Is Team Conditioning an Issue?

[Leeroy Jenkins PhD]

After watching the Panthers fall apart in the 4th quarter a number of times, I have spent many Sundays wondering why.....

Could it be conditioning? Is it possible the other teams are in better physical shape than our team?

From those of you who have made it to the games, or watched the tapes over and over, what say you? Are we just not in as good of shape as other teams late in the game?

There has got to be a good reason why we dominate teams all game long and give it all up in the 4th quarter.

[ickmule]

Ummm...........

[Kakarot]

I doubt it, but you never know. Could be an issue.

[pstall]

in some ways yes, i also say they have just had some bad luck late in the games. penalties on 3rd and long that keeps drives alive. bad clock mgt.

if they can learn to close, despite the talent they have, then look out.

[Ruff]

Maybe, but I think it's because the team is mentally weak, which is not helped by Rivera and Co.

[Leeroy Jenkins PhD]

I look at this issue a couple of ways, first, being physically drained causes cognitive delays. Meaning, if you are tired as hell, your mental processes will be slower. It could be bad luck, or it could be mistakes due to exhaustion.

Second, if our team is getting gassed in the 4th, this is a direct reflection of the coaches inability to have our team ready to go on Sundays. I don't even view it as a knock on the players. NFL players are grown men, yes, but the conditioning is the responsibility of the coaching staff.

Sadly, the players will only do as much as necessary to earn there paychecks when not properly motivated.

[TANTRIC-NINJA]

Ding ding!!

Also the 3 n out offense we specialize in in 4th Quarters hurt the defense.

[Gabeking]

I look at this issue a couple of ways, first, being physically drained causes cognitive delays. Meaning, if you are tired as hell, your mental processes will be slower. It could be bad luck, or it could be mistakes due to exhaustion.

Second, if our team is getting gassed in the 4th, this is a direct reflection of the coaches inability to have our team ready to go on Sundays. I don't even view it as a knock on the players. NFL players are grown men, yes, but the conditioning is the responsibility of the coaching staff.

Sadly, the players will only do as much as necessary to earn there paychecks when not properly motivated.

Could be but either way our whole staff from top to bottom is probably gone next year

[Icege]

I've been watching the film (yaye NFL Rewind!) from the last few games and while I'm by no means qualified to derive any type of expert opinion from it, there are a few things that I have noticed:

1) OLine, specifically Hangman, has not been very good this season.

2) A lot of the passing plays, despite this being apparently a high-low read offense, commonly sends all of the receivers either deep or short.

3) Dropped passes (I'm looking at you Louis Murphy)

4) Play calling (2nd & long? Let's run the option and have it get blown up!)

5) Receivers aren't getting a lot of separation until late in their routes.

6) Cam's accuracy

7) Cam's decision making

8) Penalties being called during crucial moments (some valid, some not)

They seem to be playing just as hard at the end of the game, but it's hard to match the receivers stride for stride when the play being called requires anything less than 15 yards from the line of scrimmage being left for any who'd like to roam there. I think that a lot of these issues are coaching related.

[Panthercougar68]

8) Penalties being called during crucial moments (some valid, some not)

I swear how many "hands to the face" penalties do we get after we rip off big plays.

[rayzor]

i think the energy and strength is there. i think they lack confidence and if they have a lead they kind of know just like we do, that it's only a matter of time before one of them blows it. it ends up being a self fulfilling prophecy. the fact that we get soft on offense and defense as far as playcalling is concerned doesn't help, either.

that's one thing that i like about the program that chip kelly has and that mahlzan ran at auburn. with a no huddle hurry up program done right, they work at it every practice and so not only do they work at a faster pace in games, their endurance is up and the other team most likely will wear down and out quicker. that's not a advert for kelly, btw. i just like that mentality and coaching style.

the end game stuff, though, is more mental and bad playcalling. i think that if the guys on the field had some level of confidence in themselves and the ability to finish they wouldn't be so worried about who is going to f*ck it up next or worried that they might screw it up themselves.

it's just a hump they've got to get over, but once they do i think they stay on the winning side of things. this team has been good enough to win most games they've played the last couple years. they have the lead late in games most of the time. they just haven't figured out how to finish the right way.

[Sword]

http://www.nfl.com/videos/dallas-cowboys/0ap2000000094750/A-Football-Life-Fatigue-makes-cowards-of-us-all

I don't know if being tired is the problem but if you think we make to many mental errors at the end of the game being tired will cause you to make even more mistakes.

[Iceberg Slim]

Good question but I don't think so. Bad offensive play calling, lack of discipline, poor clock management. I could go on but all of it screams that there are gaping holes in this teams coaching

[Leeroy Jenkins PhD]

I wonder if our injury problems stem from poor conditioning as well. It seems every year, we have a higher number of players on IR by the end of the year than most teams in the league. This could also be an issue of conditioning.

I am not saying the "freak" injuries do not occur at random, but, if you consistently have a larger number of injured players than other teams, something is wrong.

I have also seen argued that, if were eliminated from playoff contention, it is easy to place a player on IR and try someone else. I do not think that is the case with our team.