[charlie22]

Not many fans made it to those games, thus why so little talk.

I was at both games. Nothing that I saw in those two games is overly concerning to me IF we can get and stay healthy for the playoffs.

While the 2 platoon system has many, many benefits, it does create a problem. Because kids only practice and play on one side of the ball, when a starter gets hurt, his backup often times is not the best player on the team to play that position. For example: we have several WRS who would be excellent cornerbacks and could be great back ups when a starting corner got hurt. Unfortunately, because of the 2 platoon system, those WRs only practice with the offense. As a result, the back up corners who have played a lot lately are a step down, maybe a big step down, from who would be out there if we didn't 2 platoon. Heck, the back up RB, Hayes, would be an outstanding corner. But because he only practices and plays O, he's not available to fill in when Bardo or Abner don't play due to injuries.

And I think Dale and Brian see that. Hence, a great emphasis placed on trying to keep starters healthy, or get them healthy if they are injured, throughout the regular season. In every "close game" this year (with the exception of Elder) there have been starters held out, that while injured, could have played if they had to. That was definitely the case when we played JH and PT
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It's just much more important to Dale and Brian to be healthy deep in the playoffs than worrying about what some sports site posters think about a regular season win not being by a big enough margin.

The Birds will need to be at full strength to beat what appears to be a very good JC team from every thing I've read on here. Winning that game is much more important than beating WC or PT or JH by a margin that satisfies some of the more critical posters on here and BGP.