Giants, Legends Cruise Into SemiFinals.

And so here we are down to four teams playing for glory.

No clever yet snarky photo this week. But enjoy this basket of kittens:

 

This past weekend lacked the drama of the last two weeks of the regular season but the results are no less interesting. Both the 3 and 4 seeds went down. That has only happened once since we've been on the MFL site (more on this below).

Both the Giants and Legends took control of their games early and never were seriously threatened. The Giants benefited from a season-high 30 points from Jonathan Taylor. He had 22 the week before against the Texans and face them again this week so that's something to look for in Rick's match up with the Heroes. Devonte Adams remains hot, too (thanks for Aaron Rogers) and those two could be enough to put them on equal footing with the league's hottest team.

On the other side of the bracket the Legends didn't have their best week of the year but got enough to win by eleven over the Bliz. Paz no doubt expected more than 8 from Aaron Jones. He'd have hit his 17 point per start average the game would have been a nail-biter. 

And a little birdie whispered in my ear that had the Strawmenn, who were oh-so-close to making the playoffs, would have put up about 130ish points this past weekend. To quote a very wise old commish..."Fantasy Football can be a cruel mistress."

Looking ahead we have the top seeds back in action as the Nats take on the Legends and the Heroes look to derail the Giants' hopes of a repeat. The #1 and #2 seeds would naturally be favored but this is fantasy football.  Who the hell knows?

With the higher seeds going down in wildcard week I got to thinking about how this has played out in the past. As mentioned above only once since 2003 have the #3 and #4 seeds both been knocked out in the wild card round. In ten of those past seventeen seasons both those seeds won. Overall the #3 seed is 15-2 and the #4 is 11-6. 

A Look At WC Week Results:

Also of note is the seeding of all the champs from those years. Names are in the chart above and numbers summarized here....

No #4 or #6 has won it all in the MFL era. The Giants are looking to change one of those.

Thoughts on the league going forward:

Last week I touched on the fact that next year will look different but I honestly haven't gone very far down the road as to what the changes will be. But trust me, there will be a couple. 

I know I want to revamp the draft, in particular how teams get slotted in Round 1. I know that the non-playoff teams will get loaded into the front half of the first round but how that's accomplished, how the playoff teams get slotted, and what happens in subsequent rounds is still up in the air. I have ideas and others have been thrown at me. But nothing is set right now. As with all things here I'd like to keep it as uncomplicated as possible while being fair to all. 

Playoff qualifiers will likely be changed as well. You can almost count on the top scoring, non-W/L qualifier being included, either as the #6 or, in a revolutionary change, the #7. I've got a few other tricks up my sleeve as well.

I will be running the NFL playoff contest again this year. I just need to make sure that the site is still in business or I'll find another one. I seem to recall that MFL hosts the same sort of thing. Of course it all hinges on the NFL staying about the COVID waterline. That's to be determined.

Best of luck to the guys involved in the semi-finals. Should be fun.