Why should Bill Belichick take his starters out?
You’ve obviously never played the sport on a competitive team. It only takes one play for a guy to go down and lose his entire career. I played a game in high school where our starting qb had not been hit, pressured or anything for the entire game. His uniform was spotless. We were up by 3 with 4 minutes to play and the opposing team called a blitz – they sent 7 and covered with 4. We had 6 guys in the play to block and one of them came free. The QB saw the blitz coming and fired to his hot read for a 5 yard gain, but as he released the ball he was planted by the charging outside linebacker and blew his ACL and MCL. He was lost for the rest of the season on one play. The fact is that in the NFL there is nothing gained for winning big. It’s the same if you win by 1 point or if you win by 50. When you have a big lead late in the game and you leave your starters in, you have NOTHING to gain and everything to lose. Suppose Brady took a legal hit against Washington on the play that the Pats
You all complain about other teams running up the score… I didn’t see any of the other teams going for it on 4th and 1 instead of kicking a field goal… I didn’t see any of the other teams throwing touchdowns with a 30+ point lead… When a team is getting blown out like the Skins were they start to take cheap shots out of frustration… One D-Lineman breaks through and cheap shots Brady… he’s gone for the season… all they need to do was put in their backups and run the ball if the Skins stopped them just punt it away and make them drive all the way up the field and score… if Washington gets within 2 scores just bring your starters back and get your lead back comfortable but still run the ball… there was no need for New England to have to pass the ball at all in the 4th quarter of that blowout just run it and trust your defense.
