Words of Truth

*caught cheating

Yes, that’s right, the Patriots are undefeated in the regular season, the first time a team has done this since 1972. Which is more important: that record, or their three Super Bowl rings? I think the rings are more important. That is why the Colts are going to be striving to win the Super Bowl, not chase the “undefeated” label. The Colts had the chance to go undefeated in 2005, and it didn’t happen. I am happy for the Patriots fans, but I still hope that the Jags or the Colts beat them in the playoffs. If the Jags don’t do it, it will be up to the Colts.

Another interesting point: Given the makeup of the postseason schedule this year, it is highly likely that the Colts will end up playing the only two teams that beat them in the regular season (I’m obviously not counting the Titans game, since the Colt’s starters played less than half the game).

Assuming the Jags beat the Steelers and the Chargers beat the Titans, the Colts will play the Chargers in the Divisional round, and then the Patriots in the championship game. Should be interesting.

I’m putting in my predictions for the NFL playoffs this year. First off, the AFC:

Wild Card: the Chargers will beat the Titans, and the Jaguars will beat the Steelers.
Divisional: the Colts will beat the Chargers, the Patriots will beat the Jaguars.
AFC Championship: the Colts will beat the Patriots

Now, the NFC:

Wild Card: the Seahawks will beat the Redskins, the Buccaneers will beat the Giants
Divisional: the Cowboys will beat the Buccaneers, the Seahawks will beat the Packers.
NFC Championship: The Cowboys will beat the Packers
The Super Bowl: Colts over Cowboys.
The only questions in my mind are the Jags/Pats game, and the Packers/Seahawks game. Those games could go either way, which would, of course, affect the rest of the predictions. I guess we’ll see.

So my game last week went like this: I was ahead 86-60, and my opponent only had Adrian Peterson left to play. Adrian Peterson ended up getting 20 points. Respectable, but not good enough to beat my team. So I won 86-80. I was getting nervous there at the end, because if he had gotten one more touchdown, that would have been the end for me. But he didn’t, so I (the wild card) beat the #1 seed.

So it was on to the championship this weekend. Long story short, I beat the #2 seed 99-90. This is the first year I have ever played fantasy football, and I won the championship. I was excited for about 20 seconds, until my wife said, “So what did you win?” Yeah. So I didn’t win anything substantial. Not even bragging rights, since I don’t know any of the guys I played with (it was a random NFL.com league). But I won. And I learned a lot that I can use next year when I play with people I do know.

By the way, Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, and Dallas Clark (my terrible trio) earned 69 points for me. Boo-yah.

No, that’s fantasy FOOTBALL. Get your mind out of the gutter.

I ended up the regular season (my first ever in fantasy football) 8-4. This was good enough to get me the wild card spot. There was one team that went undefeated until week 13, and he ended up going 10-2. It was good enough for the #1 seed. If he had lost one more game, he would have been the #2 seed. Anyway, watching him every week was like watching the Patriots win every week…you hope he loses.

Anyway, so there are 12 teams in my league, broken up into 3 divisions of 4 teams. For the playoffs, the team with the best record in each league goes to the playoffs, as does the player who didn’t win his division but has the best record among the remaining teams. That was me. I led my division for weeks, until two weeks ago, and I lost it to the 2nd place guy. He then went on to win the division.

So the playoffs are going like this: I played the guy who almost went undefeated, and the head of my division (a team called BDC) played the remaining division leader. BDC won hands down, so the winner of my game plays BDC for the championship.

My game is currently scored at 86-60 (I am winning by 26 points). All of my team has played. He has one remaining team player: Adrian Peterson of the Vikings (not the Bears). All I need is for AP to have a bad day (or at least not a good day). Then it’s on to the championship fantasy football game!