ROUGH RYDERS 2008: Playoff Semi-Finals

I don't want to write this recap, but I suppose I ought to say a little something...

You might remember that back in Week Twelve, I lost to Applesauce by .93 FP, and that I was appropriately sickened by it...Well, here we are in the FICL playoff semifinals, and I lose once again to Applesauce, although this time his victory was much more convincing.

What bothers me is that from what I can tell, Applesauce hasn't managed his team since the very early part of the season, and it's soul-crushing to lose to a team that isn't even trying...They had three starting players out with injuries, and still they beat our beloved WINONA ROUGH RYDERS by 22 FP...Soooo frustrating.

But, to be fair, even if he had been actively managing his team, we still would have lost...

In other words, this was one of those weeks when too many of my players underperformed. It's not quite a perfect storm of suckitude, but it's close enough...

Fucking Cuts had one of his worst games of the season...

Greg Jennings had 3 lousy catches for 22 yards, and it was really only luck that one of those catches happened to be a TD...He still underperformed, like most of his Green Bay Packer teammates...Man, the Packers are good at losing games in the closing minutes...They're now officially eliminated from playoff contention...As such, all I can do now is hate on the Minnesota Vikings with all my heart...Better the Chicago Bears represent the NFC North...

Terrell Owens had another shitty game...He's had more shitty games than good ones this year, and there's no doubt that he was the biggest "bust" on my team...A smarter manager probably would have benched him at some point, if only for a week or two...My problem is that I genuinely like T.O. Oh sure, he's a bigger asshole (and less fun) than Chad Johnson (my #1 WR last year), but I still think that a great NFL receiver should be a bit of a diva, and I think T.O. is misunderstood moreso than actually being a "lockerroom cancer" as he's been called repeatedly throughout his career...Now, I tend to believe that where there's smoke, there's usually fire or a bong, but in Terrell Owens case, I just think he mistakenly says the wrong things to the wrong people at the wrong time, and yeah, I imagine he's got a bong. Anyways...Biggest bust on my team this year, and I hate to say it, he's probably too old to be a viable #1 anymore, kinda like Marvin Harrison, and possibly even Randy Moss...

The Pittsburgh Steelers' Defense had another great game in reality (they're statistically the best defense in the NFL), but in fantasy, they didn't quite deliver...While they held Baltimore's offense to only 9 points and won the game, they only had 2 sacks and 2 turnovers, and because the score was so low, didn't get the opportunity for many return yards...Thus, not as many FP as they are capable of garnering...Meanwhile Applesauce had Baltimore's Defense, and even though the Ravens lost the game, they scored 12 more FP than my Steelers' Defense, all because they had 140 more return yards...Who says the punting and kicking game isn't important? Fuck.

Tied into this, of course, are the individual performances of Troy Polamalu and James Harrison, neither of whom did very much of anything, giving me only 6 FP combined when in a normal week they would have given me 15-20 FP...

None of my other defensive players did anything either...

All told, 11 of my 15 players didn't hit their projected scores...You don't win many games that way, obviously...

The other big story, I suppose, was Frank Gore. My big, bruising #1 draft pick was out with an injury this week, the first time in the last two years he's missed a game...

Now, I actually did a fairly good job in covering for his absense...I spot started rookie Jonathan Stewart for the first time since Week Two or Three, and he held his own against his Carolina Panther teammate DeAngelo Williams, who started for Applesauce...And I pulled the trigger on recent acquisition Tashard Choice from the Dallas Cowboys. He ended up leading the Cowboys in rushing and receiving yards, and contributed a healthy 33 FP to the ROUGH RYDER cause...In the end, with Thomas "Green Moses" Jones having his typical great day, my running backs did as well as they do in any typical week...

But the bottom line is, our beloved WINONA ROUGH RYDERS fucking lost to a team with an absentee manager, and now we're relegated to playing the consolation game for 3rd place, rather than making a return trip to the Championship game, which we've done 2 of the last 3 seasons...

This could have been the year when whispers of "dynasty" started bouncing around the FICL message board, but instead, we're probably going to get our asses handed to us by NESTOFDEATH, and finish in 4th place...

Sigh. It can all go to hell so, so quickly...

Hotcha! Hank