And then there were four, and over the final four weeks of the regular season, these are the four teams we expected to get to this point.
Clearly, it would have been nothing short of a disappointment if the News Team and the Organ Thieves didn’t play in the Nittany Conference Championship game. The two division rivals were side-by-side all season long until News Team took a one-game lead into their season finale — a game that the Thieves won to complete the season sweep and win the division.
On the other side, the Jammers had solidified his playoff spot weeks ago and it seemed to be a certainty that Houserville would be the one to stand in the Jammers way.
And that is how it panned out. No upsets this year — I’m not calling the No. 3-seeded News Team beating No. 2-seeded T-Money an upset. No offense to the Money Man, but the News Team’s roster is stacked and much better.
Still, in the first week of the playoffs, it didn’t matter who had the better overall roster — rather, it mattered who had the top performers.
In Houserville’s win over Fear and Loathing, it was three players scoring 101.5 points that led the Ville to the Liberty Conference Championship game. Darren McFadden was the stud of the studs, scoring three touchdowns, all from long distance, to post 43.5 points. The Patriots defense added 30.5 and Peyton Manning had a respectable 27.5. Everyone else on the Ville scored singled digits.
Nevertheless, Fear didn’t put up much of a fight. Michael Vick had 33.1 points and the Seahawks had 16.5. Everyone else scored single digits. So even without McFadden, the Ville would have moved onto the next round.
Houserville will have some interesting decisions heading into next week after Felix Jones and Pierre Garcon each put up nice point totals on the bench, and Greg Jennings, who suffered the loss of his quarterback, has his status up in the air as the Packers wait to find out if Aaron Rodgers will return next week.
News Team will play that same waiting game thanks to Rodgers stupidity. That’s right. I called him stupid. Rodgers had one concussion already this season prior to Sunday’s game, and yet he scrambles recklessly. After he clearly got the first down, he pushed forward and dived forward allowing himself to be hit from his right side and from behind, the latter causing the concussion.
I understand the competitiveness of Aaron Rodgers and I admire it, but he has to be aware of what is going on. He has to know that his backup is a kid who hasn’t had much experience in the NFL — and he likely never will — and he has to protect his team from playing with QB No. 2.
I have no doubt that if Rodgers played in the second half, the Packers would have won that game by at least two scores. Instead, they lose 7-3 and damage their playoff chances with a weak NFC West team guaranteed to take up a spot.
Now his status is questionable for Week 15 — although, I’m sure he’ll play — and with two concussions, he’s a few more away from being Joe Buck’s sidekick in the FOX NFL TV booth.
As much as the NFL is creating rules and fines to protect QBs, it’s time that the QBs take the time to protect themselves. Get the first down and then get down. It’s not the quarterback’s job to get the extra yards. Leave it to the running backs and the wideouts. Because those players will never get extra yards if you’re on the sideline counting fingers and reciting the alphabet. (A, B, C, D, I, EFFED, G, B.)
And while I’m on this tangent, I’d like to add a thought that came to me this weekend. I had the Kansas City Chiefs beating the Chargers this weekend in my NFL Picks game until I heard that Matt Cassel was out after an emergency appendectomy. Now, we will never know if the Chiefs would have beaten the Chargers with Cassel, but I’m sure that he would have thrown for more than the 40-some yards his backup Brody Croyle did.
With that said, we’ve seen this happen before to key players during the season, having an appendectomy and missing a key game or two. With every game meaning so much — the Chiefs really could have used that win to create some separation in the division — I wonder why players don’t make sure that this always unexpected “injury” doesn’t happen. No one really needs their appendix — they’re useless in books, too — so if I was a star player or a coach of a star player, I’d get a non-emergency appendectomy in the offseason so that way I couldn’t possibly miss a game. I think this makes sense, but I’ve never heard anyone say it. (Except me on Twitter.)
OK, now, where was I?
Ah, yes. Aaron Rodgers being stupid.
His dumb move led to 3.5 points for the News Team. If he can’t come back next week, that means the News Team will have to run with Donovan McNabb, who had 23 fantasy points last week, or with Kyle Orton, who had 3.5 points, too — and he played the whole game.
Fortunately for the News Team, the 3.5-point performance didn’t hurt him — and that’s because DeSean Jackson is a beast. His 32.4 points were exactly what the Nikish ordered and it made Monday night easy to handle.
Jackson finished with 210 yards on just four catches. One of those was a 91-yard TD catch and run. And I mean run. He went about 80 on his own and score in the most fashionable way possible — and he kept the ball in his hands until he crossed the line.
Now if he can do the same thing a few times next week, the News Team can advance to his first Super Bowl. If not, the Thieves will return for a chance at another Super Bowl title.
