Tony Dungy blames shortened preseason for perceived lower quality of play

Tony Dungy made an interesting observation after watching the first half of Thursday night’s season-opening game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams.

Dungy was appearing on NBC’s halftime show with Rodney Harrison and Chris Simms. The former Colts and Bucs coach observed a lower quality of play in the second quarter of the game compared to the first.

Dungy believes the dropoff was due to players not being in shape because they didn’t see enough action in the preseason.

“I’m going to jump on my coach’s soap box here,” Dungy began. “You might want to play your guys a little bit in the preseason. The first quarter was very very sharp. But the second quarter, I thought we saw fatigue set in. Turnovers, penalties, mistakes. Just wasn’t real sharp.”

Not only has the preseason been shortened from four games to three, but the top players hardly play during the preseason. Some would argue even playing just a series or two is too much.

Coaches want to have as much practice time with their players as possible so they can hit the ground running. They have to find the right balance of not risking injury with still making sure their players are well-conditioned and ready to go.