Let's Crown Some Asses.
The NFL regular is officially over. Let’s all take a brief moment of silence. In some ways it feels like the 4 months went by in an instant, and at other times (like when watching the Eagles on Sunday) it felt like the playoffs could not start soon enough. With the season coming to a close, we see the end of two great 3 Putt Territory segments. Our classic, if not wholly original picks section and the 3PT World Exclusive, DA Fantasy Football, both wrapped up on Sunday. A win in one of these contests is one of the last pure sporting accomplishments left in the world, and the winners should feel justly superior and have a year’s worth of bragging rights. Let’s do Pick ‘Em first….
Final Pick ‘Em Standings:
- Nichols: 46-38-1 (54.7 winning percentage)
- Big Dub H: 44-37-4 (54.3 winning percentage)
- Kraft: 45-39-1
- JCK: 44-39-2
- Grossy: 40-41-4
As you can see, this was an extremely close battle. To have it come down to one game after 85 picks is pretty amazing, especially after last year when I won fairly handily. You see, I have to mention that after this year’s horrid performance. Of course, in the deciding week, there were picks that deserved a bit of focus.
The “96 Dom Perignon” Pick of the Week:
It was a back and forth year in Pick ‘Em. I think everyone aside from yours truly held the lead at one point, but in the end it was Nichols who squeaked out the victory by the slimmest of margins. He took control in week 15 and held on from there. While it was Nichols’ year, for the week, I think we have to identify Big Dub H’s Redskins pick. Big Dub had a real nice week, and almost stole this thing, but his Washington call was on the money. He noticed something off in the line, some of us fell for it, but he backed the Grossman and was rewarded.
The “2009 Andre” Awful Pick of the Week:
I wasn’t the only handicapper that had the Dolphins on Sunday. I guess we all saw the same things. Pats had nothing to play for, the Dolphins historically give them problems. When I woke up Sunday morning I saw the line had jumped to 6 points and I wondered if the extra 1.5 would have come in handy. Hilarious. This game was over immediately. Miami never had a shot. They never had a sniff. So, what was I thinking? Well, it starts with…if you are going to make a pick based on Tom Brady not playing, make sure he’s not playing. I could have gone to several other games instead of watching Tommy Toupee charge into the 30s just after halftime. For the dagger that sent me below .500, I’ll take yet another one of these bullets.
The 2010 D.A. Football Champion Is….
In the End, It was Neckbeards. (And Codeine)
Final Score: Neckbeards and Codeine 67, Team Motorboat 47.
This match-up was everything you’d expect in a D.A. Final. It ended up being a great week for DA Fantasy, and the two finalists honed in on some of the top performers. Team Motorboat had the choice of picks thanks to his higher seed and he took 2/3. That left Neckbeards with the pressure of the #1 selection. In that spot he took what I’d call a fairly safe approach by tabbing Jimmy Clausen. Clausen was coming off a great week and has virtually no D.A. downside. From there, Team Motorboat picked Colt McCoy (spiraling downward and facing the Steelers) and Charlie Whitehurst (Son of David Whitehurst, Career Passer Rating: 59.2). Coming back to Neckbeards at #4, this was the pick that ended up deciding the season. With some doubt as to the starter in Buffalo, Neckbeards took a shot and ended up with Brian Brohm. A steal if there ever was one.
In the early games, this was like a heavyweight prize fight. You can have Ali/Frazier, I’ll take Brohm and McCoy going toe to toe. Brohm exploded out of the gate with a pick-6. He’d throw 2 more picks, fumble, and get totally thrashed by the Jets on his way to 48 points. Simultaneously in Cleveland, McCoy was matching Brohm point for point. McCoy threw 3 picks of his own, he was sacked time and again and piled up the incompletions. He ran his score up to 45 points. Ninety-Three points on the board, but basically a wash. Closing out the early action was Jimmy Clausen, the #1 selection. He was good, but slightly out of place on this afternoon of greatness. His unusually accurate day produced a mere 19 points. Waiting for Whitehurst, Neckbeards was holding a 22 point lead.
Everything came down to Charlie Whitehurst in the Sunday Night game. Twenty-two points seemed like a reasonable request of Whitey, and there’s no way you can criticize the pick, but two factors that fly under the radar in DA are: Who is the opponent, and will the team lose? An ugly win can cost you a quick 7-10 points. And, there are enough bad defenses in this league to make Kerry Collins a spot fantasy starter. The Whitehurst win, against a mediocre Rams team was part of what the made the difference in this one. He didn’t turn the ball over, threw one unfortunate TD, and when it was all said and done, it added up to just 2 points. Had to be a frustrating way for Team Motorboat to go out, but all in all, it was one hell of a final.
*I’ll be in Touch With the Winners Regarding their Prizes.
