Sunday is only a Patriot victory if no injuries

[RhodyPatriot]

Forget the scoreboard. Irrelevant! This team right now is the healthiest they've been all year. O-line is finally intact. The running game is finally intact. Injuried D-linemen have had a ton of quality rest the past couple of weeks. The QB is definitely feeling better. Key to Sunday is keeping it that way.
A healthy Patriot team, with massive playoff experience and flying under the radar is a veeeeeery dangerous combination for the rest of the NFL. If this team comes home from Houston is good shape physically I'm starting to really believe the Patriots have a legit shot to win the whole thing.
Number 1 seeds rarely win Super Bowls.

 

[Snarf]

Sounds like you should be a Colts fan.

 

[BelizePats]

I agree completely. I just wish we could skip this game altogether. Can you imagine if the NFL goes to an 18 game schedule and we have 3 weeks like like this for some teams each year? Or more????

 

[Patspsycho]

Sounds like you should be a Colts fan.

That's rather bizarre since he clearly said #1 seeded teams rarely win superbowls; in case you didn't know, the Colts have the #1 seed.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Sounds like you should be a Colts fan.

Can't really compare our situation to the Colts. They have a bye next week, we don't. The momentum thing is totally debateable, but one fact remains that we have alot more reason to rest our guys than they had last week.

 

[jmt57]

Can't really compare our situation to the Colts. They have a bye next week, we don't. The momentum thing is totally debateable, but one fact remains that we have alot more reason to rest our guys than they had last week.

Very good point - and one that seems to have been almost completely overlooked in this debate. Most fans and media have focused first on whether or not the Colts should have tried to remain undefeated, and second on the playoff implications to teams like the Jets and Steelers. But few have talked about the fact that when the Colts do play their first playoff game, it will have been four weeks since their starters played a full game. That's completely different than giving guys who are banged up and have been playing through injuries the game off, or half the game off.

 

[Lloyd_Christmas]

Sounds like you should be a Colts fan.

Well, I give you some credit for boldness. Certainly got people's attention!

But in fairness, I think the Pats situation and the Colts is totally different. The Colts had a chance to go undefeated and they have a bye in the first week of the playoffs. Mailing it in was a horrible move in that game. It was giving up on something of historic proportions (potentially going 19-0) and that the regular season winning streak record was more than enough to make you happy. Also, with the bye week, the loss of momentum is a larger factor.

I don't want the Pats to mail it in. I want them to win the game. I do agree with the original poster that I'd ratther they lose and take no injuries than to win and be all banged up.

 

[mgteich]

The colts had a chance at history by winning their last two games, and even more history by winning their last two and then winning the Super Bowl.

A patriot win against Houston likely has very little meaning at all. The possibility of a #3 seed needs to be weighed against the value of a week of rest. For all the season, we have been playing for one of the top two seeds and a bye at the beginning of the playoffs. We have the opportunity to effect the same thing for many of our players. We should take the opportunity.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Forget the scoreboard. Irrelevant! This team right now is the healthiest they've been all year. O-line is finally intact. The running game is finally intact. Injuried D-linemen have had a ton of quality rest the past couple of weeks. The QB is definitely feeling better. Key to Sunday is keeping it that way.
A healthy Patriot team, with massive playoff experience and flying under the radar is a veeeeeery dangerous combination for the rest of the NFL. If this team comes home from Houston is good shape physically I'm starting to really believe the Patriots have a legit shot to win the whole thing.
Number 1 seeds rarely win Super Bowls.

I'm still going to take the contrarian position, as I have taken all week, that I think it's most important for the Patriots to play to win the game on Sunday, at least for most or all of three quarters.

This team has been inconsistent all season but has just now put together three consecutive halves of good football (since the second half of the Buffalo game) after playing OK and winning ugly against the Panthers. They still haven't beaten a team with a winning record on the road and that's what they're facing on Sunday.

