A quick post to talk about the Colts sitting Manning in today's Jets game. Not much time to give my thoughts so here's my thoughts in quick jot format.
Colts don't learn from Giants: Losses Do Not Motivate/Prepare for Playoffs
- First, look at this post's title. Read it out loud. Doesn't that sound absolutely ludicrous? How do you prepare to win by losing? Why do I feel like the NFL sometimes stands for the No Fine Logic?
- Was it just me or did Peyton look completely demoralized on the sidelines? The cameras panned over to Manning talking to the coach and walking away looking like he got a sack of coal for Christmas
- Since when do you prepare for winning by losing? Haven't teams learned from the spirited effort the Giants gave in a meaningless game two years ago that playing hard is almost always better than playing safe?
- Shouldn't a team protect all of its players? I understand that Manning is the golden goose but they literally threw Painter under the bus there...
- On the other hand, if Manning gets hurt in the playoffs at least Painter now has real game experience...
- You don't prepare by resting! To get ready for the season, teams work, but to get ready for the playoffs you rest? What? Does not compute.
- The NFL is a league where killer instinct goes a long ways. In my opinion, it's a big reason the Pats lost in '07, they lost their killer instinct going into the Super Bowl and just assumed they'd win. Letting off the gas pedal sends your team the wrong message, will the Colts be able to jam back on the gas pedal three weeks from now?
As you can tell, I thought the Colts resting their starters when they could've played for an undefeated season was not the right call and will only serve to hurt their chances in the playoffs. What do you think? Did the Colts make the right call?
Photo credit: tbradjward | NC ND CC 2.0
First, I think it is wrong and Manning didn’t like it. At least that’s what I thought when I saw him. Although, I am going to play devil’s advocate here;
There was a study done in the past with 3 basketball teams. They were each given a task; 1 was to take free throws every day, the other was to “think” about making free throws every day and the last was to not do anything.
As expected, the practicing squad has the highest percentage (which shows you need to play to stay in the game) but the surprising thing was that the team that was supposed to think about it was right behind them. I think it was 86%, 78%, 60%.
So, if you are a numbers guy you could try and talk your guys into practicing in their heads and keep your starters healthy. BUT, your starters have to believe it and practice in their heads.
That’s extremely interesting Jim. I never heard about it, but myself as well as many other guys I played in college with ran through the plays in our head often.
Adam, we both know that benching their starters was an awful idea. If the past repeats itself, the Colts will lose in the first round of the playoffs like they did when Dungy rested his starters for a week 17 game. Don’t forget, they have a first round bye as well. That’s a lot of resting/down time.
Jim, the takeaway point I see is that the team that played did the best. And it’s something I believe, the best way to prepare for playing football (in the playoffs) is to play football! Makes sense, eh?
Josh, I’d be surprised if history doesn’t repeat itself. As we saw with the Saints, once you lose a game, it’s tough to keep that motivation going, especially with two weeks until you play a game that means anything.