Weekly Conference Winners						TEAM OF THE WEEK
East		Central		West		CLEANTOWN
Cleantown	173	Weekend Warriors	150	Commish West	164
Tommy Guns	160	Reno	147	Apaches	149

Pittsburgh Survivor Football

     Survivor 1: The default pick not only won again, but for the first time in a while it even covered the spread. However this late in the contest not everyone can choose the default pick or any team they used earlier in the year. About half the contest were ineligible to pick this week's top pick Dallas or even Pittsburgh who were favored by as much but played on Thursday. Most of those that couldn't pick either of those two teams chose Denver whose upset loss accounted for 12 of the 15 casualties of the week. Two more went down with Tennessee's first loss of the year and one went down with Cleveland. Now the one that lost with Cleveland had already used the two big favorites of Pittsburgh and Dallas but I can't say the same for everyone that lost. Those that could still have picked either Pittsburgh or Dallas but didn't and lost are obviously second guessing themselves today. There are five weeks and 22 survivors remaining and it will only get harder from here.

     Survivor 2: The second contest had a much higher percentage still eligible to choose Pittsburgh and Dallas but still took a decent hit of 28 on Denver. That was the only losing team chosen this week in the second contest. But with 135 survivors still remaining and just five weeks to go, most likely Survivor 2 will have quite a few co-champions after week 17.

Week 13 Round One: With the Wildcard round concluded the official 18 teams of the 2008 PFFL Playoffs are now set. The third and fourth ranked teams will now play the wildcard winners while the first and second ranked teams receive another bye. The wildcard losers will now compete in the Consolation Tournament. The postseason schedules are determined by team rank and explained in the Playoff Formats.

 

