Now I did have 12 players active, but 10 were assigned to the depth chart.
Herein lies the mistake. If you don't want the extra players to play in garbage time, don't include them for the game at all. It's one of the basic rules of getting predictable minutes, as it was written many times here.
Thanks for the reply. Wasn't a big deal, just wanted to know for future reference.
Yes, I was aware that the extra players can come in, but... Seemed odd that the
first players in weren't all from the depth chart. Thought that can only happen when using "let coach decide" but guess not.