Pittsburgh Franchise Football League
2008 News & Notes 

Week Fifteen

Conference Championship Results

        #2 Tommy Guns 133              #8 Cleantown 130

     Little Tommy just turned 26 but he told me he feels more like 27 after holding off Cleantown on Sunday night. The contest started out for the Guns with a disappointing Thursday that produced just 23 points out of three players while Cleantown attained 31 out of two. The Guns were beating themselves up for choosing Reggie Bush and his 6 points over Pierre Thomas and his 33. The fact that Bush got hurt seemed to give little solace, and from that point on the Guns seemed to be at a disadvantage throughout the remainder of the contest. On Sunday another decision saw even more valuable points left idle when they chose Washington's defense (6) over Minnesota's (18). Yet when the smoke cleared after the Sunday 1:00 and 4:00 games, the Guns held a slim 133-124 lead. What was aging Little Tommy beyond his 26 years were three details: an efficiency rating of 74.7, a potential point total of 178, and the fact that Cleantown had one player left to go in the Sunday night game in Terrell Owens.

     Now Cleantown wasn't without their own ... now I wouldn't call it a shoulda, but definitely a what-if. Sitting on their bench was Dallas Clark's 32 points and a trip to the PFFL Championship. But just as we wouldn't blame the Guns for not playing Thomas over Bush, we won't blame the Town for using Owens over Clark. Now Owens has ruined more than a few NFL and Fantasy teams alike, but you figure at home, on a national stage, on Sunday night, he'd be good for at least 10 simply because he would be screaming for the ball. I can say with all confidence having played fantasy football for well over 20 years and commissioning for now 18, I know exactly how both these teams felt as one was striving for points and the other cringing every time Romo dropped backed. The stats reveal that 40% of the time this year Owens failed to earn 10 points. To the Town's disheartenment, Sunday night he produced in the bottom percentile with just 6.

            EAST CHAMPION TOMMY GUNS

    Being this is the first year of the Tommy Guns there is really no league history on the team to talk about. Little Tommy however has plenty of history in the PFFL. He became a part of his father's team in 2003. The team was renamed TnT for the occasion and he couldn't have picked a better time to get involved. After five name changes and 12 years of trying as one of the league's original teams, Tom won his first PFFL Championship as TnT and Little Tommy was along for the ride. After four more years as a partner, he branched out with his own team this year. Five years after joining the league he finds himself back in the big game now as sole owner of his own team.

      #1 Syndicate 152          #2 Twisted Helmets 130       

     Mickey may act crazy but maybe he's just crazy like a fox. In weeks 10 thru 13 when he didn't need it he averaged 113. All the other weeks of the year he averaged 134 and even picked it up a notch to 145 in his two playoff games. Do I believe he actually laid down in his bye weeks saving it for when it counted? Yeah! You know what they say about crazy people... their crazy! You have to give them credit though for putting up 152 with their #1 pick Frank Gore not playing. And even more credit for choosing Tyler Thigpen over Jay Cutler. Decisions like that is how you get a 91% efficiency rating in a playoff game and therein lies the problem for the Helmets.

     The rosters indicated that the Helmets also had a problem at RB with Peyton Hillis out but McFadden did an adequate job filling in with 20 points, even outdoing LT's 19. Beside the fact the Syndicate had more points you really can't criticize the Helmets too much because they did score 130 points after all. But the fact they had a potential of 172 would indicate they may be criticizing themselves. And guess who shows up again? Dallas Clark!In observing their roster it would have taken some serious insight to play just the right players. I say this because there are so many owners on this team that if they started fighting over this it could turn into a riot! But as the leader of the pack maybe Kevin will just step up and take responsibility and say something like: The buck stops here and I take blame. But my money is on the riot.

                 CENTRAL CHAMPION SYNDICATE

     The Syndicate is the definite veteran of the three conference champions. Aside from the original PFFL teams of 1992, there are not many teams with more league history. The Syndicate name was born in 2003 but ownership goes back even further with multiple teams. Since calling themselves the Syndicate they have been one of the most successful teams in the league never failing to make the playoffs. And least we forget last year they broke through with their first conference championship with the West title and then going on to acquire their first PFFL Championship by winning the title game. They changed conferences this year to the Central but not the results as they once again claim a conference championship and again as the #1 seed. They made history last year by being the first team with the #1 pick in the draft to win the title. They can make history again by being the first team to not only win a second PFFL title, but do it in back to back years. There have been other teams that made the championship game two years in a row but none that converted a second championship title.

     In the four weeks of the postseason, weeks 12-15, Rounder averaged 127 while the Downtowners averaged 152. And if the Downtowners played the Rounder in any of those weeks except this last one, they win. We have been saying all through the playoffs that the Rounder 17 had the players to win it all and teams would have to score to beat them. Well the Downtowners have been scoring in buckets but that off week is always looming in the background and we never know when it's coming. With a game rating of 96.5% the Rounders basically made no mistakes. At 88% the Downtowners certainly didn't shoot themselves in the foot but since their potential of 133 was less than the Rounder's game score of 136, there are definitely no what-ifs to discuss. We said last week that the Rounders would probably keep the Downtowners honest and force them to continue to put up high scores. They did, and they didn't!

     Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall coming up small was fateful but Westbrook's 9 on Monday night was the clincher. The Central conflict had a Monday night player also but that game was basically decided going in and the player was a kicker. On the contrary, this one was far from over even though the Rounders had a 28-point lead because the Downtowners had Westbrook! Had this been a Texas Holdem Tournament the Rounders would probably think twice about going all in because they know what Westbrook is capable of, but all in is what they were no matter. Even though 28 is a lot of points, I believe the Downtowners still felt truly optimistic with the way Westbrook has been performing. I know I felt it was going down to the wire. But after back to back games of 40 and 38, Westbrook disintegrated to just 9. It wasn't really his fault though: You can blame the Cleveland Browns for sucking so bad they just really didn't use him all that much. Add in Cutler and Marshall's underachievement and that's how upsets come about. Although the Downtowners will not get a chance to be the first team to win a second PFFL Championship, they can look forward to their first PFFL Total Point Championship coming in week 17, because no one is catching them in points!

                        WEST CHAMPION ROUNDER 17

     A 119-117 heat-breaking loss to the Sharks in last year's South Conference Championship Game prevented them from playing in the PFFL Championship in their very first year. Call it irony or redemption, this year it was their opponent that had 117 in a loss. Second-year teams have had plenty of success in the championship games and the Rounder 17 in just their second season have played in two conference title games, won a conference title, and are now in position for a league title. Maybe the reason for their failure last year was their #4 rank; the only rank that has failed to produce a champion. Well this year they carry the #3 rank which does have a history of winning a championship.

Consolation Tournament
East Winner

T Bones




 

 

Central Standings
Rk	Franchise	PF
1	1 Syndicate	1940
2	2 Twisted Helmets	1894
3	5 SS Stoggies	1879
4	4 Weekend Warriors	1871
5	6 Harmony Hornets	1748
6	3 Nasty Aggravators	1723
7	7 Knockout Kings	1704
8	8 Steve Irwin Crocks	1698
9	10 Reno	1671
10	11 TnT	1547
11	9 R&J Inc.	1486
	Average	1742

Consolation Tournament
Central Winner

Steve Irwin Crocodiles

 

 

Consolation Tournament
West Winner

Irish Talbots


 

PFFL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

     K: Way too unpredictable a position and basically all about opportunity. All three teams have good enough kickers and situations to do just about anything but the experts really like the Rounder's Gostkowski at home over Arizona so:  Slight Edge to Rounder

     DEF: The defenses are slightly more predictable than kickers and also have more potential to have a big day. Like anything the matchups are always a good indicator. I don't see a particularly good matchup for either of the Guns defenses or the Syndicate's. The Rounders on the other hand have an intriguing one in Dallas at home against Baltimore. It's hard to ignore the way they sacked the hell out of the Giants while allowing just 6 points last week. Slight Edge to Rounder

                          Predicted Order of Finish According to This Weeks Fantasy Projections:

                                           1st Tommy Guns  -  2nd Rounder 17   -  3rd Syndicate
 

PFFL Information

High Week

192

Downtowners

                                      PFFL STUFF

● The Score: The scoring picked up a bit this week posting an above average 119.7. The West led the way with a 124 average. Unless the scoring picks up substantially in the last two weeks it will be a below average year. The current yearly average is 116.6. The last two-year average is 117.5.

● An Enigma Uncovered: How does a team ranked #1 in East points go 5-6 and finish 7th in the standings? If you would like to find out click on the team name of Justice in the East Conference standings, scroll down to the weekly results chart, and observe what looks like the recent activity on the Stock Market. Weekly high score followed by a weekly low score followed by a weekly high score etc. Through 15 weeks they have 3 weekly highs and 4 weekly lows. The PFFL legal department informs me there is no league liability here but I still fear a law suit coming.

● Championship Game Notes: Just two players that are leading their categories in points are playing in the Championship Game. Wide receiver Andre Johnson and Kicker Rob Bironas. The current top QB Drew Brees, the top RB Matt Forte and the top DEF Baltimore are not in the game. . . A wildcard team has won two of the last three Championship Games but there are no wildcard teams participating in this year's game. . . Only one of the three teams in the game lead their conference in points, the Syndicate, who also has the highest efficiency rating of the three.

● Playoff Tournament: Because of New Year's Eve falling on a Wednesday, this years draft will be held on Tuesday, December 30. The web site has been updated to 2008 and can be accessed here: Playoff Tournament.  Those interested in participating this year please contact me at PFFL Headquarters to reserve a team.

● Note: The final league meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 7 at approximately 7:30 pm.
 

Good Luck to the Conference Champions!
 

PFFL Trivia Answer

Chris Chandler