First Round Playoff Matchups

EAST       #3 T Bones            vs.           #8 Cleantown      The Bones have the rank but Cleantown has the statistics. They have more total points and beat the Bones in their week 11 meeting 102-82. The website also is recognizing the statistics over rank by making Cleantown an early 8.6 favorite. Both teams are below average at the QB position but I would give a slight edge to the Bones there. I would also give a slight edge at RB to the Bones. But when we get to the WR category it's all Cleantown and by a substantial margin. For the Bones to win they will need big games out of Jacobs and Portis. But if Jennings, Johnson, Owens and Welker go off for Cleantown, the Bones will have a hard time keeping up.      #4 Green Apple            vs         #6 Rebels           Both teams came out of the gate fast and while Green Apple faded a bit in the second half, the Rebels faded out losing their last four straight and consequently losing the top tier. But the Rebels demise can be directly correlated to the loss of Tony Romo whose absence also effected their top back Marion Barber. But Romo is now healthy and Barber back on track so even though the Apple has the higher rank and higher point total, they won't be playing the same team that lost their last four. The Apple's Philip Rivers can put up the points with Romo but because of the loss of Stephen Jackson the Rebels have the RB edge; unless Larry Johnson can pick up the slack. But where the Apple have the clear edge is at WR. The Rebels have Larry Fitzgerald but after that their next best receiver is Matt Jones. If your looking for the key to this game just review what happened in their regular season meeting back in week 6. In that game the Rebels beat the Apple 130-124 with Romo and Barber combining for 62 points.                                CENTRAL  #3 Nasty Aggravators  vs. #7 Knockout Kings      With just 7 points separating the two teams, the fact that the Aggravators are ranked 3 and the Kings 7 really doesn't carry much weight. Injuries have played a key factor in both these teams season. In their week 10 meeting the Aggravators won 111-72 but the Kings were without both Romo and Reggie Bush. The Aggravators were without Willie Parker that game and for most of the games this year but obviously playing without both Romo and Bush is much more detrimental than playing without Parker; as the difference in rank will attest. Since Romo is now definitely back the key for the Kings is if Bush will also be back. Neither team is deep and both have about the same amount of key stud players. The difference here just may be whether Bush plays or not. The Kings have averaged 26 less points without him in their lineup. The Aggravators have the tie breaker advantage because of their rank but If Bush plays, the Knockout Kings will have the game advantage.   #4 Weekend Warriors    vs.   #5 SS Stoggies      Statistically these two teams are very close ranked 4 and 5 and separated by just 13 points scored. But you wouldn't have known it from their week 10 meeting when the Stoggies dominated 167-114. And in that game the Stoggies were without Marion Barber who was on a bye. Upon examination of the Rosters the Stoggies have the potential for another blowout. They have a significant edge at QB and RB. The WR department however goes to the Warriors. That and a deeper roster is where the strength of the Warriors lie. The difference in this game might come down to coaching efficiency. The Stoggies lineup is basically set but the Warriors have more options which means decisions to be made. Those decisions may determine this game.                                    WEST      #3 Rounder 17       vs.         #8 Apaches       Not always are the rankings wrong and according to the statistics they're right on here. Usually a week 1 meeting would have very little meaning in week 13 but both these teams have basically the same teams now as they did then. And the bad news for the Apaches is they lost their week 1 regular season game against the Rounder 126-64. And even worse news is they could have lost 168-64 had the Rounder played different players. And even more worse news is they will be playing those different players this week. Ok before we throw the dirt on top of the Apaches lets remember that in that first meeting their QB was Tom Brady who produced all of 3 points before going out for the season and they drew a zero from Willis McGahee. And lately Brady's backup Cassel has been playing very Brady-like with back to back 39-point games. And we can't ignore the fact that the Apaches just put up their best game of the year scoring 149 in their wildcard win. Are the Rounder 17 the clear favorite hear, yes. But if you tell me Cassel will put up another 39, maybe not so much.  #4 Commish West      vs.     #7 Irish Talbots      The statistics do favor Commish West here but just slightly and certainly not as much as their regular season game would suggest. In their week 6 meeting Commish rolled 142-85 but with a lineup very similar to the one they scored 85 with in week 6, the Talbots put up 145 in their wildcard victory last week. The Talbots have a slight edge at QB but the fact that Mewelde Moore is their highest scoring RB, I have to give the RB edge to Commish. And the fact that Moore isn't even starting any more, let's make that a big edge. At WR I would call it a wash. Because of their running backs this analysis would indicate an edge for Commish but in the second half of the season the Talbots have actually averaged 10 more points a game. So even though the rosters seems to favor Commish, recent production favors the Talbots.

East Standings Rk Franchise PF 1 2 Tommy Guns 1532 2 7 Justice 1488 3 8 Cleantown 1478 4 1 Little Johnny's 1451 5 3 T Bones 1426 6 4 Green Apple 1388 7 5 Commish East 1387 8 10 IC Lightning 1378 9 6 Rebels 1328 10 9 Boys of Autumn 1325 11 11 Aggravators 1209   Average 1400 East Consolation Tournament #7 Justice vs. #9 Boys of Autumn #5 Commish East vs. #11 Aggravators                   Central Standings Rk Franchise PF 1 1 Syndicate 1542 2 5 SS Stoggies 1490 3 2 Twisted Helmets 1486 4 4 Weekend Warriors 1477 5 6 Harmony Hornets 1417 6 3 Nasty Aggravators 1371 7 7 Knockout Kings 1364 8 10 Reno 1347 9 8 Steve Irwin Crocodiles 1347 10 11 TnT 1260 11 9 R&J Inc. 1251   Average 1396 Central Consolation Tournament #8 Steve Irwin Crocks vs. #9 R&J Inc. #6 Harmony Hornets vs. #10 Reno                 West Standings Rk Franchise PF 1 1 Downtowners 1568 2 2 JR's Boys 1524 3 3 Rounder 17 1493 4 4 Commish West 1484 5 5 MNE 1468 6 7 Irish Talbots 1440 7 6 Brookline 1330 8 10 French River 1304 9 8 Apaches  1282 10 11 B&B 1260 11 9 Sharks 1215   Average 1397 West Consolation Tournament #6 Brookline vs. #9 Sharks #5 MNE vs. #11 B&B