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| If only Tom Brady threw one more TD Sunday night... |
With the fourth quarter starting and the Patriots trailing
by three TDs to the 49ers even after they had just scored in the waning minutes
of the third, I decided it was time to go to bed on Sunday night.
I valued an extra hour of sleep over a three-touchdown game.
At the same time, the Chinese Organ Thieves were well in
control of their NFC Championship matchup against the Spacklers, who had Tom
Brady as the last man standing.
So, at 11 p.m., I was looking at the Super Bowl VII matchup
of the Sunday Slackers vs. Chinese Organ Thieves.
But it wasn’t that simple.
I awoke on Monday to find out that three straight TDs in the
fourth quarter helped the Patriots tie the game.
The only problem for Boyer was that too many of the Patriots
TDs that night were rushing scores, and the Thieves escaped with a 128.3-1265
win over the Spacklers, taking full advantage of the home-field advantage
granted to him via the No. 1 seed in the conference.
It didn’t look like it would come to this as Adrian Peterson
had another huge week, rushing for 212 yards and a TD, scoring 30.2 points.
He’s now scored 90.8 fantasy points in the last three weeks, and he’s hit
double digits in 12 straight weeks. He’s rushed for 150 or more yards in six of
his last eight games. Right now, he’s in serious contention to break NFL
rushing records with two weeks to go.
For the Thieves, it’s all about what Peterson does in Week
16.
The last time the Thieves were in the Super Bowl, defeating
the Jammers 109-101 in 2007, Peterson scored only 4 points.
It was rather disappointing after Peterson had put up his
best season to date. He had just scored 20 fantasy points with 78 yards and two
TDs in the conference championship to get the Thieves into Super Bowl II.
Still, Peterson won the JFL MVP that season and he’s well on
his way to getting it again in 2012.
He torched the Rams Sunday, and as the score showed, the
Thieves needed every yard.
He was fortunate that the Rams rallied to score some points
late to force the Vikings to keep pressing forward. On the Vikings’ first
offensive play after the Rams scored to cut it to 33-22 midway through the
fourth, Peterson broke free for a 52-yard run. He was one broken tackle away
from scoring a 72-yard TD.
Still, the 52 yards proved to be a huge factor in the
matchup because Peterson didn’t touch the ball again in the game, and the 5.2
points clearly helped the Thieves edge out the Spacklers.
Stealing all the limelight, Peterson overshadowed Trent
Richardson and Steven Jackson, who both hit double digits again for the
Thieves.
With the best rushing attack in the JFL, it’s clear why he’s
heading to Super Bowl VII.
It’s certainly not his receivers, who scored 3.3 points
Sunday.
The Sunday Slackers didn’t have that issue in his
119.5-102.6 win over Real Houserville.
After losing as the No. 1 seed in 2011, the Slackers, turned
it around and won as the lower seed in 2012, and he can thank his receivers —
well, three of the four.
Torrey Smith was awful, as was the entire Ravens offense, as
he and Ray Rice combined for just 6.3 points Sunday.
That’s why it was so big that Heath Miller, Randall Cobb and
A.J. Green combined for 42.7 points.
Add that to the 40.1 points that Drew Brees provided as his
Saints routed the Bucs, and the Slackers were sitting pretty.
Houserville had a chance, but he got bit by the Mike Tolbert
bug. A pair of 1-yard TDs by the Panthers back took away 1-yard TDs that were
typically Cam Newton’s in 2011.
Newton still scored 26.2 points, but because the game was
such a rout, he didn’t do much after the midway point of the third quarter.
The Saints blowout also affected Houserville in that Doug
Martin was a meaningless fantasy player. He only had nine carries for 16 yards
in the blowout loss.
Houserville also didn’t get much help from Demaryius Thomas
(2.1 points), who averaged double-digits coming in. Jimmy Graham also fell
short of his double-digit average, as did Lawrence Tynes, who was the No. 1
kicker in the JFL and scored a negative-2 points Sunday. To have a kicker
average double-digits is amazing, but to see that same kicker put up a negative
total on such a big weekend is really disappointing.
For the Ville, it’s a tough end to the season, but he’s got
a good core and has shown that he knows how to draft, unlike his divisional
brethren.
Perhaps he will be able to do what the Slackers did — lose in
the conference championship one year, and return to go to the Super Bowl the
next.
The Slackers will go to the Super Bowl for the first time
and he’ll try to do what his opponent has already done, become a two-sport
champion.
The Thieves have a JHL Stanley Cup title and a Super Bowl
title to his name, while the Slackers have a pair of JLB World Series titles.
After losing to the Jammers baseball team in back-to-back World Series, he has
to be excited to look across the field at a championship and not see his old
Kutztown roommate standing there grinning.
Now, he hopes he can get his name etched on the trophy so he
can grin back.
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