Week 14 Previewz: 1st Round Edition

 

Playoffs are here!  Hooray!  Allow me to be overly enthusiastic, as there are only four games this week and I believe this is the easiest time to lose focus.  I mean, you are really allowed to, no one's making you play fantasy football after you are out of contention.  I commend those that are still paying attention in the consolation bracket though, myself included.  Anyways, we got two exciting match-ups in the "better" bracket and two more potentially good match-ups in the "bitter" bracket.  Here's your previewz.

(3) TakingTigerMountain 9-4 vs (6) SanFranciscoFerries 7-6

The first-round of the playoffs commence with the third meeting of these storied franchises this year.  In the regular season, the Geaux Tigers swept the series, but something tells me that Arbiter isn't spreading cheez comfortably here.

Tigers secured the third seed last in the regular season finale after beating the then-top-ranking Nauts.  The win was even more impressive because one end of the CCC had completely fallen off the face of the earth with Jimmy G scoring a zero.  Brees and Brown's big games plus bonus Minnesota defense in the upper twenties more than compensated for the star TE's absence, and in a way it was good to get that out of the system.  I mean, tight ends are like one-deep this season.  Moving forward, the wideouts are pretty set with Brown, Edelman and Sanu, but the backfield leaves some question marks with Ingram having some health concerns and the rest of this bunch being involved in RBBC situations.  Getting that titration right is probably the key to secure that Week 15 Nauts rematch.

Arguably the hottest team of the second half of the season in which they outscored the rest of the league by almost 50 in points scored from Week 7 to Week 13, the Ferries could have gotten the forth or even the third seed if something rolled differently last week although it really didn't matter in the end.  Bell got 30+ points and four more were in double digits in the loss.  The Boatmen have arguably the best backfield with L-Bell, Lacy and Forsett, plus O-B-Jr and Landry complement the Gronk at receivers.  Their concern is the QB position, where it's getting harder to titrate between Wilson and Stafford by the week.  The Frisco Kid went after Johnny Football hoping for an upgrade, but Hoyer will play the spoiler and start in Cleveland.  The pickup could, and should, help the Ferries moving forward, as Hoyer is rumored to be benched unless the Dawgs beat the Colts.  Hashtag hangman.  Ferries are hoping for a shootout Seattle-Philly game. 

Will it be TTM or SFF that touch the Sky in Week 15

(4) Dijonnaise All-Stars 9-4 vs (5) BuildingDW3LL1NGTh1nk1ng 8-5

Colonel Mustard and Hermodorus battle it out for the right to challenge Monique's supremacy.  In their previous match in Week 8, Foster scored three TDs and A-Rodg threw for 400+ yards to lift the Yellow to victory.

Earlier in the year, Colonel's troops were considered a cinderella.  Those days are long gone, as the Mustards beat another playoff team in the Ferries to wrap up the regular season with a very respectable 9-4 record.  There are only a handful of true elite QB1 and RB1 in the league this year, and Colonel is in possession of one in each of those positions with Rodgers and Foster.  Mix them with a group of overachieving Caprice veterans like S-Jax and good waiver pickups like LaFell, and you've got the bet bot-draft based team in PSAS history that won't surprise anyone if they go all the way.  Colonel even flashed baby-butt smooth titration skills sitting Mike Evans last week.  Tampa resurgence has Muscle Hamster spring back to life, which if you look at it can be the weak-link of the Yellow.  With A-Rodg matched up against Atlanta MNF and Foster playing in Jaxville, look for the troops' high-scoring ways to continue this week.

The Titration Thinkers of Chico stumbled onto the playoffs after dropping an almost meaningless game to the Shock.  Bad Romo sort of showed up and Jordy was shadowed by Revis.  Let's hope the bad juju is out of system.  While consistently proving the ability to grind out the win, the Philosophers, ranking 8th in scoring for the season, have lacked the explosive firepower to get endorsement from Toyota.  The roster peppered with former wire-hangers make getting this titration right tricky, but if anyone can pull it off it'll be the Boyz of Chico.  Counter-titrating Nelson is just the tip of iceburg lettuce in terms of tricks in the bag for BDT.  I mean, they got three team defense and three tight ends, so they must be eying that Week 16 Championship.  

 

Who'll be Monique's Companion?

(9) Trichotillomaniacs 4-9 vs (12) Polk High Panthers 3-10

We hear some crying babies in the background of this one as two disappointed franchises play the first-round of consolation.  The Trichs won the Week 8 shoot-out.

(10) The Old Future 4-9 vs (11) ThePelicanBrief 4-9

The second of the first-round consolation is between two more broken hearts.  The regular-season match in Week 7 resulted in the Pelican getting their first win of the season (and getting drunk from Shock Top overconsumption). 

Playoff Recap - Week 14

The wildcard round got things started with some b34st 'hawk antics to push two Eleatic squads to the semis.  BDT will carry the best of the remaining projections ahead, but with Dez' finger again an Achilles heel, they will be tested by the g0dz.

