Hope likes bye week better, he thinks

Discussion in 'Tennessee Titans and NFL Talk' started by NewsGrabber, Dec 8, 2008.

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  1. NewsGrabber

    NewsGrabber Guest

    Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky

    [​IMG]Hope NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Don't take Chris Hope the wrong way. He's happy the Titans are winning so much that they've already clinched the AFC South and a first-round bye.

    But he was part of the Pittsburgh Steelers who won Super Bowl XLI following the 2005 season, a team that was part of a recent trend the Colts and Giants have also followed: It got hot at the end of the regular season, had to play a full slate of postseason games, and rode its momentum through the playoffs all the way to the Lombardi Trophy.

    That's the route Pittsburgh took in 2005, Indianapolis took in 2006 and the New York Giants took last year. The Steelers and Giants won their titles without playing a single postseason game at home.

    That's not a route the Titans can take this year, as they will be watching wild-card games the weekend of Jan. 3rd and 4th.

    Which leaves Hope a little conflicted.

    Here's the relevant piece of his press session with Nashville media today:

    I'm a little bias or caught in between the No. 1 seed and the bye week and all those great things that come with being the No. 1 seed. I think going into the playoffs you have an opportunity to build momentum. I think you look at the past few Super Bowl winners, they had an opportunity to keep their momentum going because they didn't have an opportunity to get a bye week in. When you have an opportunity to sit back and watch those games on Sunday and Saturday being played, it's not that you lose your edge, but you have to play catch up it seems like.

    And those teams that play that week in the wild-card games, those are some of the harder football games because you're playing teams that have fought to get into the playoffs. So they already have a little bit more energy and hungriness than you already have because you're resting, you're future of being in the playoffs has already been decided three weeks prior to the playoff game.

    It's tough, but it's better to have a bye week than not.


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