There's a big difference between placing maybe one ordinal lower than optimal (which happened with Piper & Paul, and debatably with KMT & Michael, though I'd argue in the latter's case that given all the injuries they've had the past two years where they placed was about as well as was realistic for them) and a complete implosion like Roman did.
But even without an implosion in the LP, Roman was unlikely to finish higher than 5th there.
Ding ding ding! KMT/Michael and Piper/Paul could have, under slightly different circumstances, maybe placed one spot higher but, and this is especially true of KMT/Mike, they placed about as high as anyone expected, especially considering the season they've had to date. The result for Piper/Paul was surprising only because they're the reigning world bronze medalists and #3-4 (if you include PapCiz) losing to the #6-7 team in the world just doesn't happen in ice dance. But, it's not like Piper/Paul went out there and skated terribly - in fact, their RD score was higher than what they earned at IdF - it's just that GuiFab skated a bit better.
Roman could have easily been fourth in the free given how Boyang did, and he could have been several places higher in the short program.
I agree about the short.
I wasn't expecting us to medal, but three quarters of the team put their best foot forward or else put in a solid showing, which is what I want to see from athletes on the big stage.
The skaters are more self-aware than the Federation talking heads, I promise you that.
Lol. I know I said that and it is harsh, but I don't really feel like it is too much to call Roman's FS inexcusable. I'm fine with giving him a pass on the SP because, no, he wasn't expecting to compete in the TE, or at least not the SP, and it was the first comp of the event. But he had two days to pick himself back up, dust it off and prepare for the FS. He fell apart even worse than the SP. It wasn't even passably okay by senior international men's standards. So, in that regard, his FS last night really is inexcusable and I won't back off from saying it.Meanwhile, no excuses for any armchair fans/commentators who declare athletes' performances inexcusable. LOL. (I canceled Sandra Bezic a long time ago for saying this from a comfy rinkside seat!)
Then I watched his heartbreaking post skate interview with Elladj and felt like a total witch for my WTF-ing. 
I can't even imagine how frustrating it must be to be him. I hope he's had the opportunity to see the reactions of some of the high profile athletes like Ted-Jan Bloemen and Justine Dufour-Lapointe who have underperformed and feels less alone. But ultimately, Roman owns this. No one can crawl into his body and do it for him, he has to figure it out for himself. He has one more chance to put a better spin on his first Olympic experience, then head home to regroup for Worlds. And going into the next quad, I hope he and his team sit down and have a hard look at the changes that need to made to get more consistent results because changes do need to happen. Lance Vipond retweeted a post from Janet Jackson today that basically says it all:
Sure, hardcore fans like those of us here knew this, but, heck, there were plenty of FSUers who started the TE thinking Canada in the medal hunt, so why would you expect the media, who probably only pay attention to figure skating every four years, would think anything but "of course Canada is likely to get a medal" when they ARE (for another 7 hours or so), the defending Olympic champs in the TE?
Chiu could have made a case for himself at Nationals. It's not like Skate Canada is even wedded to their National Champion: they planned to send Nguyen to 2020 Worlds, after Sadovsky won Nationals and beat Nguyen by over 17 points.
I am no doubt one of the pathetic Canadian fans who coddles and babys Roman. i fell in love with Roman's skating to Les Mis when he was a young teenager and small. His ability to feel the music and wait patiently for it so instinctively really touched me. He had good jumps, spins and appeared destined for greatness. Huge growth happened and he struggled mightily. They describe his feet growing so fast they had to constantly buy new skates. I believe he tried a lot, including leaving his coach, and finally got a quad and the terribly hard fought for triple axel. I would never argue he is a consistent jumper or that his obvious back and forth results should not be taken into account. At the end of the day - I would argue he is a beautiful skater who makes me feel things when he is on. I want him to know I appreciate what he brings to the sport I love and just feel deeply sad for him that this great moment on Olympic ice has not been something he can feel proud of. I hope he has more success in the individual event for his own self worth.
I haven't seen either of them live, so I can't compare them, but the international judges have:
