No one should be surprised. Until their starting Quarterback broke his leg, they were one of the most dominant Offenses in the league. On D, few teams could overcome the avalanche of injuries that sank that side of the ball into mediocrity. In addition to losing Ward, Gardner and Buckner, they lost Walley before the season began and injuries kept their most promising cover Linebacker, Carlies, on the sidelines.
Some will try to say that it’s possible to overcome injuries. They’ll point to San Francisco as evidence. The difference is that the 49’ers were never reduced to signing someone like Phillip Rivers off the street. They never played a game in which they started a 6th round draft pick who was 4th on the depth chart.
If you want to see the impact of a catastrophic rash of injuries at QB, look no further than Kansas City, where their 3rd stringer managed 260 yards passing in 3 games and KC scored a cumulative 34 points.
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