Rest vs. Momentum?

[MadScientist]

Each year we see teams with playoff positions locked up rest players the final week or 2 to stay healthy. There have been several celebrated cases where teams that did this failed miserably in the playoffs. Has anyone done some statistical comparison of resting vs playing for momentum to see which works better?

Edit - I found one analysis:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703278604574624603268272552.html

It looks like momentum helps, but it doesn't quite have the analysis for teams that did or did not take the last game off when they had the choice.

Still the momentum numbers look pretty good for the Packers.

[gbgary]

mo took the giants to the promised land a couple of years ago and the cards last year.