Early Playoffs Look

Inscrutable Drama Kings Division

MONKEYS. The Monkeys, despite a very up and down regular season, have locked up a slot for the playoffs. Partially helped by inexplicably poor season by Jon’s Dirty Birds and Lei’s Jammers, the Monkeys are now focused on taking the top spot this year. The Monkeys can ensure a much needed first week bye with either a win OR a loss by Buffy. The Monkeys have a tough matchup this week in their first matchup of the year against SMG leading Phreaks.

BUFFY. Buffy is on a 2 game slide but similar to the Monkeys, have benefitted from strange bifurcation in the division. Leading the division for much of the year, Buffy just gave up the top seed to the Monkeys last week after suffering their second straight loss. To overtake the top seed, Buffy needs to win against a fighting Fobster team but also need some help from the Phreaks.

ANTE UP. Jae’s Ante up team is locked into the 3rd slot. The team will be playing the Angels who have already been knocked out of contention. This match up could get worse ratings than MNF’s Cardinals and 49ers.

DIRTY BIRDS. A lineup with AP, Burner Turner, Larry Fitz, and Austin Miles somehow has a 4-8 record. We have no idea if it was terrible management, poor timing but with a talented roster, the Birds severely underperformed. Jon will need to begin the off-season tuning this week – it’ll be a long off season for the Dirtier than normal Birds.

JAMMERS. Another tough season for Lei’s team. Critical injuries to Ryan Grant (1st pick) and starting QB Tony Romo really hurt this team. Also, young talent including Beanie Wells, Percy Harvin, Michael Crabtree never really panned out (on a consistent basis). One redeeming light was the Jammers’ find in Mike Vick. Certainly a keeper for next year, the Jammers have a lot of potential pieces – they just need to find the right ones.

Spunky Misunderstood Geniuses Division

PHREAKS. Holy moly. The Phreaks are in the playoffs. Not only are theyin the playoffs, they have a very good shot at locking up the 1st slot in the SMG division. They need either a win over the Monkeys (easier said than done) or losses by both Jubas and Fobsters. While the second scenario is a bit more difficult, the key here is that the Phreaks control their own destiny. Even more importantly, the Phreaks are back in the playoffs!

FOBSTERS. Playoffs in – though the Fobsters also have an outside chance of nabbing a 1st week bye. They need a win and losses by both the Phreaks and Jubas to overtake the top position. This has been a good year for the Fobsters. Strong performances by Tom Brady and Megatron have anchored a roster that features young guns like Santonio Holmes, Dez Bryant and the ridiculous bowling ball known as Mike Tolbert.

JUBAS. The Jubas need a win and they are in the playoffs. A loss and a Gang Green win could put their playoffs hope in jeopardy and would come down to points scored. The Jubas have been really hampered by injury with yesterday’s revelation that Frank Gore will now be out of the year. Dallas Clark is also out on IR. After a strong 7-1 start, the Jubas have suffered an epic 4 game slide that has put their playoff position at risk.

GREEN. A .500 team that has an outside chance of making the playoffs. At first look, this is a team that is surprising in the fact that it even has a chance at making the playoffs. Their best players are Peyton Hillis, Brandon Lloyd and Steve Johnson. 3 players that prior to this year were fantasy bagels. Fast forward to this year and you realize that these 3 are 3 of the top fantasy playmakers of 2010. And to that, Green is the one team that no one wants to see in the playoffs. Green needs a win this week against the Jammers but also needs some help from the Jubas or Fobsters. There’s definitely a pulse here and its growing stronger by the week!

ANGELS. Powerhouse to the outhouse. Such is football. From the glories of the 2008 championship and division championship appearance in 2009, the Angels seem to be a cellar dwelling team at this point. Despite the presence of Brees, Andre Johnson and Greg Jennings … the key weakness for Vu was the lack of a run game. They had none. Cedric Benson is the only real mainstay and the rest of the roster is occupied by Keiland Williams, Clinton Portis, and DeAngelo Williams (out for the year). Yikes.

Show Me How to MNF Comeback

It's been a strange wild season, with old stars like Michael Vick rising from the ashes, the top running back (Arian Foster) was a 2010 second round draft pick, and Brandon Lloyd coming out of nowhere to be an impact player. Not to mention Terrell Owens and Hakeem Nicks, who have been top five WRs this year.

