-Semifinal retrospective
-Fantasy MVP nominees
-Menace Bowl VI preview
The semifinal round of the MIISFFL playoffs can sometimes make the Menace Bowl itself somewhat anticlimactic. So much drama takes place in this round that by the time you get to the big game you feel spent from all the highs and lows. Take last year for instance. Eddie comfortably won his semifinal match against Gaz, but the other semifinal between Kent and Sean literally went down to the final drive of Monday night before a winner was finally identified. Here is the match recap from last year, just to whet your whistle:
Semifinal #2: Unknown Quantity (Sean) defeated Shadynasty Now (Kent) 126-117.
For all of Kent's histrionics, he was the only one in the playoff field who had a chance at winning a second title. As described extensively in last week's mashup, Sean went on a miracle 4-game run just to make the playoffs at 7-7 (surviving a tiebreaking fiesta). Sean banked his hopes on Aaron Rodgers in the draft, spurning conventional wisdom by not selecting Adrian Peterson with the #1 pick. However, down the stretch, Rodgers was hurt and he had to rely on Ben Rape-this-burger. Throughout the day Sunday, Kent did not waver in his optimism as the score swung back and forth. He missed out on an opportunity to open a lead as Decker only got 5 points on Thursday, while Nick Novak hit his projected number for Sean. Sean got a balanced effort led by Julian Edelman with 28 in a losing effort for New England. Kent's other big trade deadline acquisition, Drew Brees, did not live up to his hype, as he wallowed in the negatives for over 3 quarters before desperation passing brought him up to 17, still far short of his projected for the day against a suspect Rams defense. On Sunday Night, Sean had a golden opportunity with 3 Steelers to tighten the screws and put the "misunderstood" former champion away. La'Veon Bell did his job with 19.2, but both Emmanuel Sanders and the Rapist failed to crack double digits, giving Sean a tenuous 15 point lead with Calvin Johnson lurking on Monday night. Megatron had a bad game in Philadelphia the week prior, but most pundits attributed that to the blizzard and 3 feet of snow. Surely in the dome he would put up his usual (projected for at least 18). Sean did have a counter with Joique Bell, but after Reggie Bush scored the first TD, it became apparent that the key to Sean's victory would be the Ravens jamming coverage on #81. Megatron did get open several times in the first half...but 2 inexplicable drops on long seam routes (Johnson's bread and butter route) gave Sean hope, despite him leading the team in targets with 14. In the 4th quarter, the Lions were knocking on the door, and Megatron was 2 yards short of 100. A touchdown catch would surely give Kent the victory, as he had trimmed the lead to just 8. However, the story of the day would not be Megatron, but rather LEGatron as the TD went to a white guy and the Ravens won on a (very) long kick. Shadynasty Now has once again become Shadynasty Nextyear as Sean is no longer Unknown, but gearing up for his first ever title shot.
In a related story, Patrick has already declared that he would be keeping Justin Tucker...a fantasy first.
Kent of course has been on the other side of the stinging upset. In 2010, the Commissioner was looking to become back-to-back champion and was riding the golden arm of Aaron Rodgers, but a concussed Rodgers was unavailable for the critical playoff game. So another quarterback with an injury riddled past ended up taking the stage.
A moment of silence please, as the champ has fallen. There will be a new champion in MIISFFL in 2010. I guess you can call it Vick's Vengeance. Well, at least that's what Kent called it. As predicted in the previews, health was critical as Vick actually was able to maintain it this time around...in spectacular fashion, racking up a whopping 48 fantasy points. Kent ended up needing just about all of them though as Chop Block made a spirited, yet unsuccessful comeback attempt in the late games. Unfortunately, when you pin your hopes to Jay Cutler, you usually don't get the results you were looking for. Good scores from Jackson, Moss, New England Defense, and even Cutler were no match for the Michael Vick experience, and Kent exacts his revenge for a regular season defeat at the hands of Chop Block, a defeat where Vick was injured early in the first quarter after only scoring 3 points. Kent advances to his first ever MenaceBowl 118-100, and Chop Block is already scouring the draft board for 2011, but doesn't put Michael Vick high on his wish list for some reason.
Kent wound up winning the Menace Bowl that year and yours truly had the ignominious task of engraving the arch-villain's name on the championship trophy.
Finally we go back to 2011, Zach had lost 3 out of his final 5 regular season games to fall out of what had been a shoe-in division title. However, he backed into the final wild card spot and had his first playoff attempt against perennial semifinal participant Gaz. Here's what happened:
In semifinal two, Zach had a bit of an axe to grind thanks to blowing a 3 game lead to JP for the Greene Turtles division title. Gaz had started slow, but came on late to win the Pub Dogs. Gaz had been shellshocked by Zach in Week 2, and going into the playoffs one would have assumed Gaz would have forgotten all about that. The two teams were different. They were heading in different directions. Gaz triumphantly entered the playoffs through the front door coming in on a 5 game winning streak. Zach backed-doored it having lost the division title. It started out well for Gaz on Thursday as Tony Romo posted 27 big ones to open up the lead going into Sunday. Gaz may have forgotten all about that week 2 debacle, but Zach desperately wanted history to repeat itself. Sunday belonged to Ron Mexico. 28 from LeSean McCoy, 32.5 from Rowdy Roddy White, and a 40-burger from Megatron later, Zach outscores himself for the entire season, posting a season best 182. Gaz could only muster a respectable 110. Gaz did have the 49er defense on Monday, but any hopes of a 100 point comeback ended when Pittsburgh kicked a meaningless field goal in the 2nd quarter...Jeff's man could not have been able to help Gaz in any way shape or form. Zach returns to the form that helped him win 10 games and have the league's best record for the vast majority of the season and now is the odds-on favorite to win the Menace Bowl.
