The Mail It In Strategy

This has been an odd year in football, with some teams dominating while others can barely squeak out a win. Perhaps that’s why we’ve seen so many teams use the “mail it in” strategy at the end of the season, where they pull their starters and cool their heels until the playoffs. The Cardinals, Bengals, and Colts all kept their starters on the bench for a large portion of their final games. They lost the games, but don’t seem to care.

Downsides
I’m someone that believes in playing hard until the final buzzer, so seeing teams purposely lose a game (or should I say, purposely not try and win) do bother me. As a fan, I don’t like seeing my team act as if they are too good to play.

For the coaches and players, however, this strategy can have psychological effects. Depending on the team, losing a game big (even one where you did it purposely) can mess with the players minds. They can get down on themselves for losing to an inferior team, question their ability, and add doubt where there was once confidence.

On the flip side, some players can develop a bravado that they probably shouldn’t have. They might feel that they really are superior, and don’t need to try as hard. They can also get themselves out of rhythm and lose a bit of momentum.

Benefits
That isn’t to say that the mail it in strategy is necessary a bad thing. It will remain to be seen whether this strategy pays off, but there are a few immediate benefits. The first one is injuries. If a key player for your team isn’t in the game, he isn’t going to get hurt and won’t be nursing an injury during the playoffs.

The other major benefit, and the one many of the teams last week counted on, was not showing too much of your game to the other team. We had the very odd occurrence of three of the four playoff matchups having played each other the very week before the playoff game. Repeats will be the name of the game on Wildcard weekend.

Image: Zuma Press