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Buffalo head coach Mike Mularkey and the rest of the team’s staff is now thinking that maybe it wasn’t the best idea to rest the Bills starters for the playoffs in their season-ending loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday.
“We were going to be a wild card team and I wanted to get my top guys a week off to rest up and heal from some injuries and bumps and bruises, but it turns out it would have been better had I played them,” said Mularkey. “You know, since we lost and missed the playoffs.”
Mularkey said he saw how teams like Philadelphia and Atlanta had taken precautions with their starters in previous weeks and wanted to do the same.
“Hey, I’m a rookie head coach, so I’m going to make some mistakes,” said Mularkey. “I’m man enough to admit now that this was one of them. I should have ensured that we got in the playoffs first before I worried about resting people for them. It’s just that so many of the teams we would have faced in the playoffs were resting people that I wanted to give our guys the same advantage.”
While accepting blame for his poor decision, Mularkey said he was caught a bit off-guard by Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher’s game plan.
“They hardly played any of their starters so I thought that right there would give us a great chance,” said Mularkey. “But then they came out trying to win, which I found pretty annoying, especially since Coach Cowher is my former boss and I assumed he would have been proud to let me into the playoffs. Perhaps he was unaware that we were the hottest team in all of football.”
Despite the loss, Mularkey said he has high hopes for the 2005 season.
“Hey, we started out 0-4 and ended up at 9-7, which is quite an accomplishment,” said Mularkey. “Plus, all of our starters will have one extra week of rest when the 2005 season begins, which could be a big advantage.”
pretty funny
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