As you can see, the semifinal round has had plenty of its fair share of nailbiters and blow outs alike. How did the semifinals from 2014 play out?
Sean is angry, or at least his fantasy team is. Let's not forget that it was a little over a year ago the Unknown Quantity was sitting at 3-7 stuck somewhere between a fantasy abyss and completely destitute. What has happened since that Week 10 loss, at least in the eyes of fans of 8.62, has been nothing short of extraordinary. The upset win over Kent in the semis last year was the thing legends are made of, and while he did fall in the ultimate contest, that run at the end of the 2013 campaign has set up his team perfectly for the run he is making right now. Sean needed no miracle 4 game run just to get in this time. And his margin of victory in this year's semifinal was slightly more than 8.62 points. Chris came into MIISFFL as the spunky new kid on the block, and while he stumbled a bit out of the gate, composed himself nicely to a 9-5 finish and a division title in a competitively balanced AFC. Chris took a chance on Philip Rivers by keeping him from Andy's roster from last year, and it didn't completely backfire. While Rivers did not have a stellar game by any means this time, I don't think it would have mattered. Sean rode the fantasy brilliance of his Killer B's (Brady with 22 points, Beckham with nearly 38, and Bell with 26) to a 160-109 beat down of the rookie in their first ever matchup. It was as if Sean's squad took this game with the mentality of "Eddie, I'm coming for YOU!" For his efforts, Chris does win $50 for his playoff appearance. Sean, however, is looking at much bigger and better things.
For the entire season, Eddie seemed nervous, almost BEGGING his team to go down to defeat week after week. Yet, he just continued to win. I don't know if there is such a thing as a shaky 11-3 playoff team, but Eddie's team might very well qualify. What's that saying though that goes, "It's not about how you start, but how you finish?" Yeah, that's it. Well, Eddie started out like a house of fire, opening the season 10-0. However, his humble "I'm gonna lose" attitude finally caught up with him at the end of the year losing 3 out of his last 4, including a Rivalry Week loss to Sean which broke up the winning streak. Eddie did defeat Zach in this semifinal matchup, but let's just say that this one will not go down in the annals of MIISFFL lore like those previously mentioned semifinals were. Peyton put up a pedestrian 14 points as Eddie now has a very serious fear that the Broncos will go more run-heavy late in the year to preserve Peyton (who is also dealing with a barking thigh). Peyton has been the key to Eddie's success this year despite not once winning a weekly scoring pot. That just shows you how good Peyton has been and could very well win another Fantasy MVP award. However, it was a hurt Rodgers that did in the commish in the 2010 playoffs. Could it do Eddie in this year as well? Can Jeffrey and Brown pick up the slack?
Before we get to our official Menace Bowl VI preview, let's take a look at this year's list of nominees for Fantasy MVP!
Odell Beckham Jr. (New York Giants)
La'Veon Bell (Pittsburgh Steelers)
Peyton Manning (Denver Broncos)
DeMarco Murray (Dallas Cowboys)
Emmanuel Sanders (Denver Broncos)
Fantasy MVP will be awarded next week.
And now onto the official match preview for:
MENACE BOWL VI: THE MOST IMPORTANT FANTASY TITLE IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE!
Menace Bowl VI
NFL Week 16: December 18th through 22nd
Sean Coghlan (8.62) vs. Eddie Campbell (Soup's On)
Season results: Eddie def. Sean 127-110 in Week 3; Sean def. Eddie 126-122 in Week 11
All time results: Eddie leads 4-1 (Eddie leads 1-0 in playoffs)
I guess you could write the same preview as I wrote last year for the title game between these two, but the circumstances then were so much different than they are now. Last year, Sean was just happy to be there, coming off one of the most thrilling playoff victories ever. Eddie was just as smooth as ever, dispatching Gaz like he had done to opponents all season. This year, despite Eddie's league best 11-3 record, Sean is the one dispatching opponents with surgical precision, and Eddie is the one who is on shaky ground. Now, I bet you I could find 10 other fantasy owners that would gladly trade their left pinkies to be in the same position as Eddie, but you got to figure that Sean goes into this year's championship as currently the 2-1 favorite, especially considering now that for the first time all year, Peyton has an injury question. Will the Broncos go run heavy to protect him? Would they do that anyway considering they have all but locked up the AFC West? You certainly cannot consider SITTING Peyton Manning, but it will be up to the other 2 parts of Eddie's keeper trio (Jeffrey and Brown) to pick up the slack. Sean's Killer B's look ready for action, as not only do we have a rematch of last year's Menace Bowl, but we also have a Brady-Manning matchup in the box score. Fitting perhaps? With Brady's help, Sean is currently projected for a stupid 131 points while Eddie is projected to just fall short of 115. Eddie is going to need his guys healthy and able to soar past projections while Sean needs his guys to just do what they have been doing the last 3 weeks. That happens, Sean gets his name on the hardware for the first time. If it doesn't, Eddie Campbell will be engraved underneath...Eddie Campbell.
That's it for our playoff edition of the Menace Mashup. Next week will be our Menace Bowl recap and final mashup of the 2014 season.
Really? The season is already over?
Yes, Redskins fans, you can open your eyes now.
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