If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. A narrow loss to extinct franchise Skins All the Way kept the Star Wars franchise out of the playoffs in 2010. A dominant run through the consolation tournament gave them the win and the top draft pick. Run DMC, CJ2k and Brady have given the Raiders a force to be reckoned with, fifth in points and a playoff 6 seed this year.
Lone Star -
The Cowboys are the heart and soul of BDT. And deep in the heart of Texas has been a bright titration in the second half, carrying the Heidiggerians to four straight wins to end the season and a #3 seed. With Romo, Austin, Robinson & Murray (to say nothing of Sack King Ware) in their stables, the BDT will depend on an above average Sunday Night match-up with desperate division rivals the Giants. The G-men were heavily overmatched the last two weeks against New Orleans and Green Bay, but the Cowboys are not as deadly an offensive opponent. As Romo goes, so goeth the Boys - and hence BDT. It's a big job for the invisible fantasy O-line to stop the powerful Giants pass rush. With superstar keeper Austin returning he's seemingly a must-start, but can he provide the stability that Laurent Robinson has produced. Or (gasp!) could BDT gamble on a quad-titration (QB, RB, WR1, WR2)? Regardless of how heavy it tilts, BDT's season rests in Jerry Jones' house on Sunday night. If poetically, man dwells then the origin of this season's art is it's unveiling (ἀλήθεια).
Revenge of the Sith -
The Lucas-ites three-pronged keeper is likely to still be simply a double edged
light sabre in Week 14. But that's plenty scary for BDT. The better part of why is the timely resurgence of CJ2k. Two weeks of return-to-form numbers have Johnson poised to take the Raiders deep into the playoffs. And a match-up against New Orleans could give last year's superstar plenty of room to run. Run DMC's replacements Marshawn Lynch and Sproles are no slouches either and Lynch is facing a cake-walk match-up against the Rams. Brady is still Brady, but a Skins match-up will tell the tale of the Raiders' titration. Brady needs to go off big time, and do something he hasn't done in a long time - hit Hernandez for a TD for the Tusken FC to truly b34st.Trends:
BDT won it's last four games in fine style - scoring an impeccable 128.3 ppg. Their hot hand led them to finish as the league's top scorer. To keep that score near that 130ish ceiling they'll need the game expected of RB1 Ray Rice playing a dream match-up with Indy. He picked up 27 last week against a similarly sad sack Browns squad. The exit of Fred Davis hurts this squad no little bit, he had become a key piece in a position where most team's can't expect consistent production. BDT has built the best team "on paper" in the league, by constructing a team of all "good" players. They have a 1 in nearly every position, but in no position do they have the league #1. It's put them on the track to excellence so far and it should give them better than odds-on chance to win this game too.
The Raiders finished the final four 3-1 with a strong flourish. Dented by a tough bye in week 11 their average over that span was 110 PPG. But their ceiling is around 130. They're the classic high-upside franchise. And with Brady and Johnson working at capacity there's no team in the league that shouldn't fear them. There's clearly big talent here, the question is the production of 2s like Sproles, Marshall or Hernandez (or roll-of-the-dice like Moore). If those guys are meeting their projections then the Tuskens will be right there at the finish of this one.
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