Week 15 Semifinal roundup
“Has anybody seen the truth here
Or did you just stop tryin
Might have to wait until the smoke clears
From the fires of lyin’…
‘Cause when dreams meet delusions
All you got’s confusion hanging ‘round
And a little absolution is just an illusion
And can’t be found…
-dedicated to Devils Snare, Dinamos, Sloppy Sparrows, & The Reckoning.
SILENT BOB DIVISION
Devils Snare 132.98 Sleepy Squad 183.08
The marquee match up I was looking forward to turned out not to be very exciting or even close. Devils Snare rode a blustering wave into the playoffs but wiped out at the feet of the Sleepy Squad. My models showed a Snare win by a slim margin. They were wrong. Sleepy Squad moves on to a semi final game. Devils Snare goes home to wrap Christmas presents.
Sloppy Sparrows 163.98 Offsides Mother F*****! 209.36
Wow. Just wow! OFM! scored over 200 pts for the first time this season. The 209.36 pts scored are a season high for OFM! surpassing their previous high by over 36 pts. Sloppy Sparrows put up a very respectable 163.98 pts of their own. Under normal circumstances that would have been enough. Instead Rory will be home wrapping Christmas presents and the league will get a new champion. This is another game my models got wrong.
JAY DIVISION
Big Daddy 150.66 Dinamos 140.68
Big Daddy won this game but the nearly 10 pt margin of victory did not come easy. Backed by that alien QB from Buffalo, the Dinamos were in a strong position for an upset win. Monday nights game between Atlanta & Las Vegas went Big Daddy’s way with 20 pts from the Falcons defense. The Falcons DST scored in double digits only two other times prior to Monday. And those 20 pts were a season high. Biggie D heads to a semi final game while Igor gets to wrap Christmas presents. My models got this game right!
The Reckoning 141.08 Finkle & Einhorn 161.42
The models said The Reckoning would win this game. They were wrong again. Going into the Monday night games it looked good for The Reckoning to grab a come from behind victory, especially on the heals of WR-C00per’s third zero pts game of the season. The wrecked Reckoning’s WR-M00ney tried to out c00per C00per with his own zero pt game. A few other Wreckoning players pooped their pants to end our season. “And it circles, and circles, and circles.” Finkle & Einhorn move on to a semi final game while The Reckoning goes home to wrap Christmas presents.
WEEK 16 SEMIFINAL PLAYOFF ROUND PROJECTIONS
Yahoo doesn’t give us the flexibility to seed our own league’s playoff matchups. We’ve always had our championship teams come from each of the other divisions. Yahoo ranks our teams and seeded them without our input.
“Saddle up boys tonight
We’re gonna let it ride
And away all boats and pray for a rising tide
‘Cause this won’t last forever
And it might be now or never…”
-dedicated to Big Daddy, Finkle & Einhorn, Offsides Mother F*****!, & Sleepy Squad
Game 1
Sleepy Squad and Finkle & Einhorn
During the regular season Sleepy Squad won their only head to head match by a score of 155.42 to 145.18. The Sleepys go into this game with a L3A metric of 161.23 pts scored and a L5A metric of 173.38. That’s a slight downtrend, but scoring 161+ pts wins you most games. F&E has a L3A metric of 144.46 and a L5A 149.99 pts scored. Yahoo is projecting Sleepy Squad to win by 5 or points. All of my models think Sleepy Squad wins and goes on to the title game – Sleepy Squad 152.61 Finkle & Einhorn 145.67
Game 2
Big Daddy and Offsides Mother F*****!
The season match up between Big Daddy and Offsides Mother F*****! was won by OFM! by 3.52 pts. Big Daddy’s L3A metric is 150.04 and their L5A metric is 153.31. Those are solid numbers and pretty consistent. OFM!’s L3A is 185.68 with a L5A of 177.12. That is a positive trend and right now OFM! is the league’s hottest team. Yahoo projects Biggie D to win and move onto the championship game. My models say otherwise – OFM! 160.90 Big Daddy 152.07
I can’t make any promise that I’ll be able to post projections before the first two NFL games next week. On Wednesday, December 25 the NFL has KC & Pit playing at 1pm and Bal & Hou playing at 430pm. I can’t think of a dumber day to be playing football. Not because of the holiday date, but because of the day of the week. Then again, like Michael sang in Midwest Midnight, “But money’s still the way they keep score.”
Right now I’m thinking that I might get something written and posted Wednesday morning or very late into overnight Wednesday night. The only promise I can make is that I will try.
Now I have to go wrap some Christmas presents.
Last week I made the comment that I didn’t think I’ve never been in a league with FNG where they did not make the playoffs. I found some old records. And while they don’t show that they did not make the playoffs, it does show this. First some background. I formed the NCFFL in 1995 (I think) & I ran it through 2016. It was spun off from another league I was in where a couple of owners colluded on some trades. Sean was in the league from 2002 – 2016. In the years 2003, 2006, 2007, & 2014 he won his division. In 2007 he was the Flembardi runner up. The league champion received a Flembardi trophy. In 2008, 2010, & 2016 he was the Garage Bowl runner up. The two semi-final game losers met in the championship weekend in the Garage bowl. This was the equivalent of our third/fourth place seeding game. In 2011 he was the Garage Bowl winner. In 2014 he was a Flembardi Champion. So the only years where he did not play in the semi finals or later are 2002, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2012, & 2013. This doesn’t mean he didnt make the playoffs, it just means he didnt make it to the semifinals. Somewhere I have those files. I’ll have to keep digging.