Message to NFL coaches: No need to run up the score

It's odd to think that in the NFL a team leading 31-7 in the 4th quarter might have a dilemma on its hands. The outcome of the game is inevitable, but the issue then remains how to handle the remainder of the game. Rest your regulars? Run the ball almost exclusively? Play prevent defense?

The debate is many times a non-issue because of the competitive nature of today's game, but in 2007 was brought back into focus mostly by the New England Patriots. A number of early-season games were early routs, and Bill Belichick, as is his nature, was drawing the ire of his opponents by leaving his regulars in, passing the ball with enormous leads, and generally sticking it to his critics who said he was a low-down dirty cheater. The result was ugly, with Wes Welker spiking the ball with a 45-7 lead, Tom Brady being brought back off the bench to throw his sixth touchdown pass of a game, and Ben Watson catching a touchdown pass on fourth down with a 35-7 lead.

But put aside the Patriots for a second. This trend is generally reserved for college football because often times the disparity in talent leads to many a rout throughout the course of a season. Steve Spurrier was one of the head honchos in that department for many years with Florida. Though blowouts are less common in the NFL, gamesmanship can still get distorted in cases like the aforementioned ones.

Not to preach too much, but my thought process shouldn't be rocket science and should be followed by coaches. If you're team is leading by three or four touchdowns late in the game, there's no need to have your starters in. Why risk your top players getting injured when the win is already in the books? I don't think coaches have to run every single play -- the play-calling isn't so much the issue. But it's one thing to have Tom Brady airing it out with a 42-10 lead; it's another, less disrespectful thing to have Matt Cassel getting some throws in up 32 points. As for the fourth-down issue, this is perhaps the biggest gray area. Kicking a field goal is, in the opposition coach's opinion, adding three unnecessary points. Yet going for it is rubbing it in. Taking a knee is pure patronization. My opinion: run the ball. If you get it, more time to burn off the clock. If you don't, no extra salt-in-the-wound points, other team gets the ball back, other team's coach slightly less mad about his insurmountable deficit.

By in large, no fan wants to see an NFL game result in a blowout -- unless of course it's your team on the winning end. With parity the way it is, blowouts aren't as big a part of the game as they used to be. Remember some of the Super Bowls from the 80s and 90s? Only two Super Bowls in the last nine years have been decided by more than 12 points. That said, when a gruesome runaway does ensue, there is no need for coaches to massage their egos by adding insult to injury and pouring it on for the sake of personal records and perhaps personal vendettas (think Belichick for the latter). Tony Dungy won't have Peyton Manning under center with the game wrapped up, let alone throwing passes. The agenda for coaches when a game is that out of hand should not be the final margin of victory, but rather getting the game over with as quickly as possible with as few injuries as possible. After all, in today's NFL, no win is more important than the next one.