Vacchiano: Momentum a big factor in playoffs

All season long, coaches and players talk about getting hot at the right time, playing well in December, and getting on a roll just in time for the postseason. In the playoffs, at times, momentum can be everything. Jon Gruden believes that too.
 
Of course, that makes it all the more curious how Gruden chose to approach the stretch run with his Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They had wrapped up the NFC South title and a playoff berth with several weeks to spare, so he began resting his starters to preserve his battered team’s health. But he didn’t just rest them in the season finale, he began doing it at halftime of Week 16.
 
Contrast that with how his first-round opponent, the New York Giants ended their season. With nothing to play for, they pulled out all the stops in a valiant effort against the 16-0 New England Patriots. They fell short, losing 38-35, last Saturday night, but in the process played one of their finest games of the season.
 
Out of that effort they gained confidence. They watched their quarterback find his groove. They even got a rousing sendoff from their often fickle fans.
 
Meanwhile, the Bucs (9-7) are stumbling into their game against the Giants (10-6) having lost three of four.
 
So who was right? Did Gruden do the smart thing by keeping quarterback Jeff Garcia, running back Earnest Graham and receiver Joey Galloway fresh and healthy? Or did he kill the Bucs by robbing them of whatever good feelings they had from their 8-4 start? Was Tom Coughlin right to let his erratic team end the season on such a high note? Or did he risk their chances in a meaningless game where they lost three starters – center Shaun O’Hara, linebacker Kawika Mitchell, cornerback Sam Madison – to injuries that might keep them out of their first playoff game?
 
“Momentum is important,” Gruden said after the short-handed Bucs lost their season finale. “Momentum is making the playoffs. When you run out of the tunnel and there are 80,000 fans going crazy, you’re going to have momentum, you’re going to be excited to play. Momentum is having a quarterback that is your starter, healthy and walking around feeling good. That has a lot to do with momentum. And seeing Joey Galloway running as fast as he can run, that’s what I see as momentum.”
 
Gruden has a point, though it’s hard to get excited about a team whose lone win since Dec. 2 was against the awful Atlanta Falcons. Yes they earned themselves a home playoff game this Sunday, and yes they will be reasonably healthy. But what about the momentum they built by winning four in a row from Nov. 4 to Dec. 2? They have the No. 1 defense in the NFC and they were starting to look like one of the conference’s more dangerous teams.
 
Now? Not so much. They ended the season with an ugly 21-19 loss in San Francisco, in which many of their starters were benched at the half, followed by a 31-23 home loss against the Panthers, in which many of their starters didn’t play at all.
 
Whatever winning feeling they had from their 37-3 win against Atlanta on Dec. 16 is long gone. And while their starters are rested, there’s a fine line between rest and rust.
 
“I think there’s a lot of over-analyzing going on here,” Gruden said. “There were a lot of teams yesterday that didn’t play some of their front-line guys. There were some that did. So everybody had a different way of doing things. I don’t know the mindset of the Giants, the physical status of their football team. I’m more concerned with ours.”
 
Only Gruden knows for sure what his team’s mindset is, and how capable they are of flipping the switch back on when the playoff begins. But history suggests that’s not always easy to do, which means he’s taking a huge risk with his team. Yes, he at least still has most of his starters. And yes, the Giants would feel differently about their momentum if they had lost Eli Manning or Plaxico Burress in last Saturday’s game.
 
But remember, the best teams don’t always win in the playoffs. Sometimes the hottest teams do. That’s why teams spend all fall trying to peak in December.
 
That’s something the Bucs never had a chance to do.

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