In this week's mashup:
-Regular season recap
-Playoff previews
The regular season has finally ended for MIISFFL 2014, and I am happy to report that only a limited number of brain cells were destroyed due to the histrionics of our league members as we came down the stretch. Most of the league held true to form from past years, and there were a few surprises. Here are some of the things that held true to form during the regular season:
-Eddie baking about 30 humble pies, eating 20, and refusing to share the rest (by the way, you think he's glad the playoffs start NEXT week?????)
-Kent always trying to stir the pot, incite controversy, and do whatever he can to get the other 11 league members to go gangbusters on each other.
-For the 2nd year in a row, and 3rd in the last 4, a new member of the MIISFFL lineup has qualified for the playoffs. This year, Chris takes the honors. We'll look at his match recap later.
-Buccaneer fans combined to go 7-21 in fantasy football this year.
And then there are some surprises:
-Sean needed a miracle 4-game run at the end of last year just to get into the playoff party. This year, he made an emphatic statement winning 10 games for the first time since joining the league.
-3 weeks ago, Zach sat at 5-6 following back to back losses. This year, he ends up making the miracle run winning 3 in a row to claim the last playoff spot.
-The commissioner, yes ME, finished the season strong, going 6-3 in my last 9, to overcome a 1-4 start and finish the season at .500, the first such non-losing season in 4 years.
Before we get to the playoff previews, let's do one more round of regular season recaps!
Eddie is counting his lucky stars. In many leagues across the country, the playoffs started in week 14, and if one of those teams happened to have Peyton Manning as their captain, their ships sank like when the Titanic met the iceberg. Fortunately for Eddie, he ended up playing a game where the B-squad could take most of the first team reps, and it showed as Gaz ends up pouring it on with a 148-89 win, Gaz's most productive week of an otherwise disappointing season. Eddie will be looking to give King Manning a pep talk for the playoffs next week as a repeat performance surely will end any and all hopes for the first back-to-back champion in MIISFFL history. As for Gaz, all that victory ended up doing for him was improve his draft position by a whopping 2 positions. Thanks for playing, Gaz.
Sean, on the other hand, made yet another in a long line of dominating performances this year, humbling Dewey by over 112 points. Dewey once again made the mistake of starting Austin Sefarian-Jenkins, like that actually mattered though as 46 from Bell to go along with 28 from Sticky-3-fingaz Beckham gave Sean the final $5 weekly pot of the season. He eyes a potential chance at revenge for his defeat in the Menace Bowl last year, but he has to get through the semifinal round first. Dewey ended up crawling into the fetal position down the stretch and staying there, perhaps trying to improve his draft position, or something worse, losing 3 in a row to end the season. Like last year, Sean goes into the playoffs on a 4-game winning streak, although the circumstances this time around are far different than last year.
The commissioner finished at 7-7, at or above .500 for the first time since his last playoff run in 2010. Since winning the first league title in 2009, and becoming commissioner thereafter, the commish is 0 for his career in winning championships, and despite the improved result, that trend once again continued. This week, his final victim was JP, but then again, who hasn't had their chance to kick JP while he was down this year? Oh right, Eddie and Gaz (tsk tsk tsk). JP locks up the #1 draft pick, but he had that baby nailed down before last week. Perhaps this is an early sign of a resurgence from the commish in 2015?
In games that actually meant something, or at least did when the day started on Sunday, Kent had raced out to a 50 point lead over Jeff following Thursday night's game. The winner of this game would be in the conversation at 8-6, but due to poor tiebreaker position, would have needed losses by Patrick and Zach to sneak into the last playoff spot. For what it's worth, Jeff pulled off a resounding comeback to complete a season sweep Kent, but unfortunately for Jeff, Kent ended up being the wrong team to sweep. That sub-.500 division record ended up doing Jeff in, as he ends up being the first team out, and first team since 2009 miss the playoffs despite having a winning record.
Now in the games where the winners actually controlled their own destiny, Chris and Patrick looked primed for a high-scoring slug fest, and this matchup ended being anything but (at least until Monday night). Patrick, with the playoffs on the line, barely could eek out 70 points. A pathetic showing indeed, until you saw that Chris, through Sunday, had only scraped together 40. This was a futility bowl to take all futility bowls, especially considering the stakes. A loss would have ended Chris's season after all of the tiebreakers, and he needed 30 points from Jordy Nelson and Eddie Lacy to complete the comeback. He got 32...from Jordy all by himself. Lacy chipped in with 25 of his own to not only salvage some level of respectability back to this matchup (oh it's still the futility bowl for sure), but also earn Chris the AFC CHAMPIONSHIP in his first year of MIISFFL play. Congratulations, Chris!
