Victor Cruz changed things in a heartbeat.At one moment, the News Team was in danger of not making the playoffs (if T-Money had won and the News Team lost, a Generals win and a News Team loss in Week 13 would have eliminated him from the playoffs) but a 72-yard TD catch later, the News Team sits just one win (or a Boyer loss) away from owning the No. 1 seed.
That's how tight the Nittany Conference is this season. And it's for that reason I'm surprised that it's the conference that has two division titles already. I really thought the Liberty Conference would settle its division titles before the Nittany Conference, but no. Both the Patriot and Eagle divisions are up for grabs in Week 13, while Team Boyer and the News Team will settle the No. 1 and 2 seeds this week after winning division titles.
The rest of the scenarios are below the Week 12 recaps.
Channel 4 News Team 148.8, Chinese Organ Thieves 130.1
If News Team were to bench his squad in Week 13 and score zero points, he'd still hold a decent lead on the points title.
So congratulations, Nikish. You basically have got "it" in your pocket. Add the "it" you earned for winning your division and things are looking pretty good for the baby Nikish fund.
News Team pulled off a mega comeback to win again and move to 8-4, the fourth time in four years Nikish has won at least eight games during the regular season. News Team has won six in a row — nothing new for Nikish as its no where close to his personal record for consecutive wins — and with the division title, he's in control of the No. 1 seed right now.
And he has to thank Victor Cruz.
His waiver pickup of the year scored another 31.5 points as he came alive in the second half Monday night. News Team was trailing to the rival Organ Thieves, but a 72-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Victor Cruz changed everything. Another Cruz TD minutes later was just News Teams way of shooting himself in the leg, flying like a jet and crashing in the end zone.
OK, that may be a little too much. I'm not trying to call him Steven Johnson. I am trying to say his team just continues to pile on the points.
Rodgers, yes, he was himself again with 28.9 points. Or was he? He did have 307 yards and two scores, but the 28.9 points was the first time the QB had scored fewer than 30 points this season.
Oh, no! Sound the alarm! News Team is in trouble.
Who are we kidding. Can you imagine? Don't we all wish we could close down our browsers and shout, "Only 28.9 points?!"
Must be nice.
It was just as nice to see Beanie Wells play like the back we all know he can be. Still, he's very fragile — he actually left the field injured on Sunday twice, but he returned to finish with 228 yards and a TD (27.8 points).
Double-digits from Arian Foster, Toby Gerhart and the Seahawks were enough to make the Thieves pull a Cole Hamels and say, "I wish this season was over."
Just one more week for the Thieves. Then it's back to the drawing board. Kind of like where the Chargers are going to be heading when they finally let Norv Turner. It's been the worst thing for Philip Rivers and that crew.
A new coach in San Diego, one that advances Rivers, not causes regression, will certainly be a welcoming move for the Thieves. For him, 2012 can't come soon enough.
Real Houserville 84.3, World of Noise 68.2
It wasn't pretty, but Real Houserville survived to create a virtual playoff game in Week 13.
A win over Fear and he's in.
And what's amazing is that if it weren't for Andre Johnson returning to the lineup this week for the Texans, he would have been eliminated.
That's right, starting Andre Johnson hurt the Noise. Johnson had just 2.6 points in his first action since Week 4.
Had he remained injured this week, Noise would have started either Jason Avant (18.6 points) or James Jones (18). That would have been enough to eek out a win over the Ville.
Instead, the Ville got just enough points from Cam Newton, Michael Bush and Rob Gronkowski to win. Heading into Week 13, the Ville must be worried after such a lackluster week.
Fear and Loathing 114.9, Graybill's Generals 72.9
Fear took care of business.
He had to win to keep the pressure on Houserville, but the Ville remained within a game to create a playoff game between the two in Week 13.
And despite all the injuries, Fear and Loathing keeps ticking. Tim Tebow scored 19.7 points and DeMarco Murray had 13.6.
Two guys who were not drafted by Fear and Loathing.
That's been the case for Fear all season.
His supposed stars at the start of the season, Michael Vick, Mike Williams and Jamaal Charles have either been injured or busts.
Still, he's been able to win with his waiver gems and guys like Brandon Lloyd and Cedric Benson.
They have tough matchups next week, so it will be an interesting battle for the division title.
Graybill had a chance to win a division but three straight losses have pushed him out of contention. Now, making the playoffs is a question. For him, it's win and get in, but winning has been a problem of late. LeSean McCoy has been solid and Steven Jackson had been prior to the last two weeks, but that's been it.
Joe Flacco has been disappointing yet again, which begs the question to whether he can ever be a viable fantasy starter. He has a few huge games, but he has many more low-scoring game which have cost Graybill.
The receivers also have cost Graybill. Just 6.8 points from three receivers this week, leading to a Noise-like point total. Johnny Knox had 27.8 points and newly acquired Lance Moore had 18.4 points on the bench, but who can blame Graybill for not starting them. Knox has had just three double-digit weeks, and last week was a fluke with four catches for 145 yards. And Moore is so unreliable, he can't trust him to score double-digits, let alone score a single point some weeks.
I imagine Knox, with back-to-back double-digit performances, will make his way into the lineup next week, but Moore should remained benched unless there aren't any better options.
Jawz Attack 140.2, Jimmy Jammers 123.1
Jawz can finally say that he has beaten the Jammers, and boy did it come at a bad time for the Jammers.
Needing a win to stay ahead of his division rival Slackers, Jammers fell short with an awful day from Julio Jones. The rookie WR was probable with an injury coming in — the last time he was probable, he scored 33 fantasy points on the bench — so the Jammers had to start him.
