2003-04


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2006-07
 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | 2010-11


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2003-04 Champions:
PackerPuke

Are you kidding me? A wild finish to a wild season. The PackerPuke and Hippy were separated by but 1380 points out of more than 94,000, then go to the wire in the playoffs with the PackerPuke prevailing by 22 points out of more than 15,400. But only after initially 'losing' by 23 points. In the biggest faux pas reporting since Dewey Defeats Truman a scoring correction of 45 points transfers the league title from the Hippy to the PackerPuke. The error was not reported to the commissioner as prescribed by league bylaws (link) but was discovered during telephone calls to managers by the commissioner to ensure proper scoring and finalize results. It was during one of these calls an error was brought to attention, rechecked, and corrected. Seems I made a mistake with Delhomme's scoring. Corrected, it means the PackerPuke win it all. and I mean 'it all!' Just 24 hours earlier it appeared the Hippy had 3 titles in 3 years with 2 overall titles (16 Manager Points) (link), and the PackerPuke had 2 titles in 2 years with one overall title (10 Manager Pts). But now with the correction, the League Championship Leader changes hands as well (PackerPuke 15-11 - a 10 point swing!). And the PackerPuke become the first team in league history to sweep the Regular Season Championship and the Overall Championship giving them 2 championships this season and 3 overall in just 2 seasons. The Hippy now has but 2 championships in 3 years. And all this happened on the strength of a 10-yard run (22 pts.). Or was it Foster's 33 yard TD run (128 pts) with 1:08 to play? Or was it Vinatieri's 41 yard FG (100 pts) with 0:04 to go? Or was it . . . oh hell, never mind. Congratulations to the 2003-2004 GridIron Gurus Champion PackerPuke. Congratulations to those pesky Africans making that charge (thank God the Super Bowl didn't go into overtime or they might have won it all). Congratulations to the Horny Hippy for running a vicious second place both in the regular season and the playoffs, and congratulations to all three managers for providing a competitive and fun playoff for all. All in all, this year was Amazing stuff!
 
Final Regular Season Standings
Rank Team Total Pts Back
1-z
PackerPuke 47709
-
2-x
Horny Hippy 46329 01380
3-x
Mid-South Africans 42052 05657
4
Trigun Gladiators 39584 08125
5
Penal Cowgirls 37065 10644
6
Justwin 31262 16447
7
slammers 11495 36214
Playoff Scoring by Round
  Horny
..Hippy..
Packer
Puke
Midsouth
Africans
Wildcard 2548 2452 1233
Divisional 2422 2674 3024
Conference 1695 1514 1333
Super Bowl 1014 1061 1897
Total Points 7679 7701 7487

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| for playoff help and rules see bottom of page |
See how the playoff teams got here . . . look at the streaks coming down the stretch (in red) by
each of the playoff teams and you will see, they got here the old-fashoned way - they earned it!
Scoring by the week
Packer
Puke
Horny
...Hippy...
Mid-South
Africans
and here are the best 13 weeks of the year . . .
notice 11 of the 13 are by playoff teams
01 2964
02 2554
03 2345
04 2974
05 2534
06 2763
07 2948
08 3218
09 2630
10 2750
11 2245
12 2404
13 2354
14 3760
15 3688
16 2740
17 2838
01 3241
02 2443
03 2062
04 2994
05 2508
06 2733
07 2290
08 2299
09 2775
10 2660
11 2586
12 2442
13 3632
14 2957
15 2883
16 3089
17 2735
01 1942
02 2336
03 2105
04 2761
05 1562
06 2387
07 2207
08 2297
09 2280
10 2519
11 2281
12 2538
13 3342
14 3322
15 2314
16 3178
17 2681
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11 PackerPuke
12 PackerPuke
13 Horny Hippy
14 Mid-South Africans
15 Mid-South Africans
16 Horny Hippy
17 PackerPuke
18 Mid-South Africans
19 Trigun Gladiators
10 Justwin
11 Horny Hippy
12 Horny Hippy
13 PackerPuke
3760.wk 14
3688.wk 15
3632.wk 13
3342.wk 13
3322.wk 14
3241.wk 1
3218.wk 8
3178.wk 16
3156.wk 4
3100.wk 2
3089.wk 16
2994.wk 4
2974.wk 4


