Wild Card Preview

Rednecks (2nd wild card) @ Malleus (1st wild card)

Rednecks got here on the strength of good run at the end going 3-1-1 to close the season. Tom Brady and MJD was probably one of the best tendems in FLOF all season and the rest of the team is no slouch. Interestingly Rednecks have not been very active this week, but perhaps they don't really need to.

Malleus were riding a 6 game win streak heading into the final 2 games of the season. Its not that they dropped the ball as much as the ball got ripped from their hands. They scored the 2nd highest totals the last two weeks of the season but played the team with the best scores that week and lost to Bill in the final to fall to a wild card spot. Malleus has been riding Roethlisberger and the two-headed monster of Thomas Jones and DeAngelo Williams but he recently traded for Kurt Warner for the playoff run.

Malleus beat Rednecks both games this year although both games were close affairs and the most recent game was week 9. The winner of this game moves on to play Bill if Ramjets beat Beavers this week. If Beavers win then the winner of this game meet Mimes next week.

Beavers (3rd wild card) @ Ramjets (Right Division champ)

After week 10, Beavers had lost their 5th in a row to fall from the Left Division lead to last place and 2 games under .500 with only 4 games left in their season. But they go 3-0-1 to finish the season and get a little help to get in the playoffs. McNabb and AP have been the bedrock for the franchise all year but its been mostly McNabb's team during the recent win streak. Beavers revamped their WR corp this week to prepare for the post season and went all in on the Saints.

Ramjets were the only team in the Right Division to not fall to 2 games or more below .500 at any point this season and was never more then 1/2 game behind the division lead after week 1. That said, Ramjets are one of the weaker teams in the playoffs this year especially struggling with RBs (either due to effectiveness or health) and WR. Also active this week, Ramjets picked up Benson to address the RB situation.

Beavers beat Ramjets by 1 pt (at Ramjets) a mere two weeks ago. If Ramjets advance, they will face Mimes in the next round while Beavers would visit Bill if they were to advance.

Toilet Bowl: Flannel (2-12) @ Hamburglers (4-8-2)

As befits this season, this is a weird toilet bowl match-up for me. Early in the season, both teams looked like contenders. After week 4, Flannel had gone 2-1 in games in which they participated (yea, not counting week 1 there) and looked pretty strong doing it. They did not win another game all season. Peyton was fabulous all season as usual but the rest of the team struggled. For example Jeremy Maclin started 8 games for Flannel and averaged only 2.88 per outing at WR.

Hamburglers were the last team to lose a game this season -- waiting until week 5. But half of those not-loses were ties instead of wins so they were only 3-1-2 after week 6 -- 2 games over .500 despite only 1 loss. Then they lost 7 in a row, breaking that string only by beating Flannel last week. Hamburglers seemed stuck this year between aging players and youth not yet ready. Neither Hasselback nor Matt Ryan really produced at QB and neither Moreno nor McFadden could take the load over from a fading Tomlinson.

Hamburglers' last two wins have been against Flannel.