Dallas is now ranked 2nd in passer rating differential

[Toruk_Makto]

After the bye this season Romo went 18/26 for 275 yards and 4 TDs against the Giants.

I'm thinking a week off doesn't really affect his overall performance at this point in his career.

And trying to rationalize that a LBer - Hitchens or McClain - is going to get rusty after a week off in a 17 week season is ludicrous too.

It's a week off, not a month.

Football is a game of inches.

Again, i'm going to side with the best coach in the game.

 

[DandyDon1722]

Something to consider - if we get the Saturday night game in the Wildcard round - Romo would lose a day of rest and preparation.

I say play the important players a half and get them the hell outta there. I hear that's what Belichek is going to do against Buffalo or as he likes to put it - "We will do what's in the best interest of the Patriots."

 

[windward]

Something to consider - if we get the Saturday night game in the Wildcard round - Romo would lose a day of rest and preparation.

I say play the important players a half and get them the hell outta there. I hear that's what Belichek is going to do against Buffalo or as he likes to put it - "We will do what's in the best interest of the Patriots."

That's what I think is going to happen.

 

[DFWJC]

That's pretty much accurate, yes. What gives me a lot of confidence going forward is how a high PRD correlates with winning a title.

Edit: I looked it up and if we had the worst Dpr in the league we'd be 18th. Which would probably lead to another 8-8 or 7-9 type year.

Yeah , I forgot we had to add Weeden in there....it dropped us from 114.4 to 111.8 evenwiththose few snaps.
Even still, if we had the just the 2nd worst dpr, we'd still have the 7th best differential overall.

 

[ConstantReboot]

The team was playing poorly before that game. Injuries were mounting and the teams overall performance was declining. That's the reason we didn't go far in the playoffs -- not that we rested guys in week 17.

I remember that. Plus I believe that we had a few loses during December and really didn't have any type of momentum going into the playoffs. I think we should take this as a case by case basis and decide on during game time whether to play your starters or not. I know Washington don't have anything to gain by losing but have everything to gain if they could take out Romo before the playoffs. If that happens they would consider this year a success and the entire D.C. area would feel like they won the superbowl.

 

[blindzebra]

Your starters getting to rest during the bye is the most important factor of the bye... please tell me you realize this.

No the bye rewards you with not having to play and win one fewer game to be champion.

Riddle me this why we are at it.

Let's say we do as you suggest and sit as many starters as possible. And several key situational guys get hurt. You know key back ups that get 15- 20 snaps a game and are core special teamers. Then what?

To go one step more. We tank that early game and lose a few key reserves due to over use and then the unthinkable happens in the late games and GB and Det tie and Sea loses? We don't get out of the 3rd seed and we weaken our team in the process.

 

[percyhoward]

If they could take out Romo before the playoffs, they would consider this year a success and the entire D.C. area would feel like they won the superbowl.

Without a doubt. I'd rather the coaches and players spend the week preparing for Detroit and GB than waste one minute of their time trying to prevent the above scenario from happening -- in a game that means nothing.

 

[windward]

Looking historically at season ending games in which the Cowboys had a playoff berth locked up,and couldn't move up in seeding I found this:

Landry didn't rest his starters in 77, 81,82, 83
Jimmy didn't rest his starters in 91 and 92
Switzer played his starters for about a quarter in 94 and rested them in 96
Gailey played his starters for a half in 98
Parcells didn't rest his starters in 03.
Wade played the starters for a half in 07

Just some historical perspective here.