Now that’s what I’m talking about! Four super fun and entertaining games! And boy-oh-boy… if Philly makes an extra point or two, or if Houston hits that EP or either missed FG, or if Mahomes gets one less call in his favor, or if Mark Andrews actually does what he gets paid generously to do — the Conference Finals, along with all of our standings and charts would look much, MUCH different!
Moving on… this week eight members went 4-0 to receive 10 big points, ten got 9 points, and another sixteen got 8. On the flip side, seven people put up goose eggs and another eleven people scored only 1-point.
At the moment, JOHNNY CABLE leads the Playoff Race with 22 points, which means he’s 10 for 10 and three wins away from earning the $1000 Perfect Playoffs bonus! In addition, he went from 170th place at the end of the season all the way up (like Fat Joe) to 57th place in two quick weeks. AMAZING! Even more amazing is the how this guy got into the league… Back in 2020, Mark (our fearless leader) was having trouble with his internet, so Comcast sent over a skilled tech to the house. The two of them are bullshittin’ about the weather and such when the discussion turns to football, and the rest of history!
HUMAROCK is close behind with 20, KRAZ has 19, and three people have 18, but since there’s a total 12 points still left on the board, many many MANY people still have a shot to place in the Top 10!
($1500, 1250, 1000, 750, 500, 250 for 6th thru 10th).
As a whole, the 215 active members this week (clearly many folks have given up and stopped submitting picks) scored 1119 points in the Divisional round, which averages out to 5.20 per player – staying true to our 52% league average for the season! That amount is certainly more than 2022’s bottom of 3.94, but nowhere close to as good as 2021’s best outing of 6.53!
January 2024 – 4.66 points per player
January 2023 – 5.32
January 2022 – 3.94
January 2021 – 6.53
January 2020 – 4.19
January 2019 – 4.93
January 2018 – 4.57
January 2017 – 6.52
January 2016 – 6.16
January 2015 – 4.46
January 2014 – 6.32
January 2013 – 4.41
The pick results for the first three games were all fairly close to 50/50 — but the real outlier was BAL@BUF, where almost 2/3rds of the league took the home underdawg. Imagine if the game went into overtime or if BAL actually scored and then went for two! Who know what the outcome could have been with one little catchy-poo! (all of these percentage stats can be found at the bottom of the POOLWIDE PICKS page, much like the OFP website).
Moving on…
• $1000 BONUS ELIMINATION POOL(plus an additional $100 of leftover money):
In a classic showdown between KRAZ and NEVILLE666, it all came down to the LAR@PHI game because of what happened on Saturday. They both took KC (for 3 and 2 respectively) but only NEVILLE had WAS (for 1), while DET gave KRAZ a loss on his 2-pointer, which meant NEVILLE would win with a PHI cover since he would hit his 3 (PHI), 2, and 1 and it wouldn’t matter what the late game final was. BUT if LAR covered KRAZ would hit his 4 (LAR) and his 3 (KC) and give a 3-point loss for NEVILLE. I personally cannot get over the EP miss after that crazy 78-yard Barkley TD on 1st & 10 from the 22 after forcing a punt with under 5 minutes to go. I was so pumped! I high-fived all the Philly supporters at the bar on my way to take a piss happy my 6½ point spread was safe! So I can only imagine how NEVILLE reacted. I even said to my buddy that “if the Eagles are not going to cover, I hope they lose outright and in dramatic fashion” (please forgive me Julius). So congrats to KRAZ and can someone do a wellness check on NEVILLE?! For a visual representation of this confusing breakdown please see the BONUS KEY page on the FTPL website.
• OVERALL STANDINGS:
The Overall Top 10 once again shifted only slightly after the second round of games, with most members only moving up or down a spot or two (or three), but the top dawg (CWD37) is still on top. However his 8-point lead is now at 5 (uh oh). The two members that did have some serious POSITIVE movement was spot jumper WAYNE66, who went from 11th up to 5th with his 9 big points, and spot jumper ROMANA EMPIRE who went from 17th to 10th with his 8-points! And sadly there’s a few spot dumpers I gotta mention — TORI-21 dropped from 3rd to 7th, NO FIREWORKS dropped from 5th to 16th, and DOSIE70 went from 9th to 21st.
• ROOKIE RACE: WAYNE66 is back on top by himself with 173 wins and now holds a 7-point lead over DOSIE70 and 8 over RED PANDA and SMCKAY14.
• COMBO RACE: Jockey BIG DAN and horse WAYEN66 are stillllllll on top now with 337 combined wins after getting 13 more points this weekend and hold a 11-point lead over EDMAC/NAUSS508 and a 13-point lead over ARKI/BOSTONRYAN1107.
• VETERAN’S POOL: The leader in this one flopped — BRUCE WILLIS (5-year) is now on top with 174-points after getting 7-points this weekend and now holds a 1-point lead over last week’s leader NLIQ33 (5-year) and a 5-point lead over THE BALD FURITO (10-year).
• REC LEAGUE: ROCK VEGAS is still in 1st place with 819 total points, and they’re now 23 ahead of WE REC 4 CHEX$$$ and 33 ahead of NO NAME TEAM.
With 12 more points available over the next few weeks, it’s truly anyone’s title to take in the six remaining races, and as we know, anything can and will happen in Pro Football.
PLEASE NOTE: For the two games during Championship Weekend, you assign each game either 5, 4 or 3 points. The number that you do NOT use that weekend will be automatically designated as your Super Bowl value.
GOOD LUCK TO THOSE WHO NEED IT AND WANT IT!!!
Dan