It didn’t take long for Antonio Brown and Brandon Boykin to lock horns. Two plays, actually.
“I was guarding him and he was supposed to get the screen so I got my chance to hit him,” said Boykin. “Every play I wanted to hit him but it didn’t happen that way, so it’s all good.”
Ben Roethlisberger entered the game with a pristine 145.1 quarterback rating on third down. It is when he is at his best, and it proved true again Sunday. Especially late.
There were two key third-down conversions on Pittsburgh’s game-winning drive. The first was a 20-yard completion to Antonio Brown on a 3rd-and-12 from the Pittsburgh 18. The second was a seven-yard out to Emmanuel Sanders on 3rd-and-4 at the Philadelphia 38-yard line that put the Steelers in field goal range. Moments later, Shaun Suisham booted a 34-yard field goal as time expired to win it for Pittsburgh.
It didn’t take long for Antonio Brown‘s curious insult to make its way to Brandon Boykin.
“My phone was just blowing up after meetings,” said Boykin. “No matter what happens with social media now, you’ll find out anything. Actually my brother talked to me earlier, and he was more fired up about it than I was. He was like, ‘Man I want you to go out there and …’ I’m like, brother, just chill, it’s all good. Sunday we’ll see.”
The Steelers wide receiver fired a shot at Boykin, saying that that he expects the Steelers to pick on him Sunday and calling the rookie corner, ‘The candy bar.”
“I didn’t even get it. I was confused,” said Boykin. ”It’s good. It’s doing nothing but giving me a little bit more attention. I have to go out and do what I do, and if I do it right, he’s actually helped me in a sense. So tell him I appreciate it.”
Well, the Steelers are talking a little trash.
Receiver Antonio Brown is apparently not all that impressed with rookie corner Brandon Boykin, and expects Pittsburgh to pick on him.
Here are 10 things to know about this weekend’s matchup between the Giants’ offense and the Eagles’ defense.
Here’s what I saw from the Eagles’ defense after reviewing the All-22 footage from this week. If you missed the post on the offense, click here.
Here’s a look at snap counts for the Eagles during their Week 3 loss against the Cardinals. We’ll go position-by-position.
Three different cornerbacks — Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Brandon Boykin and then Nnamdi Asomugha — took turns lining up over Larry Fitzgerald on the Cardinals’ first three plays from scrimmage. It was immediately evident that trying to contain the star receiver would be a group assignment.
That wasn’t the initial plan, however, as Asomugha laid out afterwards.
“We came into the week, I was going to shadow him,” said Asomugha. “We kind of had an idea, I think Coach [Todd] Bowles had an idea that that’s what they were figuring, so they were going to move him and put him in all sorts of different places. So we said let’s just let’s just stay on our sides and make sure that Boykin is at the nickel, keep Dominique on the outside. That was our plan, and they were able to do some things to take advantage of it.”
Here’s a player-by-player look at the Eagles’ secondary, heading into Sunday afternoon’s game against the Cardinals. Note that the cornerback target numbers come from having charted opponents’ throws with the coach’s tape.
Here are 10 things to know about the matchup between the Eagles’ defense and the Cardinals’ offense Sunday afternoon. We’ll go over the Eagles’ offense and Arizona’s ‘D’ in the next installment.
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Sheil Kapadia has been writing about the Eagles since 2008. His previous Philly.com blog, Moving the Chains, was named one of the best in the state by the Associated Press. Sheil's main joys in life are family, football and finding good parking spots.
Tim McManus is a bulldog reporter with a nose for news and story angles that will get people talking. He'll talk about it himself on 97.5 The Fanatic, where he serves as a host and Eagles beat reporter. Tim, an award-winning journalist, will be with the team around the clock.