I don't think even the veteran, experienced team that you describe can afford to try to turn if off and on at this time, especially after the kind of season they've had to date.

Yes, key injuries are a risk, but this is NFL football. The odds of Brady being injured on the first play of a Ravens or Jets Wild Card game are about the same as or even better than the odds of his being injured on Sunday. IMO, playing Brady and others is a risk, but not an unreasonable or unwarranted risk.

Put it this way. If I were our Wild Card Round opponent, I'd rather that we had turned it off this Sunday and had let ourselves get beaten by an inferior Houston team than that we had come into the Playoffs on a roll.

No need to flame me for this, as I acknowledge that I'm in a significant minority here, but I haven't heard anything in the last week to make me change my mind.

 

[Jangles]

I am unsure what to do

Play the starters for awhile, let them stay sharp or work out any on field issues in the game. Not during practice leading up to the playoffs.

I don't think they need to play all 4 quarters though and I think it makes sense to let back ups get some experience against a decent team.

Win or lose, it doesn't matter to me. I just hope the Pats can keep any momentum they carried over from the Jags game and build on that for the playoffs

 

[DSal]

I think there are certain risks a team takes when the decision is made to not play to win (which is what you do when the healthy starters are rested). Loss of momentum is one risk. You also risk losing the timing and communication that the team has worked to achieve all season, whether it's the offensive line gaining the abiity to move as one, qb to receivers timing, a receivers abiity to recognize and adjust to what the qb sees, defensive backs and line backers communication, etc. This team is just getting to the point where this timing is approaching perfection and they still need the work.

 

[TheComeback]

Can't really compare our situation to the Colts. They have a bye next week, we don't. The momentum thing is totally debateable, but one fact remains that we have alot more reason to rest our guys than they had last week.

It's not about momentum, it's about getting another road win against a solid, desperate dome team with a great offense. That's something we haven't done all year, and we'll have to do it if we want to get far in the playoffs. We should be using the game as preparation, not as a "bye" week.

The Patriots have all sorts of problems on all sides of the ball. One good game against the Jags doesn't prove that we've resolved those issues. We need to continue making progress.

 

[pdangle]

I think people will be surprised by the large amount of game day inactive/injured players, and/or reduced playing time for many of the starters this week.

Despite what BB and the players are saying, I get the feeling it's all just for appearances sake. BB has already demonstrated he will rest players during unimportant games, often times with extreme prejudice.

The proof?

Just think back to a few of those final pre-season games where the crowd practically deserved their money back for the "team" BB was allowed to run onto the field. At home no less. Our HOF coach knows how important a week of rest is at this juncture, how devastating a key injury becomes, and he WILL rest players.

He's done it in the past, and he'll do it again.

 

[Fball]

The colts had a chance at history by winning their last two games, and even more history by winning their last two and then winning the Super Bowl.

A patriot win against Houston likely has very little meaning at all. The possibility of a #3 seed needs to be weighed against the value of a week of rest. For all the season, we have been playing for one of the top two seeds and a bye at the beginning of the playoffs. We have the opportunity to effect the same thing for many of our players. We should take the opportunity.

It's either smart to rest starters for a playoff run, or it's not. If it is, it doesn't matter if what the record is. The goal is to win a Superbowl.

 

[Brady2Welker]

Its really hard to discern which course of action is the correct one, IMO. However keep in mind that who thought that against Kansas City week one after our attempts at a perfect season that Bernard Pollard would destroy Brady's knee. That said it is true that he's just as likely to be injured against one player as he is to be injured by another. Same goes for every player. Personally I think I'd go for a win because if we can't beat Houston on the road, how can we beat the colts/chargers?


That said; Pollard is on the Texans now. Scary.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

I think people will be surprised by the large amount of game day inactive/injured players, and/or reduced playing time for many of the starters this week.

Despite what BB and the players are saying, I get the feeling it's all just for appearances sake. BB has already demonstrated he will rest players during unimportant games, often times with extreme prejudice.

