Playoffs: Conference Finals

Chunky Monkeys vs Dirty Birds
There's a lot on the line here, that's obvious. It's two former champs facing off for the chance to secure a second championship. For the Birds, it's been four long years since their Super Bowl win. For the Monkeys, it's just two more victories until they repeat -- something nobody has ever done. Despite a roster simply brimming with talent, the Birds could have easily lost their first playoff game if heavy underdog Buffy had played Marion Barber (33), Kevin Jones (22), or Willie Parker (16) over the combo of Jamal Lewis (25) and Travis Henry (8). GM Yang would like to take it as a bullet he dodged but the truth of the matter is, the Birds deserved this victory, they needed this victory, and they got the victory.

Looking ahead to a huge conference championship, it'll be the three headed monster of Peyton Manning, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Terrell Owens. Even with a first round bye, Evan made his presence known by throwing up 141 points. With the Big Three chipping in 60-70 points a week, it'll take just one more player to step up and give the Monkeys some support. The question is will it be Antonio Gates (great draft day trade), Brandon Marshall (great draft pick), or Roddy White? The one sure thing is that we won't be seeing Monkeys' stalwarts Larry Johnson and Anquan Boldin on the field. Both are injured and in Larry Johnson's case, that's a great thing.

The Dirty Birds are truly taking to the skies this year as they boast a five headed receiving corps of Larry Fitzgerald, Braylon Edwards, Plaxico Burress, Wes Welker, and Greg Jennings. All five are in the top dozen WRs in the league. The biggest question is who to start? Braylon and Wes are no brainers. Larry has been consistent but also injured. Greg Jennings has been a revelation paired up with Brett Favre. Will Plaxico's inconsistency make him the odd man out? This is all assuming of course, that the Birds go run-and-shoot, but they could still pick between Steven Jackson, Adrian Peterson, and Rudi Johnson as their RBs. Did somebody say lineup headache?

The Monkeys have a cake walk of a schedule for all of their major stars and here's hoping Peyton sits out the second half. The Birds have a great chance of knocking off the reigning champs but they'll have to predict the future like Nostradamus in order to do it. We'll call it an even matchup with a coin flip deciding the winner. My heart says (a bit biased) Birds so we'll go with them for a minor upset.

Fobsters vs Gang Green
Do you realize that the first three owners in this year's supplemental draft was Jimmy, Jon, and Greg? And now all three are in the conference finals. Along with Evan, these are the only three teams that had winning records this year too, as the other two playoff participants (Buffy and Fat Jubas) sported losing records. The Fobsters, having a Cinderalla season, wasted no time punishing the Fat Jubas. Sporting the never before seen Three Tight End Attack, Jimmy's team had Jason Witten go for 24 points and Tony Gonzalez pop off for 16. Kellen Winslow was slow with 5 points but he usually does better.

More importantly, Tampa Bay's RB Earnest Graham has 20-16-14-22-25 points in his last five starts, indicating that he's a top five running back over that span. Earnest who? While the loss of Reggie Bush (out for the season) will certainly hurt, he looked better in the lineup than on the scorecard anyway. Behind Graham's 25 and Tom Brady's 45 points, the Fobsters dropped 136 points on the heads of the Fat Jubas. Eric's team could only muster up 94 points behind late season find Ryan Grant (22) and wasn't ever in serious contention anyway.

Who's the Fobsters' opponents this week? How about Greg, just married and out on his honeymoon this week. While he's already the happiest man alive, perhaps a fantasy championship would bring an extra bounce to this step this Christmas season. It'll be tough going though as his team is severly depleted and lacking a running game. Rueben Droughns and Warrick Dunn are Tier 3 running backs at best. Even with the indomitable Randy Moss, flanked by Hines Ward and Bernard Berrian, this team has trouble putting points on the board. It may be time to go run-and-shoot by adding Jerricho Cotchery to the mix. Another area of concern is at QB, as Philip Rivers and Eli Manning are both very average fantasy-wise (and maybe worse real football wise). Who can Greg call upon to drag his team to a championship? Randy Moss can't do it alone; can he?

We're predicting a huge blowout by the Fobsters, not because we want to wish ill will toward Greg but looking at the matchups on paper, who would you rather have as your best player? Tom Brady or Randy Moss? Exactly.

This game should be dubbed the "Thank You Jon for Giving Us These Patriots" game.