Forget the Game, what about the F...ing INJURIES?!

[mheisig]

Originally Posted by dgack

I was just thinking it would be interesting to try and quantify in numerical terms the losses this team has sustained to key personnel throughout the end of last season and beginning of this one, as compared to any other team.

Perhaps the problem lies not in the number of injuries or even the specifics of who got injured, but that our talent isn't well distributed among the different strings of players.

Obviously first-stringers are supposed to be better than second-stringers, but it really does seem like we are a top-heavy team who has a huge dropoff in talent level (or experience, or both) beyond our starters. I'm sure this is true of many teams but it seems like the great ones, the successful ones, do not have nearly as much of a drop when players go out.

Indy, for example, lost Edgerrin James and Dominic Rhodes to free agency, Marvin Harrison to injuries, plus at least a few other notables on defense, to say nothing of any line players they may have had injuries. And I think they have managed to win a few games this year.

That would be interesting data to have. It doesn't appear that NFL.com has any real access to it, if they even have a model for it.

I think there's also a tendency to overly stress the big-name, skill positions like WR, RB and QB and not pay enough attention to the less glamorous offensive line.

Our offensive line has been decimated. At one point the only original starter we had was Chris Samuels. That's almost unprecedented as far as I know. The Rams O-line has taken a big hit this year and look where they are.

I think you can evaluate skill position players on their individual merits. CP not doing well in open space beyond the LOS, Moss simply dropping everything that comes his way, those are individual skills to measure and analyze.

CP having a low YPC is effected by a huge number of variables, I'd argue the offensive line being the most important. JC's overall performance is obviously going to take a huge hit. He's fumbling a lot - why? Because he's getting hit a lot, which is the offensive line once again. Yeah he holds on a little too long and yeah he needs to just tuck that thing in when he feels pressure, but ultimately what do you expect when he's getting pressured all day long?

I'm rambling, but my point is I think maybe we underestimate that offensive line problems and the impact on every other aspect of the game.