Bloodz 149.6
SFF 128.0 

The Bloodz dizzying team D spun the Ferries right round, and out of the title hunt.  Seattle's vaunted (and consistently under-performing) defense finally found its cure in the given-up for dead Cards. The 'Hawks murdered Arizona to the tune of 41 points, including (cue Benny Hill music and clip montage) 3 sacks, 4 interceptions, 4 fumble recoveries (two on kickoffs) and two defensive TDs. It was a true landslide and the fantasy fallout doomed the Ferries, who on even a normal blowout day would have taken this one.  It was a day of almost for the San Francisco Treats who saw Washington's game-tying score and two point conversion go to Cousins after RG3 went down with a knee injury.   All in all the Ferries put six out of seven offense positions in double digits and set their season high for points.  Up until the end of the early games it seemed like everything was going right for SFF with Owens even finding storybook value from a Jags RB.  The Ferries actually counter titrated ten of Seattle's points back with CB  Wanger, who picked up a pair of interceptions.  On the Bloodz side the Seattle massacre covered for a few miscues.  Peyton was again mild in a conservative Thursday night victory. Meyers pulled a 0 at TE, and CJ?K's reversion to early season obscurity continued.  Boldin showed up for a second straight double digit, wasted on the bench this week. Still, Marshall was the top fantasy receiver and combined with Forte for 33.  And VJax again found a way to make noise - he's the fourth highest scoring fantasy receiver this year. He was a super-bargain at $11 in the draft.  Marshall is #1 so the Bloodz have truly found the elite air formula this year.  Hernandez showed up on MNF and made this look like a laugher, but this was one of the best playoff games in PSAS history.   Some hard luck for the San Francisco squad, but it's better to go out on your highest note than with a whimper.  (and grade 1 sprain diagnosis aside, we have hard time imagining that RG3 will be full b34st in week 15). The Bloodz move on to try and take the Mountain in match-up of the 2010 and 2011 champions.


Phat Girlz 124.2
AEthernauts 77.2

The Girlz weighed in over 120 as the Nauts lost altitude and descended out of the championship race.  Bryce  Brown, who emerged from nowhere to lead the Aeros playoff charge with two 20+ world-beating weeks, was completely contained by the Bucs D and drew a critical zero.  That kind of bum luck was the steering star for the Explorers in week 14 as Turner continued his trend of fewer and fewer snaps played. Calvin had another big receiving day, but Stafford couldn't find him the end zone.  Meanwhile Sproles and Rivers drew big numbers on the bench.  We said picking the right three backs was going to be critical here, but it's easier said than done.  The three headed Texan Shaub/Johnson/Owen needed a big number to make up 80 pts on MNF, but never got anywhere close as New England went up early and smothered the Houston offense.  Meanwhile the Girlz were in playoff shape with Eli and Wallace both returning to form with timely 20+s.   Marshawn Lynch did the honors of team b34st with 30 in the Seattle stampede.  Probably of greatest concern to the Girlz are the Saints struggles, where untimely offensive woes have left Colston and Graham out in the cold.  They survived a loss this week, but now that they're practically out of the playoff race, what kind of offense will Brees run?  Pittsburgh's D got hammered, in shocker and took a zero where they were projected for double digits. It's probably a moot point this week as PG will return to Houston vs. Indy.   As good as the Girlz were this week, they'll likely need to improve to take out the German Philosopher's in the division round.  It's been a calendar month since Jimmy Graham broke double digits.  The Phat Ones need a Saints shoot out in the worst way, is the Bucs game the answer to their prayers?

Playoff Preview - #3 Int'l Necronauts vs. #6 Vickskennel.com

The undercard in this weekend's 1st round playoff tournament game is an Ephesian grudge match that pits the Necronauts, who sailed into the division title, vs the Kennel Klub, who fell from grace multiple times but are out for redemption as an underdog. Vicks took the first match-up in happier times for them (week 4) - that win put Vicks at 3-1 and the Nauts at 1-3. The Nauts would plumb the depths of hell at 2-5, before ripping off 6 straight wins to finish out. Vicks on the other hand, finished with a gentleman's C winning two out of their last seven. Who controls the Asian division? Who's offerings does Artemis favor?

Location: Temple of Artemis, Ephesus

Int'l Necronauts - The Necronauts check in as the fourth highest scoring team over the course of the season at 1318.6. That's good for an average of 101.4. But that's carrying an under-titrated first half along with it. Of late, the Nauts are the most consistently bad ass team on the block - averaging 116.6 over the last 6 games (more than a 17 point improvement over their average over the first 7!) That alone gets the Necronauts the Most Improved Player award running away. And speaking of running away, if the Dead Sailors are moving out of round 1 that's exactly how they're going to do it. With a backfield line-up of Adrian Peterson and Cedric Benson, backed by talented kids with high-upsides like Ivory and Choice - this team has legs to spare. But their hands are nothing to sneeze at either with Manningham, Calvin Johnson & Steve Johnson leading a powerful receiver corps. If they have a weakness it's in the QB spot, but with Conservative Cassel going this weekend against a tough Chargers pass D, the Nauts will hope he'll keep his TD/Interception ratio as positive as it's been so far this year. With these kind of guns below deck, it's difficult to imagine the Nauts going sub-100 this week either. They should treat this game as a showcase, a chance to do some saber-rattling and drive up ratings for their prospective 2nd round match-up with BDT.

Vickskennel.com - The hobbled Dogs have shot themselves in the foot so many times, there was little surprise when WR standout Dez Bryant literally hobbled himself last week with a broken leg. The most interesting news about the Kennel Klub this week may be whether or not the Commissioner has to set this team's line-up for them, or whether they intend to reclaim the reigns of the team. They've averaged 96.2 points per game over the season. But, almost a mirror image of the Naut's Tale of Two Seasons, Vickskennel never recovered from an emotional loss to the Thanatoids in Week 6. Up to that point they had a five game streak of 100+ games, since then only two (both of which they won). A lot of anger has swirled around this franchise - words like "black stain" and "betrayal" and "robot team" refuse to go away. Showing back up and upsetting the rabble's chosen team before Christmas would be a proper way to regenerate their bad boy image. The team is led by standouts Phillip Rivers at QB and Ray Rice at RB, but after that there's a sharp drop off. With two Jets and a Dolphin in the 2nd tier category Vicks may be hoping for a shoot out in a game that could easily end up south of 17 pts between the teams. They'll need more than 100 to win this game, and it's difficult to see how it happens if they don't log on the damn website.