Play Hard, Don't Rest

[JJHLH1]

A point that frequently comes up at the end of the season is whether or not it is better to rest players or have them play, assuming the playoff seeding is already established.

If this year is any indication, it appears that it is much better to play everybody like normal, and not to rest them.

The teams that played hard throughout, New England and the Giants, are still in the race.

The teams that rested their players, Dallas and Indy, are out.

I don't know about the other teams, but just an observation.

 

[Kangaroo]

A point that frequently comes up at the end of the season is whether or not it is better to rest players or have them play, assuming the playoff seeding is already established.

If this year is any indication, it appears that it is much better to play everybody like normal, and not to rest them.

The teams that played hard throughout, New England and the Giants, are still in the race.

The teams that rested their players, Dallas and Indy, are out.

I don't know about the other teams, but just an observation.

Greenbay played there starters less than we did ours

 

[Oh_Canada]

Greenbay played there starters less than we did ours

If you noticed Green Bay hung 21 points in a quarter and a half on Detroit...we couldn't muster a td in almost three quarters against Washington.
I don't think anyone is right here though, since the Boys had injuries to deal with they had little choice in the matter.

 

[joseephuss]

A point that frequently comes up at the end of the season is whether or not it is better to rest players or have them play, assuming the playoff seeding is already established.

If this year is any indication, it appears that it is much better to play everybody like normal, and not to rest them.

The teams that played hard throughout, New England and the Giants, are still in the race.

The teams that rested their players, Dallas and Indy, are out.

I don't know about the other teams, but just an observation.

Dallas had to rest some of their players because they were injured. The ones that weren't injured played. TO was not 100% this game and clearly could not have played against Washington. Newman played well this game and having that extra week off helped him with his injuries.

I think it is a little overly simplistic to say resting players mattered that much. Both Dallas and Indy had the lead in the 4th quarter in their respective games. Dallas had good scoring drives on offense. A 20 play 10 minute TD drive is usually the kind of drive championship teams put together.

The defense played pretty well except for a few lapses. That is how they have played all season. Do some good things and then have a few lapses that allow the other team to score or get some momentum. Playing or resting was not going to change that M.O.

 

[JJHLH1]

Greenbay played there starters less than we did ours

What about San Diego? Did they rest their players? I would assume not since they were a wild card team, but I don't know for sure.

Green Bay may be the exception this year, but overall is still appears to be better to play every game as hard as possible, without resting your starters.

 

[QT]

I think these Cowboys need to play hard in December in the future even if they have the playoffs locked up. Their December record is aweful and it carries into the playoffs.

 

[JJHLH1]

Dallas had to rest some of their players because they were injured. The ones that weren't injured played. TO was not 100% this game and clearly could not have played against Washington. Newman played well this game and having that extra week off helped him with his injuries.

I think it is a little overly simplistic to say resting players mattered that much. Both Dallas and Indy had the lead in the 4th quarter in their respective games. Dallas had good scoring drives on offense. A 20 play 10 minute TD drive is usually the kind of drive championship teams put together.

The defense played pretty well except for a few lapses. That is how they have played all season. Do some good things and then have a few lapses that allow the other team to score or get some momentum. Playing or resting was not going to change that M.O.

I don't know what the right answer is, because you can always be second guessed no matter what. And the Cowboys did have injuries to deal with.

But Romo wasn't injured. He could have played more against Washington, but of course the game was getting out of hand and he didn't have some of his supporting cast.

If this comes up again, however, I would follow the lead of New England and the Giants and play the game like normal, especially if you need to sharpen up - like the Cowboys did in December.

 

[khiladi]

The Cowboys looked totally out-of-sync in December. If your going to rest your players and play a couple of quarters, you at least would try and be effective the time your out there, just so you remain in sync.

The fact that it looked like the team was to busy trying to get individual stats instead of running their offense p*ss*s me off in hind-sight...

 

[LarryCanadian]

I was, and remain, all in favour of resting the majority of your starters, and especially anyone banged up, the last game of the season. That is bye or no bye, as long as the game doesn't mean anything in terms of seeding.

That doesn't mean you don't try and win. Your backups should be able to win too. Maybe not as probable, but they should be good enough to compete. Heck it's an audition for a number of players out there. The players, for whatever reason weren't sharp that last game. That was understandable, I guess because it wasn't a playoff game.

Now, resting with a bye week, is also good. What I mean by resting is not sitting on their duffs, what I really mean is lots and lots of study, weightlifting, cardio, drilling etc. BUT in a controlled environment so you don't get injured nor aggravate an injury.

What I saw in the playoff game that really bothered me, in order of disbelief. Poor snapping on shotgun. Worst all year. Poor substitutions. Questionable conditioning (Crayton couldn't get back to line? and then stopped on route at end of game?). Poor pass catching. Did we have a half dozen drops? Key ones? Missed tackles and special teams coverage assisgnments. That stuff is easy to practice, relatively safely.

I don't blame players for going away, doesn't matter where, as long as they behave. If I was the coach though, with this young young team, with little to no playoff experience, or at least playoff success, I would have had 2-3 more practices (not heavy stuff necessarily) and more meetings and walk throughs. Anything to keep focus and keep sharp.

There was rust, but a lot of the rust was psychological. If you don't believe you prepared hard, you likely play sloppy too.

The opportunity we had doesn't occur very often. I think from the owner, coaches, players on down, they didn't act like this was the opportunity of a career. For many players it might well have been. 2 seasons in a row with winnable playoff games, with relatively healthy teams, and we didn't get it done. Don't for a second ASSUME that we even make the playoffs next year, let alone home games or a bye. Nothing is easy. Couple of injuries or mistakes player wise and forget it.

LarryCanadian

 

[Tom [Giants fan]]

The Bucs rested a lot the last two weeks as well.

 

[Boysboy]

*sigh* another "What if?" thread.

There are just MANY unanswered questions of why we lost-but we LOST, and it SUCKS. Just having it linger with us will only make the pain worse.

Yeah-it sucks that we haven't won a play game in over a decade, but only going through "What ifs?" will make the pain linger further.

I hope our Boys will put this behind them and come out focused next year.