Yours truly finished third with my ‘Big Blue View’ squad.

Thanks to all of you for playing.

Let’s give a shout out to teams “Number 9…Number 9…” and “Road to Tampa” who played well week in and week out all season and both deserve to be playing for the championship.

Congrats also go to “Gil Fenerty” and “Satchmo’s Dynamos” who are both battling it out for 3rd place. Satchmo has never even played fantasy football! Beginners luck!

Good luck to the remaining teams this week. Thanks for everyone who participated this year. I expect next year will be much bigger and much better!

On the other half of the bracket, the #2 seeded UBB’s Bombers played host to the #3 Space Monkey Mafia.  In a game that really wasn’t even as close as the final score indicates, the Bombers got jump-started thanks to Visanthe Shiancoe’s huge. . .er, afternoon. . .and coasted on to an 84.85 – 57.3 victory over my team.  I actually started a guy that got 0 points (T.J. Houshmanzadeh), but it really wouldn’t have made a whole lot of difference.

So, the two best teams in the league will battle it out for the championship.  Based on their rosters, here are my projected starting lineups for both teams.  (These won’t necessarily be the lineups. . .just my projections.)

Well, it should be interesting.  On paper, it looks like the PMak Attack has a significant advantage in terms of star power, but as we all know. . .the games aren’t played on paper.  (Except for fantasy football, which pretty much IS played on paper.  Man, that saying doesn’t really work at all here, does it.)  These two teams met once in the regular season, and the PMak Attack won in rather convincing fashion to the tune of 73 – 41.9.

In the consolation bracket, getting the week off proved to be not beneficial at all, as both the #7 seeded whodat and the #8 seeded Garnet & Gold lost their matchups last week against the lower seeded teams.  In the first game, despite a strong performance from Jay Cutler, whodat simply couldn’t withstand the huge game put together by the Tennessee Titans’ defense, and fell to the #10 seeded Hamburglars by a score of 94.5 – 78.45. . .and it would have been much worse had the Hamburglars started David Garrard at QB (28.35 points) instead of the Kurt Warner Experience (1.5 points).  whodat left a big performance from LeRon McClain on his bench, but I won’t fault him for not starting McClain over Adrian Peterson.

On the other side, the Rabble Rousers, the #12 seed, have an opportunity to get as many victories in the playoffs as they got through the entire regular season, as they advanced to the Consolation Championship in a thriller over the #8 seeded Garnet & Gold by a score of 95.1 – 92.8.  G&G had the combination of Dallas Clark and Peyton Manning to help them jump out to a huge lead, but after the Sunday late afternoon games, their lead over the Rabble Rousers was a mere 3.7 points.  It was then up to the performance of the Carolina defense, and by sacking Eli Manning three times, they got enough points to put the Rabble Rousers over the top by that final 2.3 point margin.

So, the matchups for the season’s final weekend, once again, look like this:

League Championship Game – #2 UBB’s Bombers @ #1 PMak Attack
Third Place Game – #5 Angry Dragons @ #3 Space Monkey Mafia
Consolation Championship – #12 Rabble Rousers @ #10 The Hamburglars
Consolation. . .er, Consolation – #8 Garnet & Gold @ #7 whodat

It’s been a great season, folks, and it finishes up tomorrow!  Good luck to everybody that’s got a game tomorrow!

In the third-place game, I had an absolutely terrible coach rating and ended up losing in blowout fashion.  I had Tarvaris Jackson and Visanthe Shiancoe on the bench, leading to a pathetic finish to the season for me.  The Gosder Cherilus Posse, a.k.a. The Prodigy, finished strong to end up in third-place.

LA Leos (sgdbw90), who was actually was in second-to-last place in the regular season, beat Maize ‘n’ Blue Jays (THE_J) 102.26-96.18 to win the consolation playoffs.  Underdogs (Sig Sauer) beat SnotKnocker’s (Ace BangerTheGuru) 103.84-73.84 in the 9th place game.

In the POD overflow league, Pineapple Express, who was actually the #6 seed, beat Raging Rhinos to win the championship.  It was a great run for Pineapple Express, especially since he finished last in his division during the regular season.  Granted, every team in his division made the playoffs and it was the toughest one in the league, but it’s still unusual for a #6 seed to win the championship.