This time, he stayed in the game, played all the way through, including on the final drive, and he got no catches. Hell, he didn't have an official target. He had one early in the game, but he was called for pass interference, so it didn't count as a target. Ryan didn't throw his way again. Even when he was wide open. Trust me, I watched the game and saw him running wide open.
Larry Fitzgerald didn't have a good day either, scoring just 6.1 points. Boy does Arizona need a QB in the worst way. Those two lackluster performances let the Jammers down because the five other players scored double-digits.
Their point totals, however, could not match the output that Jawz got from Maurice Jones-Drew, Roddy White, Wes Welker and Jimmy Graham. The latter three all went over 20 points, with Welker scoring a team-best 26.2. (Thanks, Houserville, for making that stupid trade.)
I can't blame Houserville, though. I have to blame Juan Castillo. What kind of defense are they running in Philly? Who the hell plays a soft zone against the Patriots. It's like the Eagles watched the game film of the prior three teams to shut down the Patriots and threw it out. If you use press coverage and pressure Tom Brady, you have a chance to slow them down.
Instead, the soft zone allowed the receivers to run free all game. That, and the coverage mistakes that let Welker run free to the end zone.
This isn't the first mind-boggling decision Castillo has made.
Go back to the Cardinals loss. Larry Fitzgerald, who I benched that game, had seven catches for 146 yards and two TDs. You want to know why I benched him? Because Fitzgerald struggles against physical corners who play press coverage, namely Nnamdi Asumough. I know this. The world knows this.
So why not scheme your defense to have Asumough on Fitzgerald the whole game? It would make sense, wouldn't it?
I guess not to Castillo. He only had him cover him half the time. You want to know the stats?
In the 20-some times that Asumough covered Fitzgerald, he had zero catches. When someone else was covering him, namely Hanson or Rolle (really, a LB was in charge of covering Fitzgerald), he had 146 yards and two TDs.
Makes you sad to hear that, doesn't it.
So now you can see why Welker had a field day, because Castillo is not a defensive genius. Far from it.
Which brings me to the next Eagles topic, DeSean Jackson. Jawz could have completely blown me out of the water with Jackson, but DeSlack, as I like to call him, had just 8.1 points.
If it weren't for his alligator-arm attempts at two TD catches, he would have scored much more. He was avoiding hits like a Rams WR from the Fastest Show on Turf years —but those WRs would at least catch the ball before curling into the fetal position.
Jackson's lame efforts led to him getting benched.
What's he trying to prove by not giving it his all? Other teams are watching and other teams are not going to pay Santonio Holmes money for a wideout with alligator arms and a bad attitude. He's just hurting himself.
And it's a shame. He has so much talent and I really like him initially when he came to Philly. I read articles and heard him speak and it seemed like Jackson was really going to move ahead from his immature college days.
But here we are, and he's acting like a baby.
The Eagles organization has made some bad decisions, but there's one thing they've been good at and that's standing strong against players who rebel like this.
It's why I think it's time to give Avant a chance. I know, I sound like my brother, but I'm serious. This guy makes some unbelievable catches, and he does it without the drama.
Boy did I get way off topic here. See what happens when Dawson makes a stupid trade that hurts me.
Sunday Slackers 111.4, T-Money 101.4
If Aaron Rodgers is a QB God, what is Drew Brees? Answer: A Saint.
That's right, cheese joke. Hope you enjoyed it.
What's not a joke is the fact that the Slackers pulled this win out of his ass. Seven single-digit performances and he still wins. Drew Brees scores 48.8 and the Steelers defense gets 22.5. The other seven players combined for just 40.1 points.
It was ugly, but it was a win for the Slackers, and he's now one win away from winning his first division title, pushing his rival, the Jammers, to the Wild Card.
T-Money is in search of the Wild Card in the other conference, and this week's loss made it very tough for him to get it. He'll need a Generals loss and a win over Boyer to get into the playoffs. It's not looking good.
He'll have some tough decisions to make this week after several bench players went for double-digits in the loss.
The Slackers had a few of the same issues, but with Drew Brees on fire, it's hard to complain. He's well on his way to a No. 1 seed and a bye week.
Team Boyer 132.6, Dottsville Toasters 106.6
I'm not advocating giving up, but man, I could sure make a case for why the Toasters should.
I mean, can it get any worse?
Jahvid Best, out for the season. Chris Johnson, MIA until this past week. Mario Manningham, inactive Monday night when the Toasters needed 28 points to come back. Matt Leinart, broken collar bone, leaves game after scoring just 8.5 points. This comes a week after Matt Schaub goes down with a season-ending injury.
Things just keep getting worse and worse for the Toasters who have now lost four straight. At one point, they were 5-3 and in charge of the division. Now, the Toasters are out of the playoffs and locked into a top-half draft pick.
It's amazing what a few weeks can do.
For Boyer, it's been the opposite. Three weeks ago, he was 3-4-1 and searching for something to get him started. Now, after another huge Tom Brady weekend, he's won three straight and has clinched the division. Currently holding the two-seed, Boyer will host the first round of the playoffs unless he can get a win and have the News Team lose. News Team is playing Noise, so that's highly unlikely.
So Week 13 will not mean anything to Boyer, just a week to get ready for Week 14.
And man, does the schedule work in his favor. Brady faces these four teams over the next four weeks leading up to Fantasy Super Bowl VI: Colts, Redskins, Broncos and Dolphins. Denver's defense is the toughest, but I can imagine Brady being held down. That will feasibly be the week that he faces News Team in the conference finals, so he will need me to be right about Brady. For comparison, the News Team's Aaron Rodgers plays Kansas City that week.
But don't let me get too far ahead. First thing is first for Boyer. Win this weekend and hope he doesn't have to face News Team in Week 15.
Playoff Scenarios
Eagle Division
Patriot Division
Nittany North Division
Nittany South Division
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