Semi Finals Recap

Ok I promise that this will be the first post in a week that doesn't include Kevin McAllister looking disgustedly at a picture of someone in Sandwich Fest.  Promise.  Instead, lets look back at a semi final that has one huge upset and one slugfest.

First, the slug fest.  Below is a gif of the illegal play that gave Chris Hill the win and sent him to his 4th championship game in 5 years.

Just to clarify, you are allowed to block a punter on a punt return.  You are not allowed to break his jaw with the crown of your helmet.  It was an obvious call and a missed call and the 8 points scored on it flipped this matchup.

Prior to that, Matt/Sean got everything they could've hoped for.  Desean Jackson and Josh Gordon got some GTP.  Eddie Lacy went off against the Cowboys.  Amendola was Brady's favorite target with Gronk out.  They had two reaches though and neither came through: Jason Campbell and the Philly D.  But watching red zone, it seemed they had done enough.

Except Hill had other ideas.  The Cut started off pretty terribly, but one Hail Mary to Alshon Jeffrey really turned his day around.  The Cowboys, for all the choking they did, did build up a big lead thanks to Murray and Dez Bryant.  Bryant had the decency to score 32 points before pouting his way back to the locker room.

Aside from Antonio Brown's dubious TD, defense was the difference in a matchup this close.  Carolina against the Jets and their turnover prone QB out scored Philly by 17 points and was actually the difference in this close close match.  Matt/Sean still have a chance to cash in on third place.

The whole season I was trying to reconcile that Hemrick could win it all with players from two teams.  I thought there has to be week where they have tough matchups or one of the QBs gets hurt.  Well, this week proved it was bound to happen but we'll get back to him in a moment.

First, let's make sure we give proper due to Mike Mintz, who advances to his first finals as a Sandwich Fest manager.  I was worried about his running backs, but not only is Pierre Thomas Captain Check-down, but when you get 54 points from your kicker and defense, who needs running backs?  We touched on his luck Thursday night, with Keenan Allen catching only two balls and Rivers completing only 12 passes, but that Allen still had 2 TDs.  Well that Thursday was a foreshadowing of the rest of this match.  There were no breakout performers, but it didn't matter.  He put up just under 180 points which shows he has a chance to win it all.

Although Mintz put up a great score, his highest of the year, lets all take a moment to reflect on what happened to our regular season champ (no trophy for that) in his first playoff game.  As I mentioned on Friday, a 38 year old QB, late in the season, on two bad ankles and only 3 days rest, is not a good combo for his weapons.  They also leaned heavily on Monte Ball, probably due to the short week.

And Detroit, I have no idea what happened there.  At home against an average defense, you'd think they would've moved the ball.  But apparently Matt Stafford is a piece of shit that chokes in primetime.  And who would've though Megatron would drop 3 passes, 2 of which may have led to long touchdowns.  He did diversify a bit, sitting Reg Bush in favor of Steven Jackson, who did pretty well, but not well enough to overcome the shit (literally fecal matter) the rest of his roster produced.

His lowest score of the year came in the most important game.  The dream of back to back is dead.