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Regarding point 1 … that’s right if we actually play them twice. I am still holding out for the possibility that we don’t play them in the playoffs. Of course I am thinking they could lose in the playoffs to another team before getting to us, but it is also possible that we could do the same. As I watch the other teams jocky for playoff spots and seeds, I keep thinking in terms of which team has the best chance to beat them.

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Sort of reminds you of Chuck Noll’s one famous locker room speech, in 1974, after Oakland beat Miami in a divisional game, and the Steelers were preparing to face Oakland in the AFC Championship. Noll said some people in Oakland were saying that the championship had been decided the day before, with the two best teams in football playing. And that it would be all downhill from there.

Noll said, ‘I want you guys to know that the Super Bowl is played three weeks from now. And the best team in football is sitting right here in this room.’

Noll was the last coach you would ever expect to give a rah-rah speech (“you don’t win games with noise,” he would say), so when he made those remarks, Joe Greene and the guys went wild. And there was no stopping them.

Tomlin broke Coaching Kayfabe Sunday by telling the truth, but Ivan is right. He put his reputation – and that of his team – on the line. Audacity, thy name is Michael Pettaway Tomlin. Don’t think for a second that his remarks weren’t directed at his guys..

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I just think the consequences of losing, and the chances of losing if you put anything less than your best effort out there, are unacceptably high. I think I would buy this argument more if we were regularly hanging 3 touchdowns on other teams (wouldn’t that be nice!) and then doing weird things instead of, say, running a lot to try and burn the clock…

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I totally take your point. Nonetheless, I equate it to a choral director taking a choir on a tour prior to making a recording or performing at an important event—in other words, deliberately taking your group to venues which may not be comfortable or familiar and audiences who may not be receptive and running the same program over and over. Having been on such tours, I can tell you that the first few performances are generally quite rough, “adjustments” are made, things are tweaked as necessary, and so on. Said directors are generally quite aware that things aren’t going to be perfect, or anywhere close, for even a good bit of the tour, and to a point that’s what you want—you’re trying to find out where the weaknesses are.

Admittedly the stakes are possibly not quite as high in such a situation. But it’s a matter of walking the fine line between putting on an acceptable (or as MT might say, “above the line”) performance and wasting rehearsal time before the performances at less crucial locations that you would prefer to have prior to the really important one. No matter who you are and what sort of a performing organization you run, there’s a cost-benefit calculation which must be made (and generally adjusted on a regular basis.) My contention is that the successful teams have people who are good at making these calculations. (And other stuff as well, naturally.)

That said, I know perfectly well what Mike Tomlin would say to such a theory. What I don’t know is to what extent he would be lying.

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IMO the problem with this theory is that the best way to win a lombardi is to get the 1 or 2 seed and get a bye. If you don’t stack wins and beat the bad teams on the schedule, you’re not likely to get the bye. If you get cute and let bad teams hang around, they have a nasty habit of ending the game in their own favor…

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I have often wondered the same thing. I know they do this in pre-season games they do this, and I remember reading that many in the media thought Tyler Matakevich was terrible in coverage from watching practices, only to discover that the coaches were deliberately hanging him out to dry to see if he could be relied upon. Given the lack of padded practices and so on, and given that the stated intention by the staff is to win a Lombardi every year, it would make sense to play a long game if you think you have the personnel to do it…

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