Glancing at the stat sheet of the Commanders' 20-19 win over the New Orleans Saints, you might not know that Marshon Lattimore made his debut for Washington.
The veteran cornerback played 49 of 51 snaps but was not targeted at all by his former club, and his name didn't appear in the stat sheet. For coach Dan Quinn, it speaks volumes about Lattimore's ability to silence an opponent.
"That is absolutely it…" Quinn said, via the team's official transcript. "And so, through my experience when there's less attention going to you that is a sign that you've had a really good game. And sometimes that can even flip to go the other way, where there's some more production to another player. But [CB] Mike (Sainristil) had a good PBU and an interception. So, those things happen in some games where there's less targets that go to a particular person, sometimes that also changes when you match and put on a certain player. But in this instance less on the stat sheet from the passing game standpoint, that is a clear signal of a really good game."
The Commanders made a trade deadline move to add the Pro Bowl corner, who was dealing with a hamstring injury. He missed his first three games with Washington before debuting on Sunday.
Seeing no targets underscores how much of a difference-maker Lattimore could be for the Commanders' defense. He stuck on the right side of the defensive formation, forcing the ball to the other side of the field. Lattimore's insertion pushed penalty-prone Benjamin St-Juste to the bench. St-Juste played just three defensive snaps on the day and committed one penalty.
With Lattimore in the lineup, Washington kept Noah Igbinoghene in the slot and rookie Mike Sainristil at the opposite corner. The first-year DB was targeted seven times, allowing two catches for 20 yards with an interception.
Quinn said there were no communication breakdowns in Lattimore's first game.
"I thought it was strong, especially with him," the coach said. "I was watching for that, I wanted to hear that and see that from him. And he also did a good job of, there's some certain formations that you have to get down, others that you want to be off to go. So, I was pleased with the communication for his first time. And maybe that was the silver lining of him not being able to participate right away. He was able to spend more time with the guys in the meeting rooms, had it been in a more traditional sense where when a player gets traded and they learn the things and they're ready to go into the game. So, I thought that was a strong point for him."
Squeaking out a road win over a Saints team playing two backup quarterbacks is one thing. The bigger test for how much Lattimore transforms the Commanders' defense comes in Week 16 against the division-leading Philadelphia Eagles.
