For whatever reason, we as Steeler fans are pretty much like the rest of society in that we feel we must lay blame for every thing that goes against out favor. It’s almost an American tradition.
With the Steelers 21-18 loss in Oakland tonight, the ‘Blame Game’ is in full effect in Steeler Nation.
Shaun Suisham is taking most of the blame and as well he should. He missed two short field goal attempts in the first half that when you ultimately do the math, cost the Steelers a 24-21 win.
That’s not entirely fair though because who knows how differently both the Raiders and Steelers call their respective games if it were 21-6 or 21-9?
Antonio Brown is deserving of blame isn’t he? O.com Stadium has been nothing short of his personal “House of Horrors” the last two seasons. Dropped passes haunted him yet again as did another costly fumble. Sure he had his moments with a number catches and a good return late but those weren’t enough to offset the mistakes.
Blame must be laid at the feet of the Dick LeBeau defense who let Terrelle Pryor go 93 yards on the first play of the game and then were beaten for two more Raiders’ TDs in the first half before settling the ship in the second half.
We could also line up guys like Emmanuel Sanders, Ben Roethlisberger, Todd Haley, Zoltan Mesko, Ryan Clark and Mike Tomlin but what good would that do at this point?
The offensive line is a constant place for blame but there’s little left to pick it at. David DeCastro and Guy Whimper are likely to have MRIs tomorrow and what’s left of the line isn’t even worth discussing .
At 2-5 it’s time to start talking reality. This team isn’t going into to New England and waltzing out with a win against Tom Brady regardless of what Mike Tomlin preaches this week.
We can lay blame wherever we may chose for the loss in Oakland or the season as a whole but the bottom line is that this just isn’t a very good football team folks.
No amount of blame will change that.
Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @steeldad and follow the website at @SCBlitz. He can be heard Mondays on Trib-Live Radio at 630pm ET talking Steelers and is a blogger for ESPN 970 in Pittsburgh.
3 comments
I’m most guilty of the blame game and I couldnt agree more . 23 year life long fan. I’ve been spoiled recently as a steeler fan. In all the losses this season the steelers have lost to the steelers. The I can swallow the bitterness of a shot year because I feel like nexet year changes will be made its a true reality check its a reloading process and search for an identity. I hope they don’t finish at .500 we could use the high pick! I miss the old hard hitting fearless blue collar and once proud Pittsburgh team!
Where were the linebackers? Lammarr Woodley had zero tackles. Jarvis Jones had one tackle. Jason Worilds had two tackles.
Oh, and did you ever get the feeling Ryan Clark talks too much? Here’s a post-game quote from Darren McFadden, courtesy of the San Jose Mercury-News:
“I talked to one of their defensive players, Ryan Clark, [and he] told me that he worked on tackling me in the middle all week. That’s what he was juiced up about and Terrelle just went around the end.”
That’s embarrassing.
It’s totally indicative of Clark this year Bern. He has been a day late and dollar short all season and that tells me this is a guy who wasn’t fully prepared for the season. Yes, he’s older, but you drop off that fast from one year to the next. He’s been a major disappointment and I hope Thomas gets a shot sooner rather than later.