Placing blame; or, who’s really at fault?
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As fans and, realistically, outsiders merely looking at the NFL from a very high level, we tend to place blame at the most obvious point of failure. The way we see it, a bad game for a quarterback is just that. If a tailback is held to 2.5 yards per carry, he just couldn’t get to the holes quick enough. The secondary just got walloped; clearly, they were a step behind the receivers.
The problem with that view is we usually don’t get a field-level view of the game, and we can only see what happens on camera. We also tend to follow the guy with the ball, which means we glaze over the finer details — bad blocking, incorrect or sloppy routes being run, no pass rush.
The Steelers faced such problems on both sides of the ball in 2006. Ben Roethlisberger takes the biggest beating in the press, but a lot of it is undue him, and in most cases it’s a result of this same high-level view.
Sure, Ben was way off from his previous two seasons. Whether it really was lingering issues with his physical wellbeing or his confidence, or it was just poor play, the fact remains that he wasn’t close to stellar most of the time. But we shouldn’t use that as a reason to give his offensive line a free pass. The only thing the right side of the line did consistently was miss assignments, and even the left side had more than their fair share of weak moments. Jeff Hartings showed on a regular basis why it was time to retire.
And just think how many yards and touchdowns Willie Parker would have had if the line had been able to open up holes the way we’ve come to expect from them.
Ike Taylor and Deshea Townsend also looked horrible in 2006 and, again, they deserve a good bit of the heat they’ve received since December ended. But without a pass rush, any secondary will look far worse than normal. Consider this: in 2006 the defense had 39 sacks, less than 2.5 per game. In 2005 they averaged almost exactly three per game. While a half of a sack doesn’t seem like much, it can be the difference between forcing a punt and allowing a first down. Oh, and the secondary had more interceptions in 2006 than in 2005. They actually had more big plays during a seemingly bad season than they did during their Super Bowl run.
It’s easy to place blame, but much harder to place it correctly.
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