Playoff Lives on the Line

Week 16 leaves one playoff spot up for grabs in the West division, with a whole lot of possible finishes and two different potential division champions.  Out East Jared has clinched the division title and now the wildcard is locked up for Gaskill, despite a valiant late-season charge by J.J.'s squad.  So without further ado, let's look at the possible outcomes in the league for every team, and over the next couple of days we will take some in-depth looks at the important match-ups for the last week of the season.

EAST

Division Champion: Forsett Down Her Throat

Wild Card: Show Me Your TD's

My Team Blows Again will take 3rd in the division with a win or a Pissing Excellence.

Pissing Excellence can take 3rd with a win and My Team Blows Again loss.

5th: Wacco For Flacco

WEST

Clinched Playoff Berth: Hail to the Chefs can clinch division championship with win, or Angry Asians & I Stiff Armed Your Mom win, or Angry Asians win, or I Stiff Armed Your Mom win.

Angry Asians can clinch wildcard with win and I Stiff Armed Your Mom loss. Eliminated with loss.

Mountlake Terrors can clinch division championship with win plus losses by Angry Asians and Hail to the Chefs, can clinch wildcard with win and Angry Asians loss.  Eliminated with loss.

I Stiff Armed Your Mom can clinch wildcard with win.  Eliminated with loss.

5th: Party Animals can eliminate Angry Asians with win.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the first set of game breakdowns.

-Commish

3-Steps to Greatness

Over the past four years we have had four different champions, and with only one of those still in the running for the league title there is a very real chance we could see our fifth different winner.  With this in mind as we are two weeks from deciding the field of four, the LFP FFB staff has dipped into the annals of our leagues brief history to develop a short set of guidelines for how to win a championship!

1. Farthest to fall...
    Only once has the top seed in the league ever won the championship, Kyle in 2007.  In his case the top seed was awarded to the team only on a tie-breaker, hardly a dominating season.

2. Winner, winner, you go hungry...
    To add on to the top seed curse, no team has ever led the league in regular season wins alone and won the championship.  To this point in league history the regular season winner, when not shared, has been cursed to two fourth place finishes in 2006 and 2009, and a devastating second place finish in 2008.  So far anything over 11 wins is a ticket to Loserville.

3. Perfect Nine...
    The past two years have seen three 9-8 teams make the playoffs, and both years one of those 9-8 teams won the championship.  In the first two years of the league no 9-8 teams made the playoffs, which makes the 9-8ers two for two with a third place finish mixed in because there are only so many titles to go around.


Will history hold, or will fantasy football continue to be as unpredictable as ever?  Only time will tell...

-Commish

Clinch!

The results are in for the top spot out West, and Forsett Down The Field has clinched the division thanks to the tie-breaker over Gas.  With one spot filled up, there are three playoff berths yet to be claimed and seven teams in the hunt.  Let's take a brief look at the West Wild Card race...

Show Me Your TD's vs. Pissing Excellence
No bigger match-up in the league this week than this win-and-in for Gaskill.  A TD's victory locks up the Wild Card in the West, but if J.J.'s squad doesn't Piss this one away they have a very real shot at a first playoff appearance.  Pissing Excellence must win both remaining games against Gaskill and Jared, plus rely on Gaskill losing in Week 17 to Hail to the Chefs.  Meanwhile Gas need only win one of his remaining two games to lock things down.  This week will go a long way toward determining the second playoff spot out of the west, stay tuned!

Out in the wild wild East things look totally different, as all five teams are very realistically in the race.  There are so many possible combinations that it can make your head spin, so instead of entertaining everything over a two-week stretch, we will look only at the possibilities to clinch playoff spots this week...

Mountlake Terrors
If the Terrors can buck Wong's late-charging Angry Asians in Week 16, they can lock up a playoff berth by virtue of tie-breakers over Hail to the Chefs and the Party Animals.  In this case the Terrors can clinch the division with another win in Week 17.

Hail to the Chefs
With a win over the Stiffies and some help in the way of losses by the Mountlake Terrors and Party Animals, the Chefs can lock up a playoff berth, and control their own destiny for a division title.

As far as the other three teams go, I Stiff Armed Your Mom can't clinch anything, but will be alive in Week 17 regardless of a win or loss this week.  The Party Animals can stay in contention with a win this week, and in that case would leap-frog the loser of the Chefs/Stiffies match-up in the division standings with some stipulations.  Finally the Angry Asians can claim a tie-breaker over another top team in the division with a win,  and vault themselves into the wild card slot with a do-or-die game in Week 17.  No matter which way you slice it, every team here has a serious possibility, and that's what it's all about when it comes to crunch time.

Week 16 is almost upon us, and we will see the cream rise to the top soon enough.  Which of the last seven teams will stake their claim to a playoff spot and a shot at the 2010 Championship?!  Only two weeks to go...


-Commish

Week 14 Fallout - East Division

East Division

Party Animals - Vicki Harris

The highest scoring team in the league, and Week 14 is mounting a comeback in the tight East Division race.  A huge win over Craig this past week clinches the head-to-head tie-breaker and leads into another brutal division match-up with the tie-breaker at stake.  Back-to-back wins with help from Wong or Jared could lead to a win-and-in game in Week 17.  Exciting stuff from top-to-bottom in this division...