3-Putt Territory 
what a wrap-up, Dubs, so close…so close, i hope you pull your head out from under the covers at some point today..and like that weasily cowboys princeton red head says, tighten your tie, and tell yourself you gotz pride!
anyhow, i’m still gloating about my ncaa title. i have two more months with that crown.
go KANSAS.
i always bet on KANSAS.
not to jump ahead, DA and slutty super models deserve so much more.
Q
Q,
It was one of the more crushing defeats of the year. If a couple of ties turn into wins, I’m on top of the world.
As for a DA nomination, I’d have to go to the Arizona QBs for their body of work.
They ruined Larry Fitzgerald’s season, which almost seems impossible. Take a look at the QB situation in Detroit. They had 3 guys go in there and yet Calvin Johnson still played well because they at least knew how to get him the ball.
In Arizona? Not so much.
The only positive from their play is they made Kurt Warner look like a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer.
Dubs, with a heart of gold…
ya know what, i think your commitment to unfiltered enthusiasm and going with your heart will prevail come the boys of summer.
maybe we can do baseball pick-ems.
now that would be months of madness
and i am sure, then, 3-Putt would never get to that new script he’s working on, aptly acronymed “TP.”
yo, 3-Putt, how could be do baseball pick-ems? i wanna do it…consider this q’s pick: red sox, phillies, cubs, repeat. ooooh, did i unconsciously put the phillies in the two spot?
Q
I’ll take a 1-2 finish in pick em and DA respectively. I have to admit that I did not do my homework this week as I have in week’s past and completely missed the Buffalo pick – well done Neckbeards. I also realized while I was reviewing my pick em subs. that I had a DA contender going against the Rams. Bad move. That being said, Whitehurst was a beast for me this year and I had to give him the nod.
Not a bad year for the Motorboat. 3rd place in Fantasy, 2nd in DA, and 1st in Pick Em. Sounds like I’ll walk away from this football season with a couple hundos and a care package from T Hill. All in all, it’s better than watching the Giants slip into the Wild Card and have their asses handed to them in the first round.
slutty seems a bit harsh.
it was a solid performance, Nichols. I thought you had a pretty good chance to pull a double there, but it wasn’t meant to be.
I didn’t know Fitzy was questionable either. Brohm turned out to be a great call.
Great match-up Motorboat. I thought for sure that Whitey was going to pull it out for you on Sunday night. I was lucky with Brohm. The Jets had nothing to play for and even against some back-ups, Brohm was horrendous.
Since we had a DA of the Week each week, will there be a DA of the Year?
I don’t know if I can come up with a DA for the year. I might have to ask the research department. Maybe we can get some nominees.
I’m sure Favre would be on the list. Probably Clausen. Henne closed hard. Todd Collins was a meteor. DA, of course.
It’d be hard to pick.
I nominate Cutler, for throwing a pick in the red one and submarining the G-men’s chance at a backdoor playoff entrance (another pick off of manningham’s face mask by the way). Gonna be interesting to see what they do in the off season, between the aging line and the inability of the RBs to hold onto the ball. Oh well, go packers i guess…..
I second Cutler as the leading candidate as well.
He prevented Eli Manning from getting exposed and allowing his appologists to come up with more excuses for his picks.
Plus the Eagles would have definitely beat the Giants. It is proven that when you beat a team twice in the same season you have about a 70% chance of beating them in the third game.
Thanks Cutler for hitting Eagles fans with the double whammy.
Cutler for the year?
Don’t think I’d go that far. He had a decent season by his standards…
I also have to say about the deflected pick thing…
like you said before there are also dropped picks.
so, even if eli has 8 deflected picks, i’m sure there were several dropped picks that even this number out.
i think picks is a fairly good representation of accuracy/taking stupid risks/etc
If we are counting dropped picks then Vick had about eleventy interceptions in the Vikings game.
right…
well, the point I’m making is that accurate and or conservative QBs don’t have flukish years where they throw 25 picks just because balls get deflected..
Well now define a stupid risk. End of the Packers game, Eli tosses up a hail mary down the sideline that he has to throw b/c they need a big play. Had to take the shot, had to take the risk, even though it was probably more than 50-50 it gets picked.
Whatever, i wasn’t ad haven’t defended Eli as having a “great” year”. Lot of picks, team had a lot of turn overs, it is what it is. I still stick by my ranking of having him in the top 8.
I think you’re missing the point.
The 3-putt machine is saying that when Eli throws a Haily Mary it will eventually be offset by a dropped pick and by the end of the year all of his bad breaks will be evened out by the good breaks.
Heck, look at Brady. His last pick was on a Haily Mary against the Ravens. That’s obviously a bad break. But he had a dropped pick against Green Bay to keep his streak alive.
yeah, i mean, obviously that happens to most QBs once or twice a year.
What I’m saying is, the things you claim skew Eli’s stats, I don’t think skew his more than anyone else’s.
It’s like bloop hits and lining out. It happens to everyone. No one ever blooped their way into the Hall of Fame and no one ever lined themselves out of the league.
Eli was a quasi pick machine this year, it is what it is.