Good thoughts above. I have one more to contribute, that I've been wondering about for weeks....
You know when you're a great RB like Sanders or Payton, you rarely get hit hard because the defenders have to be so worried about missing the tackle? Could our increased talent on offense be sort of accomplishing that? Moss & Co. have defenses so quaking that the last thing on their minds is teeing off on us.
Actually here's a second thought. Some coach I recently read quoted (who coached offense at BYU, was it?) said that O-linemen get injured less pass blocking than run blocking, or at least get worn down less. Are we passing more this year?
A lot of the other reasons above sound good, too.
Lots of reasons, but I think I like the mud/turf difference regardless. It would be interesting to go injury-by-injury over the last few years to find out what we can... just like Pujo, I'm not going to be the one.
We have a wonderful discussion here brewing (it's on other threads as well,) regarding "regressing to the mean." The idea is that everything evens out. This is a very salient explanation in the absence of causality. I don't think either the presence or absence of causality is proven... we'd have to look at injuries to say that. If our injury rash from 02 onward was on OTHER PEOPLE'S fields, well, we'd be looking at a secondary effect at best (i.e., if something about the mud-to-a-real-field shift was responsible.)
I distrust arguments about teams being "due" for anything, the basic "regression to the mean" equivalent. Yeah, Brady was "due" for a 50 touchdown season, since he hadn't had one before. But I think the presence of Moss, Stallworth, and Welker also influenced the possibility of such an outcome.
Similarly, we have a very tempting, but possibly spurious connection to pursue, i.e., the possibility that the change in turf has been a godsend. We also have several other possibilities mentioned above.
Maybe one or another of us will be able to turn up answers(home vs. away injuries, practice injuries, etc.)
But I know one thing: That Marquis Hill thing? Nothing to do with turf.
I am so very, very sorry.
PFnV