rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
I think the media does a decent job of blaming players. I think the fanbase sucks at it. Fans generally think players play at the exact same level all the time, which couldn't be more wrong.And that’s the thing… execution. They had a plan. We had a plan. They executed theirs better and we see the results.
Yes last night was a coaching failure but it always boggles my mind how players don’t get the blame sometimes. They were just as bad though on offense outside of a select few.
Plus, when the coach goes out and put the blame on him (which he's supposed to do anyway, regardless of whether its his fault or not), fans just cue off of that.
Generally speaking, in order to have a performance like we did last night, it requires poor execution and effort from pretty much everybody. Teams score 20+ points on bad gameplans all the time. Just like they score 7 points on great gameplans all the time. I've never seen a gameplan designed to fail. I've seen gameplans fail due to poor planning, and I've seen a ton of gameplans fail due to poor execution. I've also seen coaches fail to adjust their gameplan mid game, and I've seen players fail to execute those adjustments mid game.
There's no universal answer. I personally put more pressure and responsibility on the players, because a) most of them are getting paid more than the coaches and b) they're the one's actually doing the work. Coaches don't miss blocks or drop passes or run bad routes or throw errant passes or mis-read plays, etc. Players do that. Coaches are responsible for putting them in a position to succeed, not to actually succeed for them.
Coaching is purely pass/fail. If the offense scores a bunch of points, coach passes. If they don't, he fails. There's no middle ground. Players get a lot more leeway in that regard.