If I'm the GM and have home-field locked through the playoffs I'd be retarded if I let my coach play Manning in a meaningless game against the #1 defense in the league. The regular season is about getting the best outcome for the post-season. The Colts have that now. Risking injuring the MVP of your team and possibly the league to tie a meaningless record is useless. I know everyone is out for glory, but Manning has only won a single Superbowl. He needs to win 2 before he tries to out-do Brady.
The Colt have clinched, but are a long ways away from their 1st playoff game (including the bye). How much rest / rust do you think they'll want going to into the playoffs?
Make no mistake about it, if we need that game for the playoffs we will have to play our butts off even if the Colts have already dropped a game by then. Generally guys on the O get more rest then the guys on D. Manning would still play about 4 series I bet, so we still have to play great football to beat them.
I think we should expect to see Addai, Manning, Wayne, and Clark for at least half the game. If they have anyone who is banged up, I bet they rest the entire game. For the Colts, since they will have a bye, it could be 4 weeks without playing at game speed for players who don't play week 16. That's not good if you ask me.
Why cant we beat the Colts with there starters? We beat Tenn last year in Tenn and they were undefated. Stop worrying about who is playing for the other team. If we play our game we can compete with any team in the league. This is for the entire thread, not at one person. Lets take care of ATL then move forward.
That's how I see, it, they would be insane to let Peyton face an attacking defense like the Jets with not much else to play for. Plus, Polian saw how the Patriots played at mach 4 in 2007 for the entire season and then their trench players ran out of gas right at the end.
They got beat by a couple of fluky, miracle plays by the Giants at the end, I wouldn't say they ran out of gas. If anything, the Giants proved that year that you do have to keep playing hard all the way through. The off season is eight months long, rest guys then.
The Patriots had a lot of trouble keeping defenses out of their backfield at the end of the 2007 season, they had to gameplan a way to get the ball out quickly and they used the hell out of the bubble screen play to keep defenses from bringing the house at Brady. That O-line got murdered in the Super Bowl, but it wasn't an isolated incident.
i agree those who are healthy play the first half to stay in rythm and help towards a perfect season, those who are hurt may rest for the entire game.
The team can worry about the falcons first, but we, as fans, have nothing to study or pratice for the next game. Who gives a fuck what we talk about?
And you think that's because they played hard down the stretch? I don't, I think the Giants got hot at the right time and had just played NE a few weeks earlier so they had good film on them. Even then they needed a minor miracle to beat them. The Pats had a bye week to get guys rested, that's why I don't get teams with a bye sitting guys down and then having another week off. The one year we were good enough to worry about it, Parcells played the last week like a regular game and we trounced NE, a playoff team, for no reason except that we could. Vinny played the whole game, Curtis Martin, etc. Then we got one week off and came back as good as ever. It seems like the Colts of all teams should know that lightening up has cost them in the past.
I don't think the Patriots losing had anything to do with them going for the perfect season..it was about that team getting physically manhandled by a tougher Giants team
doesn't look like the colts will go for it http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d814f120c&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true the problem is that the colts o-line is banged up, therefore they won't risk manning
That's what they say and what I do believe Polian, Caldwell and Dungt believes. The huge problem is that all empirical evidence points to resting starters at the end of the year to be a very very bad decision. Especially lately, all of the SB champs are teams that have played through till the end and were hot entering the playoffs, and never lost their rythym. If Colts do rest, I think the odds of 1 and done in playoffs is very large.
The Colts are going to lay down for us because lets face it if they can help us get in and keep one of those real teams like Miami or Jax out why wouldn't they? The Colts have a chance to dictate who they will play in the playoffs. If Ryan keeps telling us how much no team wants to play us I would think the Colts are going to want to eliminate us. Of course if Ryan is delusional the Colts will lose to us.
Who are the Colts going to play in the second round of the playoffs at home. If we get in it could be us. If we are the team nobody wants to play (with the exception of Miami, Jax and Buffalo) why would the Colts give us a shot to play them in the playoffs? Again if we beat them than chances are they think we suck. If they beat us chances are they really don't want to play us in the playoffs and it's a beat down out of respect.
You're thinking it through way too much. Nobody in Week 16, with another regular season game to go, is going to lay down to set themselves up for a second round game. There are three weeks and way too many variables in between there for any team to think they can control fate that much. A team that doesn't have to scoreboard watch mostly just worries about themselves. They've won 22 games in a row, I doubt they fear anyone. If we beat them it's because our D kept them down and we managed to score more points than they did somehow.
They fear us don't kid yourself. They put on the tape of the Tampa or Oakland game and there's going to be some fudgy undies in the Colts locker. The NFL is about match up football and the Colts don't want any part of us. They get a chance to face Baltimore instead of us in the second round they make sure they kick our ass. If they feel the matchup goes better against us we kick their ass.
