2009 Week #16

The Spitoons won for the third time this year and with the Decepticons meltdown, they are now tied in 3^rd place in the standings . The Spitoons only scored 132.75 pts, the lowest winning score of the year. In such low scoring weeks, decent games take on an increased importance. Wes Welker again did not score a TD, but 13 receptions is worth more when nobody else in the PQBFL is scoring TDs. Same thing on defense. Beason scored 21.5 pts and rookie Cushing continues to do well with 18 more points. Cushing has such a lead over the second best rookie that it would take a miracle for him not to finish at the top. The problem for Spi next year will be selecting a franchise player. Westbrook came back this week, but there is no way he’s a viable franchise player next year. Spi might have to go WR.

The BeaudoinBrothers survived another week by edging Wax in an improbable Monday Night comeback . This means the BBs now trail Wax by 2 rank points and do not hold the tie-breaker, so they need to beat Wax by at least 3 ranks, which has happened only 3 times in 16 weeks this year. But the BBs were in worse shape last year and were able to snatch the championship away from the Spitoons anyway so Wax cannot count the BBs for dead. M Turner missed another game which prevented from BBs to win this week, Norwood scoring only 5 pts and Beaud finishing only 6.25 pts behind Spi. But the coach can also be blamed for benching the Cowboys defense (15 pts vs Eagles 3.5 pts), and A Schobel (20 pts vs Cole 7 pts). In this low scoring week, Schaub did enough to push the BBs in second place with 20.25 pts, but even there, Beaud would have been better starting McNabb (25.75 pts). So even though it was good news for Beaud to beat Wax, they did it in unimpressive fashion and it was more due to Wax’s struggles than Beaud’s high performance. Even though the BBs will probably not succeed with their attempt at a three-peat, they nonetheless assured themselves of a sixth straight top 2 finish, tying their own record from 1997-2002. The BBs have finished top two in 12 of 13 PQBFL seasons, the only time they did not make it was 3^rd place in 2003 and they were only 2.25 pts on MNF away from the league title (2 receptions for 10 yards additional by T Heap).

WaxOnWaxOff dropped a golden chance to almost seal it this week when the Vikings defense totally crumbled on MNF scoring minus one point . The in-game injury to Pierre Thomas did not help, but it’s not like Beaud have not been affected by injuries. Randy Moss prevented Wax from suffering a severe collapse because UJ and JB finished less than 3 pts behind. If Moss had scored only 2 TDs instead of 3 TDs, Wax would have seen its entire first place lead vanish in thin air. At least now they still have some breathing room. Wax needs to finish 3^rd next week to clinch. Besides Randy Moss, P Rivers did well with 20+ pts. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether any of those two will play in week #17 so Wax will need all the help they can get from backups. Same for rookie C Wells. He scored 12.75 pts this week, but will he play next week? That is the big worry for Wax heading into the final showdown.

UncleJack powered his way to a 4^th top 4 finish in 5 weeks, but could have done even better because standings were so close. Only 12 more points would have been enough to win this week. No team was more penalized by resting players than UJ this week. P Manning, Addai, and Brackett all hit the bench early because the Colts had nothing to play for . Note the strategy of resting players as opposed to going for the record books like the Patriots did two years ago. This was a main reason why they lost to the Giants who were better prepared to face them because the Pats played them 100% in week #17 of that year. The Colts are doing the right thing here to improve their preparation and rest and then kick butts in the playoffs as opposed to showing off their playbook. But for UJ this sucked. Chris Johnson was the best contributor again with 22.75 pts. UJ’s WRs also both scored double digits.

JakesBlues came out with the short end of the stick in the packed 1^st to 5^th places. Brandon Jacobs is the main responsible with his 1 yard rushing . This dude is not even the top RB on his own team. Otherwise this week was lackluster for the entire JB lineup. Brees scored 15.5 pts but lost in OT and that was far below his season average of 21 pts per game. Everybody else scored less than 15 pts, and nobody really standing out with bad games besides Jacobs.

The Dugongs almost assured themselves of finishing fifth this year with another average week . Adrian Peterson showed some burst on MNF with 2 TDs and over 130 yards from scrimmage, but at the image of his season he fumbled in OT and caused the Vikings to lose. At TE, what was a happy problem to choose between Gates and V Davis is turning into a nightmare as Dug started the wrong guy again.

OldNo7 finished 7^th and similar to Dug is almost assured of finishing in their current rank – 6^th in the standings. Franchise player S Jackson missing the game doomed Old this week and it masked a great game by R White (28.75 pts) and the Cards defense (16 pts). This season will go down as another waste for Old because a below average finish was not what team management expected in September. Old will probably finish the year with the fewest injury points, is ranking 4^th in strength of starters, and 4^th in coaching efficiency, yet cannot finish in the top half of the standings? This franchise has a bad spell on it.

FlyingElvis

The Decepticons completed their crash from the height of weeks 11-14 with their third last place finish this year, which is the most besides FE . Not only is Dec eliminated from the league’s championship race, but Dec will need to fight with Spi to hold on to third place. It’s just going to be head to head in week #17, and the team which beats the other will grab 3^rd place. Dec chose the wrong week to start Vince Young who stunk it up with 3 pts while Favre scored 18.5 pts and Cutler 30.75 pts. Vincent Jackson was also disappointing by scoring only 8.5 pts in a week where the Chargers scored 6 TDs and 42 pts against the Titans.

Note: sometimes the NFL announces stats changes and according to PQBFL rules, the results are not totally official until Sunday 1pm Eastern.

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