I voted no, not because I am against theories, but my guess is the players didn't put the effort in because they took it as a holiday, and full credit to the Yanks, they didn't and they tried very hard.
I was in France in 94 and saw the Australians play against a presidents 13. The Australian team arrived not that long before the game and did very little in the way of warm up, they didn't think much of playing in France , had been away a long time and just wanted to go home. I am thinking this was pretty much the case in the US.