How did Josh Norman fare against Odell Beckham Jr.?

How did Josh Norman fare against Odell Beckham Jr. in their first meeting of the 2016 season? We take a look at the highlights to find out…

How did Josh Norman fare against Odell Beckham Jr. in their first meeting of 2016? Was there a clear ‘winner’ of this epic battle?

Before we dig into some of the plays, I just have to say how much I love this. This is an old-school rivalry between players on the field and it’s absolutely riveting.

Now, onto the matchup on the field…

The Redskins wound up winning this game by a final score of 29-27, but it was no fault of Odell Beckham Jr. that his team couldn’t come up with enough points to win. Eli Manning threw some really awful interceptions in this game, and there were also just a couple of phenomenal plays the Redskins made on the football.

I’m going to declare the winner of Norman vs. Beckham Jr. part one:

Odell Beckham Jr.

This is a no-brainer based on what you see here. Beckham Jr. finished with 121 receiving yards and while he was kept out of the end zone (and has yet to reach it this entire season), it was clear that on most of these routes, Norman had safety help over the top and wasn’t playing tight man coverage on Beckham.

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When he did play tighter, Beckham was able to burn him and use his superior speed and quickness to make plays.

Beckham’s speed and overall better athletic ability than Norman were on full display in this game. Norman wasn’t getting a good jam at the line of scrimmage, and Beckham Jr. was able to get a free release most of the time.

They didn’t allow many big plays down the field, but Beckham has always been able to make plays after the catch and there were some big missed tackles in this game, one in particular by Norman…

Signature Play

This play right here about sums it up for me:

This is just a fantastic effort by Beckham Jr., and it was really a great effort the whole game by him to make plays against a number of different coverages.

The game went to the Redskins, but the matchup of Beckham vs. Norman was won by the wide receiver this time. We’ll eagerly await the next battle.