2005 Season - Week 18

For the first time in the 10 year history of the BUMS play-offs most of the results went to form with the top 6 seeds all winning. The only upsets were Marcus (seed 9) defeating David S (seed 8) and Johnny (seed 10) beating Andy H (seed 7). The Divisional match-ups will be Daz (1) v Johnny (10), AP (2) v Marcus (9), John (4) v Mark (5) and in the most intriguing and potentially most explosive match-up Cheryl (3) v Gareth (6) in the CooperBowl . Teams to me by 10am Saturday please. First come first served etc. NFL Wildcard Weekend Three road teams won this weekend with New England the only home winners looking back to Superbowl form in a 28-3 victory over Jacksonville. The biggest surprise probably came in Tampa Bay, not necessarily that Washington won but more the manner in which they won. Mark Brunell passed for a net 25 yards and The Redskins totalled just 120 yards on offence, the lowest ever to win a play-off game. Carolina won in New York as they shut out the Giants, the first time a team has been shut-out at home in the play-offs since The LA Rams did it to Tampa Bay in 1979. Eli Manning’s first start in the post-season saw him throw 3 Ints and fumble the ball once. The Steelers won in Cinci yet again, Cinci have the second longest drought in the playoffs. They haven’t won a postseason game since 1990 - the longest drought is Seattle (1984) who host Washington on Saturday. A huge cost in the loss was the injury to Carson Palmer on the second play of the game when an accidental hit on his knee blew out his ACL. It will take most of the off-season for Carson to rehab which may have a big impact on Chief’s franchise player decision. Talking of which… Hall of Fame - Old School Wing The votes are in and the players who never served on BUMS rosters long enough to be eligible for the BUMS Hall of Fame have now been selected for the Old School wing. We were due to induct 14 but due to a 4 way tie for 14th I am pleased to announce that 17 players have made it in led by Barry Sanders who polled 71 points. See attached. Franchise Players 2007-2008 You will select your Franchise player after the NFL Draft and majority of free agency as I shall be asking for your Franchise players for the next two years early in June. You’ll give up the players that you franchised two years ago though some have been cut due to injury or as they failed to live up to their owners hopes. Big names coming onto the market include. BUMS on Seats It’s time for the Divisional games this weekend. On Saturday night from 9:30pm we gather to see Washington @ Seattle, venue to be decided, let me know if you are coming. We’ll be at BUMS HQ on Sunday from 2:30pm to watch the recording of New England @ Denver which is played overnight, followed at 6pm on Sky with Pittsburgh @ Indianapolis followed by Carolina @ Chicago.