Playoff Scoring:
Week #1:
PackerPuke - 2452
Horny Hippy - 2548
Midsouth Africans - 1233
QB
QB
QB
Brett Favre - 355
Peyton Manning - 671
Tom Brady - bye
Donovan McNabb - bye
Matt Hasselback - 197
Steve McNair - 106
WR
WR
WR
Steve Smith - 364
Marvin Harrison - 400
Issac Bruce - bye
Torry Holt - bye
Derrick Mason - 132
Troy Brown - bye
Donald Driver - 144
Rod Smith - 202
Darrell Jackson - 126
RB
RB
RB
Ahman Green - 396
Clinton Portis - 172
Priest Holmes - bye
Stephen Davis - 326
Jamal Lewis - 110
Shaun Alexander - 314
Marshall Faulk - bye
Edgerrin James - 229
Antwain Smith - bye
TE
TE
TE
Todd Heap - 232
Tony Gonzales - bye
Shannon Sharpe - 72
K
K
K
Mike Vanderjagt - 245
Jason Elam - 125
John Kasay - 370
D
D
D
Carolina - 390
Baltimore - 310
Green Bay - 245
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Game Reviews: (Want your comments/reviews posted here? Submit them by clicking here)
TEN 20 BAL 17 - In a game featuring idiot savant coaches, both lived up, er down to their billing. Both teams refused to dance with the beau that brought them to the dance, and seemed to desperately try to out-lose the other. For 3-plus quarters TEN, featuring the NFL's Co-MVP QB who once scored 30+ points in 7 straight games insisted on trying to pound an aged RB at a great defense. And BAL, who had the second best runner in NFL history, and in a game that was close the entire way, instead chose to pass on virtually every down - with a QB that couldn't beat out Quincy Carter. Of course both reverse strategies failed miserably, and in the end it was Air-McNair's passing that saved the day for TEN. The result was a painful game to watch regardless of who one rooted for. The only good thing about having an idiot coach, is that he is unpredictable. So perhaps TEN will return to the passing game in the next round and may yet make a serious run at the big show.
CAR 29 DAL 10 - DAL started 6-1; that was the miracle. In that span they beat some woeful AFC teams. But in the restructured NFL and its new BCS-style tiebreaking system that somehow meant something, because despite a 4-5 finish the Cowboys somehow managed to clinch a playoff spot at 10-4 and quite literally backed into the last playoff spot at 10-6. So the Cowboys made the playoffs; that was the dream. Saturday night they finally had to deal with reality, and it was ugly as a good but not great CAR team predictably whipped them silly at every conceivable turn. The only real surprise was that the anemic DAL offense actually scored!  And holy shit, they did it twice!  Nuff said.
GB 33 SEA 27 - In by far the best -and most competitive- game of the weekend, football fans got the royal treatment. This game featured everything including great performances from a Master QB and his former understudy, tenatious defense against good running attacks, game-winning caliber drives on both sides, missed game-winning field goals, frozen tundra, overtime, the 4,384th bad call from part-time NFL officials this year, and the now routine 3,875th failed replay correction of those bad calls. In the end, the understudy finally made a mistake, a besieged defense took advantage, and the home team prevailed. All in all, a fun game to watch.
IND 41 DEN 10 - Any Given Sunday. It's an old cliché that is even more true today in the parity-driven NFL. This game proved the old adage true more so than any other in recent memory. Just two weeks ago Denver disected the Colts. But this Given Sunday was payback. And to quote an old wise man, "Payback is a bitch." Peyton Manning won his first playoff game in seven tries in heroic fashion with a perfect (rating-wise) first half (31-3) en route to a perfect game (rating-wise), and IND never glanced back. Now IND faces KC, a game featuring two great offenses and not a single defense in sight - not even combined. Should be fun . . .


