Facing Xavier Rhodes this week.
I was listening to
Norse Code yesterday and heard some good insights from the guest who has been writing about the Rams since 2008 at SB Nation.
He said that teams who do have a corner shadow the Rams top receiver, such as Jacksonville and Arizona, that they have had that corner cover Watkins, and that he expects Rhodes to cover Watkins if the Vikings do have him to do that. Rhodes doesn't shadow the top receiver all the time, it depends on the play call and the game plan against specific teams, but I tend to think this may be right, that Rhodes when he does shadow a Rams receiver, it will be Watkins not Woods.
He goes on to say that Watkins does help open up things for the other receivers, because Watkins will often get safety help over the top, leaving Woods and Kupp one on one more. All teams have to worry about Gurley obviously, so it stretches defenses pretty thin.
He think the Vikings defense is good enough to match up with the Rams offense across the board. He mentions that Jacksonville was able to take the outside passing game away that forced the Rams to throw over the middle more. In
that game Woods was the most targeted WR and the only effective one gaining 70 of Goffs 124 yards passing.
I am not sure how many snaps Woods has run out of the slot this year, but he played about 43% of snaps from the slot for Buffalo in 2016. His big TD in most recent game he lined up in the slot.
I can see similar things happening in this game. Crowder had 11 targets 4 receptions 76 yards against the Vikings last week, mostly drawing Terrence Newman. His biggest play was a blown coverage over the middle IIRC where neither Barr or Smith picked him up, possible miscommunication on the Vikings part there.
When Woods plays outside I think it is more likely he draws Tre Waynes in coverage.
Sean McVay former Washington offensive coordinator running very similar offense as what the Vikings faced last week.
Although I am hoping the Vikings can stifle the Rams offense this week, I can still see Woods having a good day if all the above is true. Just too many other things for the Vikings to be focused on stopping, especially Gurley. I would love it if they can play the Rams as well as Jacksonville did in the passing game, but I expect them to give up more yardage than that, but hopefully doing a better job than Jacksonville of stopping Gurley.