Message to Coaches: Have Faith in Your Backups

The Pittsburgh vs. Denver playoff game last weekend was a heck of a game, wasn't it?

A game like that can turn on anything; a turnover, a penalty or a missed call.

But there's one thing we can say for sure. If Ben Roethlisberger is healthy, Pittsburgh wins.

My question is this: Would Pittsburgh have won if Batch had started?

All things being equal, Ben Roethlisberger is clearly a better quarterback than Pittsburgh backup Charlie Batch. But all things weren't equal. Roethlisberger was hurt and Batch was healthy.

We'll never know for sure. The Steelers were playing on the road against an inferior team that was lucky enough to sneak into the playoffs.

This kind of thing happens all the time. Coaches and managers don't have confidence in their backups so they play the starters until they can no longer stand.

Starters are starters and backups are backups for a reason. Starters are more talented. But I still think a healthy backup is often better than a wounded starter.

Remember Kurt Warner? Nobody thought much of him until he got his chance due to an injury to a supposedly more talented quarterback. Now he's being touted as a Hall of Fame candidate.

We see this a lot in baseball's postseason. Managers pitch their star pitchers on short rest because they lack faith in their lesser pitchers. Sometimes it works out, usually it doesn't.

Any supervisor will get more out of his staff if he has confidence in them. That goes for everyone from the office manager to the football coach.

I think that's a lesson coaches need to learn.