Weekly Conference Winners						TEAM OF THE WEEK
East		Central		West		DOWNTOWNERS
Rebels	161	Weekend Warriors	151	Downtowners	190
IC Lightning	133	SS Stoggies	135	JR's Boys	152

Pittsburgh Survivor Football

     Survivor 1: In the second half of the season the big favorites have definitely prevailed. Three teams however chose to ignore the fact that they still had Tennessee - or maybe were just hung over from the biggest night out the day before Thanksgiving - and gambled on lesser favorites on Sunday. Buffalo claimed two and the Jets one as the contest is now down to just 19.

     Survivor 2: The second contest took a significant hit of 22 and all but one had Tennessee available. Like the first contest Buffalo was the main culprit claiming 14 of the 22 casualties. Seven went down with the Jets and 1 with San Diego. The second-chance contest is still above 100 at 113 with four weeks to go.

Week 14 Round Two: The safety nets have been removed as all playoff losing teams will now be out of all postseason competition instead of dropping down into the Consolation Tournament. The first and second-ranked teams will end their vacations and do it for real this week putting their playoff life's on the line. The first round playoff losers compete in the third round of the Consolation Tournament. The postseason schedules are determined by team rank and explained in the Playoff Formats.
 

 

First Round Results and Second Round Matchups

EAST                                         First Round Results                #8 Cleantown 129                      #3 T Bones  77      Going into Monday night both teams had a potential score of 121. The problem for the T Bones was out of that potential Cleantown had scored 109 and the Bones just 77. And to compound the problem the Bones were out of players and they didn't need him but Cleantown had Andre Johnson yet to go. But the Bones real problem wasn't what we said it might be, which was Cleantown's great receivers. Although their four receivers did nearly beat the Bones by themselves accounting for 72 points. No the Bones problem was they scored only 77 lousy points. That's like the third worst score in the East for the entire year. And I could get real nasty here and mention the fact that they didn't even bother to take Mewelde Moore out of their lineup when it was announced that Parker was starting. I mean it's not like they had Brandon Jacobs of the Giants on the bench to take his place. I mean this wasn't an important game like a playoff game or something was it? But I won't mention this stuff because I don't kick a man when he's down.           #6 Rebels 161                   #4 Green Apple 116      Similar to the other East playoff game, because the Rebels had a player on Monday night the game wasn't official until after Monday night, but it was over just the same. Green Apple could have scored quite a few more points but it wouldn't have mattered. The perfect lineup would have given the Apple a substantial score of 150, but the Rebels decided to outdo their previous best by 31 and put up 161. The Apple may have had the highest single scorer in the game with 35, but the Rebels decided to play team ball; all nine of their players scored in double digits. Besides, how do you beat an Enigma?                                      Round Two Matchups             #1 Little Johnny's              vs.                #8 Cleantown      It's no big deal that a lower ranked team has more points than a higher one, but when it's a #8 and #1, it's kind of a big deal. The other two conferences have fallen in the norm for the most part all year and even in the postseason as neither the Central or West had a wildcard team advance. But the East has been nothing short of bizarre the entire regular season so why should the postseason be any different. Little Johnny's got rewarded for earning the #1 rank with two byes and even earned a bonus, but not so with the draw. Cleantown's #8 rank doesn't reflect their #3 rank in East points which happens to be higher than Little Johnny's #4. In week 10 Johnny's prevailed in their regular season meeting with Cleantown winning a high-scoring affair 157-132, which happened to be their highest week of the year. In that game the Town had one of their big four receivers on a bye so they can blame it on that if they like. But basically this game comes down to how Johnny's RBs perform compared to the Town's WR's. If all things equal out it could come down to the QB position. The way Matt Cassel has been playing notwithstanding his game against the #1 Steelers defense, gives Little Johnn's the edge there and could be the matter that turns it for them. But right now I have to agree with the site and say Cleantown is the favorite #8 rank and all. If not because they have more points than simply because this is the East.                #2 Tommy Guns               vs.               #6 Rebels     The Guns are ranked #1 in East points to the Rebels #9, have 132 more points than the Rebels, a higher power ranking, more potential points, more bench points, a higher efficiency rating, have Reggie Bush back healthy, and in the final regular season week of the year the Tommy Guns earned the #2 ranking with a 131-99 victory over none other than the Rebels. All this and the website has the Rebels favored by 5! Why? Because the Rebels are an Enigma and the site knows it. But what may overcome that Enigma and win it for the Guns isn't all those impressive stats but week 14 itself. Yeah you have to have the players but we all know how important the matchups also are. The Rebels strength lies in their big two of Romo and Barber and this week to the Rebels misfortune they go up against the #1 defense in the league in the Steelers, the game is in Pittsburgh, and last but not least the forecast is for Snow and wind. The Guns on the other hand have their #1 player Adrian Peterson playing indoors and against, are you ready, Detroit! Now there are other players involved in this game so I am by no means saying the Rebels have no chance, after all they are an Enigma. I'm just saying take the five. CENTRAL                                         First Round Results         #3 Nasty Aggravators 134          #7 Knockout Kings 112      Ignore the final score, unlike those boring blowouts in the East this one had some drama. And of course Monday night was involved. After the Aggravators Peyton Manning wet the bed with just 6 points, the Kings took a 5 point lead of 107-102 into Monday night. The Kings had a solid performer in Kevin Walter but the Aggravators countered with a promising Steve Slaton. The Aggravators even though behind had to feel optimistic with a solid RB at home on Monday night. Well the optimism became consternation when they were still behind in the fourth quarter. The Kings had to feel good about themselves on Thursday when they got 56 points from just two players and heard the news that Reggie Bush would be playing on Sunday. But Sunday isn't Thursday and they only had one more player hit double digits and it wasn't Bush, leading us to the fourth quarter of Monday night when Slaton busted off two long runs and scored two TDs giving the Aggravators the win going away!          #4 Weekend Warriors 151            #5 SS Stoggies 135      It's never fun when you come in 2nd and lose because your opponent came in first. When this happens in the regular season you get a consolation of 2VP; when it happens in week 13 of the postseason you get a birth in the CT. I guess it takes some of the sting out of losing but it stings nonetheless. This game was basically a slugfest. Both teams had 8 of 9 players in double digits. The knockout blow for the Stoggies was DeAngelo Williams 4 TDs netting him 35 points. It's not like the Stoggies had no chance here as they went into Monday night down 26 with Jones-Drew still to go. Drew put up 10 but Jacksonville basically just stunk out the place leaving the Stoggies to curse the luck of the draw in having to play a red-hot Warriors team.                                    