After Sunday's 34-12 loss to the Bengals, Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman summed up A.J. Green's play as "a lot of noise-talking and bad routes," adding that the rookie is "probably one of the most overrated receivers out there."
Green -- who happens to lead all rookie receivers with 33 catches for 516 yards and five touchdowns -- broke rank with the NFL's pass-catching divas by owning up to his sometimes-flawed play during the Bengals' Week 8 win coming off their bye week.
"I think I did some things that I don't usually do, some slack route running," Green told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "I feel coming off that bye week, I didn't have the proper release I needed to get off with their long corners. ... I didn't have the game that I wanted, but it will be like that. When you're trying to make that step, you're going to go through bumps and being a rookie, I'm going to have to learn some more releases. I'll just keep working at it."
Green took the high road with Sherman, but he won't apologize for the visible jawing between the two on the field.
"People are going to talk," Green said. "He had a good game and he's a good player. Between the lines, I'm going to talk. If you're going to talk to me, I'm going to talk to you. But once it's over, I'm going to leave that there. You've got to leave it on the field and don't hold no grudges."
How refreshing. From week to week, we find ourselves bathed in countless back-and-forth ripfests between players and teams, too little of it solved on the field, or at least left there. In Green, the Bengals have found new life on offense, and -- if his play through his first seven games is any indication -- Andy Dalton's deep threat for years to come.
