And Then There's That Other Thing...

Ok, so we've established that Sunday's loss was not a mere fluke but rather more the result of a Pittsburgh West team that exploited our weaknesses and just flat out beat us. But there was something else going on yesterday that's even more disconcerting...that would be injuries. Thus far, we've been lucky enough to avoid any significant injury losses, but that was not to be the case this past weekend.

I'm sure we all noticed. How could you ignore it? The main vacancy being at Strong Safety. However, we also were without Hines Ward and touchdown machine Matt Spaeth (both of which we knew of in advance), and lost "Big Snack" Casey Hampton, Casey's backup Chris Hoke, and Bryant McFadden all over the course of the game. Hopefully these injuries won't last far beyond the early part of this week. But what if they do? It certainly doesn't help to have them ailing even if they do come back.

Here's what I want to know -- why all the injuries across the league now? Is there something going on that we aren't recognizing? Is the game being played any differently? I'm pretty sure, if anything, the latest rules instituted by the NFL have made the game safer...and yet, everyone from Alex Smith to Cadillac Williams, Orlando Pace, Jake Delhomme and many many others find themselves inactive due to injury, some for the remainder of the season. Think about it...

As for OUR injured brethren, here's to a quick recovery! Get well soon boys, Seattle is waiting.

Injuries compound painful loss [Post-Gazette]