Week # 2:
PackerPuke - 2674
Horny Hippy - 2422
Midsouth Africans - 3024
QB
QB
QB
Donovan McNabb-503
Peyton Manning-468
Tom Brady-241
Brett Favre-237
6-Trent Green-290
Steve McNair-235
WR
WR
WR
Torry Holt-46
Marvin Harrison-208
Troy Brown-35
Steve Smith-412
Derrick Mason-254
Issac Bruce-246
Donald Driver-54
4-David Givens-60
 3-Dante Hall-370
RB
RB
RB
Marshall Faulk-378
Edgerrin James-456
Priest Holmes-549
Stephen Davis-184
2-Duce Staley-198
Antwain Smith-234
Ahman Green-400
 9-no pick
 7-Eddie George-146
TE
TE
TE
 1-no pick
Tony Gonzales-118
 5-Marcus Pollard-88
K
K
K
Mike Vanderjagt-225
 10-no pick
John Kasay-380
D
D
D
Carolina-235
8-New England-370
Green Bay-500
0 picks used - 7 picks remaining
4 picks used - 3 picks remaining
3 picks used - 4 picks remaining
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Game Reviews: (Want your comments/reviews posted here? Submit them by clicking here)
CAR 29 STL 23; Parity 17 Coaching 0 - Why two scores? Simple, fans were treated to two games. The first lasted some 56+ minutes as CAR led 23-12. They built that lead despite slightly inferior talent using superior coaching, a good defense, and a better running game. Despite losing their star RB in the first quarter, CAR stuck to their game plan and rushed for more than 200 yards on the road, while the cluelessly coached Rams refused to dance with the ones that brought them. In that first game Faulk and Holt had about as many touches as the Rams had points. Then parity took over. In the next 20 minutes (including two overtimes) the two teams looked as evenly matched as any two could. This second game saw the teams match 50+ yard made -and missed- field goals, a heroic performance by Marshall Faulk, a frantic and improbable comeback by the home team to force OT, missed game-winning opportunities, Gladiators-driven coaching miscues, and other countless errors. Entertaining? Yes. Competitive? Yes. Professional? Hardly. More importantly to this genre, if the PackerPuke win this competition, they can look back to this game with great fondness. For in the first game the PackerPuke tallied limited points. In the second they scored more than 500 as Faulk scored 260+, the CAR Defense added two turnovers (90), and Steve Smith won the game with 200 points on the game's final play. Probably about as much fun as Aruh could have with no Packers on the field. Personally, I loved part one, and hated the sequel. LOL
NE 17 TEN 14 - TEN is a team comprised of warriors. McNair and George play, and play well, with serious injuries. Granddad kicks accurately, and the defense is tough as nails as well.  But they still have that glaring weakness - coaching. And even if they could overcome that, this year's edition of the Pats are just too good, especially with the NFL's best coach calling the shots. TEN, winners of 12 games this year featuring a Co-MVP QB that orchestrated a seven-game stretch of 30+ points with a dominant passing attack, for some reason, in the playoffs reverted to a 3-yard and a cloud of dust running offense. Sure it eeked them past BAL, but BAL had probably the only NFL offense that was outscored by its own defense this year. All the PATS coaching staff had to do was give the rope a little slack and TEN would hang itself. Had TEN opened up the offense just a little bit, NE would have had to actually play a little ball. But . . . they didn't (isn't this the same thing that happened last year, and the year before, and the year before?). So the PATS played down to the competition and was 3 points the better team - today, tomorrow, hell, on any given Sunday. So TEN will have to wait yet another year for yet another shot - again. Isn't that Fisher motto getting old in TEN yet? Meanwhile, NE moves on...
IND 38 KC 31 - Like I said last week, not a defense in sight - even combined. Barn burner predicted, barn burner delivered. Nearly 1000 yards of offense, 69 points, 350 yards rushing. Hell, KC considered an onside kick with 4:22 left - and the fact they didn't do it cost them their last chance to win. Oh, did I mention not one punt - an NFL all-time playoff record? Bottom line - KC's defense was predictably worse, and Peyton Manning was nearly perfect again. Bye Chiefs. Next week the irresistible force (IND's offense) meets the immovable object (NE's defense). Somethin's gotta give . . .
PHI 20 GB 17 - Rush Limbaugh was not wrong. Never was. He just wasn't diplomatic enough in his delivery. McNabb has never been a great QB. At his best he was a good QB with a cannon for an arm, who augmented his game by being a strong runner. Just look at his numbers of late - 9 TDs, 6 INTs, a propensity for turnovers (due in no small part to carrying the ball in one hand like a loaf of bread), no receiver with 3 receiving TDs or 600 yards receiving, and an understandable reluctance to run since his injury last year. The Eagles have no 1000 yard rusher, and a much diminished defense. The only reason they won 12 games and won their division was the same reason DAL made a move - they were in one of the weakest divisions in the newly and flawed reconstructed NFL. And what is so unreasonable about saying the NFL and the media wanted a successful "black" QB when the NFL routinely fines teams for not hiring black coaches when openings arise. Talk about your double standards. Back to the game, these were two very evenly matched teams. Where the Packers had the QB advantage, PHI had the coaching edge. Both defenses were suspect as GB allowed a conversion on 4th and 26 with the season on the line and PHI allowed GB more than 200 yards rushing - again. In the end home field advantage prevailed. You wanted parity, you got it with the 3rd overtime of the playoffs. Of course one will never know if the best team wins it all, because if we lined up and did it all again ten times, we might have 8 different Super Bowl winners. Let's just save some time and effort and flip a coin.

