Week 11 Recap

Well, that was entertaining. Nice Monday night rebound from the no-account Monday nights of the past few weeks. Several games hung in the balance, not the least of which was the Nationals-Legends matchup which had big implications for James' crew anyway.

His bunch went in with a nice lead and the Tampa kicker playing but the Nats employed Robert Woods and Chris Godwin in a 'death-by-a-million-cuts' strategy. And it almost proved fatal as the Nats chipped slowly away at the Legends' lead throughout the game. If you listened closely as the game wound down you could almost hear James wondering out-loud about a Succop field goal for some breathing room versus risking overtime. 

In the end, the Legends had a three-point win and still held a piece of the Lombardi lead. The loss to the Legends also kept the Nats from clinching the #1 seed. They hold the tie-break over the Heroes and Holes with head-to-head wins. 

The Strawmenn-Pirates game was even closer and it also held big implications for one club. With the reeling Blizzard having already lost, Padilla's bunch had a shot at a slice of first place in the division. Their eight-point lead going into Monday night wasn't huge but with Ronald Jones playing versus Antonio Brown for the Pirates it seemed somewhat comfortable. But then Jones came up really small. A two-point turkey, in fact. Meanwhile, AB put up nine, and with the Bucs' last drive underway, it was obvious Brady had to put the ball in the air. Brown needed just a three-yard catch to gain another point and tie the game for Jack. Sure enough, Brady targeted him on the third play of the drive. But the pass was short. Brady then threw a game-killing pick and the Pirates' hopes for an upset were killed as well. 

Elsewhere the Holes clinched the Hamman by beating the Blizzard. As Paz pointed out to me, he's 3-0 with McCaffrey, 3-5 without. Flyers moved down with a win. Yup, moved down. They would be out of the playoffs if the season ended despite being #2 in league scoring. The Giants leapfrogged them and the Blizzard with a win and now hold the #6 seed chip with two weeks to play. In the 3-way tiebreak, they are 2-0 among the 6-5 teams. The Blizzard went from the #3 seed after week 10 to the no-seed with their loss. They'd lose out to the Strawmenn for the division based on PPG since they split the season series.

If The Playoffs Started Today (I'd be pissed!)
Let's see how things shake out with two weeks to go. Quite a change from a few weeks back.

Byes:
#1  Nats 9-2
#2  Heroes 7-4 (1-0 vs Legends)

Wild Card Round #3 v #6, #4 v #5:
#3  Holes 7-4
#4  Strawmenn 6-5 (1-1 vs Bliz, higher PPG for division)
#5  Legends 7-4
#6  Giants 6-5 (2-0 vs Flyers and Blizzard)
and the Unlucky Dog---Flyers (2nd in league scoring)

Random Thoughts... 

Looks like we may just make it through the season now. I hate to jinx us but the NFL seems to have dodged (or is ignoring) the COVID bullet.. Cook Update: Now we're looking at a possible McCaffrey issue. He is now on track to qualify as he has played just three games and the rule (which probably needs to be looked at) says 'five or fewer games'. Micheal Thomas has played four games but he's not been IR'd so we can write off his chances... I may do a Permutations Tuesday' this year. I'm not sure if the fact that Week 13 contains non-division games for the first time would make it easier or harder...Some big games on tap for Week 12, Flyers-Legends may have the most playoff implications of any of them. Buckle up!