Angry Asians - Jason Wong

This team is electric, and if they can run the table the rest of the way and get some help, has a very real shot at the playoffs.  Tie-breakers have been decided over Vick, but in the favor of Craig and Tony, with Mike still to be determined.  Winning is the only option for this team.

I Stiff Armed Your Mom - Craig Peterson

With a big loss at the hands of the Party Animals in Week 14, this team slipped out of a playoff spot on tie-breakers, but is tied with the first and second place teams.  Wong, Tony, and Mike in that order makes for a brutal, all-division schedule to wrap up the year for Craig's team, but they still control their own destiny.

Hail to the Chefs - Tony Le

Back-to-back losses see this team drop from the division lead to the wild card slot, plus a tie-break loss to the new division leader.  With tie-breakers over Vick and Wong, Tony's squad is in a great position to get into the playoffs in the next couple weeks, but Week 15 will be as big as it gets against the dangerous Party Animals.

Mountlake Terrors - Mike Harris

This team snuck up on the division over the past three weeks.  After a four game slide, the Terrors just clinched the tie-breaker over Tony, and have rough games against Jared, Wong, and Craig if they want to stay relevant in the playoff picture.  One loss is all it takes to shake everything up in this division, stay tuned...

Week 15 starts tomorrow night, strap in and hold on tight!

Week 14 Fallout - West Division

West Division

Wacco for Flacco - Kyle Stinson
How Wacco is Flacco coming up 1.15 points short of a win on Monday Night football?  Game over for the Squad led by Adrian Peterson and Roddy White, who will have to battle it out with our next team to avoid last in the league...

My Team Blows Again - Jason Jakubiak
This team has fallen off the map, and losing Aaron Rodgers early on Sunday killed any hopes of grasping at playoff glory for a second straight year.  Under 60 points for the week, and narrowly avoiding last place in the league for now.

Pissing Excellence - J.J. Didier
Well look who's making a late run, it's the Saints laden urination perfectionists.  An extremely narrow win over a division rival clinched a three-game sweep against Kyle and puts this team just one game away from a playoff spot.  With one game to go against Gas in Week 16, two more wins would put J.J. into the wild card slot, his only chance for a berth in the playoffs.  This is the team to watch in the West as the season starts wrapping up.

Show Me Your TD's - Sean Gaskill
Three weeks, three losses, 222.4 points, and still in control of his own destiny for the wild card, or an outside shot at the division title.  This team needs to figure things out in a hurry if they want to stay in the playoff picture, with a charging Pissing Excellence team only one game behind them and the division leader creeping away, Week 15 is as close to a must win game as you can get without all the marbles on the line.

Forsett Down Her Throat - Jared Underbrink
6-1 over their last seven games, this team is cruising to the West Division championship.  One more loss by Gaskill and they clinch, plus two wins out of their last three will guarantee the #1 seed in the playoffs.

Week 14 fallout for the East Division, piping hot on Wednesday!

The Stretch Run

Week 14 sees some of the biggest match-ups of the season to this point as far as playoff scenarios go.  Sure, every week from here on will be enormous for a lot of teams, but playoff lives are literally at stake starting this coming week.  Let's take a look at the schedule for this coming weekend...

My Team Blows Again vs. Angry Asians
These two 5-8 teams will battle it out in a bid to win out and make the playoffs in what would be incredible fashion.  For the Asians, a loss by the Chefs and/or Stiffies can keep them alive even if they lose.  The Blow-holes have to win to compliment a guaranteed TD's or Forsett loss just to keep them alive by a sliver.  The loser of this game is nearly doomed at best.

Party Animals vs. I Stiff Armed Your Mom
The Animals control their own destiny this week, as a win here knocks down the #2 Stiffies and brings them within two games of a playoff birth with a little help.  Either the Chefs or Terrors will lose, which helps both teams in one way or another as the Stiffies could move into first all alone with a win of their own.

Mountlake Terrors vs. Hail to the Chefs
These teams will decide the season series and the tie-breaker this week, and with a one-game lead in the East it is as big a week 14 game as we have on the schedule.  The Terrors can move out of third place and directly into playoff contention with a win, whereas the Chefs can bury a close competitor down in the standings and keep their possession of the division lead.  This is the game of the week in the East at least.

Pissing Excellence vs. Wacco For Flacco
Simply put, the Flacco's must win and count on a loss by the TD's to stay alive, or it's all over.  The Pissers look to build on their momentum and will move one game closer to either Forsett or the TD's if they can win this one, but should they fall they will be hoping for a Forsett win to keep them just two games back of the wild card.

Show Me Your TD's vs. Forsett Down Her Throat
A battle of the top two in the West, where no matter what happens the standings will remain the same.  However, should the TD's pull one out it will make it a tie-breaker lead for the Forsett's, putting the pressure on to win every week to maintain the spot atop the division.  Forsett looks to bounce back from a miserable week and regain their stride in an important positioning match-up for the stretch run.  Both teams will hope for a Pissers loss to increase their breathing room in the division.

Nothing like playoff implications to get everybody riled up in Week 14, good luck to most of you, and to the rest I hope you lose miserably.

-Commish