Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel took the Sunday loss to the Oakland Raiders pretty hard, and after the game he wanted all of the blame placed on his shoulders.
“The offense played great,” said the Steelers defensive captain. “Like i said before, you can blame this loss on me and we\’ll go back to the drawing board.”
When asked why he was taking the blame for the loss specifically, the defensive end said, “Because I messed up some things that resulted in touchdowns. That\’s why.”
The two big plays that come to mind are the 64-yard touchdown run by Raiders running back Darren McFadden, which I have broken down here. The other play that comes to mind was Keisel being flagged for encroachment on the 4th down and goal play for the Raiders, where Keisel saw multiple Raiders players in motion and stepped over the line of scrimmage to point it out.
You have to tip your cap to Keisel for taking the full brunt of the loss, but make no mistake that the rest of the Steelers defense shares quite a bit of the blame. This is what good team leaders do and Keisel, along with the rest of the defense, will get a chance to redeem themselves at home in week 5 when they host the Philadelphia Eagles.
