2017 Season - Week 18

Last year after three consecutive years of huge upsets by the #16 seed over the #1 seed Craig finally stopped the rot, but the rot just set in again as Mark’s Westmorland Wolverines defeated the Leamington Hedgehogs 25-21 and so Craig’s bid to become just the second owner to do the Double Double is over in the first round. There was only one other Cup Upset as Daz’s Underachieving Bastards (ranked 13) defeated #4 seed Aaron’s Willoughby Wolves 38-32. The #2 seed Rhodesia Rams doubled up the Old England Patriots while #3 seed Sofa Wreckers came up just one TD short of the Hall of Fame as Johnnie defeated Dave G’s Misunderstood 44-16. Marcus (#5) and Wayne (#6) ended up with bye weeks after AP and George didn’t supply teams, while (#7) Gareth beat Ron 25-12 and Andy H (#8) beat David Stamp 32-25 thanks to 14 points from his kicker Graham Gano. So the Divisional round is Cheryl (2) v Mark(16), Johnnie (3) takes on Daz (13), Marcus (5) plays Andy H (8) and Wayne (6) hosts Chief (7). Teams to me by 10pm Friday so we can sort out swaps. This is a strict deadline, miss it and you are out, sorry. Best Wildcard Team For $4m you could have scored 50 points, so why didn’t you choose QB Marcus Mariota ($1m-12pts), Kicker Graham Gano ($1m-14), and 4 running backs who all cost $0.5m and scored a TD each. Alvin Kamara, Christian McCaffrey, Derrick Henry and Kareem Hunt were not the only players to score one TD at that price but they were the only ones any of us had selected. 50 is not a huge score though it would have got you through, but it does show how well Johnnie’s team did as he had 44 points. NFL Wildcard Weekend The first three wildcard games were not very good this year. Kansas City seemed to have things under control after a great time sensitive drive of 89 yards ended with a TD, with 3 seconds left in the first half. However they could not hold onto the 21-3 lead they had at halftime and capitulated to Tennessee who scored 3 second half touchdowns. The most extraordinary of them was a Marcus Mariota pass batted by a Chief defended and caught by Mariota who dived into the end zone. That was only the second time a QB had thrown a TD pass to himself (our Brad Johnson did it when he was with Minnesota). The Rams couldn’t overcome first half special team’s mistakes and Buffalo could only muster a field goal in Jacksonville. The best game of the weekend was the Saints hosting the Panthers where, down by five, Carolina got as close as the Saints 21 yard line on first down with 46 seconds left before a penalty and a sack ended the game. So in the AFC Divisional round it’s Jacksonville (#3) @ Pittsburgh (#2) & Tennessee (#5) @ New England (#1) while in the NFC it’s New Orleans (#4) @ Minnesota (#2) & Atlanta (#6) @ Philadelphia (#1).