Wilson apologists always forget about the other team on the field

Not unexpectedly, the Seattle Seahawks’ post-game apologists were behaving with wretched abandon babying poor Russell Wilson with reflections of what a “great game” he played and how “terrific” he was, and complaining that his teammates didn’t play up to his “caliber” in a 28-24 loss to a Detroit Lions team that every local sports radio personality wrote off as an easy win for Russell the Great. On the telecast, someone even compared him to Brett Favre!? Lions fans, however, were hardly enthralled by his Greatness. In the first half when as usual the Seahawks more or less executed their scripted plays, on the Lions’ official website they were saying things like:

Pack it in guys...This team is horrible!...Our Defense is now self destructing!...Can't believe the penalties the Lions D is commiting!

Where the hell is our pass rush???

Lions Corners are dumbasses...They never turn around and look for the ball!

This team has no heart!...Simply PATHETIC!

Really dissapointing to watch our D let the Hawks move the ball down field at will. Wow!...FRUSTRATING!

Corners still not looking back for the ball!

One of the laws of nature is that for every action, there is a reaction. In football, if a rookie quarterback looks “terrific,” it is likely because the opposing defense, well, “blows.” Wilson predictably looks “terrific” against suspect defenses, and miserable against competent defenses. You can understand the frustration of Lions fans by a defense that allowed a substandard Seahawk offense score more points than they earned. Lynch’s 77-yard touchdown run, a bizarre special teams penalty that led to a field goal, and on the fourth quarter touchdown drive, blowing coverage on a third-and-long with the Seahawks pinned deep in their own territory and then allowing the Seahawks to convert on fourth down—these are all plays the Lions should just as legitimately prevented as the Seahawks benefited from. The Seahawks offense could have just as easily have been held to 7 points as 24. 

But no. This week the scapegoat is Sidney Rice. On a “dropped” pass, Rice had to contort his body toward a ball that Wilson threw to the wrong shoulder; on the third quarter interception that was blamed on Rice by the post-game “analysts”—because he allegedly didn’t properly “contest” the pass—replays showed that Rice was running wide open waving his arm up. A wide-open Golden Tate is also seen waving his arm. Why do they have to do this, particularly on deep routes? Because they have to help Wilson “see” them? This isn’t the Patriots defenders incomprehensibly allowing Seahawk receivers to get behind them and Wilson throwing the ball so far hoping that a Seahawk receiver will catch-up to it. On this play, Wilson’s delay in throwing to either receiver allowed the defender playing deep to wait on Rice to come to him, and the badly overthrown pass forced Rice to dive forward to try to catch it; but the defender coming up was the only player who actually had a “play” on the ball, and Rice had no chance to “stop” the interception. 

Yet the Seahawks’ post-game analysts and sports radio personalities, all Wilson apologists, need to find scapegoats, and this is Rice’s week. Rice was a Pro Bowl receiver in 2009 with Favre throwing passes to him; this season with Rice healthy, the only thing that has been proved is that Wilson is no Favre. All too often, Seahawk receivers have to make “great plays” on the ball and Wilson receives the credit, but when they fail to do so, they take all the blame. I wonder if in their own minds they are becoming disenchanted with the “blame game” for which Wilson has been largely shielded from. 

Good teams overcome, and so do good players. If they can’t, then no amount of pampering will “help” them. If a player gets it into his head that their failure is not their own but someone else’s, then this is a recipe for a systemic team breakdown. With only a few exceptions, most quarterbacks—even Hall of Famers—have had to endure their share of criticism. One Lions fan said “Sheifler was WIDE OPEN!...Stafford BLOWS!” at one point in the first half of the game, and his best receiver, Calvin Johnson, was also dropping passes; but Mathew Stafford—being your pro-typical quarterback—soldiers on despite the criticism and a drop or two, because feeling sorry for yourself (or being allowed to believe you are not at fault) is not an option if winning is the game.