I agree and I don't think the two things are incompatible. In most cases sensible shuffling occurs.
When the S hits the F that's when the coach has to grap the situation. It's no use letting the situation get out of hand as it did in that 4th quarter.
IMO it says either he had been out coached or that he didn't have the player resources to do anything about it. If the latter he needed to make changes to the side for 1998 and if you look at a thread Iv'e just posted "Remember 1998" there were few changes to the list and a greater reliance on the same band of players.