Alright, after much study and deliberation, here’s the breakdown of every teams’ playoff situation:

Cows (9-2) - already qualified for postseason and 1st round bye.  Can clinch #1 seed with a win against Fwet AND the Mafia OR a win against one of those teams AND a loss by Tom.

Tom (8-3) – clinched playoff berth.  Can claim Hickey Division title and 1st round bye with a win vs. either Saint or Steal.

Fwet (7-4) – clinched playoff berth.  Can claim Hickey Division title with a win in each of their last two games against the Cows AND the Nation and losses by Tom against Saint AND the Nation.

‘Gators (5-6) – control their own destiny and can clinch by winning their next two games against Steal AND Las Vatas.

Nation (5-6) – control their own destiny and can clinch by winning their next two games against the Mafia AND Fwet.

Steal (5-6) – control their own destiny and can clinch by winning their next two games against the ‘Gators AND Tom.

Las Vatas (4-7) – control their own destiny and can clinch by winning their final two games against the Scrotums AND the ‘Gators.

Scrotums (4-7) – needs to win last two games against Las Vatas AND Saint to finish 6-7.  They’ll also need the Nation to lose one of their last two games OR they need the ‘Gators OR Steal to lose both of their final two games.

Saint (4-7) – must win their final two games against Tom AND the Scrotums to finish 6-7.  They’ll also need either Steal OR the ‘Gators to lose one of their last two games AND they’ll need Las Vatas to lose one of their last two games.

Amish (4-7) – need to win their last two games against the Nation AND the Cows and finish the season 6-7.  In addition to that, you’ll need the Scrotums, Saint AND Las Vatas to lose one of their last two games in order to qualify OR they’ll need the ‘Gators to lose one of their last two games AND they’ll need two of the following three teams to lose one of their last two games: the Scrotums, Las Vatas and Saint.

Steal def. Dark Saint, 94-65
Good news for Steal – they won. Good news for Saint – they still have the tiebreaker over Steal. Bad news for Saint – they left more points on the bench than they had in their starting lineup.

If It Fitz! def. Locas, 148-129
Tom locked up a playoff spot with this win; Las Vatas finds themselves in big trouble as playoffs look unlikely.

Scrotums def. Nation, 122-101
Big win for Scrotums as WRs show signs of life. Plus, it’s a win over his brother so that’s always nice.

Cows def. ‘Gators, 138-110
Cows continue their winning ways and look strong as the postseason looms.

Mafia def. Fwet, 117-117 (95-79)
Mafia does just enough to secure the win and keep themselves alive in the playoff hunt.

Game Over:

Scrotums 122, Nation 101
Big win by the Scrotums as they attempt an improbable playoff run. Finally their WR corps has decided to do something, though their RBs were a bit iffy. Scrotums are now 4-7 while the Nation sits at 5-6.

Cows 138, ‘Gators 110
Good game by the ‘Gators, better game by the Cows, who now have 9 wins. Gators fall to 5-6.

All But Over:

Tom 128, Las Vatas 129
All Tom needs is two points from Chris Johnson in order to claim victory and a playoff spot. As the dude has been averaging about 41 ppg over the last three weeks, I think that’s a safe bet.

Tough Climb:

Fwet 117, Mafia 100
As noted during the weekend, the Mafia needs the win if they wish to keep their ultra-slim playoff hopes alive. Well, they’ve Andre Johnson going and he’ll need to score at least 17 points in order to seal the deal. Through 9 games, he’s averaging 17.3 so it’s certainly within his abilities to do so. This one is a real Monday night nail-biter…

I Have No Freakin’ Clue:

Steal 51, Saint 57
Seriously, I have no idea where this game is headed. I kept waiting to to write something interesting about this game, but it’s just been one big display of mediocrity. The top scorers have 17 points (Addai for Steal and DeAngelo for Saint). The game is only intriguing for how unspectacular it has been. Well, tonight each team has two players going – Schaub and Slaton for Steal and Moats and Walter for Saint. The outcome likely hinges on whether Houston relies on Slaton or Moats as the primary RB. Stay tuned…

Steal 46 vs. Saint 45
12:41 – remember, this one’s just about an elimination game as both teams need a win if they hope to stay in the playoff hunt. Also, Steal needs a 32-point win if they want the tiebreaker over Saint.
2:29 – Finally, a little life in this quiet game. Addai looks good with 13 for Steal in this must-win game.
3:48 – Steal’s starting to establish himself more, though Saint only has two going right now. Addai and Wayne have combined for 30 points.
4:43 – Steal is done until tonight and they’e only got three to play. Saint’s got two going right now and have three to go later so overall things look good for Saint. Pretty unspectacular game all around though.

