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:

Nov. 26, 2012

A series of events led to Andrew trailing Mike 116.82-80.44 after the Sunday games in their Week 12 match-up. Miles Austin failed to make a single catch in a game against the Redskins, Tom Brady put up 31.42 points for Mike against the Jets, and Mike’s three wide receivers outscored Andrew’s two 28.6 to 4.2 points.

It would be easy to say that this game was over. Mike still had Carolina tight end Greg Olsen to play, and Andrew’s final two players were the inconsistant Brandon LaFell and the unproven backup to LeSean McCoy, Bryce Brown. A rookie from Kansas St., Brown had never started an NFL game and seemed like a long shot to give Andrew the points he needed. And through the first three possessions of the game, Brown rushed for only 29 yards and LaFell only had a 6 yard rush.

But things started to change dramatically over the next few possessions. Cam Newton hit Brandon LaFell for a 43 yard TD on the Panthers second possession and gave Andrew a much needed boost in his receiving core. But Andrew was still going to need some help from Bryce Brown.

And Brown delivered. In the Eagles first possession of the second quarter, with Brown sitting at 58 yards rushing, Brown took a handoff off the right end and galloped downfield for a 65 yard TD. The 12.5 point play early in the second quarter suddenly gave Andrew a glimmer of hope. Adding 12 more yards in the first half, Andrew had put up 30.4 points in the first half, increasing his total score to 110.84. Maybe a comeback was in the making.

But the second half was a roller coaster of highs and lows for Andrew. In the Eagles first possession, Brown fumbled in Carolina territory and the Panthers recovered. The minus-two point play had Andrew walking the wrong way. But on the next possession, Brown ran a five yard TD in to get Andrew moving in the right direction again. But, just when things were looking up, another relapse. Brown fumbled again on the Eagles very next offensive play. The game ticked on until Brown was stopped on a 4th and 1 for no gain with 8:35 left in the game.

The Panthers sustained a long drive that ended in a Cam Newton rushing touchdown with just over four and a half minutes to play. Needing just five yards from Brown to achieve total victory, Andrew was going to have a shot to win in the Eagles next possession. But on the ensuing kickoff, Eagles kick returner Brandon Boykin fumbled at the Carolina 44 yard line, and the Panthers recovered. Looking to run out the clock (and not throw the ball to Andrew’s receiver Brandon LaFell), Carolina dwindled down the final 4:29 on the clock, and Mike got the 121.82-121.34 victory.

The closest match-up of the 2012 season, the victory would be enormous for Mike, who needed all eight of his regular season wins to make his way into the playoffs. If Brown had rushed for five more yards or fumbled one less time, Andrew would have defeated Mike. Andrew’s bad luck continued the following week when he lost a tight matchup with Conor, 101.52 to 96.02. Had his team produced .5 more points in week 12 and 5.51 more points in week 13, he would have made the playoffs. Maybe it could be best explained in Andrew’s late season team motto, which read “5-3 Through week 8 and then I go and lose 5 of my last 6 games to miss the playoffs what a terrible season!!!”

But in the case of week 12, it is hard to complain about a backup running back putting up 26.9 points on 178 yards rushing yards and two touchdowns.

Box Score:

Sun. Oct. 15, 2012

Winning 81.72-80.5 going into the Sunday night match-up between the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos, Tim was going to need Ryan Mathews to hold off Tom’s Phillip Rivers to pull off a week 6 win. Things started off all in favor of Tom as Rivers had 131 yards passing and 2 TDs in the first half to give Tom a large lead. But everything changed in the second half when the Broncos defense came to play.

Rivers and the Chargers had six possessions in the second half. The first ended in a Rivers fumble, the second in a three and out, and the next three in drive-killing interceptions by the Charger QB. Still needing help with only seconds to play, it all came down to a 4th and 16 for the Chargers with under a minute to play. Down 92.14-91.02, the only way Tim could win the game was with a Rivers fumble. And just then, Elvis Dumervil burst through the San Diego offensive line, wrapped up Rivers, stripped the ball, and Denver’s Mike Adams recovered the loose pigskin. The play resulted in minus-two points for Rivers, his fifth turnover of the second half and sixth of the game. A kneel down later and Tim had achieved the historic 91.02-90.14 victory, his fifth straight win and one of the craziest endings in fantasy football history.

Box Score:

Oct. 5, 2009

The night before a huge matchup with Aaron, Conor completed more trades than he may have ever made since. In desperate need of a WR for his Sunday lineup, he traded off Oakland’s Michael Bush, a solid RB and great handcuff for his team, to Will for Indianapolis’ Pierre Garcon, who was listed as questionable. The move was dangerous with Garcon’s condition, but Conor felt like the risk was worth it. Unfortunately, it did not work out for him. When Conor awoke Sunday morning, Garcon was listed as out.

Now completely desperate, Conor needed to make something happen. He checked the free agency pool, but nothing got him too excited. At one point, he even contemplated just leaving his third WR spot blank and holding his roster where it was, a move only the trigger-shy Conor could consider. But he finally came to and saw that action had to be taken. Deciding he needed to make a move in order to win his matchup, Conor gave up on keeping Garcon for future weeks and traded him to Jim, who gave him Green Bay’s Jordy Nelson in return, who had a Monday Night matchup with Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings.

Conor was not known for doing well on Mondays, and when he was down by a little more than six points entering the final night, he wasn’t feeling too good about his chances. And for 56 minutes of game time, Nelson had only 14 yards. Conor sat with his head in his hands, knowing there was not much time left.

But by St. Patrick, you should never give up on the luck of the Irish. With just under four minutes of game left, Rodgers took the snap from the Minnesota 33, hit Nelson on the 19 yard line, and the Kansas St. alum weaved his way to the two yard line, where he stretched the ball across the plain of the endzone as he was being brought down. Conor, who’s reaction was delayed by both shock and the fact that he didn’t know Nelson was the white receiver on the Packers, had pulled off the comeback and defeated Aaron.

Conor took to the message boards. In a post titled “JORDY NELSON” Conor explained his feelings:

“JORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDY NELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSO NJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORD YNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELS ONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJOR DYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNEL SONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJO RDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNE LSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJ ORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYN ELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSON JORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDY NELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSO NJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORD YNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELS ONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJOR DYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNEL SONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJO RDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNE LSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJ ORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYN ELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSON JORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDY NELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSONJORDYNELSON”

A love affair between Conor Clarke and Jordy Nelson blossomed that day; a love so strong, Conor devoted his team picture to Nelson for the rest of the year.