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Originally Posted by TAFKAS
I was asking Cpayne about this, and I'll ask the rest of you. Are these guys lacking the stamina to play aggressive for 4 quarters? I mean I'd hate to say they're conditioned poorly but sometimes I wonder if that isn't one of the problems
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That's a good question. People who are blaming this on the offense need to realize a couple of things. First of all, Portis is pretty much having to carry the load. With Betts being out, you lose a very good change up back that compliments Portis - that is going to hurt offensive production. Next, we lose David Patten and all though he hasn't had a spectacular year, like Tony McGee said last week, he is a very valuable guy to lose. This puts more pressure on Moss. You couple that with guys like Robert Royal who can't even catch a cold, that is going to hurt offensive production. When we're having key guys playing hurt or being out of the lineup on our offense, it puts more pressure on the defense to step up and carry the load. Of course we have also had key injuries on the defense as well, but when it comes to the fourth quarter, our defense can stand up to the pressure.
I will say this though, although I stand firm that this was a defense let down when it counted the most, at least the defense did try to make up for their let downs and mistakes by getting some turnovers, which is a step in the right direction. AND...that holding penality on Casey Rabech cost us a very makeable, winning field goal. However, I do believe this defense is only good for three quarters, and our offense isn't strong enough to make up for our defense running out of gas in the fourth, and the same goes in the other direction.
Point - both the offense and defense are too average to carry either one to a victory in close games.