Bevell is at it again... bad plays against a weak Defense

[RiverDog]

Offense could change out their skill guys at will , RB's WR's TE's, also as a defender you are attempting to beat or run around a blocker, a Blocker just has to lean into you and shadow a defender, the opposite happens in Run Blocking where the Offense is the aggressor and needs to inflict their will on the defense.

Also stress and pressure of being behind and trying to make something happen adds to the fatigue.

Much easier being ahead and relaxed so to speak and pushing around a defense then trying to stop a offense and get caught up.

When I think of players getting fatigued, I think of the guys in the trenches, not the skill position players who are in a lot better aerobic condition. The smaller skill position players also have a higher percentage of skin area in which to get rid of their body heat and thus are more adaptable to high temperatures than are the big uglies. That's why the only NFL player to have died from heat stroke was offensive tackle Cory Stringer. As a rule, teams rotate their DL's more often than the offense rotates their OL. If I was real dedicated to this argument, I'd compare the snap count of the individual SD offensive linemen vs. our counterparts on the DL, and if the individual players on our line were seeing more snaps and that SD's linemen were getting the occasional breather that our DL's were not, then you could get me to concede. But unless proven otherwise with facts, I'll stand by my statement that there isn't a physiological reason for the defense, at least as it relates to the linemen, to be more fatigued than their offensive counterparts.

But I do agree about your last paragraph. I do believe that one of the side effects of psychological stress is physical fatigue, which I think is the point you're trying to make.

Bottom line is that rationalizing our loss, or our defense's performance, because of the heat is nothing more than excuse making. I don't know why it's so hard for some to accept the fact that we just plain got beat.

It's interesting how this discussion has turned from the original OP of bad play calling and the wisdom of the punt on 4th and 2 at our own 36. Not that I mind it as I enjoy any healthy debate, but it seems to me that a poster or two might be trying to back peddle away from that original argument by changing the subject.