There’s something clearly wrong with Tyler Shough’s left hand, and as much as the New Orleans Saints quarterback tried to downplay it in his postgame press conference, one answer, or non-answer, let it slip. Shough did a lot of talking around the injury, instead focusing on the effect of it, until asked directly whether or not his hand was broken. When posed with that question, he said “I’m not even sure if I can answer that.”
Seeing that he’s been dealing with this injury since Monday night, it’s safe to say Shough probably has a good idea on whether or not his hand’s broken. The lack of an answer there is concerning for that situation.
We saw Shough gripping his hand on Monday night vs the Falcons, then he spent the week on the injury report and came out with a glove on his left hand. He admitted it was banged up, though he wouldn’t say to what extent. If it is broken, that could be bad news for Shough and the offense moving forward.
Tyler Shough's injury hasn't hindered Saints... yet
Let’s be very clear. Shough is coming off the worst game of his career, but the left hand injury is not the reason and shouldn’t be used as an excuse. It would be a negligent to say the injury had no bearing on his game, even though it didn’t have an impact on his mistakes and shortcomings. It could also have a greater impact as time goes on.
The most notable impact was how Shough was handing off the ball. He only used his right hand, which suggests his grip is either badly compromised or he does want to worsen it when the running back takes the handoff. The latter is a much better option.
The later gives Shough a chance to recover and ultimately return to using his left hand for handoffs. If his grip is comprimised for the long run, the way he's handing off could eventually become an issue. The real impact of Shough's grip comes with his ball security.
If Shough's hand really is broken, this feels like a fumble waiting to happen. His grip is compromised, so Shough will have less control of the ball when taking a big hit. He'll have better odds when he sees the hit coming because he can tuck the ball, but if Shough gets hit when he isn't looking and has to rely on his grip secure the ball, it becomes a much more difficult task.
Shough's hand has only resulted in some strange looking handoffs so far, but the idea of his hand being broken could get much worse for the Saints and quickly.
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