Week #3:
PackerPuke - 1514
Horny Hippy - 1695
Midsouth Africans - 1333
QB
QB
QB
Donovan McNabb(-35)
 Peyton Manning-79
 Tom Brady-234
 no pick
3-Jake Delhomme-173
no pick
WR
WR
WR
Steve Smith-58
 Marvin Harrison(-1)
 Troy Brown-222
*Reggie Wayne-100
David Givens-212
2-Freddy Mitchell-84
*James Thrash-81
no pick
 4-Mushin Muhammed-154
RB
RB
RB
 Stephen Davis-234
 Edgerrin James-284
 Antwain Smith-262
 *Deshaun Foster-202
 Duce Staley-258
 no pick
 no pick
 1-Kevin Faulk-40
no pick
TE
TE
TE
 *Chad Lewis-144
 no pick
 Marcus Pollard-252
K
K
K
Mike Vanderjagt-50
 5-David Akers-100
 John Kasay-50
D
D
D
 Carolina-680
 New England-550
 *Philadelphia-75
4 picks used - 3 picks remaining
3 picks used - 0 picks remaining
3 picks used - 1 pick remaining
* - added post draft
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Game Reviews: (Want your comments/reviews posted here? Submit them by clicking here)
NE 24 IND 14 - In the first two playoff games Peyton Manning was perfect - literally (rating-wise). The IND offense was virtually perfect as well scoring on almost every possession. In fact during those two games, they did not punt. One of the main reasons they accomplished so much offensively was they threw the ball deep and stretched the defense. But in the snow in Foxboro, the Colts pulled back and played it close to the vest opting for the short ball control defense. That strategy works for the Pats, because that's what they do. No surprise a Billicheck team danced with the ones that brought them, no surprise a Dungy team did not. And so the irresistible object ran smack up against the immovable object a.k.a. the Pats defense. It budged, but not much; and Manning's perfection did not survive the first series. NE came into this game as the best team featuring the best defense in the NFL, and they advance to the Super Bowl as same.
CAR 14 PHI 3 - PHI employees the dink and dunk passing attack. Today they dinked, and the CAR defense dunked it in their face. Here's a news flash for Mike Martz, Andy Reid, Mike Sherman, Tony Dungy, and countless other like them. When you play not to lose, you usually will. When you don't or won't throw the ball downfield when you can, when you need to you won't be able. And if you want to go to the big show, you better have a good defense. Because in the new NFL parity may win games, but it's nice to see that defense still wins championships. Today, great defenses won two conference championships, and regardless of who wins the next game a great defense will win the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl:

