Coaches and team executives often like to say things like, ‘Nobody cares about injuries. Injuries can’t be blamed for losing.’
Do these guys think fans are stupid? Of course fans care, and of course injuries matter when it comes to the bottom line.
Fans want transparency when it comes to injuries, in-season and especially after the season when they’re trying to understand and assess what they watched for 4 1/2 months.
Frankly, “this Joe” was disappointed Team Glazer didn’t play the injury card when explaining its support for Todd Bowles after last season. Instead, Team Glazer stressed how hard the roster plays for Bowles, battling like warriors to the final whistle of every game. Really?
During a chat with Sports Day Tampa Bay, Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht recently talked about injuries, their impact and, of course, he dropped the tired line about injuries not being an excuse for anything.
Licht was asked for a takeaway from the late-season collapse.
“My takeaway was I was sick,” Licht said. “I mean, nobody was more sick than Coach Bowles. We all had to, like, look at oursevles in the mirror.
“You can’t point to just one thing. Nobody cares about injuries, and so when I do these interviews, I hate to say, because I always catch myself saying, ‘We’re not hiding behind injuries, but …’
“When you don’t have your offensive line together for the majority of the season, it seems like, that just takes a toll on everything. You can’t move the ball. You can’t sustain drives. The defense is out there too long. Your quarterback is not comfortable; it doesn’t matter who it is. So there was a lot. And I’m not blaming it just on that one thing. We learned a lot from last season.”
Licht went on to stress how the Bucs’ core of young players experienced that up-and-down season, which should help them going forward. Joe agrees.
But Joe will note how Licht deserves a 15-yard personal foul here on a couple of fronts.
Licht had the audacity to say the Bucs defense was on the field too long. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay led the NFL (and the NFC) in time of possession last season. So the Bucs had the most rested defense in their conference.
Also, Joe will point to the 2015 season. Licht’s offensive line dealt with significant injuries and new starters pulled off the street (Joe Hawley and Gosder Cherilus), and the team was breaking in rookie starters Donovan Smith and Ali Marpet. The latter dealt with injuries that cost him four games.
That 2015 offense ranked fifth in the NFL in total yards and eighth in first downs. They moved the ball up and down the field with a rookie quarterback suffering from vision problems he later said affected him reading defenses.