Josh Newman reports that Faybian Marks and Paul Maile were on crutches after the game, and that Nick Ford had some sort of leg injury. I watched some replays this morning to try to get a better feel for what happened to them.
First the good news, Nick looked to be just fine during the final TD run by Pledger. He may be a little dinged, but it doesn’t look bad and let’s face it, an 80% Nick Ford is 100% of a lot of other guys.
Paul Maile’s injury might be nasty. During the Pledger TD the camera angle I saw shows him going down. It’s hard to tell if it’s a joint collapse or someone rolling up behind him, but it seems likely to be a concern at least for a while. But, to offset with some good news, Keaton Bills was playing on the line in the place kicking team so as long as Ford can go we may be able to go back to the line we had prior to his injury with Bills at LG and Ford at center.
Marks got hurt on the long TD run by the UA QB. He was pursuing from a ways out and might have had an angle but suddenly pulled up, hopped on his right leg to the sideline, and went straight to the locker room. On the replay it looked like his left foot got stepped on by the WR he was assigned to as they pursued the play. I hope nothing broke, but it was a pretty hard stomp with them both running full speed.
Not a great time to get an injury bug, especially with Marks when corner got thin when Broughton went down for the year.
I noticed yesterday Falcon Kaumatule #59 was playing RT, so I’m guessing they brought Braden Daniels #71 back inside to LG.
Agree on Nick Ford - he’ll play. Everyone is hurting this time of year. His work at LG can be approximated by Daniels and Ford should reduce the drama on the snaps. Kaumatule has the wingspan of a condor, and if he’s getting meaningful snaps in a game, he’s coming up to speed.
Marks and Vaughn have been in a competition all year for the snaps that would have gone to Broughton, so I’m comfortable with Zemaiah holding down a corner. If things get crazy, I’m not sure who is rising among the FR at CB - Lawler, Pleasant-Johnson, Rawls, Savage - but Vonte Davis started his career at CB/NB, so he’s played on the LOS and that’s one option, letting Bishop and Latu hold down the safety positions.
They’ll have a plan, guys will get snaps in the contingency situations this week. And who knows, maybe Marks & Maile got bruised up but will be ready to go on Saturday.
By Game 11, every team is battling injuries, and Oregon saw a big dropoff at RB when Verdell got hurt and Dye picked up the vast majority of the carries. Dye’s a very good back, but I don’t know if they beat Ohio State without Verdell.
By about week 4, everybody on the field is nursing some dings. Stepping on someone else and twisting is best case a high ankle sprain for Marks. With all of the hardware linemen wear today, hopefully it is just a knee sprain for Maile. Hopefully the week off helped Thomas get right.
Hoping for the best for all of them. We will need them next Saturday if they are available.