Tom 99, Las Vatas 120
12:43 – Tom clinches a playoff spot with a win, but Vatas starts off with a nice lead thanks to Ricky’s big Thursday.
1:26 – The lead continues to grow against one of the league’s most potent teams.
1:54 – Tom’s starting to make his move as he’s close to chopping Las Vatas’ lead in half.
2:07 – Hines Ward continues to defy Father Time with 16 points early on. MJD is also looking good with 11 as Tom continues to close the gap.
3:07 – This is becoming quite a shootout. Ward continues to impress with 23 points. MJD has 17. For Las Vatas, they’ve amassed 87 with Vernon Davis scoring 13 and Peyton scoring 14.
3:49 – This crazy game continues – MJD has 21; Ward still has 23 for Tom. Las Vatas is going big right now – 17 for Peyton, 15 for Pierre, 22 for Vernon and 12 for Santonio.
4:44 – Okay, the dust has settled and Las Vatas is finished until tonight, when D/ST Bears plays. Tom has three in play and two after that – ESPN is projecting them to finish with 184; we’ll see. Still, they’ve got Fitz, Brandon Marshall and D/ST Pats playing right now.
5:07 – Tom continues to close the gap as Fitz has 16 and D/ST Pats has 19.
6:38 – After getting within 14 points, Tom has slipped back down under 100 as D/ST Pats has allowed two TDs by the Jets.

Nation 67, Scrotums 82
12:43 – Any hope the Scrotums have the playoffs hangs on this game. Win, and their scant hopes continue. Lose, and it’s all over. The Nation could take a big step towards a playoff spot with a win.
2:26 – Calvin Johnson’s having a great game for the Nation – he’s got 18 points so far.
2:37 – Brees now has 2 TDs and 17 points for the Nation.
3:09 – Brees has 21 points; CJ has 18. Still a bit quiet over with the Scrotums; Derrick Mason leads with 12.
3:50 – Brees is now at 22 and you have to wonder how much more he’ll get considering how big the Saints are up. Mason’s having a big day for the Scrotums and has 23 right now. That’s a great number for a team that has struggled all season for any sort of scoring from their WRs.
3:53 – Yep, Brees is done, Brunell is in for mop-up duty.
4:47 – Nation’s got one going and three to play later; Scrotums have three in play and two later on. Carson Palmer’s got 10 already for the Scrotums. Beanie Wells actually gets his first start as he faces the hapless Rams.
5:03 – Nation RB Tashard Choice accounted for exactly 1 yard and 0 points; not what you want to see from a starting RB.
5:14 – On the other hand, Beanie gets his first start today and has 10 points so far for the Scrotums.
6:38 – Palmer’s having his best day in about a month with 21 right now. Beanie looks good with 17 so far. The Chargers are up by 20 against Denver in the 4th quarter so one wonders how much more Vincent Jackson is going to contribute to the Nation’s effort; he’s been on 9 for a bit.

