That was on Safety Evan Williams. He missed the exchange as Kittle passed the LB heading deep into the Paint. Evan bit on a WR on the other side that was hooking outside just for a split second, but that WR was covered up and it was unnecessary.
I've rewatched that play a dozen times, and I agree that at least one Packer defender was confused about his coverage responsibilities there, but I'm no longer sure it's either Walker or Williams. I think it might be more on Bullard - although Walker could have helped by at least disrupting Kittle's route on his way into the end zone.
It looked like Bullard was on Kittle, and Walker responsible for McAffery if he came out of the backfield.
Valentine was on Jennings, on the outside edge - but at the snap, Bullard left Kittle uncovered to join Valentine in doubling up Jennings.
Bullard and Valentine together quickly boxed Jennings out of the play, and Bullard disengaged from Jennings and cut back inside. But by that time, Kittle was already racing past Walker toward the back of the end zone, so Bullard turned toward McAffery coming out of the backfield. But it was too late, the ball was already in the air on its way to Kittle.
Kittle may not have been Walker's assignment, but if he
was Bullard's man, the veteran Walker had plenty of time to realize the coverage was blown and Bullard now needed help with Kittle - and that he (Walker) was the only man on the field now who could do anything about Kittle.
Instead, he just let him brush past him unimpeded to the back of the end zone.
The best I can say is that maybe he assumed Williams had picked up the coverage on Kittle behind him, but even so - Kittle went past him just 3 yards from the line of scrimmage; why would Walker not make even a minimal effort to hit him coming off the line and disrupt his route? He had absolutely no interest in Kittle whatsoever; just couldn't have been bothered.
It may very well not have been Walker's fault that the coverage broke down at the beginning, but it looks to me as though he had a couple of opportunities to save the play if his situational awareness and reaction time had been better.
Action starts at 5:06.
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I do think at some point one has to question his IQ. Does he have the football IQ to play in the middle. I don't think he does and that's fine.
I don't think he does, either. Wonderlic scores aren't the be-all, end-all for judging a player's football IQ, but Walker's Wonderlic is 9. I don't think it's a coincidence that he makes so many dumb plays.
Remember Bryce Young's 4th and 1 quarterback sneak through the wide-open "A" gap in last year's Carolina game? That was totally, 100% on Walker. Walker was wearing the green dot that day, and while he was setting the D, Nixon spotted that wide-open "A" gap and moved to cover it. Walker waved him back 4 yards, and told him to leave it alone. You can see the two of them arguing, with Nixon pointing to the huge hole and throwing his hands up in the air, but Walker just shook his head and waved him away.
Sure enough, the instant the ball was snapped, Young headed straight for the huge hole. So did Nixon, and he made a superhuman effort to get there before Young. But Young only had a yard to go, and Nixon had at least 4. He
still damned near beat Young to the hole, but fell just a half a second short.
Walker was a project from the beginning, and I give him credit for getting that temper of his under control the first couple of years, but I don't think he'll ever rise to the level of his draft position. Lafleur was very patient with him, but he just is who he is. I think we're always going to get only so much out of him.