That meant that there was only one more spot on the line for Zach in his matchup with bottom-feeder Tom. A win by Zach would give him that last spot. A loss would drop it into the lap of the Kent/Jeff winner (and we already know how that turned out). Zach left little to chance in this matchup, as he took the Dream Team and twisted them in ways that would make Dewey jealous. 38 from AJ Green and 34 from the Giants defense (the Giants?? Really?) gives Zach his first playoff berth since he won the title all the way back in 2011. It seems like so long ago, but perhaps Zach can draw on his experience that year (he was a wild card back then as well) as he looks to be the first man to have his name etched on the trophy twice, and as we'll see in the playoff previews, somebody will go into the Menace Bowl with that very chance.
Alright...let's start by cleaning up the mess in aisle 5. Here is the preliminary draft order for the non-playoff teams:
1) JP
2) Tom
3) Dewey
4) Gaz
5) Nick
6) Kent
7) Patrick
8) Jeff
Tom picks ahead of Dewey and Gaz due to the fact that he lost to both of them. Dewey is ahead of Gaz due to Gaz's better division record. Nick picks ahead of Patrick and Kent due to the fact that Nick lost to both of them. Kent picks ahead of Patrick due to Patrick's better division record. Playoff teams will have their draft positions determined by their playoff exits. Semifinal losers will pick 9 and 10 (to be determined by their records), the Menace Bowl loser picks 11th, and the MIISFFL champion picks 12th.
Now onto the main events!
Semifinal #1
#1 Soups On (Eddie) vs. #4 Mexico's Vick in a Box (Zach)
Season Results: Eddie defeated Zach 79-66 in Week 2
All time results: Zach leads 2-1
Eddie had more than his fair share of underwhelming victories in 2014, but his victory over Zach in Week 2 had futility bowl written all over it. However, despite the pathetic performance, this win ended up being #6 on Eddie's way to an MIISFFL record 14 consecutive victories. While his wins were not what you would call dominating (Eddie failed to win a single weekly scoring pot), they were numerous, riding the hot hand of perennial fantasy MVP candidate Peyton Manning. This year, Peyton might not win the fantasy MVP award, but let's just say he would definitely get an invite to the award ceremony as he picked apart defenses the way he has all career. He did throw up a dud in Week 14, ending the playoff hopes of many a fantasy owner across the fruited plain, but as mentioned before, this ended up being just garbage time for Eddie, and Eddie is thrilled just to see everyone come out healthy. He took some chances on some high keepers as well at the draft, keeping Alshon Jeffrey and Antonio Brown, but both have paid dividends as they combined for the 2nd and 3rd highest point totals for Eddie this season, behind only Peyton. Zach parted ways with longtime companion Carolina Cam Newton before the draft, and replaced him with Tony Romo, considered a questionable move by some in MIISFFL circles, especially if Zach were to make the playoffs with him, and the "December Romo" phenomenon were to take hold. Well, here we are, it's December, Zach is riding Romo, and he's in the playoffs. If Zach is going to score the upset, he needs to hope that (very) recent history is a much better predictor of the future than more distant history. One positive historical note for Zach was that in Eddie's title run in 2013, Zach was the only team to score a 2-game sweep over the eventual winners. This of course is their first ever playoff meeting, and the winner of this game will have a chance to be the first player to ever have their name etched on the trophy twice.
Semifinal #2
#2 Nice and Smooth II (Chris) vs. #3 8.62 (Sean)
First ever meeting
Chris fit the recent trend of MIISFFL rookies crashing the party and making it all the way to the playoffs. He didn't do it with lack of drama, however, as he needed a huge comeback on the final Monday night of the regular season to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Had Nelson and Lacy not done what they did, well let's just say Chris would rather not discuss. Chris entered the league this year with a reputation for being a "shark" according to Zach and Kent, and there is a chance, that mentor might meet protege in the Menace Bowl. Or would that mean if Chris is the shark, then Zach would be the minnow? Stay tuned! Chris got to this position by inheriting Andy Kane's roster from last season and keeping the two packers (Lacy and Nelson) who would end up taking him to the promised land in the final Monday of the year. For what it's worth, Andy finished 7-7 last year, so Chris had some type of roster to work. Sean, on the other hand, ended up with a better record than Chris, but perhaps that was due to feasting on the underlings in the NFC. Does that make Sean the shark? He certainly made his case riding the hot hands of his killer B's (Brady, Bell, and Beckham). La'Veon Bell put together quite a resume, one that might even be Fantasy MVP worthy, coming on strong late in the season after shaking off that pest of a handcuff in LaGarrette Blount. Last year, Sean celebrated one of the most historic upsets in MIISFFL playoff history defeating Kent by 8.62 points surviving a late drive where Calvin Johnson had a chance to break his back. This year, he goes in as perhaps the favorite in this matchup despite not being a division champion. This is the first time these two teams will have ever met as they did not see each other on the schedule in 2014. This has all the makings to be an MIISFFL classic, and they have never once met face to face!
That's it for this week's mashup. Get ready for...
THE MOST IMPORTANT FANTASY FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE!
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