Luckily for us, “next year” arrived as fast as the calendar changed. The two heavyweights face off for Round 3 in the Divisional Round on Sunday night in New Orleans. Lattimore was not released to the media this week, while Evans ignored minor questions about the cornerback, focusing instead on the confrontation of the two teams.
“It is definitely a great rivalry”, Evans said Wednesday. “When we play against each other, there is a lot of emotion, a lot of physicality.”
Lattimore did not travel with Evans overnight because that is not how the Saints play defense under coordinator Dennis Allen. But his success in relation to the higher structure pass catcher is certainly a factor. It is not difficult to imagine a cautious quarterback like Tom Brady seeing the number 23 in front of Evans and thinking to himself: Better look elsewhere.
Lattimore’s mastery of coverage against Evans actually extends throughout his career, as evidenced by this instant analysis by Nick Underhill at NewOrleans.football. According to Pro Football Focus, in the four seasons of Lattimore’s NFL (eight games against Tampa), Evans had only nine catches on 20 targets (45.0 completion percentage) and the two exchanged touchdowns and interceptions, each with one. These numbers pale compared to what Evans did with the rest of the league.
Potentially removing Evans from the equation may not matter so much now that Antonio Brown is cooking, but Lattimore’s presence – and his task after the snap – will be one of the most interesting subplots in Sunday’s postseason game. As Lattimore reminded us just a few months ago on Twitter and with his post-game comments from Week 9 – “It was disrespectful what he did” – the cornerback is not about to forget that push in the back when they take the field at this time around.