Cows 130, ‘Gators 97
12:45 – ‘Gators are at .500 and could move into prime position for a playoff spot with a win.
2:06 – Rodgers is doing good things for the ‘Gators – he’s got 13 points. AP is also workin’ it as he’s contributed 8.
2:28 – The solid effort continues for the ‘Gators as Rodgers, Gore and AP have combined for 38. Grant’s looking good with 12 for the Cows.
3:10 – Rodgers has 24 points; AP has 17. Grant and Rice have combined for 24 for the Cows.
3:53 – Two players account for all the Cows scoring – Grant and Rice. That could be cause for concern for the ‘Gators, who have 6 players going right now yet only have a 15-point lead this year.
4:49 – ‘Gators certainly didn’t get the effort they hoped for from their WR/TE position – Kellen Winslow scored 7 while Lee Evans finished with 2. They’ll look to Welker to bail them out. The Cows are poised to win their 9th game after getting 51 from Grant and Rice. They’ve got Brady, Steven Jackson, Ochocinco, Braylon Edwards, D/ST Chargers AND Nate Kaeding – this does not look good for the ‘Gators.
5:09 – The Cows are on the move now as Brady has 10; Ochocinco has 8; D/ST Chargers have 14.
6:42 – Long story short, the ‘Gators are in trouble, even with Welker having a big day with 26 points (and there’s still the entire 4th quarter to play in that one). They’ll only have D/ST Eagles to go tonight so this looks like a loss for them while the Cows move to 9-2.

Fwet 118, Amish 88
12:46 – Like the Scrotums, the Amish’s thin playoff hopes rest on one game.
1:55 – Some dude name Snelling is carrying the ball in the ATL and has 11 points for the Amish. The Amish don’t win too often but they sure do work the waiver wire.
2:05 – Favre’s getting in on the act for the Amish as he’s got 14 to go along with Snelling’s 11.
2:30 – Fwet’s a bit quiet so far, even though they’ve got 5 of 8 going right now.
3:10 – Big day for Favre and Snelling as they’ve combined for 51 for the Amish. Ray Rice continues to produce for Fwet; he’s got 14. Colston’s helping the cause with 10.
3:55 – Mafia continues it’s good day – both Favre and Snelling have 28 points apiece; Steve (NYG) Smith has 11. Rice now has 24.
4:52 – Tight game here; Fwet will be finished after these 4pm games as they’ve got Warner, LT and Randy Moss going right now. The Amish only have Thomas Jones right now, but send Brent Celek tonight and Andre Johnson tomorrow so this one looks to go to the wire.
5:10 – Warner’s got 19 already for Fwet. Moss is looking good with 9.
6:45 – It’s getting close to panic time for the Amish as their season is hanging on by a thread. Fwet’s built a 30-point lead that is likely to grow by another 5-10 before he’s done within the next hour. Then it’ll be up to Celek and Andre to make it happen.

With the Cows and Fwet already qualified for the postseason, I poured over all my data to determine if any other team can clinch today. After much deliberation, I determined that only Tom can qualify and only if he wins; no backing in, at least not this week. So, a Tom win versus Las Vatas will put him in. Everyone else will still have to win and wait until next week.

With the playoff positioning in full swing, here’s a breakdown of Week 11 action.

Who Dat (5-5) vs. the Scrotums (3-6)
As noted earlier, the Scrotums are technically not out of the running for a postseason slot, but they’ll need an awful lot of help in addition to winning their last three. As this is the only time they’ll face each other, a win by any means will give either team the tie-breaker.

Tom (7-3) vs. Las Vatas (4-6)
There’s probably not a hotter team playing right now than Tom, though Las Vatas has given him something to think about with RB Ricky Williams going big with 36 points last night. Las Vatas needs this win to stay in the playoff chase while Tom will clinch with a win.

Fwet (7-3) vs. Amish (3-7)
As noted earlier, the Amish need to win their next three if they are to have any hope of making it into the playoffs. Meanwhile Fwet needs the win to keep pace with Tom in the chase for the Hickey Division title and the first round playoff bye. Fwet currently holds only a four-point tie-breaker right now, so the Amish could swoop in and win this one, though, technically the h2h is meaningless since the worst that Fwet could finish is 7-6 while the best that the Amish could finish is 6-7. Still, I suppose bragging rights count for something.

Steal (4-6) vs. Saint (4-6)
Both teams are playing for their postseason lives here as a loss would make it next to impossible to make the playoffs. The Saint has an edge here in h2h as they currently hold a 31-point lead thanks to a big effort earlier in the season. So, in order to avoid any potential tiebreaker issues, Steal is going to have to win BIG if they hope to defend their title.

Cows (8-2) vs. ‘Gators (5-5)
The Cows are just looking to stay strong after clinching the Barbay Division title last week. Though technically not important, they could take one more step to clinching the #1 seed with the win. The ‘Gators are in the thick of the playoff hunt and could go a long way to sealing the deal if they were to pull off the upset in this one.

