Colts choose to rest – was it the right call?
Posted by Steve O'Reilly on December 28, 2009 · 7 Comments
One thing that we hope to bring to a discussion is the Indianapolis Colts decision to rest their players in Week 16. The Colts were the remaining unbeaten team and were only two games away from being the 3rd team to have an undefeated regular season. The 2007 New England Patriots did it but lost in the SuperBowl nullifying any chance for a true undefeated year. The Colts had this chance for perfection so I ask you, did they make the right decision by resting Peyton Manning and others as the Jets took away any chance for football immortality?
Let’s look at both sides of the argument. First, those that would have rested. The goal in the NFL, starting as soon the offseason begins is to win the SuperBowl. That is the ultimate goal and that should always be the focus. The Coaches and Players never get together in meetings and discuss how they plan on going unbeaten but they do plan on how to win games to get into the postseason. Once the team has nothing left to gain as far as Postseason seeding, why then would anyone want to jeopardize the health of key players? If Peyton Manning were to get injured than the entire city of Indianapolis would be looking for the head of Jim Caldwell for risking their star with nothing to gain. The bottom line, the goal is the SuperBowl and nothing else matters so if you can’t improve your position than why should risk your best guys to injury.
The other side of the argument. Quick, without looking it up, who won the 1991 SuperBowl? How about the 1979 SuperBowl? 1984? The point is every year someone wins the SuperBowl but to this day we still talk about Nick Buoniconti, Mercury Morris and the 1972 Dolphins – because they went undefeated! Why would you want to simply be the best in one season when you have a chance to be the best ever? Also, the injury issue – these guys are susceptible to injury on any given snap, that’s the nature of the beast of the game of football and you can’t call plays to protect guys from injury and I don’t think you can call games because of it. Finally, look how it chances the landscape of the Playoffs. Granted this is the NFL’s tiebreaker issue and not the Colts problem but still. The Jets this week have leapfrogged the Broncos and Ravens due to a better record against “Common Opponents”, in this case the Colts. So because the Colts rested their players and the Jets beat the “B” team that means they get to go into the playoffs? How is that fair. Let them face the juggernaut that is Peyton Manning and Co’ and see if they really are a playoff team!
All he could do was watch!
In the end, the decision was made and making history is no longer an option. I can’t say how he really feels but I am willing to wager that the best Quarterback of all time would have liked to say he played on the best team of all time and not simply another SuperBowl Champion, he had the chance to do both, but not anymore.
nice little piece. i think you’re basically “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”. Another little ditty i’d like to add is that Peyton was on track to best the season passing yardage mark, and now that’s gone, too.
I agree Nick, I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer. The bottom line is the goal is to win a ring and that goal is still very much attainable. We will see how it all plays out!
I think it was the wrong answer for several reasons. Since 2002, the Colts have had their greatest success in the playoffs when Manning (and the starters) do not rest during Week 17. When Manning rests in the final week, the Colts are 1-4 in the playoffs, when he plays out the game they are 6-2 in the playoffs, including their Super Bowl in 2006. Second, and it is echoing what Steve pointed out above, Coach Caldwell gave up at becoming a truly historic team that history would view even more favorably than the ‘72 Dolphins. I’m not here to pimp my blog, but I did write about this in more detail on my sports blog in the website listed above. Steve, I liked how you dissected both sides, I looked at things only from the side that he was wrong, because I felt so strongly that it was a poor decision.
Thanks Rich….
Appreciate you chiming in. I personally would have went for it, balls to the wall. But now in hindsight with Wes Welker and a few others getting hurt Caldwell looks like a genius. I don’t think there is a right or wrong, it just is what it is.
Hey Rich
Yea myself I would have gone for the record, you play to win the game as the Great Herman Edwards once said…ok maybe not great but you know what I mean. I think making history is a important part of the game…and when you have an opportunity you have to grasp it. I think the mindset of players becomes a fragile thing come playoff time…sometimes its mind games, the mentally tough survive…and nothing helps more.. than the winning spirit. I hear Steve on the Wes Welker thing as well. ..but the patriots werent playing for something so I would have gave wes a rest as well as Brady. The Patriots took a huge blow losing Welker.
Yeah, I’d agree that losing Welker severely limits the Pats chances of making it past the Divisional round. Should he have been on the field? It depends on what Bill Belichick was thinking. If he wanted to play his starters a bit, I can understand that, those kind of injuries can happen at any time, Welker’s was not involved in a collision and it seemed like a truly freak occurrence. The Colts didn’t lose any players due to their actions, but if they did lose a star player gunning for an undefeated season, I feel that would be defensible as they were going for history. Unless they lost Manning, they could make up for the loss of almost any other player, as they have in the absence of Bob Sanders and Anthony Gonzalez. Instead, the call is going to affect the Colts poorly in terms of morale (after this season is done as well as now), and goodwill from the fans, who have been slamming the Colts organization for the past 2 weeks. I wrote a bit more about other aspects on this in my blog, but I think that call is going to hurt the Colts for a while past December 2009.
Hey Gayle,
I almost forgot… way to throw in a Herman Edwards reference, LMAO! You guys are both doing a great job with this site, keep it up!