Sun. Dec. 23, 2012

Big games call for big performances. And when the lights shine down on the field during any championship game, it is often times the last person you would think of that steps up to win the big game. Mike Jones. Adam Vinatieri. David Tyree. And now another player performance when the stakes are the highest will go into the record books: the Seattle Defense in Will Carter Bowl VI.

Losing 90.08-84 with only the Sunday night game to go, Tim put everything on the line (an 11-3  regular season record, wins in 12 of his last 13 games, and a Will Carter Bowl VI championship) with the Seattle D in a home match-up with the San Francisco 49ers. Not only did the Seattle D need to make up the deficit created by the early games, but they also had to hold off San Francisco’s Frank Gore and  Michael Crabtree, who had combined for 40.4 points the week before for Mike. Before the night game even began, Tim seemed to be giving up all hope. Instead of laying down some confidence in the smack talk box, Tim stated “Yup. I’m fucked. Congrats Mike.” Little did Tim know that he was about to be given the greatest Christmas present of all-time two days early.

And with the odds stacked against Tim, the Seattle D came out fighting. Allowing no points in the first quarter, the Seattle group made one of the biggest plays of the game three plays into the second quarter. Seahawks DT Red Bryant blocked a 21 yard David Akers FG, and the loose ball was picked up by Richard Sherman, who returned the blocked kick 90 yards for a touchdown. Allowing only 13 points and racking up an INT, fumble recovery, blocked kick, defensive touchdown, and one sack while holding Gore to just 28 yards rushing and Crabtree to only 65 yards receiving, the 17 point performance by the mighty Seahawks D was enough for Tim to pull off the improbable; a 101-98.38 Will Carter Bowl VI victory.

Though Calvin Johnson would later be named MVP for his 20+ point performance, the Seattle D was the role player that made Tim’s championship dreams become reality.

Box score:

Sun. Dec. 16, 2012

It is easy to start feeling down about your team early on a Sunday. When you have some of your studs playing at night and you go down big early on, it is easy to lose hope and forget why you call you call your best guys “studs.” Whether Mike gave up hope or not on a cold December 16th evening is not known, but we know now that he had nothing to be nervous about.

Losing 102.78-53.7 with three players left to play and his opponent still waiting for his defense on Monday Night Football, Mike scored 67.22 points in the Sunday night San Francisco/New England match-up. Tom Brady lead the way with a 26.82 point performance and Michael Crabtree and Frank Gore added 22.7 and 17.7 points respectively. The three performances were enough to give Mike a 120.92-102.78 lead as Sunday ended. Will’s 7 point performance from the Tennessee D the following night was not enough for Will to make a comeback of his own, and Mike advanced to Will Carter Bowl VI.

One week later, Tim would top Mike 101-98.38 to win the championship. Meanwhile, Will would score 139.34 points in the third place game, a point total that would have been enough to win the championship… had Tom Brady, Michael Crabtree and Frank Gore not knocked Will out and broke his heart the week before.

Box Score:

Sun. Dec. 9, 2012

It looked grim for Mike’s team. With matching 7-6 records with Joe’s squad, but substantially less total season points, Mike’s only way to make the playoffs was going to be a victory and a Joe loss. And when the games started on December 9th, Joe found himself up a substantial margin on Tim, while Mike was having trouble racking up enough points to keep up with his opponent, Aaron Mackel. But in the afternoon games, Tim’s Seattle defense sparked. Scoring 41 points on 0 points allowed, three sacks, four interceptions, four fumble recoveries, and two defensive touchdowns, Tim defeated Joe 136.16-123.32. This lead to frustration for Joe, who, in the middle of the Seattle v. Arizona game, felt so upset he posted to the league that he felt team defense was unnecessary to the league.

Titled “Team Defense…” Joe’s post read: “Before I begin, I want to say that I am not bringing up this topic purely because I am bitter about what Seattle is doing to me at the moment. For most of us, team defense is an afterthought going into draft day…  Even more than a typical position player, it seems to be a totally random event that is not even mildly predictable. I suggest that we consider diminishing the impact of team defense for next year, either by removing the position or by changing the scoring scheme. I don’t think that after studying the draft, surviving a long grueling season, and picking up many impactful players through FA or trades throughout the year, a team defense should have the power to decide a matchup.”

The post was met with disagreement from Tim, Andrew, Matt, Will, Conor and Tom (who went as far as to add a “U Don’t Have to Cry” meme to the post). Meanwhile, Mike was still in desperate need to win his matchup. Down 86.28-67.5, Mike only had Tom Brady left, while Aaron had one of Brady’s top targets: Wes Welker. But somehow, someway, Tom Brady scored 28.44 points on 296 yards passing, one passing TD, and one rushing TD, while only dishing the ball to Welker for 52 total yards. It’s as if Mike had Brady on speed dial and gave him the call to tell him he needed a huge game with no points to Welker. Whether speed dial came into play or everything was happenstance is still to be determined, but the performance was enough to give Mike a 95.94-91.48 win and a playoff birth.

To which Mike added his thoughts on Joe’s post: “Yeah fuck that idea and we already have team def scoring tied down pretty tight with INTs only 1 point and no points for any return yards. Plus scoring gets crushed when the opposing team scores as little as 13 points. Don’t hate just because some of us sacrificed a bench spot for a decent DEF. Tim, congrats on a stellar DEF performance. It’s a great feeling. Oh and Deegs have fun watching the playoffs. Thank you Tom Brady.”

Box Scores: