How the "Going Undefeated v. Resting Starters" argument has been severely dumbed down

‘08 was lost in overtime and ’05 was just one Vandershank away from going to overtime. Any one of a dozen plays could have tipped those games one way the other. It’s not like the Colts forgot how to play football, they lost close games to playoff-caliber teams. It happens, but for the Colts it just happened at exactly the wrong times.

Anyone who wants to argue for “momentum” should put a number on it. How many starters playing hurt is it worth to keep your momentum?

It’s not true that resting starters is “quitting” or that it will “disrespect the purity of the game” (as one genetically repressed Titans fan put it). Figuring out who to play and who to rest each week is part of the game, and one of the factors coaches use to decide is by deciding how badly they need to win the next game. If every game truly had to be played all-out balls-to-the-wall then half of our favorite players would be on IR by week 17.

As a fan I want to see the Colts do everything that they have to do to win a Super Bowl. In my opinion, one of those things they have to do is figure out if Curtis Painter can win a real NFL game sometime before he has to do it in a win-or-go-home situation. I couldn’t care less if that hurts their chances to play spoiler for the Jags or Jets.

2008 – Steelers rested guys (Ben had his concussion on that first drive) won Super Bowl
2006 – Bears and Saints rested starters, met in title game
2005 – Broncos rested guys, beat Pats who were 11-0 in playoffs at the time. Seahawks rested, made it to the Super Bowl.
2004 – Eagles, Steelers and Pats all rest, all make it to at least the title game, two to the Super Bowl, and Pats win.

Resting is good, historically, and even recently.

we started kinda rusty and the Steelers started very hot. We were close to coming back later but we could’ve started better. So, what I mean is it is ok to rest starters the final game of the season, but I don’t agree with resting starters for 2+ games.

is our young guns, we all now how peyton .clark,wayne,saturday and all our veterans will be in terms of mental sharpness and edginess theyll be ready but we dont know about our young guns that are just learning how to maintain that edginess for 2 games in a row, this is a game of inches and milliseconds ,i think is not about been physically ready or rusty as practice should prevent rust but im not sure practice can keep that millisecond mental-focus edge that sometimes is the difference between a TD or an INT.

The problem with is is that nobody in the media is even allowing for the fact that “resting and getting healthy” just means sitting the guys who are hurt – the assumption is that they’ll play it like a preseason game. King already has come out and said he expects Manning to play just one series Thursday night. As if he’d take an entire goddamn month off!

The Colts will play hard and play to win, but if a guy is hurt and will be better served by sitting down, he’ll sit down. It’s not that hard to understand. They’ve been doing the same thing all year; sure, if it’s a huge game a guy like Freeney might rush back from a quad injury and play at 90% instead of 100, but it’s not as if this team has been shy about keeping people out another week to get healthy even in October. They’re just doing the same thing now except erring more on the side of caution because now they have that luxury.

It’s a short week and the Broncos beat the crap out of several players. Some guys just aren’t going to play, and wouldn’t even if this team was 10-3 or 9-4. That’s just reality. But that’s not a good story, so people are choosing to ignore that reality.

The Colts people have been remarkably patient with this stuff. Kravitz had to get in a minor dig at how Polian responded to him, but Bob knows why he gets those looks and knows full well that he deserves them anyway. I am impressed that they haven’t lashed out and called people stupid. That said, I wish that someone would phrase it a bit differently and make the point that hey, perhaps you media types are thinking about this in extremes when the truth is much closer to the middle.

If somebody is injured, even if he would normally play (i.e. Jerrad Powers or Robert Mathis this week) then be extra cautious and sit them out. but if somebody is perfectly fine play them.

we can go down as the greatest team in the history of the NFL if we go undefeated which would be amazing. A super bowl is great. but it would be better to be THE 1 as opposed to one great team out of 44.

Just make sure we don’t pull a Patriot in the super bowl. :D

that individual team appreciation must be taken into account, it is not right just to compare teams or even different seasons of the same team to know what is the right thing to do, i mean that for me is more important that Peyton ,Garcon and Collie need to play these games, how many Peyton’s bad days have been started or caused by dropped passes , even wayne needs a couple of games his production the last 3 games have been almost invisible , in other words our starters need to play , more important than a 16-0, or healthy is being ready and on sync , i think we are not there yet.

that Polian and Caldwell know more than me about running an NFL team.

that Polian and Caldwell want the Colts to succeed and have immortal records more than I do.

that if Polian and Caldwell think that resting up is more important than their own dreams of perfection, then I support them.

that if players like Peyton (who know more about football than me and want Colts success more than I do) support their coaches decisions on this subject, then so will I.

for the Colts is not rest, but sitting for TOO long….

I dont think anyone will argue that the Colts need to let people rest up and heal. If there’s a potential injury, let em sit. However, I think the real issue is that the Colts cannot afford to come out listless like they have in a few of their postseason games.

In years past, the Colts have often wrapped up their seeding with 2-3 games left. Often, this has led to lackluster finishes with most key players playing a quarter at most…. There is such a thing as too much rest.

Ideally, the best thing for the Colts is to play the Jags as if its a meaningful game. The last 2 games of the year, they should play the starters for a half….and call it a day. Get them in game situations and of course, rest any players with significant injuries.

The issue here isnt whether you should rest or not rest, but how much rest is too much? Consider college football….there is sometimes a 5 week layoff for teams between the end of season and their bowl game. Teams playing great week in and week out only to come out like garbage a month later because of the severe layoff. The Colts should rest, but only so much….

