not sure how anyone can blame the collapse on injuries with a straight face.
thats you're straw man, right? I havent seen anyone from the Bucs blame the entire season on injuries, let alone "the collapse." Multiple Bucs people hace correctly stated that injuries were a significant factor. Thats obvious just by comparing to prior years
Sure missing our offensive guards hurts. There's no debating that, but hard to speculate just how much that would have changed the outcomes.
It is not at all. Just watch the games. We have multiple plays blown up by replacement guards. Michael Jordan . . yeesh
And, IIRC, by Goedke coming back and having three penalties. Wirfs in and out. Our center playing LT.
The impact of injuries doesn't typically end when a guy gets back on the filed. Have you seen Godwin play the last two seasons? Thats what makes Evans play in the second Falcons game so awesome. it is NOT the NORM for a guy to come back and explode back on the scene
To use your words, in reverse
not sure how anyone can say 'injuries didnt matter' with a straight face.
of course they did
that doesnt absolve Bowles. but it impacts the analysis
there's no doubt it impacted the offense, in terms of the interior offensive lineman injuries; i just dont know how material it was to the ultimate landscape of the season.
We were 6-2 when one can easily argue that injuries were much worse - no Goedeke, no Bucky, no Evans, No Godwin, no McMillian, No Wirfs, etc. Didn't seem to impact them as biggs would rightfully so bring up a playoff game winning 49ers who had even worse in terms of injuries.
The 0-3 slide after that against good opponents is something we are all to familiar with. Be honest, does having every one of those players in those games change the outcome? A Rams team in prime time who owns us? Easily No right? How about a Bills team on the road? One could argue maybe albeit offense didnt seem to be the problem that game. Or the Patriots game where we essentially lost by 2 touchdowns before a garbage time TD.
So then at 7-5, a relatively healthy team, Ben Benderson goes down. Cody Mauch went down in week 2. Was Ben Brederson who's name i spelled 2 different ways and wrong in this run off paragraph that important to the team that Jason Licht decides to support the OG depth by drafting a guy in the 5th round this year - Billy Schrauth. Will he be ready to step in if injury or will he be as useful as Elijah Klein, 6th round pick from 2024. Seems like malpratice on Licht's part for us not to add a better offensive guard if Ben was up for Bucs MVP last year.
Licht can not be left off the hook because LG is more important than RG at the NFL level. The LG has to combo block with the center or LT Mayfield has to have confidence in his LG and LT. As the season showed you can get by with cast off at RG as it was musical chairs over there. But LG? That is when the wheels came off for this team in terms of pass protection but also using the LG to pull for running plays. Bucs couldn't do it or they risked Mayfield taking a greater beating.