2003-04
click the year
to access that season's page
.
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 |
|
.
|
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
|
.
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
|
.
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
|
.
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
.
Game Reviews:
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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:
.
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
|
.
Game Review:
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your comments/reviews posted here?
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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!