Did anyone else know the 2024 Season was over the moment McCoy got injured? (1 Viewer)

[3ParStillDriver]

I think this speaks to the team variables aspect brought up in the post.

If you have a HOFer type QB that is the life blood of your team and/or pretty much the focal point of your pass-focused offense, that’s completely different.

To that end, if I recall correctly, we were still a very functional offense when Brees was out and I also think we went undefeated when he wasn’t playing while we had Unger, a Pro Bowl type center.

Payton made getting a star center a priority for a reason when trying to fix the team and get it ready for that final run we had, and I am realizing more and more why he prioritized it so much.

This is absolutely a true statement. There is some level of QB skill that plays a factor. Hard to imagine Daniel Jones going out would effect their team as much as per say, Tua, Drew Brees, Mahomes etc. (and no, im not saying Tua is as good as Brees/Mahomes etc, he was just mentioned in a diff post because hes average or better and often injured)

 

[BBarnes]

I feel it was more the moment the Saints faced a decent defense. The Panthers' and Cowboys' defenses are bad.

Right. Zero chance the season was going to be that drastically different if McCoy was healthy. We have so many deeper issues than one player getting hurt. We beat one of the worst teams the NFL has seen in the last 20 years, and exposed a very mediocre and borderline bad Cowboys team. Our record may be 3-5 if McCoy didn’t get hurt. If we were 100% lucky with injuries this season we likely are 4-4 maybe 5-3. But no, one man/one injury isn’t close to the reason the season unraveled.

Problem is this is probably what ML will say, that bc we beat those two bum teams if we would have stayed healthy we were some type of contender, so let’s run it back next season

 

[Cajun Mike]

When he went down. I had a bad feeling really bad.

 

[Saint Greg]

For me it was when Shaheed went down for the year. Before that there was always hope of getting it back together like we were in weeks 1-2. But he was our big play guy and he’s not coming back this year.

 

[Clintonrebel]

Goes to show just how good he is. Hope he comes back 100% at some point.

 

[Tapxe]

hard enough to find 32 good centers in the league, almost zero chance youll have a good "back up center" to take over for your starter and not miss a beat.

hell its hard to find 5 good OL-man to play.

Senio Kelemete was such a luxury. Dude bailed us out a few years and positions. Houston signed him and we've been looking since.

 

[HouseCall]

I was sitting in the dome when McCoy got injured and my first thought was “oh, man…this isn’t good” but I was hopeful that he would be ok and maybe return to the game.

Once I saw him heading to the injury tent, barely able to walk, my stomach sank. I knew that things were going to be complicated with the offense going forward and it was almost immediately apparent that things were going to be a real struggle.

What I didn’t realize was that the offense was going to struggle so much that the aging defense would be exposed for how thin it was.

Now here we are - 0-6 since McCoys injury. I knew it would be a struggle but not 6 straight loses bad. But…here we are.

 

[Benleo77]

This is strange because I typically don't know the ins/outs of offensive line play like some on here, but for some reason I was able to extrapolate the results of the Eagles game and then the next 2-3 games (based on what I thought the severity of the injury would be) and I started to consider, right at the moment when he got hurt, that this was going to effectively end our 2024 season. I didn't think we would drop the next six games, but I forsaw the domino effect of injuries to the extent that it would at least affect either Kamara or Carr, or both and I knew this would de-rail not only the momentum but the entire direction of the season. All of these thoughts occured to be roughly the first 5 minutes following the injury, to the point where all I could do was dwell on it and it caused me to lose interest in the Eagles games -- because I knew it was bigger than just that game.

Anyone else knew it, at the same point, as well?

Yes! I played Center and Guard! Those first string guys are elite! Their drop off due to injury just destroys chemistry! A football team needs chemistry and it starts up front!

 

[Icon]

No, I didn't know that would be the case ....... But I do remember Brian De La Puente's impact after being permanently inserted at Center in 2011. In fact, they only lost one regular season game that he started.

 

[St. Geezy]

It’s funny how at that time we thought we had just lost to some mediocre team but in reality we were hanging with one of the big dogs of the NFC and lost on a fluke play that day.

The Eagles are sitting at 11-2 currently. In hindsight, it was a minor miracle that we kept Barkley bottled up for as long as we did that day.

 

[DSnfla]

It goes to show that all this talk that about us demolishing the Panthers and the Cowboys because they were bad is a bit overblown because if it were not for a fluke play we would have beaten the 11-2 Eagles and if not for a bad decision by Shaheed and a DPI we would have beaten the then 2-2 Failclowns.
I have always thought that the team that we were in the 1st 2 games was much closer to the team we would have been at this point of the season. Were we going to blow out every team? By no means. But it showed what the team could be. Had the team been relatively healthy I think we would at least have a game lead in the NFCS and our record be at least 9-4 even with DA as HC.