There’s much debate over playing or resting key players in Saturday night’s NFL regular season finale between the New England Patriots and New York Giants.

For University of Maine head football coach Jack Cosgrove, it’s a no-brainer.

“I think you’ve just got to play the game and this is a big game for both teams,” said Cosgrove, who was bred to be a Giants fan but became a fan of quarterback Steve Grogan and the Patriots as a teen. “If this game is close, I think they’re both playing to win, no question, because of the undefeated season.

“I don’t know if people understand how special that is.”

Cosgrove, who attended the first NFL game at Schaefer Stadium when he saw the Patriots host the Giants in a 1971 preseason contest, said it can actually be counterproductive to try and prevent injuries.

“I don’t know if, as a coach, I’m ever going to be able to say rest guys. I mean, you can have guys get hurt every day at practice,” he said. “It’s like that commercial where the guy parks his car way back in the parking lot to keep it from getting scratched and a satellite crashes on top of it.”

Cosgrove says he expects both teams to play like everything is on the line, even though both teams have nothing to gain or lose standings- or playoffs-wise. Both teams have secured playoff spots. There is much on the line, however, from a historic perspective. The Patriots have a chance to become the first NFL team to finish the regular season undefeated with a 16-0 record. The only team in NFL history to finish undefeated is the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who went 14-0 in the regular season and 17-0 overall.

“You know, there’s something in this for the Giants too,” said Cosgrove, who will be watching the game at home with son Matthew, daughter Jeri and wife Marilyn. “What kind of lift would that be going into the playoffs to be the team that stopped the streak?”

Both Cosgrove and Foxcroft Academy football coach Paul Withee, who guided his Ponies to the 2007 Class C state championship, believe New England coach Bill Belichick and Giants coach Tom Coughlin will and should rest their first string players if the game becomes a blowout either way.

“I think if I’m Belichick, I’m playing to win, but not at the expense of players, especially if I have guys banged up,” Withee said. “You don’t get a chance to go 16-0, but if Brady got hit or banged up, I think they’d take him out and I would too.

“If I’m Coughlin, I have some guys who are banged up and I’m going to Tampa Bay next week regardless, so I’m probably not going to play my injured guys.”

“If the Pats jump out to a 14-0 lead, I’m probably going to pull some people,” Withee added.

The much-hyped game has taken on so much significance that even the most casual NFL fans will be watching.

“I’m not really a pro fan, but yeah, I’ll probably watch it, although my son has a hockey game before that,” said John Hersom, head coach of the Lawrence High School Bulldogs, 2007 Eastern Maine Class A champions.

Hersom agreed with Cosgrove and Withee.

“I know playoffs are a big deal, so looking at it from that point of view, it’ll enter into resting guys at some point in the game, but I would approach it from my high school experience,” Hersom explained. “You prepare all week for the game and then you coach it to win.”

All three coaches said they watch the games as fans, but also can’t help watching the game within the game as coaches.

“I do a little bit of both. I try to enjoy it for the purity of the game, but I probably do see a lot more in it than the common guy, looking at formations and what they’re trying to do and the matchups they’re getting,” Cosgrove said. “Everything in this profession is a copycat kind of thing, so you can’t help but look to see if there’s anything you can adopt for your own playbook.”

“I don’t spend a lot of time trying to analyze things, but I might pay more attention to the coaches and how they deal with situations,” Hersom explained.

“I guess I’m not just looking at what they’re doing, but how they’re doing it too,” added Withee, who will watch the game at a friend’s house.

Cosgrove believes the Patriots are downplaying how much they want to win this game.

“I really think the Patriots truly want this game like it’s a Super Bowl,” he said. “They want that record. This is certainly a historic event. I don’t think something like this was possible. I really didn’t, especially nowadays when it’s all about making teams Even Steven and increasing competition and parity.

“I really don’t know that you can give what they’ve done enough credit because it’s such a hard thing to do. It’s beyond belief to me.”

And what if the Patriots do make history? What happens after that? Some would argue that a win would actually loosen up New England’s players since they’d no longer have to hear talk and answer questions about an unbeaten regular season.

“I think there’s more pressure if they go undefeated because if they lose in the playoffs after being perfect all regular season, it won’t be a successful season,” said Withee, a lifelong Pats fan who attends two Patriots games at Gillette Stadium each year. “If they don’t win the Super Bowl, it’s almost a failure.”

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