I would like to give a big thanks to all of the people that participated in my two fantasy football leagues this year.  I had a blast and can’t wait to do it again next year.

Here’s the situation: In the SBN/AOL fantasy football league, I was playing BigBlueShoe of Stampede Blue in the semifinals.  I was the best team in the regular season and was only a single win away from the finals.  As the weekend progressed, I became angrier and angrier at myself over who I started.  I left Kevin Faulk, Santonio Holmes, and the Colts D/ST on the bench in favor of Chester Taylor, Lance Moore, and the Eagles D/ST.  As a result, I had only 77.3 points going into the Monday Night Football game, even though I could have had over 100.  Hell, even starting one of those three players I left on the bench would have made a huge difference.

BigBlueShoe had Aaron Rodgers, Donald Driver, and Mason Crosby left to play in the MNF game, and he trailed by 31.1 points.  I was very concerned, as those three easily could make up that much ground.  As it turned out, I was almost right.  The three combined for 30.7 points, meaning I led by .4 of a point.  This is when I started to have a heart attack.

One pass by Aaron Rodgers, a single catch by Donald Driver, or even an extra point by Mason Crosby would have knocked me out of the playoffs.  Everything had to go in my favor, and I mean everything.  The Packers went down the field and with about 20 or so seconds left in the game, had a chance to beat Chicago on a field goal.  If the kick was good, I lose.  Thankfully, it was no good.  The Bears blocked the kick, sending the game to overtime and keeping my slim lead intact for the time being.

Despite the good news, this was far from over for me.  The Bears had to win the coin toss and get the ball; otherwise, Aaron Rodgers and the other two Packers players on my opponent’s roster would have a chance to end my championship hopes.  Once again, luck was on my side.  The coin toss actually bounced off of Brian Urlacher’s helmet and landed heads up.  The Packers called tails, meaning the Bears got the ball and gave me hope that I could survive to win the game.

The next thing that had to go my way was Green Bay never getting the ball back.   The game had to end without the Packers ever going on offense again in order to ensure that Rodgers or Driver or Crosby doesn’t get a chance to score any points.  That meant that the Bears had to go down the field and score on their opening drive of OT, even though their offense had stunk most of the night.  With luck on my side, that wasn’t the case when they got the ball in overtime.  The Bears quickly moved the ball into field goal range, setting up Robbie Gould for an attempt to win the game.  Gould’s kick from 38 yards out was perfect, and the Bears won.  That meant that my slim margin of .4 of a point stayed intact and I also miraculously won.

I have been part of some crazy close games in fantasy football in the past, but never before has something like this happened, especially with a trip to the championship game on the line.  Like I said, everything had to go my way, and somehow everything did.  Crosby’s field goal was blocked; the Bears won the coin toss; and the Bears scored on the opening drive of overtime to ensure that the Packers didn’t get the ball back, which likely would have handed me a loss.  After all, Rodgers only needed to complete a pass for 9 yards to give BigBlueShoe the win, so it was pretty much a guarantee that I was toast if Green Bay got the ball.  That is all it would have took to end my season, so I definitely lucked out.

What makes this win all the more thrilling is the fact that BigBlueShoe was 2-0 against me in the regular season.  On top of that, his first victory over me was by a margin of .8 of a point.  That game ended my perfect start to the season and was one of only four losses all year.  The feeling after that loss sucked, so I can’t even imagine what BigBlueShoe feels like right now.

Although winning this game is amazing and I feel like I have already won the championship, I still have to win one more game to take home the title.  I guess this is comparable to the Miracle on Ice in that sense.  The United States pulled off the miracle against the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980.  However, the United States still had to beat Finland two days later to win the Gold Medal.  They did just that, so here’s to hoping that I can use the momentum of this victory to win one more next week in the championship game.

The other winner’s bracket game matched the #5 seeded Angry Dragons against #4 dvikings1.  While Philip Rivers and DeAngelo Williams put together big games for dvikings1, they couldn’t withstand the balanced attack of the Angry Dragons, and the Dragons came away with a 109.2 – 86.4 victory.

