The Week That Was in Fantasy League Football

Pirk's Wicked Oil Profiteer$ scored the franchise's second ever playoff win with a 20-18 victory over the sixth-seeded Sims Stereco. P.W.O.P. built a 16-point lead going into Monday night, when Sims' Saintly duo of Aaron Brooks and Ricky Williams took the field. Together, they combined for the necessary 16 points to tie until Brooks threw a costly interception halfway through the fourth quarter, stripping the Stereco of two points and - more importantly - the win.

P.W.O.P. struggled mightily on offense, falling behind early. Praised running back Ahman Green was held to a startling 1 point, and two other starters posted a single point or less. Randy Moss, however, brought the pain, scoring a game-high 13 points and accounting for nearly half of P.W.O.P.'s total offense (27 points). Undeterred, The Stereco beat out the 'W.O.P. on offense with 37 points of their own, thanks largely to 10 from Brooks, 9 from kicker David Akers, and 6 from Tiki Barber. Yet the Profiteer$ Raiders defense had their best game in months, besting Sims' Giants squad 19-10. This set the stage for the league's first playoff game to ever be decided by the home field advantage. With these three additional points, P.W.O.P. steals the win and advances to Championship Week for the first time since 1998. The Sims Stereco, who won consecutive elimination games just to make the cut, head home still searching for that elusive first ever playoff win.

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The other Wild Card affair saw a heated division rivalry do an about face as the Abstract Machines downed Thomas' Bock Boys for the first time in three tries in 2001. For the second consecutive week, Thomas had to go without injured quarterback Daunte Culpepper, his only QB on the roster. This time around, however, the rest of the team couldn't muster much of a supporting offense and made an easy prey for the hungry Machines.

The visiting team got off to a rocky start as quarterback Brad Johnson was actually outperformed by Thomas' sidelined QB 0 to (minus)1. Yet the rest of the team, particularly the running game, rallied past Johnson. After being shown up last week by Antowain Smith and Priest Holmes, the Machines' Marshall Faulk (9 points) and Corey Dillon (12 points) combined to beat out Holmes and Smith 21-10. This was the deciding battle on offense as the Machines claimed a 35-25 edge. Defensively, the Machines' Rams squad muscled up 16 Monday Night points to beat out Thomas' Eagles unit (10 points) and clinch the road victory at Bockyard Stadium. Ultimately, having been swept in the season series by the Boys, the Machines win the one that counts the most and will advance to play the Eastern Champion Pimps next week. For Thomas, a second consecutive Championship Week bid is denied as the Bock Boys lose for the third time in their last four games in Bockville.

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In a game far, far away from the playoff contenders of Wild Card Week, the Piana Raze posted the week's best overall team performance in defeating the Anderson Brewmeisters 28-13 in Draft Bowl V. Longtime Raze receiver Isaac Bruce - the MVP of Super Bowl I - issued a 3 TD, 13-point clinic as Piana won rights to the first overall draft pick in the 2002 Draft. Bruce was backed up by fellow wide receiver Bill Schroeder with 7 points and running back Garrison Heart with an additional 6. Anderson countered with 11 from place kicker Mike Vanderjagt and 4 from Duce Staley, but perhaps shot themselves in the foot by replacing the struggling Peyton Manning with the unproven Jay Fiedler at quarterback. Fiedler essentially killed their chances at a comeback by coughing up 3 points to the Raze, effectively wiping out Saint Arnold Stadium's home field advantage. The Brew Krew managed to win the defensive struggle, 14-13, as their Chargers team clipped Piana's Saints, but it wasn't enough to prevent Anderson from suffering its fourth straight defeat to end the season. The Brewmeisters dropped the final two contests - both at home - by a combined score of 56-19. By contrast, Piana ends 2001 on a two-game winning streak, capped by the franchise's fifth straight non-loss to Anderson (they tied in Week 8, 1999). Congratulations to the Piana Raze - winners of Draft Bowl V!

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