Week 12
Jody clinches Eastern Crown
The C.W.O.T. downs The Players while The Pimps fall to the Brewmeisters, and Thomas takes it to the Hellions. All this and more in...

The Week That Was in Fantasy League Football

Jody's Colossal Waste of Time downed the spiraling Players and stood by to watch Anderson take out The Pimps, giving the C.W.O.T. their first division title since '97. Kerry Collins had 13 points for Jody, but it was Eddie George and his 17 point barrage that took the fight out of The Players. Jody also kept Player quarterback sensation Jeff Garcia in check, limiting him to a humble 7 points. Surprisingly, The Players Lion defense mauled over Jody's Miami squad 19-13, but it wasn't near enough to overcome the offensive deficit. The loss is the seventh in a row for The Players, setting a new and dubious league record. Jody, having now won four straight, clinches an all important bye in the first round of the playoffs. Congratulations, C.W.O.T.!

As mentioned above, The Pimps continued their remarkable collapse, losing to the Anderson Brewmeisters. Anderson was running on all cylinders, having its best overall performance of the season. Highlighting that performance was Fred Taylor, who embarrassed the defense for 25 points – a new league record for RB points in a game. Taylor was assisted with 13 points each from Peyton Manning and Ed McCaffery. The Pimps countered as best they could, getting a gutsy 13 points out of Jeff George and another 12 from Rod Smith. The Pimps' Packer defense should get their own award, having outdueled the Brewmeisters' Titan squad 19-18. Yet it still goes down as the sixth straight loss for The Pimps, pushing them even closer to the brink of playoff elimination. Anderson, rebounding from a loss to Brandon a week ago, even their record at 6-6 and move into excellent position to grab a playoff invitation.

In perhaps the biggest surprise of the week - that is, to everyone outside of Bock Boy owner Thomas Pirkle - the B. Boys lived up to their guarantee in crushing the West-leading Hellions. In front of a rowdy Bockville crowd, the home team put on a show of its own, avenging an early-season humiliation at the hands of Irwin. Four Bock Boys - Daunte Culpepper (12), Robert Smith (15), Jamal Lewis (10), and Tony Gonzales (10) - all hit double digits, and the Eagle defense posted 26 in putting the shackles on the Hellions. In a huge show of strength, Thomas has outscored its last three opponents 165-61. Although the Western title is out of reach, the Bock Boys look primed to host a playoff game come Week 14. With Irwin's loss, the West remains undecided; the Hellions must now dwon the Raze or get some help to claim their second straight division crown.

In a game decided in the last minute of Monday night's game, the Piana Raze scored yet another victory on the shoulders of the Home Field Advantage. Down by two four points after Sunday, Raze receiver Isaac Bruce beat out B.Y.O.B.'s Az-Zahir Hakim 5-1 (capped by a 20+ yard reception in the final minute) to tie the game before the 2-point home field advantage was awarded. Brandon's Rich Gannon bested Elvis Grbac 10-9, as both QBs led their respective teams in points. The two defenses, keeping par with the offense, battled to a 14-14 draw. The loss snaps Brandon's four game win streak and all but ends their playoff bid. The win is the sixth in seven games for Piana and puts them in a remarkable position to win the West should they defeat Irwin next week and get some help.

One might think that if you have a two-player advantage over your opponent, a win should come pretty easily. The Abstract Machines made things interesting this week, keeping the under-manned Stereco in the game until Monday night. Marshall Faulk, returning from surgery, poured in a needed 9 points to ensure the win. Yet the low-scoring performance may come back to haunt them, as the 6-6 Machines currently sit on the wrong side of the postseason cut-off, victims of a three-way POINTS-FOR tiebreak. The Stereco have dropped four straight and, like Brandon, have virtually no hope of making the playoff cut.