The next round of the winners bracket will see the Angry Dragons taking on the top seeded PMak Attack, while the Space Monkey Mafia will battle with UBB’s Bombers.  While the Mafia/Bombers game is still scoreless, Maurice Jones-Drew has helped the Dragons to take an early 15.2 – 0 lead over the PMak Attack, but there’s obviously a lot of football left to be played.

In the bottom bracket, there was one mild upset.  In a game that was, literally, all over by the time the early Sunday games had finished, the 12th seeded Rabble Rousers knocked off #9 Elvis Budweiser VIII by a count of 74.1 – 69.1.  Nobody in the Rabble Rousers’ lineup notched more than 11 points on Sunday, but they had enough balance to knock off EBVIII, and that’s what counts.

The other game saw the Hamburglars lay a pretty sizeable whooping on Dani’s Purple Team.  The Hamburglars recorded the biggest margin of victory of the wild card round by winning by a score of 76.8 – 34.6.  Having three guys in your starting lineup is not what one would consider to be an optimal fantasy football strategy, but that’s what the Purple Team did, which would probably explain their relatively low point total.

Both of the second-round games in the bottom bracket have gotten the scoring started, as the Hamburglars have already jumped out to a quick 14.9 – 0 lead over #7 seed whodat, thanks to the exploits of Indy’s Dominic Rhodes (and no thanks to Marvin Harrison, who was in the Hamburglars’ starting lineup but didn’t play Thursday night).  On the other side, the combo of Peyton Manning and Dallas Clark has allowed the 8th seeded Garnet & Gold to jump out to a big 51.8 – 18.8 lead over the Rabble Rousers, who got themselves some points from Reggie Wayne this past Thursday.

Two more weeks to go, folks. . .who will come out on top?  We’ll have to wait and see!

The sixth seeded Rejects bested number three Gift of Gab last week, and now draw the second seed FantasyFootballGuru. The Guru is favored by 10, but anything could happen.

Over in the consolation round, #10 Ramz in the Rox take on the #7 UK Rampagers. The Rox will need Brandon Jacobs to play and Roy Williams to actually play like the player Dallas traded away all their draft picks for if they expect to overcome the 16 point favored Rampagers. Never count out a team with Peyton Manning at QB though.

Low man on the totem pole, #12 Mr. Irrelevant, will look to escape that dubious title against the #8 doobs. But having Steven Jackson in your lineup this season is no guarantee…as we all know all too well.

All of this sets up what could be a weird championship week coinciding with the NFL’s last week of the regular season. So many of the top performers will be sitting, resting ahead of the real playoffs as we try and battle it out for TST fantasy infamy. Ought to make it more challenging at the very least.

Best of luck, suckas!

Winner’s Bracket

#1 WCG’s Team (12-2) VS.

#4 Waddle’s Brain Scramblers (10-4)

#2 furb’s crew (11-3)  VS.

#3 The Slackers (8-6)

In the consolation playoffs, LA Leos (sgdbw90) beat Underdogs (Sig Sauer) 76.02-67.54 and Maize ‘n’ Blue Jays (THE_J) beat SnotKnocker’s (Ace BangerTheGuru) 96.24-64.8, setting up the finals in that bracket.

In the POD overflow league, Raging Rhinos and Pineapple Express will square off in the finals.  Pineapple Express is actually the #6 seed in the playoffs, meaning he is one win away from pulling off a great run to win the league championship.

In the SBN/AOL league, I will play Stampede Blue’s BigBlueShoe in the semifinals.  This matchup scares the crap out of me for two reasons: 1) BigBlueShoe is responsible for two of my four losses this season, and 2) All but one player scored in double digits for BigBlueShoe this past week.  Hopefully the third time will be a charm for me, as a win puts me in the finals.

NN #1 saw four teams tie at 8-6 with only two getting playoff spots.  The two teams are mine (Frank the Tank) and the 6 seed BarNone, who happened to be in the same division as me.  Even more of a coincidence is that we faced each other the final week of the season, with BarNone winning 102-77.1  We’ll see if he can spring the early upset.

The favorites have to be the top two seeds, who also happened to be the two highest scoring teams in the league.  The first round bye comes at a perfect time for peckerwoods as he’s just trying to get his RBs healthy.