Highest Scoring Team ($10):
Grady Olson Presents GradyOO's (3rd time this season)
Coach Nelson
133.40 pts
Highest Scoring Player ($5):
Scrappers
Coach Herzog
Brandin Cooks - 37.60 pts
Could not have asked for a more nerve-wracking Semifinal round, and I don't think I'm just saying that because I was a participant. Both games finished within 4 pts of each other, and were not ultimately decided until the clock read 00:00 in Monday Night Football.
The Night Man's strong arms ultimately could not pin down the movement to Free Prison Mike. Despite some epic early games play from Wilson, Montgomery and Howard (averaging 24.7 pts each), his remaining players averaged just 5.9 pts each, and it was in the end Kirk Cousins (who ironically was traded away from the Night Man earlier this season) Monday Night performance that ultimately gave Andrew Gustin his first IFL Championship berth, 119.46 - 115.42. Congrats, bro!
On the other side of the bracket, it was a roller coaster of a game, with Matthew Brady's squad dumping their own pants for the first half of Sunday, as they were down fifty to nothing to Nickolas Hansen, until about 3 PM CDT when Alshon Jeffery came alive in dramatic fashion and cut the lead to 30 before the afternoon games. With the majority of Brady's players in those games, Carr, Crabtree, and Gabriel clawed their way back, and took the lead, which was extended in Sunday Night Football to 23.2 pts. That lead was cut and cut in MNF by Nick's Garcon and Hopkins, but an easy 4 pts from Kelvin Benjamin was all Brady needed to make what is also his first IFL Championship berth, winning 112.14 - 108.74. Congratulations, dude!
The results of those games mean that for the first time ever, the Cul-de-Sack division will concede the Championship ring to another division. I guess we'll have to wait another year to get that 2nd ring, Nick. Thanks for a great season, brother.
So it will now between X-IA Champ The Twenty Deuce and BSC Champ Free Prison Mike. What a matchup.
The Consolations got pretty nuts this week too, with the league's highest scorers Scallon and Aaron Nelson going head-to-head, and in a game that featured 5 lead changes, the GradyOO's came out on top, 133.40 - 131.14. Curtis was able to handle Chris Duncan on the other side fairly easily, winning 122.22 - 103.38, which means he'll now have the honor of trying to keep up with Nelson next week in the Consolations Championship.
Duncan made the biggest play in Pick 'em, going 3 for 3 in the 2-pointers, sending him to #5. This final 3 Pick 'em polls will be worth 3-points each and the Monday Night Question will be worth 2-points, so that leaves six pickers still in contention:
Zach - 40 (59%)
Drew - 36 (57%)
Curtis - 36 (54%)
Jesse - 35 (52%)
Chris - 34 (48%)
Nick - 31 (46%)
(If there is a tie in pick 'em points, the tiebreaker will be percentage correctly guessed, and if a further tiebreaker is necessary, it will be the championship game and work itself backwards chronologically.)
Full list of Pick 'Em ranks: https://goo.gl/5ZM4MA
IFL Superbowl and Christmas all at the same time. What a year.
The Commissioner