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Game Preview: (Want your comments/reviews posted here? Submit them by clicking here)
PackerPuke - 1061
Horny Hippy - 1014
Midsouth Africans - 1897
QB
QB
QB
 no pick
 Jake Delhomme-424
 Tom Brady-485
 no pick
no pick
 no pick
WR
WR
WR
 Steve Smith-260
 David Givens-208
 Troy Brown-170
 1-Ricky Proehl-210
 no pick
Mushin Muhammed-348
 no pick
no pick
 2-Deion Branch-366
RB
RB
RB
 Stephen Davis-124
 Kevin Faulk-162
 Antwain Smith-278
 Deshaun Foster-172
 no pick
 no pick
 no pick
 no pick
 no pick
TE
TE
TE
 3-Christian Fauria-0
 no pick
 no pick
K
K
K
 4-Adam Vinatieri-175
 no pick
 John Kasay-250
D
D
D
 Carolina-120
 New England-220
 no pick
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Game Review: (Want your comments/reviews posted here? Submit them by clicking here)
NE 32 CAR 29 -See I told ya. Defense wins championships. And Jake Delhomme is too inexperienced, and blah, blah, blah. Hey, I'm not the first that the 'parity bug' has made a fool of. LoL. Fun game made even more so by my apparent (?) championship. Nope, not quite. Seems I made a mistake with Delhomme's scoring. Corrected, it means the PackerPuke win it all. and I mean 'it all!'  And all this happens on the strength of a 10-yard run (22 pts.). Or was it Foster's 33 yard TD run (128 pts) with 1:08 to play? Or was it Vinatieri's 41 yard FG (100 pts) with 0:04 to go? Or was it . . . oh hell, never mind.


Playoff Strategy:
The strategy is complicated.  If you fill your roster for the first round only with players actually playing in Wild Card games that weekend you may score well, but the players on the 4 NFL teams that had bye weeks are not on your roster.  You will have to add them in the supplemental draft rounds for which you only have a combined seven (7) picks over the final 3 rounds.  If you originally draft those players that have a bye week the first round you will gain zero (0) points that week for that player.  It's more complicated than it sounds.  Is it better to have a prolific fantasy scorer like Priest Homes or Michael Vick who may only play in one playoff game and hope for the big score, or is it better to have say a Duce Staley who likely won't have that 500 point day, but may play in 2, 3, or more games (filling a roster spot for all those weeks without using up your supplemental picks?  Draft players that lose every week and you'll quickly use up your your seven supplemental round picks.  Draft players that win in their games and you get to keep them on your roster for additional weeks without using up picks.  The more players on your roster, the more points you will probably score.  Of course, having Staley for three weeks and netting only 400 total points is not as good as Vick playing only one game and scoring 500 points.  Do you play for the big points in the early rounds, then try to hang on, or do you leave holes in your roster to make sure you have a pick or two or three for the super bowl?  And Remember, bench positions are allowed in the opening round to counteract all the premier players facing byes. But since the player pool shrinks with each round, additional bench spots ARE NOT allowed in subsequent rounds to avoid teams from "killing" available players. In other words you may not pick up a good player just to bench him to keep him from another team. You may pick any player and drop one you have if you wish but that will be counted as one of your 7 picks.  What to do, what to do.  Decide on a strategy, and Good Luck!