And take a look at those standings! Ping's Eagles are sitting pretty at 7-3-1 and two fighting weeks away from winning their first division title. Buffy is also 7-3-1 and with one more win will have the most regular season wins they've had since 2001. As we wind down the season, I wanted to take a look at the Week Ten games, which featured three super close games, and another high scoring matchup.

Chunky Monkeys (98) vs Dirty Birds (94)
Two teams headed in completely opposite directions, the Monkeys came roaring back Monday night and dashed the Birds' playoff hopes. Even though Big Ben had 42 points on the bench, GM Evan wasn't worried that Philip Rivers wouldn't take care of business. With four passing touchdowns, Rivers closed the twenty nine point gap, making up for the lackluster play by both Anquan Boldin and Brandon Marshall. Dwayne Bowe continues his late season surge, as he's been trending way up over the six weeks. For the Birds, a -2 showing by the Patriots defense sunk them, or maybe they just played the wrong receiver as Mario Manningham was weak with only three points, and every other reserve WR would have given the Birds the win.

Ante Up (128) vs Fat Jubas (127)
Jae's team has been clinging to a playoff spot all season and his up and down Ante Up really needed a win this week to push them toward the post-season. Playing Ahmad Bradshaw over LeSean McCoy cost him twenty points, but with Aaron Rodgers exploding for forty one, and a Ravens defense that notched two defensive TDs, Ante Up pulled out the one point victory. If Vernon Davis had scooped up a few more yards on his lone reception, the game could have gone the other way. Heading into the week, the Jubas were in an offensive slump, so this explosion was good to have despite the loss.

Fobsters (117) vs Gang Green (114)
Jimmy and Greg are battling each other for a playoff spot and this game had huge post-season implications. Greg's team has faced the second hardest schedule in the league, while Jimmy has had one of the easier ones. In WK4, the Fobsters punished the Greenies, 125-88, so Greg had even more reason to fire up his troops. Proving once again that he's the waiver wire maestro, Greg's team is led by Peyton Hillis, Brandon Lloyd, and Hakeem Nicks. However, it was another pickup, Buffalo WR Steve Johnson, who cranked out three touchdowns on the way to thirty five points, helping the Greenies to a big lead heading into Monday night.

Of course, Jimmy has been pretty good at cobbling his team together this year too, as his roster has been ripped apart by injuries and uselessness, especially at the RB postion. This team also features three TEs, who are all below average options. But oh the magic of Santonio Holmes, who paced the the Fobsters heading into Monday with his 27 points. While it seemed like too tall a task for a comeback Monday night with just RB Mike Tolbert playing, the feisty Charger had his best game of the season (22 pts) and came up with a huge win in the race of a playoff spot.

• All these fireworks and it was Vu's Battle Angels who had the best score of the week, 134 points, behind Drew Brees and Greg Jennings, who combined for seventy five. His opponent, Roger, had 107 points but wasn't quite within striking distance throughout.

Game of the Week (9)

This week’s game of the week is a matchup between both division leaders, Fat Jubas of the Spunk Misunderstood Geniuses ad Buffy of the Inscrutable Drama Kings. This week 9 matchup has been long anticipated as both Fat Jubas and Buffy have been leading their respective divisions for most of the season. It is also a battle between the top two scoring teams in the league.

Coming off of a loss to the DIRTeByRDeeZ, in which Buffy GM Roger attributed it to poor management decisions, he is looking to bounce back with a road victory at Fat Jubas. “The loss this past week at home was my fault, the players did what they needed to do, but it was my mistake in utilizing a defense that was unfamiliar with the Buffy scheme,” acknowledged the Buffy GM. “You know, every week, I put my guys in a position to win, and I go ahead and make a stupid stupid mistake. At least my name isn’t Brad Childress.”

While lineups have not been finalized, it is anticipated that the matchups will be as follows:

QBs: Carson Palmer vs. Peyton Manning, edge Fat Jubas
RBs: Arian Foster and Matt Forte vs. Darren McFadden and Justin Forsett, edge Buffy
WRs/TEs: Wes Welker, Chad Ochocinco, Antonio Gates vs. Marques Colston, Aaron Hernandez, Tony Gonzalez, edge Even

Even with Chris Johnson, Frank Gore, and Vernon Davis out this week, the powerhouse that is Fat Jubas look like they are in pretty good shape to protect their house. GM Buffy will have to rely on his coach’s rating (3rd overall to the Jubas 5th). This could very well be a preview of this year’s CTDB Super Bowl. Stayed tuned.