Round Two Matchups           #1 Syndicate               vs.                  #4 Weekend Warriors      The Warriors have flat out been on fire over the last three weeks. They put up three consecutive 150-point games and converted three straight weekly firsts. The last time the Syndicate put up 150 was in week 6 when, oh by the way they just happened to beat the Warriors 151-101. But that was definitely then and this is now and now the Warriors are on a major roll while the Syndicate has been, well, on a bye figuratively and literally! While the Warriors were putting up 150-point games the last three weeks the Syndicate was averaging 113; the league average is 116. The byes are now over and the fact that the Syndicate is first in Central points doesn't carry any weight with the Warriors right now; who by the way are now second in Central points just 22 behind. The Warriors are deep and I'd say again they need to choose the right players to start but it hasn't mattered! Their whole team is firing on all cylinders. The Syndicate do have a QB edge and they will need to exploit that this week. Assuming their QB comes through they will also need their two RBs Gore and Ronnie Brown to do something of note; something neither has done in a while. And there in lies the problem, they have just two viable RBs and they haven't been doing much. So if they don't come through the rest of their team better go off because the Warriors players certainly have been.      #2 Twisted Helmets       vs.     #3 Nasty Aggravators      Although the Aggravators are coming off a 134-point win, the Helmets should thank the stars they drew them and not the Warriors. First off that was the Aggravators best score by far in a while; in fact their second best of the year. In week 9 it was the Aggravators who were the stronger team defeating the Helmets 117-92. Considering the Helmets had half their team on a bye and there are no more byes makes that game kind of meaningless right now. What matters now is their current rosters and upon inspection I would say neither is particularly loaded but both have some serious studs and it will probably come down to how those key players perform. Id say it's a wash at QB, the RB edge goes to the Aggravators and the WR edge to the Helmets. There's always the unexpected of an average player going off or even a kicker having a monster day but more likely it will come down to Rivers, LT and Brandon Marshall for the Helmets and Manning, Peterson and Roddy White for the Aggravators. And to be honest they all have good matchups especially Peterson against Detroit. Because of this I don't really see any one of these two having a particularly bad game. The fact that the Helmets have 100 more points makes them the favorite though. WEST First Round Results               #3 Rounder 17 135                 #8 Apaches 107      Ranked 9th in West points the Apaches did well to get this far and the fact they have put up one score above the league average in the last 6 weeks it's practically a miracle. But that said they could have won this game with a potential of 150. I thought it a mistake that they left Berrian on the bench but the fact that Portis came up small really is what doomed them. And really the only reason their potential points could have won them this game is because the Rounder left some points on the bench themselves so there is really no reason for second guessing here. The bottom line is the Rounder had the much better team and wins easily to advance to the second round.            #4 Commish West  106               #7 Irish Talbots 96      When your kicker is your highest scoring player of the week, you know you were lucky if you won your game. On Thursday Commish West's kicker put up 23 points. Little did they know at that time that would basically be the difference in this game. If they use their other kicker or get just an average performance from Bironas, they lose. Most of the games this week were blowouts but this one came down to Monday night and was very undecided until late in the fourth quarter. Going into the game Commish carried a 25 point lead with Kevin Walter to play. But believe me with the Talbots sporting Andre Johnson in the wings, the cigars were not only not lit, they weren't allowed in the house. And if you think 25 points is a lot against a player like Johnson, after about two minutes into the game that lead was down to 13! At the end of the half Johnson had 6 catches and about 18 points. But for some reason he only got one catch in the second half effectively ending the Talbots playoff run. And believe me, if you watched the game, all they had to do is throw it his way and he would have grabbed it. Especially after Jacksonville's best corner back who was assigned to Johnson got hurt and left the game. He could have easily had 20 catches but they just stopped throwing it to him. Instead he ended up with 20 points allowing Commish to slip away with a low scoring win.                                        Second Round Matchups               #1 Downtowners              vs.         #4 Commish West      Well someone has to play the #1 team in the league. Then again the alternative was the #2 team in the league so it is what it is so lets go: On paper Commish has a solid and deep team but not a great team. Their problem has been inconsistency as the three weeks they have under 100 points scored will attest. But at the same time they have 3 first place finishes and 2 seconds which also makes them a dangerous team. The Downtowners I would give the edge at QB and although Commish is actually deep at RB, Westbrook's home run power gives the RB edge to the Downtowners also. Because of sheer depth I will give a slight WR edge to Commish, if they choose the right ones to play that is. The results of their first meeting is a testament to just how good the Downtowners are: They won the regular season meeting 161-120 and in that game Westbrook got just 8 points. And the 190 points they scored this past week was kind of intimidating to say the least. Add in the 168 more total points they have with zero weeks under 100 makes the Downtowners the obvious choice as the favorite.                 #3 Ronders 17                vs.             #2 JR's Boys      The mark of a good team is consistency and since week 4 no team has been more consistent than the JR's Boys. After back to back 93 point outings in weeks 2 and 3, the Boys literally have not had a bad week. In fact they didn't even have just an average week. Their worst week since week 3 was week 11 when they scored 123 in a losing effort that broke a 7 game winning streak. And that was just one of two in the 120's as all the rest were 130 and up. At just 48 points behind the Rounder 17 are no slouch themselves but have been no where near as consistent in their scoring as the Boys, as their 95 in week 10 and 107 in week 12 will attest. In their week 5 meeting the Boys prevailed 128-104 and that was the Boys second worst score since week 3. Both teams rosters match up pretty close but the fact that the Boys haven't put up a bad game since week 3 says something. And that something is that the Boys may not necessarily win, but if the Rounders don't put up at least 120 or more, they should lose. I know anything can happen each week but it's hard to ignore 10 straight weeks of no less than 123 and a 135 point average. The stats make the JR's Boys the clear favorite but the Rounders can beat the stats by scoring points and they have the players to do it.

