I think there have been cases where this is exactly what happened, but there's no question the LOB is not as formidable as in years past. They got absolutely torched for much of the game on Sunday.

That said, I'm back to thinking the offense is the unit that has been most accountable for the disappointing season that's unfolded to this point. If they could stay on the field just a couple minutes longer each game, this team's probably about 6-3 (at worst) right now.

I don't know if any individual is to blame, but I think the organization made a Harvinesque mistake when they traded away Unger for Graham. Nobody thought that was a bad trade when it happened, but for whatever reason, Graham's not performing as advertised, and the loss of Unger from the OL has proved just shy of catastrophic. His absence hasn't only hurt them in pass blocking, but it may also be contributing to Russell's struggles in other ways.

I heard on local sports radio that Unger had functioned as the player calling the audible run and protection schemes at the line while he was here. If that's true, he apparently did a much better job of it than whoever's doing it now. That would most likely be Russell, and if so, the extra responsibility might be affecting his ability to make decisions about what he will be doing after the snap. Furthermore, if the calls being made aren't the right ones, it could do a lot to explain how the line looks so clueless at times. Who knows, but either way, I expect to see Russell emerge from this sophomoric slump eventually, if not soon. We've seen him make too many great decisions, incredible throws, and superhuman plays with his feet for him to simply not be any good.

Bevell seems an obvious place to point fingers when trying to explain how historically bad this offense has looked at times. I think there's probably something to the fact that almost all the offense's big gains have come on broken plays (meaning the results of those plays weren't Bevell's design). That said, it's probably not fair to assess his play-calling ability based on what we see when we have what might be the worst offensive line in pro football history. The game is mostly won and lost at the line scrimmage, after all... which brings me to one final point:

I think the struggles the defense has had getting off the field on 3rd down are largely due to what has been a much less dominant pass rush than we saw in recent years. It sometimes seems like the only way the defense is getting sacks and hurries is by blitzing (not in every game, but certainly in the games they've lost). On 3rd and long, most teams opt to drop all could-be blitzers into pass coverage, leaving the front guys to get to the QB. We've been accustomed to seeing the front 3 or 4 get pressure on a QB before he gets time to go through all his reads more often than not, but there were times on Sunday where Carson Palmer had all day to stand in the pocket and wait for someone to come open. I guess what I'm saying here is that, good as the LOB usually is, they're much more effective with an effective pass rush forcing the QB to get rid of the ball before he wants to.

This team's still very good and competitive, but they need to shore some things up to get back over the top.