Clearly, it would have been nothing short of a disappointment if the News Team and the Organ Thieves didn’t play in the Nittany Conference Championship game. The two division rivals were side-by-side all season long until News Team took a one-game lead into their season finale — a game that the Thieves won to complete the season sweep and win the division.
On the other side, the Jammers had solidified his playoff spot weeks ago and it seemed to be a certainty that Houserville would be the one to stand in the Jammers way.
And that is how it panned out. No upsets this year — I’m not calling the No. 3-seeded News Team beating No. 2-seeded T-Money an upset. No offense to the Money Man, but the News Team’s roster is stacked and much better.
Still, in the first week of the playoffs, it didn’t matter who had the better overall roster — rather, it mattered who had the top performers.
In Houserville’s win over Fear and Loathing, it was three players scoring 101.5 points that led the Ville to the Liberty Conference Championship game. Darren McFadden was the stud of the studs, scoring three touchdowns, all from long distance, to post 43.5 points. The Patriots defense added 30.5 and Peyton Manning had a respectable 27.5. Everyone else on the Ville scored singled digits.
Nevertheless, Fear didn’t put up much of a fight. Michael Vick had 33.1 points and the Seahawks had 16.5. Everyone else scored single digits. So even without McFadden, the Ville would have moved onto the next round.
Houserville will have some interesting decisions heading into next week after Felix Jones and Pierre Garcon each put up nice point totals on the bench, and Greg Jennings, who suffered the loss of his quarterback, has his status up in the air as the Packers wait to find out if Aaron Rodgers will return next week.
News Team will play that same waiting game thanks to Rodgers stupidity. That’s right. I called him stupid. Rodgers had one concussion already this season prior to Sunday’s game, and yet he scrambles recklessly. After he clearly got the first down, he pushed forward and dived forward allowing himself to be hit from his right side and from behind, the latter causing the concussion.
I understand the competitiveness of Aaron Rodgers and I admire it, but he has to be aware of what is going on. He has to know that his backup is a kid who hasn’t had much experience in the NFL — and he likely never will — and he has to protect his team from playing with QB No. 2.
I have no doubt that if Rodgers played in the second half, the Packers would have won that game by at least two scores. Instead, they lose 7-3 and damage their playoff chances with a weak NFC West team guaranteed to take up a spot.
Now his status is questionable for Week 15 — although, I’m sure he’ll play — and with two concussions, he’s a few more away from being Joe Buck’s sidekick in the FOX NFL TV booth.
As much as the NFL is creating rules and fines to protect QBs, it’s time that the QBs take the time to protect themselves. Get the first down and then get down. It’s not the quarterback’s job to get the extra yards. Leave it to the running backs and the wideouts. Because those players will never get extra yards if you’re on the sideline counting fingers and reciting the alphabet. (A, B, C, D, I, EFFED, G, B.)
And while I’m on this tangent, I’d like to add a thought that came to me this weekend. I had the Kansas City Chiefs beating the Chargers this weekend in my NFL Picks game until I heard that Matt Cassel was out after an emergency appendectomy. Now, we will never know if the Chiefs would have beaten the Chargers with Cassel, but I’m sure that he would have thrown for more than the 40-some yards his backup Brody Croyle did.
With that said, we’ve seen this happen before to key players during the season, having an appendectomy and missing a key game or two. With every game meaning so much — the Chiefs really could have used that win to create some separation in the division — I wonder why players don’t make sure that this always unexpected “injury” doesn’t happen. No one really needs their appendix — they’re useless in books, too — so if I was a star player or a coach of a star player, I’d get a non-emergency appendectomy in the offseason so that way I couldn’t possibly miss a game. I think this makes sense, but I’ve never heard anyone say it. (Except me on Twitter.)
OK, now, where was I?
Ah, yes. Aaron Rodgers being stupid.
His dumb move led to 3.5 points for the News Team. If he can’t come back next week, that means the News Team will have to run with Donovan McNabb, who had 23 fantasy points last week, or with Kyle Orton, who had 3.5 points, too — and he played the whole game.
Fortunately for the News Team, the 3.5-point performance didn’t hurt him — and that’s because DeSean Jackson is a beast. His 32.4 points were exactly what the Nikish ordered and it made Monday night easy to handle.
Jackson finished with 210 yards on just four catches. One of those was a 91-yard TD catch and run. And I mean run. He went about 80 on his own and score in the most fashionable way possible — and he kept the ball in his hands until he crossed the line.
Now if he can do the same thing a few times next week, the News Team can advance to his first Super Bowl. If not, the Thieves will return for a chance at another Super Bowl title.
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