Panthers should rest the starters against Atlanta

[Doc Holiday]

Yes, I know, what you're thinking, fug Atlanta! but the Panthers have almost nothing to Play for this weekend, and in fact it may be better for us if we did...... Lose.....

Now if by some odd Miracle the Saints did lose, we could win the Division. But does that help us out from a match-up point of view? a Homefield game would be great but I just dont see the saints losing this Sunday.

Now Remember that the Rams are supposedly resting their starters, otherwise the 49'ers would get the bricks beat off them

Scenario 1

Panthers and Rams both Lose, Saints win. -  Rams host Panthers, and Saints host Atlanta. - If the Panthers and Saints both advance we play Eagles in round 2. - Best Scenario IMO

Scenario 2

Panthers win, Saints Lose, Rams Lose - Rams host the Saints, Panthers host Seattle - Panthers Play Vikings in round 2

Scenario 3

Panthers win, Saints Lose, Rams win - Panthers host the Saints. - Panthers Play Vikings in round 2

Scenario 4

Panthers Lose, Saints Lose, Rams Lose - Saints host Panthers,  Rams host Falcons - Panthers Play Philly in round 2

Scenario 5

Panthers, Saints and Rams all win, Saints host Panthers,  Rams host Seattle - Panthers Play Philly in round 2

Thoughts? what would you do? what do you want the Panthers to do??

[chknwing]

I already made this thread.  It didn't end well for me.  Your scenerios are not accurate.  if the Saints, vikings  and Rams lose, and panthers win, panthers get #2 seed and a 1st round bye.  Thats alot to play for

[Inimicus]

Given our performance after bye weeks...

 

Run 'em hard and put 'em up wet.

[AggieLean]

Scenarios 1 and 2 are very appealing to me. Playing any team but the Saints is the wave I’m on, as I feel we can take any of those other teams. So with that being said, I’d play to win the game against the falcons and play the starters. I really hope the Rams lose.

[Doc Holiday]

5 minutes ago, chknwing said:

I already made this thread.  It didn't end well for me.  Your scenerios are not accurate.  if the Saints, vikings  and Rams lose, and panthers win, panthers get #2 seed and a 1st round bye.  Thats alot to play for

It's just too much to go well for us, I see one maybe 2 games at the most, that last one would be great, but not likely at all.

to have 3 playoff teams lose to far weaker teams the week before the Playoffs is really extremely unlikely unless all 3 rested their starters.

[PantherOnTheProwl1523]

Yeah rest the players and might as well hang this season up and wait till next season to try and get to this point again. Have fun with that.

[Doc Holiday]

4 minutes ago, AggieLean said:

Scenarios 1 and 2 are very appealing to me. Playing any team but the Saints is the wave I’m on, as I feel we can take any of those other teams. So with that being said, I’d play to win the game against the falcons and play the starters. I really hope the Rams lose.

I see us playing a weak philly team and then the Saints having to play a very good vikings team as appealing, I dont see either of those teams getting out unscathed from it if they play. so we either play a tired Vikings team or a very tired Saints team.

[DaveThePanther2008]

You never want to go into the playoffs with a loss.  Whether intentional or not.  

Play to win and let the cards fall as they may.   Our most likely landing spot will be in New Orleans but If we win and TB upsets N.O. we win the NFC South and that is just another positive achievement for this team.

 

[Hoenheim]

25 minutes ago, chknwing said:

I already made this thread.  It didn't end well for me.  Your scenerios are not accurate.  if the Saints, vikings  and Rams lose, and panthers win, panthers get #2 seed and a 1st round bye.  Thats alot to play for

pretty much this theres already been multiple resting starters threads . And its a moot point anyways because Rivera already said they wont be doing it and we can get the 2 seed if we win and Vikings, Saints, Rams all lose.

Even if the Vikes and Rams win , would get the 4 seed with a Saints loss and a Panther win , and we would host the WC vs the Saints as opposed to going to their dome again as the 5 seed

Also Atlanta knows they'll be eliminated from the playoffs if they lose and Seattle wins. Seattles probably not going to lose to Cards, so this pretty much is the first wild card match for the Falcons. You dont want to end the season with a loss playing all your bench players and allow a division rival to sneak into the playoffs b/c you just decided to sit on your laurels and be content with being a 5 seed. 

[t96]

Even if we were 100% locked into the 5 seed AND had a dominating and complete win in week 16 (neither of which are true) I still wouldn't want to rest starters. I don't think killing momentum at the end of the season makes sense. 

 

The only thing I will say is maybe lessen Peppers' snaps a bit. He tweaked his neck against the Bucs and we can't have him hurting it worse this week. And I'd say this whether it was week 17 or week 5 or 10, etc. Has nothing to do with it being week 17 more just his age, the neck tweak and seeing what randomly happened to Ryan earlier this year... We can live with Pep playing less snaps.

Everybody else should be full systems go.

[The Huddler]

You cant kill the momentum

 

this offense needs practice

[Hoenheim]

7 minutes ago, The Huddler said:

You cant kill the momentum

 

this offense needs practice

and almost everyone looked like ass the last game too, dont want to go into the wild card ruminating on a pitiful performance against the Bucs. Better to end on a high note and beat the falcons /possibly win the division 

I think if we won the last game vs the Saints and won vs the Bears like we were prety much supposed to, we would be 13-2 and locked into the 2 seed because we have a head to win against the Vikes in case we lost our Week 17 matchup. We would also have already won the division (that would leave the Saints with 5 losses already) .

BUT that didn't happen. So we really shouldnt be resting starters b/c we havent earned it. It would only make sense  if we had one of the best records in the conference and were locked onto one of the top seeds

[shulasmyhero]

Rams could certainly lose to the 49ers, with or without resting starters.  Slight chance Bucs pull the upset over NO.  Very little chance Vikes lose to the Bears.

If there are potential seeding implications, which there are, have to play the starters.  

[jfra78]

I think we should play starters a half just to keep momentum up.