The proof?

Just think back to a few of those final pre-season games where the crowd practically deserved their money back for the "team" BB was allowed to run onto the field. At home no less. Our HOF coach knows how important a week of rest is at this juncture, how devastating a key injury becomes, and he WILL rest players.

He's done it in the past, and he'll do it again.

But this season has been different than other years when the Pats kicked butt all season and ended 14--2 +/-, so I don't think the comparison is valid.

This team hadn't sustained much of anything good all year until the last couple of games, beginning only with the second half in Buffalo; they won ugly in Carolina the week before that. Two solid early wins (aided in one case by some good luck) against the Falcons and Ravens were followed by a thud in Denver. They beat up on Tennessee and Tampa Bay teams that were barely playing at an NFL level when they faced them and then beat the Fins after the bye before losing three of four, including two in a row for the first time in recent memory. In addition, they have only won one real road game all season and haven't beaten a team with a winning record on the road at all (the Texans are such a team, but certainly not the best we've faced).

That's the profile of a very, very different season than the ones to which I think you are referring in your comment.

As a result, I think that the risks of injury and losing the chance to rest are outweighed by the risks of losing whatever timing and positive consistency the Pats have started to put together these past couple of weeks.

I believe that BB will play his starters until well into the third quarter this week and that they will play to win the game, which I am betting they will do.

 

[mgteich]

to think that the regular season doen't matter is to be hockey fan

It's either smart to rest starters for a playoff run, or it's not. If it is, it doesn't matter if what the record is. The goal is to win a Superbowl.

 

[pdangle]

But this season has been different than other years when the Pats kicked butt all season and ended 14--2 +/-, so I don't think the comparison is valid.

This team hadn't sustained much of anything good all year until the last couple of games, beginning only with the second half in Buffalo; they won ugly in Carolina the week before that. Two solid early wins (aided in one case by some good luck) against the Falcons and Ravens were followed by a thud in Denver. They beat up on Tennessee and Tampa Bay teams that were barely playing at an NFL level when they faced them and then beat the Fins after the bye before losing three of four, including two in a row for the first time in recent memory. In addition, they have only won one real road game all season and haven't beaten a team with a winning record on the road at all (the Texans are such a team, but certainly not the best we've faced).

That's the profile of a very, very different season than the ones to which I think you are referring in your comment.

As a result, I think that the risks of injury and losing the chance to rest are outweighed by the risks of losing whatever timing and positive consistency the Pats have started to put together these past couple of weeks.

I believe that BB will play his starters until well into the third quarter this week and that they will play to win the game, which I am betting they will do.

Just came back to check on replies, and respond. Yes, the teams are different in those regards, which of course would affect BB's overall analysis of the situation, but I still insist BB weighs rest and injury prevention more heavily than most people realize based on his actual pre-game comments. Classic BB misdirection.

And at the half this week, it seems BB is true to the form I foreshadowed. Among the many other DNPs and inactives, Brady was taken out midway through 2nd Quarter.

Of course we all wish he instead gave Welker the day off. Sheez...

 

[RhodyPatriot]

I called it before this game was played and this game is already a huge loss for the Patriots. A huge loss!! And for NO reason!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
STILL waiting for someone to tell me why our QB, with a reconstructed knee, a bad shoulder, a bad hand and broken ribs needed to play a quarter and a half today. Someone??? Anyone???

 

[fgssand]

I called it before this game was played and this game is already a huge loss for the Patriots. A huge loss!! And for NO reason!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
STILL waiting for someone to tell me why our QB, with a reconstructed knee, a bad shoulder, a bad hand and broken ribs needed to play a quarter and a half today. Someone??? Anyone???

Because football players play football - hell - put them all in a bubble so they cannot twist an ankle getting out of bed.

Why play them, why practice them, why have them go to meetings, they could get in a car accident on the way.

Please...it's tough luck, but good teams overcome all adversity.