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Oh Captain, My Captain - xxlt - 01-10-2016
We've come a long way, baby. So close, so close and yet so far. Everyone is going to have their take on last night's loss. Here is mine. I've been a big fan of Andrew Whitworth his whole career, and his coaches seem to love him. And Domato Peko has been a solid player and a coaches' favorite for as long as Whitworth has. But both men disappointed me last night. Whitworth had two false start penalties in the first quarter last night. Did these penalties alone cause the loss? No, but they indicate a problem. Peko came off the sideline to draw an unsportsmanlike flag and cost us 15 yards of field position. Not the straw that broke the camel's back, but something much more insidious. I think the penalties by these two players - both captains - are indicative of why no matter how strong our camel is and how well it performs, its back will always be broken by some straw at the moment of truth.
The back of this team will break because it is weak, and it is weak because there is still a leadership deficit. Whitworth and Peko may be the two toughest guys in the trenches, but there is more to leadership than being a bad ass. You have to lead with your play. Everyone in the NFL is physically talented and there are times you will be physically beaten (if nothing else by a double or triple team) and times you will be outsmarted, but you can't beat yourself with mental mistakes, and last night both captains did.
Two false starts from a team captain in quarter one of a playoff game. I saw those and thought, "How can we win?" It is bad enough when after a hard hit on the field a player in the mix loses his head and costs his team yardage with a penalty after the whistle, but Peko managed to accomplish this when he was on the sideline. I saw this and thought, "How can we win?" When your leaders - your captains - are making mental mistakes like this the other players who take their cues from these guys can't be held to the highest standard. They are going to follow their leaders' examples, and they are consequently not going to win. It comes down to culture, and the Bengals still need to improve theirs.
"But, win we almost did," you say. And you are correct. Win we almost did at home against a wild card team who was down to fourth and fifth string running backs, who came into the game injury depleted at other positions as well, who has been vulnerable to the pass all season, and who also has culture issues (exhibit A - coach penalized for shoving player on sideline, exhibit B - coach illegally on field cursing player with under two minutes to go, and exhibit C - a recent history of cheap shots on players). When you can't handily beat a team that barely made the playoffs, has obvious leadership deficits on its coaching staff, and has a recent reputation for playing dirty, then you have to conclude the problem isn't the competition, the problem is you.
Again, I think the problem is the team's captains - the players that other players look to for leadership. They failed last night. It manifested in premature jocularity after the Burfict interception and in too many incidents of running mouths and pointing fingers to count. Did the Steelers look like consummate professionals last night? No! Which makes it all the more distressing we could not beat them. You can find an awful lot not to like about the way the Steelers conducted themselves last night - reasons a good team would have beaten them. And, on paper, of course the Bengals were the much better team. Yet the Bengals lost. Why? Leadership. Going forward, the team needs to ask anew, "Who is my captain?"
Some will point toward the coaching staff as the reason for the loss. And, the coaches do, as far as I know, still designate captains. So, they need to reevaluate that. Beyond that, though, I don't think we can blame the coaches for last night's loss.
I have been a big critic of Lewis in the past for coaching not to lose instead of coaching to win and for being a poor clock manager. But, last night he put his players in a position to win, and they didn't get it done. The blame lays not at his feet but at theirs. And, to his credit, post game he did not - as many fans did -single anyone out for criticism - neither Burfict, nor Hill, nor Jones, nor anyone else. I was happy to see that, and happy to see the same from A.J. McCarron. His post game comments were great. He said, "We win as a team, we lose as a team," and he added that pointing fingers would be a step back. He is right. Publicly they need to stand together, and privately they need to do the same. But privately coaches and players also need to have a long talk about who leads the team on the field and whose on field and off field conduct is always as it should be, which hopefully leads to new players being designated as captains and the team taking the next step and being able to eliminate the self-defeating mental mistakes.
Final thoughts... I was away from the TV when Roethlisberger was taken off the field. The announcers said some fans were cheering. I have been to many a Reds and Bengals game where I was appalled at fan conduct, and I am appalled at this as well. Anyone who cheered Roethlisberger's injury - or any injury to a player - is a disgrace to sports. Such conduct is simply unacceptable. The team needs to look at its culture and leadership, and the fan base does too. Yes, their are a-holes everywhere, but as Sam Wyche exhorted the fans so many years ago, remember where you are from and try to represent our city and team with class and call out those who do not and get them out of here.