I always check the injury reports, and Miami seems to never have anyone on the injured list. I don't want to jinx them but hopefully our guys continue to stay healthy. Some teams have all their big names banged up.
What a great turn around it is for us to have basically a completely empty injury report each week. Its a refreshing change for us. No doubt its helped us this year. I think without all the injuries we had last year, we would have won several more games than just one. It is weird to look around the league at all the big time players that are banged up and on injury reports right now. Its strange, i wonder if guys nowadays are getting bigger, and bigger egos, and deciding for themselves that they dont need to work hard at their strength and conditioning programs anymore... speculation sure, but its strange to see that many stars, on the injury reports.
I'm happy with the new mindset, just hope the players health and long term well being is also a priority to this staff. I would attribute the change to Parcells off-season conditioning program, which was the first thing implemented, more than the players being" afraid" of telling the coaches they're hurt. You can tell from the 4th qtr play that this years team is in peak physical condition, MUCH more so than last years club med.
That says it all...and I love it. I don't believe any player is 100% all the way through the season...however there is a difference between being injured and being a little banged up. I think some of these newer players are a bit too soft and sit when they really probably could play. The upper-echelon players play through pain and injuries. I think of Plax playing through his injuries last year...Justin Smiley playing through his shoulder injury again last year...Chad OchoCinco even gets some toughness points for continuing to play through his shoulder injury from earlier this year...and lets not forget Peyton M. and his knee. We were too soft last year and the injury report reflected that...amazing what a difference a year makes.
The fact that our team seems to be almost injury free has a lot to do with our success this year. You look at Jacksonville they lost three of their starting o-line in the 1st couple of weeks and that pretty much did them in for the year. I still think that losing Donald Thomas was a big hit to our o-line and I can only dream of how our offense would be doing if he were still in the mix. Our right Guard spot seems to be our achilles heel as far as the o-line goes and the coaching up of Ndukwe and now McChesnsey has kept it somewhat solid. By the way maybe Samson Satele is playing through an injury right now and that is why he has lost a step.
