Interesting article from Wednesday's
Dallas Morning News showing that the Broncos were the 3rd most injured team in the NFL this season. The only problem with using injuries as an excuse is that Baltimore and New England were only marginally less injured and they both won 11 games.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...n.34d3911.html
There's also a commentary about this in PFT. Here's the key part:
And maybe that’s the key to dealing with injuries. Sure, a team needs to have capable backups. But a team also can’t afford to adopt a “woe is us” attitude when, for whatever reason, they experience more injuries to starters than other teams.
In our view, using injuries as an excuse for poor performance only leads to more poor performance. It reduces the accountability of everyone in the organization — from the G.M. to the coach to the assistants to the players.
Perhaps that’s why the Broncos tanked down the stretch. Yeah, they lost a flock of running backs to injury. But this was/is an offensive system that created a revolving door of 1,000-yard rushers over the past 14 years. Instead of listening to the announcers and the writers who were willing to write off the season as an aberration, every person in the organization should have accepted the situation as the ultimate challenge.
Do injuries affect a team’s overall performance? Yes. Maybe that’s because too many teams allow injuries to affect their performance, by using injuries as the safe harbor for missed assignments, errant throws, untimely fumbles, and dropped passes.
http://www.profootballtalk.com/2009/...-for-injuries/