Hard to believe that another regular season has come and gone. Week 14 did not disappoint as nearly every game had some type of playoff predicaments attached to them. Wild Card Weekend approaches and we have two very interesting matchups to kick off the 2021 playoffs. In the marquee matchup, we have two teams that possibly peaked too early in the season and suffered down the final stretch. In the other matchup, we have two teams that couldn’t be more of a dichotomy but had similar struggles to reach the Super 6.
Nash Kato had a little bit of a scare early Sunday afternoon but returned to form by Monday Night with the help of Davante Adam’s 35 points. Adams was the best of the bunch this week and makes it three straight games of overperforming expectations. Nash Kato sets the single-season wins record by logging their twelfth win this season, one-upping the 2020 Holy Penguins by one game. At 12-2, Nash Kato wins the regular-season championship, a league-best sixth time, their sixth division championship, and their third ten-win season. Despite those sixth regular-season championships, GM Kevin G. has only turned those into two USAFL Championships, something he has the chance to remedy in their next two games, as they will go on to play the winner of Premier Wild Card D.C. Whitefish and this seasons division rival and U.S. Wild Card Yankee Zulu.
On the other side of the bracket, the reigning, defending, undisputed for the last four seasons, USAFL Champion, World’s Finest finally caught and passed division rival D.C. Whitefish in a shootout worthy of a Premier Division Championship Game, winning 122-111. The two teams had paced each other all season, but while WFFC was able to take four out of their last five games, the Whitefish went 2-2-1. This logs their fourth division championship and with the two-seed, they punched their ticket to another season in the Premier Division which will be their seventh consecutive, an unprecedented league record, and a testament to GM Dave S. for finishing in the top 4 every year since 2014. Throw another scoring championship into those achievements as they put up a league-best 1730 this season, a new league record thanks to the extra game this season. World’s Finest will get to play the winner of the 3-6 seeded matchup between Ebola! and the Holy Penguins who both managed to slide into the playoffs with wins this last weekend.
Ebola and the Holy Penguins showcase a unique matchup for Wildcard Weekend. Ebola controlled the Commonwealth Division with five wins and a single loss but went 2-6 in league play. Those statistics don’t bode well for Ebola who already lost to the Pens in week 5 140-112; however, the playoffs are the second season and strange things happen in the USAFL playoffs. In week 9, the season looked lost for the Pens who were 3-6, hit a 4-0-1 streak to end the season propelled the flightless birds into the sky, and got the coveted sixth spot. The Dark Horse spot has for years been a harbinger of doom with numerous upsets left in its wake.
On the top side of the bracket the 4-5 game features the two wild card teams who both outclassed the majority of the league, including the Commonwealth Division Champion, but for all those efforts are placed in a gladiatorial deathmatch together in the first round. The Whitefish controlled the Premier Division for the majority of the year, but a weak final stretch showing put them in their current Wild Card predicament. A similar story follows Yankee Zulu who went 8-2 in the first 10 weeks but then completely collapsed under that pressure by finishing 1-3 to end the regular season.
The home office will be working on graphic design during the holiday break to get not only the season-ending achievements done and uploaded to the site but also those for the regular season. I hit a bit of a bump midseason with some other things I was working on and not fully in love with the point system I had devised for the regular season weekly achievements. While I work on those, which should be pretty cool, especially for the teams who had a “best of…” position player… I present to you, the end-of-season achievements.
Regular Season Champion: Nash Kato
GM of the Year: Kevin G., Nash Kato: Although I threw out the XP system that I wanted to use to calculate GM of the Year, I think it goes without question that Kevin G. put together the best team in the best situations, had some of the best free-agent pickups, and turned a 2-2 start into a 12-2 finish. Certainly, a future USAFL Hall of Famer with another accolade to add to the pile.
Scoring Champion: World’s Finest, 1730: The extra game certainly is the main factor in this new all-time record, but if we dig a little deeper, World’s Finest averaged 124 points per game, beating the all-time best average by five points. Nash Kato wasn’t too far behind with 1722 points, for a 123 average. Certainly, scoring was up across the league with the extra game, but with the Pens in third place with 113.5 points per game, things tend to come back down to Earth a bit.
Punching Bag: Sanctus Koala, 1660 points against - Poor Koala… GM Kim just couldn’t catch a break this season as they seemed to get the brunt of everyone’s best games. They finished an impressive 4-2 in the Commonwealth Division but were absolutely decimated in league play at 1-7.
No surprise that the best players per position are all still playing for the USAFL Championship.
QB: Tom Brady, Holy Penguins, 375 RB: Jonathan Taylor, Nash Kato, 309 WR: Cooper Kupp, Yankee Zulu, 307 TE: Mark Andrews, World’s Finest, 204 K: Nick Folk, Holy Penguins, 140 DST: Patriots, Ebola, 154
The Consolation Cup also kicks off this Thursday as our sixth basement-dwelling teams fight it out for the first overall pick in the 2022 USAFL Draft. A question was brought up in regards to keepers and the draft. Everyone WILL keep one player on their current roster and this will essentially serve as their first-round pick and from there it will go in the predetermined order. Keepers can be traded for draft picks and draft picks can be swapped for other draft picks, so keep that in mind.
Good Luck to everyone this week!