I can't disagree with that. Pete's entire philosophy is built more on intangible elements of will, preserving, overcoming, and the idea that the collective is greater than the individual. When we were best, we lived that mantra. When Pete began to cater to Russ, things fell apart. There were grumblings in the locker room from Sherm and others about how Russ was protected and not held accountable. Grumblings that were dismissed before, but in light of hiw things went down at the end, seem to be pretty accurate. And that frustration, as much if not more than the end of the Superbowl loss, broke this team. In hindsight, I think the issue was less not holding Bevell accountable, and rather, not ever taking Russ to task. You never heard the LOB complaining about the offense's strategy being stale. They were frustrated, but at Russ for not doing better and at Pete for not making him. So if the result is us being 'boring' and running more when we shoukd have been able to move the ballbthrough the air better... well that's always been the case save for those periods when Russ would thrive on play action and make hay with his unparalleled ability to create. But in the regular rhythm of thr game, the rhythm that the offense needs for consistency and the defense needs to succeed, we've never been great under Russ. When the defense bailed us out game after game while the offense stalled until late in games or when Lynch would go Beatsmode, they were passed. Even more so when media elements glammed onto Russ as the Hawks star without understanding well enough that Russ was the beneficiary of a team that provided him a close enough game in the 4th qtr to make a few improv plays and win.
Pete should have played it all differently, if not during the LOB days then certainly before Russ's extension.
Instead, he put faith in Russ to move forward with, but was never able to surround him with enough defense or enough of a running game to recreate what we had. And Russ turned on the notion that he was a product of a pretty sweet situation, and rebelled against the only thing that ever brought him sustained success here.