bay, and more specifically Jordy Nelson, did in Week 2. Against the Seahawks, Nelson regularly lined up on the left or in the slot, and had a decent game, catching 9 passes for 83 yards. But as we saw in Green Bay’s comeback win against the Jets, there’s a reason Nelson is usually on the right side—that’s where Aaron Rodgers likes throwing. Playing mostly on that side, Nelson caught again caught 9 passes, but this time for 209 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown, a play in which he was lined up, you guessed it, on the right. So no, Sherman didn’t have any stats in Week 1, but he certainly limited what Green Bay did on offense.