Week 15 Recap

Five years isn't much of a history, but it's enough to establish some historical trends. And in the history of Plastic Fantasy Football and Predicate Pigskin, no champion has ever repeated, and only once has the #1 playoff seed captured the championship trophy -- Los Osos, way back in 2006.

Did history repeat itself? In a word, yes. Let's go to the tape.

The football gods first made their displeasure with The Headbangers known on Wednesday, when top RBs Brandon Jacobs and Frank Gore did not participate in practice. Gore's backup DeShaun Foster was available, but the metalheads were forced to grab Buffalo WR Josh Reed out of the free agent pool in a desperate attempt to make up for Jacobs' absence before game-time. To his credit, Reed did indeed come up with the 4.4 points he was projected to, but this was cold comfort against a full-strength Fustigators team that responded with 30 from QB Matt Cassel, 26.4 from WR Steve Smith, and 17 from RB Sammy Morris.

Bo thus improves on his already-stellar coaching record: his team has made the playoffs all three seasons he's participated; they won two playoff games in 2007, and have now defeated the team that beat them in last year's championship -- thus competing for the title for the second season in a row! A multi-year contract extension is surely in the offing.
     Final Score: Edgewater Fustigators 122.2 -- The Headbangers 64.

The number two seed fared no better in semi-final action, as it happens. After garnering the lowest winning score of the playoffs in last week's contest, the Oak Ridge Trinities put on a Prothro-worthy performance against the Great Lakes Steamers, starting the wrong QB, the wrong WR/TE, the wrong D/ST, and the wrong PK. In stankow's defense, all of these changes would have been highly counter-intuitive -- and even had they been made, the resultant victory would have been a squeaker.

Josh got a powerhouse performance from TE Dallas Clark, who logged 26.4 points against Detroit; he added 17 from QB Drew Brees and 12.9 from WR Wes Welker to form the center of a tidy victory over the league's highest-scoring team, and will compete for the championship trophy next week in only his first year in the league. A very impressive run, but with so many Petersons in the mix, perhaps it's not so odd to see one hanging in there all the way to the end.
     Final Score: Great Lakes Steamers 94.2 -- Oak Ridge Trinities 75.9.

Next week's game is for all the marbles! Will the plucky rookie coach from out of nowhere cap his Cinderella story with a championship crown? Will the battle-tested post-season veteran finally get the deal done, like Tony Dungy? Or will he fall short yet again, like Andy Reid? The Edgewater Fustigators were favored in the matchup by close to 30 points before play began, but after Thursday Night Football produced 22.3 points for the Great Lakes Steamers (another fine performance from TE Dallas Clark) that margin has been cut in half. This one still looks too close to call from where the Commish sits.

Tune in next week for the final recap of Predicate Pigskin III!