Why do we blame Ciara when Russell Wilson plays poorly?

Russell Wilson had the worst statistical game of his career on Sunday against Arizona. And, thanks in part to a luxuriously photographed bye-week he spent in Mexico, his girlfriend is shouldering the blame.

Wilson completed less than half of his passes and threw an interception in Seattle’s loss to the Cardinals. 710 ESPN Seattle’s Brock Huard said Wilson played poorly, but statistics don’t tell the whole story, with multiple throw-aways necessitated by a porous offensive line and a handful of drops by his receivers.

“I’d hate to just lean totally on the statistics because literally there were eight to nine throws that you just wash out of there,” Huard told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “What was more disappointing to me was just, once again, in crunch time.”

Related: Another spotty performance adds to questions of Russell Wilson’s ceiling

Huard’s primary beef came after Wilson tried to improvise late in the game and was called for a crucial intentional-grounding penalty.

And while Huard’s concerns are affixed entirely to the quarterback’s performance on the field, he said Wilson’s antics outside the stadium are fair game for criticism.

“When you’re out there with your photog in Mexico, and you’re doing your thing, well guess what the other side of it is? You’re going to be held to a higher standard, and if you fall short, you’re going to get ripped that much more,” said Huard, a former NFL QB. “This is a humbling, brutal business.”

One of Dori’s listeners, Melody, wrote in to get just that type of criticism off her chest. She wrote that the Seahawks, as a whole, seem to be different, and that she and all of the guests at her Seahawks-watching party placed the blame on Ciara.

“Now, as a woman, I know it’s bordering on sacrilege to suggest Russell’s failing be blamed on her,” she wrote. “But also, as a woman who’s been married happily for over 20 years, I know what a positive impact I can have on my husband and even his career. Trust me, when he has a bad day at work, I make it better. Maybe putting all the blame on Ciara is totally unfair, but after seeing their vacation photos in Mexico, I do think she at least deserves some of the blame. I saw their vacation shots splashed all over the internet and I can’t imagine that vacationing with a stylist and a photographer staging all your beach shots is very conducive to getting your head right on a much-needed bye week.”

Related: Three Things from the Seahawks’ loss to Arizona

Even KIRO Radio news anchor Ursula Reutin couldn’t help but join in on the theory.

“I think he is distracted by Ciara and those pictures did not help during that bye week,” she said. “As long as there’s this perception that maybe he is distracted, whoever’s in charge needs to tell him bring it down a little bit… We’re starting to hear more about Russell and Ciara than we are the Kardashians.”

Wilson is not the only quarterback with a famous significant other, with arguably the NFL’s two best, Tom Brady (married to supermodel Gisele Bundchen) and Aaron Rodgers (dating actress Olivia Munn) in the same boat. Both of those stars struggled on Sunday, too. For the year, Wilson is currently on pace to record his highest completion-percentage and number of yards passing of his career.

Huard said being a quarterback is hard enough and it’s a slippery slope when you start to publicize your personal life.

“You’re going to get hit doubly hard because people don’t want to see it, don’t want to hear it, and don’t want to read it,” Huard said.

Dori, for his part, doesn’t blame the pop-singer for Wilson or the Seahawks’ struggles, saying the defense and others are culprits of bad play. Though, he also noted that he doesn’t know any of Ciara’s music.

“I only know of Ciara because of Russell Wilson,” he said. “That’s the only thing I know of her.”

To which his producer, Jake Skorheim quipped, “Exactly.”