I would enjoy punching someone in the mouth more than Skip Bayless. I’m glad I don’t watch his crap anymore while he “debates” guys who basically just agree with him now because their soft and don’t follow real football outside of what ESPN tells them to follow. I have no respect for that man whatsoever.

that Tom Brady should “take a knee” and send SB XVI into overtime against the Rams. Sometimes the man is just wrong.

You do understand that as far as the media is concerned, the Colts are in no-win territory… unless they win it all of course and then whatever actions Caldwell took were 100% unquestionably right. If he rests Manning with a few other starters, and the team ends up losing the SB or not even getting there, the paid “experts” will have a field day.

Starting with a crucial injury in a meaningless game that did actually hurt us in the playoffs in 1999. The Rest of the Story.

but at the end of the day Polian will make the call , they have a plan already ,after giving some thought on this issue i now believe that the only possibility if any that we will see 19-0 is if the healthy starters and backups win jags game and this team backups wins the Jets game , Polian will be between a rock and a hard place if we are 15-0 , imagine a real media field day if Polian rest starters at 15-0 and lose and then lose first round of the playoffs.

Garcon and Collie a lil bit more, they need it. (ohh #88)

A more interesting discussion will be Gonzo, will he be part of our playoff run?

The fact that our offense still lacks its consistency this deep in the season is something that worries me.

isnt a bad read….I’m sure it relates to much of what we feel..

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/306499-history-vs-health-should-starters-sit

I’m sick, so bear with me. I haven’t read all the comments or whatever because I have a strong feeling of malaise…well stronger than I normally have at work. Most of the time I can get through the day reading/posting or something, but anyway, here it goes :

Prior to 2005 is inconsequential. Fact is, the Colts weren’t a championship team. Sorry, they weren’t. We had the offense to finish 12-4, but we did not have a championship defense. Fact is, there’s really only about 8, possibly 10 but more often than not around 5 or 6 teams from both conferences PER season that can legitimately claim to be an upper echelon team. Seeing how there’s 32 teams in the league, that means that during a 16 game schedule, 6 games which are within the conference, the chances of seeing one of those “upper echelon” teams is relatively slim. That is, until you actually start making the playoffs and you begin to face those teams the next season and either succeed and make it again, or fail and become a “fluke”. Well, I’m just going to point out that there aren’t “fluke” seasons.

Flat out, prior to 2005 our defense was not a playoff caliber team and Peyton knew it. So even if the score was relatively close, Peyton would press and force passes thinking that if they didn’t score, the game would be over. That’s what happened prior to 2005. Simple as that.

Now in 2005, we were rolling along, and that was the best team we’ve had to date. That is, until Corey Simon got hurt prior to our first loss. But oh well, just rest him and get into the post season, no big thing. Well, I don’t think Corey ever fully recovered, which led to his premature retirement in 2006. So our “solution” that had turned us into a dominating defense was gimped out and we couldn’t get the Steelers off the field on any of their (what seemed to be infinite) 4th and shorts the entire game. You can just look at the gamelogs and see the glaring difference between when Simon was playing and when he was out. And we still had a chance to win that game. So that was 2005.

2007 was a slew of injuries to people that were cogs of both our offense and defense. Booger, who played a key role to our 2006 success and never received enough credit (yes, Bob did come back, but Booger also finally GOT it) for our SB run, left a huge hole on our line yet again. Combined with poor special teams, and a plethora of dropped passes/Marvin’s fumble is why we lost. Period. The timing was there, the balls were in their hands, the catches were not.

2008 was just a repeat of 2007. Ed Johnson was off the team, Pitcock decided to go invest his money so we had questions yet again on the line. Not to mention I clearly remember Reggie “losing one in the lights” on a surefire TD, and a key 3rd down right in his chest that would’ve put us at least in field goal position. Our problems on special teams were not fixed, and Purnell was booted off the team. Not to mention that I don’t care what they say, we got straight bent over and raped by the officials in that OT. Anyone who says differently didn’t watch the game. That was an insult to a playoff game. I normally don’t rag officiating, but it was laughable. Granted we should never have been in OT, but home-field to a team we had a 4 game edge on and had beat during the season had a little to do with Gijon not hearing the snap in the Chargers endzone.

So they can rest players if they want. Our defensive line is sorted, our second and third stringers all have playing time, I’m fine with it. The only way I would have a problem with it, is if Gonzalez comes back and they either rest him or they rest Peyton and decide to start him in the playoffs. I hope he does come back, and I hope he does start in the playoffs. That’s the only reason why I’m against sitting players right now. While I agree that momentum isn’t everything, (unless you’re a sucky team who can raise their level of play and amp themselves up, which we are not), timing is. And honestly, I think Gonzalez playing in the post-season is KEY.

Oh, for examples of how teams that aren’t upper echelon can work the media hype up into a frenzy, go ahead and look at all those teams that were average at best one season, make a playoff run and are predicted to dominate the next season and don’t. Dolphins and Jets did it last season, but nobody mentions they all beat up on the Bills within their division and played the NFC and AFC West teams last season. If anyone thinks all those teams in the AFC East were worthy of 10-6 or 11-5 I want some of that saucy stuff. It’s also why I think the Saints are going to lose prior to the SB. The Eagles are the team to worry about. Even though they lost to the Saints this season, McNabb was out and they’re playing way better than they were previously. Luckily their defense has holes.

When you stop playing to win you start losing. The Giants had a “meaningless” game against the Patriots. They played to win anyway. They went on to win out in the playoffs and beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

When a team gives up on the rest of the season then their season is over.

(Call me Mrs. Obvious, I’ve always fancied Captain Obvious.)

I personally want them to go for the perfect season. But I know nothing about running a football team.

so i still say play all the way