Recently, I did a rundown of what it would take for the Scrotums to make the playoffs; needless to say, it’s a bit of a far-fetched scenario. Well, I was hangin’ with the Amish today and I was able to do a quick breakdown for them as well. Here’s where they stand:

The Cows and Fwet are already officially in. Assume that Tom makes it in as well. That leaves only three spaces open.
The Amish would need to win their last three games and finish the season 6-7.
In addition to that, two of the following four teams would need to lose at least two more games – the Nation, Steal, Las Vatas or the ‘Gators.

Needless to say, they’ll be needing an awful lot of help.

The playoff picture usually comes into pretty clear focus after this week, so I’ll stay on top of it all through the weekend.

A couple of people have made the comment about how QBs should be penalized more for throwing multiple interceptions. As it stands, a QB is penalized one point for every INT he throws. And honestly, I tend to agree – a QB that throws 3 or more should really take a hit on the points. But here’s the problem – league settings do not allow for this sort of thing. I’ve often wanted to set up a system where a QB would lose a point for 1-2 INTs, two points for 3-4 INTS and 3 points for 5 or more. Unfortunately, ESPN (and as I recall, CBS Sports) didn’t allow for it. So, we’re basically stuck with the current system.
Something else to keep in mind, should a QB really penalized when a WR let’s the ball bounce off his chest into a DB’s hands? How about a Hail Mary – is a QB really at fault when he throws an end-of-the-half prayer into a crowd of 10 guys? (Of course, the flip side to that is, the QB would obviously get credit for a TD if he happens to connect, so why not take the INT hit?) I do not have a breakdown (nor is such a stat even tracked as far as I am aware) of how many INTs are actually a QB’s fault. I’d sure like to see it, though.

Don’t forget to adjust your lineups for the Miami/Carolina game tonight. Of course, now that Ronnie Brown is on IR is there another player (aside from Ricky) that’s startable in Miami?

Glad I got some feedback in the last post; there’s some pretty good stuff in there. As always, the trick is finding common ground and melding ideas together. Some thoughts…

Benches:
As the old teams are no doubt aware, we used to have locked-in positions on the bench. About the only hangup was making sure that everyone drafted properly and didn’t miss filling a position. The change to an open bench basically gave teams more control over their roster and didn’t lock them into wasting a position on a backup K or D/ST. Not sure if there’s much interest in going back to the old way, but I welcome owners’ input.
And on a related note, I seem to be hearing that the return of a mandatory TE might be a good idea. The trick is that there ought to be 3-4 really good ones and 4-5 decent ones playing in the NFL in order for it to be worth our while. After a couple of crap TE years, it appears that the NFL is moving back toward better utilizing the position so perhaps it’s time for us to do so as well.

Auction:
Glad to see that, overall, people are keeping an open mind to the auction draft. Do some reading on it, google it. I’m willing to bet you won’t find much in the way of negative reviews for the system. I liken it to relying on nudie mags as a kid only to discover the smut cornucopia that is the internet. The leap in awesomeness from regular draft to auctions is that big!

Divisional realignment:
I’m going to do some number crunching on this but I’m considering a little realignment come ‘10. It could be a radical adjustment, like teams being slotted based on points scored (for instance, Tom has the highest PF at 131.2 ppg; they’d be put in one division; the second highest PF team is the ‘Gators with 113.2; they’d be in the other division). The big problem with this idea is that past performance is never an indicator of future returns and teams have brand new rosters from year-to-year. Or, it could just be two teams switching places. Here’s a good one – one division made up of past league champions (Fwet, Steal, ‘Gators, Cows and the Nation). And if a team in the “B” division is able to win the title, then they move up to the “A” division while the team with the worst record in the “A” division gets shunted to the “B” division for the following season. If I recall correctly, a similar system is employed for soccer in Premier League in Europe. And to make it more beneficial, perhaps the team that clinches the “A” division gets $60 while the winner of the “B” division gets $40 (or something like this). Actually, I think I’m really starting to dig this idea.

That’s all I’ve got for now. As always, your input is appreciated.