2017 Season - Week 17

Two years ago the Hunt for the Papas Fritas went down to the final incompletion of the final game for Ron to hold off Chief. Last year’s was won with 39 seconds left in the last game of the second group of games on Sunday, however this year’s may have been the most exciting final day so far, both for the BUMS and the NFL. Aaron went into the weekend leading Craig by 3 and Johnnie by 24 but in the first quarter of the final group of games Johnnie had three TDs, two from Alvin Kamara and one from Devonta Freeman to close the gap. When his kicker Robbie Gould kicked a field goal with less than 5 minutes remaining in the first half Johnnie had tied Aaron at 487 each with Craig 5 points behind. Almost immediately after Craig’s recently signed replacement receiver Ty Williams caught a 56 yard TD and Craig took the lead on 488. Johnnie became the third league leader in the final 35 minutes of the final week when Devin Funchess scored with 55 seconds left in the half. By the time all games in the final set of games were at half time Johnnie lead with 493 with Aaron and Craig tied on 488. Craig went back in front on 494 when Doug Baldwin scored with 9 minutes left in the third quarter. By the end of the third quarter in all the final games Craig led on 497 while Johnnie had 494 and Aaron 492. The lead changed again when Johnnie’s franchise man Jarvis Landry scored for his beloved Miami with just 6:21 left in the season but in the aftermath of the score both Landry and Dolphins RB Kenyon Drake were disqualified from the game. Johnnie now led on 501 with Craig on 498 and Aaron on 492. That lifted Johnnie to 49 points just one shy of his 11th visit to the scoring Hall of Fame. Just after the Landry ejection Baldwin scored his second TD which put Craig back in front 504 to 501. It also put Seattle ahead of Arizona 24-23 having been 7-20 down, which was important as Johnnie’s head coach is Pete Carroll. Within a real life 2 minute span the championship was decided as with 16 seconds left Cam Newton’s pass to Johnnie’s Devin Funchess in the end zone was intercepted. Blake Bortles was then intercepted by Tennessee with 18 seconds left securing Craig’s head coach a 15-10 win (and Tennessee a post season berth), while Blair Walsh missed a field goal with 37 seconds left resulting in a 24-26 loss for Seattle. So after 5 lead changes in the final 35 minutes of the season, Craig retains his Papas Fritas Trophy becoming the fourth owner to successfully defend his title (Mark 1999-2000, Wayne 2003-4 and Johnnie 2009-10). Going Down & Coming Up There was no drama at the bottom of the Premiership where Mark was already down (70 points from safety when the day started). With QB Jared Goff and receivers Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill not playing Daz could only manage 10 points and so finished 10th with 382 points. AP had a good day scoring 26 points which lifted him to 391 points but he was outscored by George who was the second highest scorer of the day with 32 points and so George finished safe on 406 points, 15 ahead of AP. The conference champion has been known for many weeks and Cheryl ended up winning it by 74 points but a good 28 point score from Wayne saw him finish second 9 points ahead of David Stamp who returns to the Premiership for the first time since 2011.