East Standings Rk Franchise PF 1 2 Tommy Guns 1621 2 7 Justice 1609 3 8 Cleantown 1607 4 1 Little Johnny's 1554 5 10 IC Lightning 1511 6 4 Green Apple 1504 7 3 T Bones 1503 8 5 Commish East 1494 9 6 Rebels 1489 10 9 Boys of Autumn 1415 11 11 Aggravators 1330   Average 1513 East Consolation Tournament #3 T Bones vs. #11 Aggravators #4 Green Apple vs. #7 Justice                                                   Central Standings Rk Franchise PF 1 1 Syndicate 1650 2 4 Weekend Warriors 1628 3 5 SS Stoggies 1625 4 2 Twisted Helmets 1614 5 6 Harmony Hornets 1531 6 3 Nasty Aggravators 1505 7 7 Knockout Kings 1476 8 8 Steve Irwin Crocks 1457 9 10 Reno 1455 10 11 TnT 1360 11 9 R&J Inc. 1312   Average 1511 Central Consolation Tournament  #5 SS Stoggies vs. #8 Steve Irwin Crocks #6 Harmony Hornets vs. #7 Knockout Kings                                                       West Standings Rk Franchise PF 1 1 Downtowners 1758 2 2 JR's Boys 1676 3 3 Rounder 17 1628 4 5 MNE 1599 5 4 Commish West 1590 6 7 Irish Talbots 1536 7 6 Brookline 1430 8 10 French River 1415 9 8 Apaches  1389 10 11 B&B 1346 11