Care to say more on this? Genuinely asking - I don't share the same position, but I'm also not saying I'm right. Was there a quote from staff that they were instead trying to develop Wilson?
Or maybe some stats to point to with Wilson vs. Brown and how the offense performed under either?
To be totally forward, I am not a fan of "we truly never know arguments" because it just leaves all the room in the world for speculation. I'm not saying that in an "appease me" manner, I'm just being forward with my thoughts process. I'm far more inclined to believe that the staff saw more hope in the starters over the backups and little changed on gameday.
Again, all my questions are of genuine curiousity and I'm not trying to do some "gotchya" ****.
There was no quote from the Coaching staff in regards to keeping Wilson at LG to develop him over putting Brown there. Not sure when PFF fixed it, but for the longest time, they had Ben Brown's snaps fubared. They had him taking offensive snaps in games he never did. They still have the POSITION fubared since Brown didn't play any full games at LT. However, they seem to have fixed the games played in. So I went and grabbed the pressures allowed stats (PA = Sacks + QB Hits + Hurries)
Reg Season:
Ben Brown - 329 total Offensive snaps - 165 pass blocking snaps - 0 Sacks, 2 QB Hits, 8 Hurries - 10 total pressures - 1 pressure every 16.5 snaps
Jared Wilson - 784 total offensive snaps - 486 pass blocking snaps - 4 sacks, 7 QB Hits, 17 hurries - 28 total pressures - 1 pressure every 17.3 snaps.
Post season -
Wilson - 254 offensive snaps - 164 pass blocking snaps - 4 sacks, 0 QB Hits, 9 Hurries - 13 total pressures - 1 pressure every 12.6 snaps.
Wilson gave up 4 sacks and 6 hurries in the Play-off games where the Passing game was featured in the post season. He gave up 3 hurries in the 2 games where the running game got more snaps;. Wilson gave up 2 sacks and 4 hurries on 40 pass blocking snaps against the Chargers. That's 1 pressure every 6.7 snaps. Probably his worst game of the season. But we also know he wasn't 100% the entire post-season. He may have also hit the "rookie wall" in terms of fatigue.
*SPECULATION AHEAD*
Maybe Wilson not giving up any sacks against Houston and Denver lulled the coaching staff into a false sense of security. But the passing game became a lesser focus in both those games. Which should have factored into their decision. It could also have been that the team wanted to show they had confidence in Wilson, so they left him in there despite the issues he was having in both the running game and passing game.
*End of Speculation*
If someone knows of the site where they break down the running game and talk about how many yards they got behind each position, I'd appreciate that.
While you may not like the "we will truly never know" argument, it's reality. There are near infinite possibilities, both good and bad, had they put Brown in when Wilson was clearly struggling during the SB. History is littered with examples of coaches substituting a player and it being successful. There are also plenty of instances where coaches left a player in and it bit them. The 1986 Red Sox come to mind.
