Sammy Watkins leaves on crutches after suffering injury on touchdown catch
After complaining about his lack of targets earlier in the week, Buffalo Bills wide receiver Sammy Watkins finally got his wish, catching three E.J. Manuel passes for 40 yards — including a 22-yard touchdown — on a scoring drive that cut the Cincinnati Bengals’ lead to 17-14 just before the half. That’s the good news.
The bad news: Watkins injured his left ankle while coming back for the ball on the TD grab. Trainers rushed to treat him on the field after he went to the ground and helped him to the locker room. CBS cameras soon showed him on crutches with his ankle wrapped as he headed in for X-rays. Thankfully, the injury wasn’t as bad as initially feared, as Watkins suffered a sprained ankle, according to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Watkins missed the previous two weeks with a right calf injury. That didn’t stop him from voicing his frustration about his 11 total targets in the first three weeks of the season to The Buffalo News’ Tyler Dunne.
“I need the ball at least 10 times — I need 10 targets — and I’ll be fine with however many yards I get. And that’s what I addressed in talking with my agent. We reached out to a couple people and tried to pull some strings like, ‘Hey, I need my targets. You came up to draft me and I’m not getting targets — that’s a problem. You’re making me look bad and you’re making yourself look bad. Why not make both of us look good?'”
After the Bills struggled offensively for two weeks without Watkins, he made catches on four of five targets in the first half against the Bengals, totaling 48 yards and the score. He was ruled out for the rest of the game.
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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
