Some factors to consider

[UpstatePanther]

i forget who but someone did say that the season is a marathon, not a sprint. i wonder if its not part of this team's philosophy to try to keep themselves from exerting too much in the beginning of the season. might be why we've seen them struggle at times to close games (thank God we have). the past couple weeks, we've seen the offense begin to take off, and the defense has gotten more tougher. I wouldnt say that the defense has been stingy, but they've certainly been playing harder. 

i think we see the pattern repeat this year. i just have the feeling that this team has purposely done what it takes to win, without exerting too much energy early in the season. i know there are flaws with that argument. dont flame me. haha just a feeling i have. it should encourage you, cus it means we are scary good (missing KB, not playing to our utmost, and STILL undefeated?!)

[L-TownCat]

If this was our traditional slow start, holy poo NFL look out we gonna hang a C-note on somebody.

[Mr. Scot]

Related Note: Rivera denied the team their usual "victory day off" this week because he said this past Sunday showed that they have too much to work on to miss a day.

[SOJA]

would be nice if we jumped out to a huge lead in the next few games so we could rest people during the 4th 

[MVPccaffrey]

The value of home field throughout the playoffs is much greater than the value of getting the starters a few extra minutes of rest.

Assuming the cards and vikings finish with at least 4 losses, the magic number is 13 wins.  Get to 13 wins before the season is over, and rest the guys as much as you want

[Mr. Scot]

Some good responses from a lot of guys in here.

Kudos

[uncfan888]

I don't even want to think about rest until home field advantage is locked up 

[GRWatcher]

I also don't agree about resting starters, never have. It seems that there is a mental switch to personal momentum & some players can't sustain that momentum without playing. Coach Rivera does a better job than most of keeping the team focused on the here & now but late in the season it's that personal fortitude that everyone counts on.

Do agree too about rotating in younger players more often, when we can. As noted, some offensives make that very difficult to do. Rivera talks about it every week.

It's injuries that concern me more than anything. When players are tired injuries seem to happen more frequently. 

[Mr. Scot]

I don't even wanna broach that topic, honestly.

[Snake]

Honestly we are hitting another soft spot so I totally expect us to rotate more.  I think we will stay deep at DE because of that reason so we can generate a strong pass rush.  Our depth is very good because of DG and Rivera's ability to get every ounce out of a player. 

[KB_fan]

Obviously injuries may determine this, but I've been wondering who we'll cut to make room for CJ when he comes back.  I'm guessing Simonson.

[O-Ther]

Something else to think about is who we play at the end of the season. Mostly division games. They'll be amped up to knock us down a few pegs, will play hard to the whistle, and throw in some cheap shots after the whistle just because.

Prefer seeing the back-ups get a heavy rotation so our starters are less exposed to that b.s. and if it means costing us an undefeated season, so be it. Harder to win the hardware if some Taint or Falcant decides to chop block Luke and tear his knee up or give Cam's or Thor's ankle that extra twist like Burfict did in the Bengals game last year.

[shaqattaq]

7 hours ago, Cracka McNasty said:

we've played numerous high octane offenses the past 3 weeks in a row. The starters weren't being subbed a lot due to the up tempo offenses and the situations that presented themselves.

I foresee more breaks for our guys in the coming weeks.

I hope so. Ron keeps talking about limiting snaps for his veterans (read OLD GUYS here), but hasn't had the opportunity to do soin these last few games. Now that wer're getting to an "easier" stretch, I think he will. I would love to see CAP get some touches. I have a feeling that he is going to be really good for us.

[shaqattaq]

1 hour ago, O-Ther said:

Something else to think about is who we play at the end of the season. Mostly division games. They'll be amped up to knock us down a few pegs, will play hard to the whistle, and throw in some cheap shots after the whistle just because.

Prefer seeing the back-ups get a heavy rotation so our starters are less exposed to that b.s. and if it means costing us an undefeated season, so be it. Harder to win the hardware if some Taint or Falcant decides to chop block Luke and tear his knee up or give Cam's or Thor's ankle that extra twist like Burfict did in the Bengals game last year.

Burfict should have been banned for life!