Playoff Prediction Games: Conference Championship Results

Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty excited about the Super Bowl. It's just not often that the two Super Bowl teams combined for no more than five losses over the course of the entire season. Even when the Patriots went undefeated, the Giants had lost six games. The last time this happened, the Patriots played the Eagles in 2004. The last time before that, the Broncos played the Falcons in 1998. Before that: Redskins / Bills in 1991. Before that? 49ers / Dolphins, 1984 - believe it or not! Excluding the strike shortened 1982 season, those are the only four times that this has happened since the league went to a 16 game schedule.

Maybe I'll give that a minute to sink in.

This is something that has only happened four times since 1978. This is something that has only happened three times in my entire lifetime.

Now, not all of those were great Super Bowls. But the people watching those games knew that they were watching two absolutely elite NFL teams square off against each other. And we get to see the two hands-down best teams in the entire league play each other slightly less than two weeks from now.

Even if I wasn't a fan of both of these teams, I'd be stoked. The sheer scale of this Super Bowl is just something that happens so rarely, I would want to appreciate it. Nay, I would have to appreciate it.

Four times since 1978. Unbelievable.

However, there is one thing that's happened even less over that same period of time. Believe it or not, our prediction game playoffs are only happening for the third time since 1978.

Let me give that a chance to sink in.

Three times since 1978. And you're alive to see it. Oh, it's a wonderful world we live in.

New York Jets @ Indianapolis:

1. illini49er (2)
2. 49erLou (4)
3. Ten-Man, Drew K, mpotter14, jtoj, howtheyscored (6)
4. J2daZ, Fooch (8)
5. JoeO, SpurredOn, snowweasel30, wjackalope, urnext, cassusriff, LASVEGASNINER (12)

Minnesota @ New Orleans:

1. J2daZ (0) - That's a perfect! Good for 7 points in the playoffs!
2. mpotter14 (2)
3. PHUT!, howtheyscored (4)
4. Drew K, Rabbit T (6)
5. SpurredOn, ZeroIndulgence, YoungWillis, leaping_larry, Fooch, bignerd, beecharmer (8)

That makes our Pre-Super Bowl Leaderboard look like this:

First and foremost - big props should go to J2daZ for his perfect prediction. Not only was a great pick, but it shot him straight into a tie for third place, only two points out of the lead.

I have to take a moment to give myself a few props as well. I made a couple of nice picks and came away six points. I'm not quite in striking distance of first, but thanks to my performance this week, a perfect prediction in the Super Bowl could realistically net me a tournament win.

Joining me and J2daZ in the group of players who did enough this week to actually get back in the running are: mpotter14 (nice job!), illini49er (nice job as well!), and Drew K (can I say it enough?).

Fooch also had a very respectable week, and remains in a great position to make a move for the win two weeks from now.

I think it's also worth congratulating everybody else in the top 15. All of you remain mathematically uneliminated from the win. And all of you can thank ZeroIndulgence for failing to take this chance to put things away. His dud this week means we're going to have a competitive Super Bowl. Great stuff! I think the Super Bowl is going to be pretty exciting.

How about the head-to-headers?

(12) YoungWillis @ (4) leaping_larry

            Game 1: YoungWillis (Colts, 14) @ leaping_larry (Colts, 14) - Tie, Point Each
            Game 2: YoungWillis (Saints, 8) @ leaping_larry (Saints, 8) - Tie, Point Each 

            Score: YoungWillis 2 - leaping_larry 2
            First Overtime (Winners): YoungWillis (2 Winners) - leaping_larry (2 Winners)
            Second Overtime (Raw Scores): YoungWillis (22) - leaping_larry (22)
            Third Overtime (Yardage - 849): YoungWillis (701) - leaping_larry (615)
            Winner: YoungWillis - In Three Overtimes! 

(11) cassusriff @ (7) LASVEGASNINER

            Game 1: cassusriff (Colts, 12) @ LASVEGASNINER (Colts, 12) - Tie, Point Each
            Game 2: cassusriff (Saints) @ LASVEGASNINER (Vikings) - Point cassuriff 

            Score: cassusriff 2 - LASVEGASNINER 1
            Winner: cassusriff

The weekend's games got off to a rip-roaring start as playoff sensation YoungWillis marched into leaping_larry's house for what would be a brutal battle on the blagosphere. Number four seed leaping_larry represented the last of this year's top seeds and, by all accounts, posed the final real threat to YoungWillis's playoff well-being. As it turned out, the game couldn't have possibly been more closely matched. When YoungWillis deeked, leaping_larry deeked with him. When leaping_larry dunked, YoungWillis dunked right back. When YoungWillis dipped, leaping_larry dipped you dip we dip. At the end of regulation, things were all tied up. The first period of overtime was a bitterly fought affair that managed to resolve nothing. After two overtimes, the game was still tied! After becoming the only game this season to go into the third overtime, YoungWillis finally put it away by the slimmest of margins. His last-second field goal from 61 yards out hit the lower crossbar, bounced straight up in the air, and came down again on the crossbar before falling over the back end for the winning points.

Can nobody stop him?

In the second game of the weekend, nobody could have expected things to be quite as tight as the first game. Naturally, that lack of expectation wasn't disappointed, but that doesn't mean that anyone came away feeling disappointed. The game was neck and neck after the first half and appeared to be headed toward another nail-biter. In the second half, though, cassusriff hunkered down on defense and made a few key offensive plays to squeak of the win. It wasn't the historic three-overtime affair of the earlier game, but it still went down as one of the better matchups of the playoffs thusfar.

And interestingly enough, that makes the Super Bowl matchup one between our two lowest entering seeds. Playing on a neutral field, number 12 seed YoungWillis will face off against number 11 seed cassusriff slightly less than two weeks from now.

Are they ready to rumble?

Here's the new bracket:

I ran into Steve a couple of days ago. He was real surprised to see me. We hadn't seen each other for a long time.

I was sitting on the beach and he come up to me and said, "Rusty-James?"

I said, "Yeah?" because I didn't recognize him right off. My memory's screwed up some.