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Buccaneers' Mike Evans: Up for challenge of Richard Sherman in Week 12

Evans is looking forward to frequently doing battle against Seahawks CB Richard Sherman in Sunday's Week 12 tilt, Jenna Laine of ESPN.com reports. "I play some of the best athletes in the world, going at it one-on-one," Evans said. "That's great. Hopefully he'll match me. I'm a big fan of his and I think it will be a fun day."

Analysis:

Despite the fact he figures to receive plenty of attention from one of the NFL's true shutdown corners, Evans is still going to be a frequent target of Jameis Winston on Sunday, as has been the case all season. The Bucs have evaluated plenty of film from the Falcons-Seahawks game earlier in the campaign, a contest in which Julio Jones was able to log seven catches for 139 yards and a touchdown despite seeing plenty of Sherman's coverage that afternoon. That only confirmed their belief that they have to stick to what's consistently worked for them, regardless of who's on the other side of the ball. "I like my guy," Winston said. "I like my guy in that matchup. Mike is having an amazing year, and that's just trust. Sherman has been covering a lot of guys his whole career, but at the end of the day, he doesn't have that connection that me and Mike have. At the end of the day, he still has to defend us and stop everyone." Considering that Evans is ranked fifth in the NFL in catches (65), yards (916) and air yards per target (15.3)-- as well as third in touchdowns (eight)-- and Sherman allows a league-low passer rating of 59.1 on balls thrown against him, there figures to inevitably be some give from either side of the equation. However, at least based on what the Bucs are publicly stating, it doesn't appear that they'll shy away from giving one of the focal points of their offense plenty of opportunity to rack up his usual numbers come Sunday.

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