GG Panthers, hopefully I get another shot at you in the playoffs , good luck

Rams make the playoffs! LA is all Zook up. And other dumb headlines.

GG Philly.. Very discouraging year. We was right there on several games but didn't finish! Good luck to everyone that made the playoffs! Once again....next year, next year. Lol

The Paydirt Report
MM Beat Edition: Week 16
by Meatmen

Hey there sports fans! Meatman here and we are wrapping up the final week of the season. A little inside info to amuse you. I had a game by game format for you all last week. I wrote it in word and cut/pasted it to the forum. THEN>>>>I was previewing it to double check my work and instead of submit I X’ed out thinking it would just take me back….Man was I wrong...after a few choice words I rewrote the piece in short form. It turned out to be a blessing as the interviews took a lot of space. I hope you all enjoyed them. Let’s get on with the business of MFN.

AFC WEST
Bronco’s (11-5) win over Raiders (5-11) 31-13 to notch their 2nd postseason appearance in the 80’s and B/Nug gets his 1st division Championship! In turn they claim the 2nd bye week. The Chiefs had an “X” last week (clinched playoff berth) but they played soooooo badly vs the Dolphins 27-7 it was downgraded to a “BBQ” as in your bringin the BBQ to the postseason watch party.

AFC EAST
Dolphins (9-7) spanked the Chiefs (9-7) in a game they simply HAD to win 27-7.Congrats to 500 on his 1st Paydirt division title and 1st playoff appearence as well. After a banner year last year $b$dog$ and the Bills 7-8-1 struggled to make .500 (sort of). **** froze over @ 3 rivers as The Steelers (3-13) won 19-16 with 3 seconds left in OT! Could the Steelers be making a statement? Lots of draft picks for next season in Pittsburgh’s sights?????

AFC NORTH
The Ravens (14-2) win their 7th in a row and enter the postseason as the odds on favorite in the AFC and have home-field advantage to boot. The Ravens, YES the Ravens rise up and claim their 1st winning season and playoff berth in paydirt history!!!!!The Bengals take the loss 35-31 to even up the season series @ 1-1. Could there be a 3rd meeting here?

AFC SOUTH
Absolutely the closest race in the AFC! The Texans (10-6), Colts (9-7), and Jags (9-7) battled it out all season. In the end Salty and the Texans claimed their 5th division title, DJsim and the Colts make their 3rd postseason showing. The first winning season and postseason since ‘74. Grey ghost and the Jags made a push winning 6 of their last 8, ending the year with a 2 game win streak. It proved to be too little, too late as they stay home for the offseason party.



NFC EAST
The Cowboys (12-4) win the division and were “ridin’ tall in the saddle” until the Panthers (15-1) took em’ to the barn and made them clean the stalls 44-16. The Cowboys take their 5th division championship, the first under rookie GM Hector93. They claim the second bye week.

NFC WEST
Strike up the band! The Rams(11-5) won the division on an 8 game tear! Seth’s Ram’s came from behind in the race to snatch their 1st ever division title and 1st winning season in 4. In a huge match up in the WC round they will face the Tampa Bay Bucs. Jmdva’s Seahawks (11-5) who lead most of the way, end up with a wild card berth. They go into the Lion's den for a WC match-up. JMDVA! gets his 1st playoff berth! Seattle’s storied past is on his side. Never count out a determined GM…..

NFC NORTH
The Lions (12-4) ran away with the division. Crazy razor has turned a so-so franchise into a winner. They are and will be the team to beat in this division. There is still a ways to go for this team. Nothing, but nothing, is better for a rebuild team than a motivated veteran GM! (see Ravens, Rams, Skins, and soon to be Jets, Vikings and Packers.

NFC SOUTH
What to say about Jou’s Panthers? He has built a Monster here! These MONSTERS ARE REAL! 15-1! 15 IN A ROW. HOME FIELD-BYE WEEK. Super bowl lock? Not if 11 other GM’s who have poured their blood,sweat and tears into making it this far, have a say. Can they beat Carolina? yes. Will they beat Carolina? Maybe. Are the odds in their favour? NO! However, there are some real crafty GM’s out there lurking, and sometimes………………….you save your best for last. Oh yeah, Tampa, you know that other team that went just 14-2 and was the only team to beat the cats. Go up against the Rams. Sure to be a battle!

OK, I am posting this so others can have a chance to consume it. I am going to edit individual plater and team leaders in important categories. It’s getting late and I want all of you on the east coast to get a chance to experience my wisdom? ignorance? AHHHHH ****, I’m just having fun………. Thanks for tuning in and until next week “THAT”S THE MEAT OF THE MATTER!...............................................................................................MM

Alright Cincy looks like we will have to do this a 3rd time. The Championship might be decided this week in the Carolina Tampa game.

Congrats Texans. Good luck next round.

It was frustrating from my perspective as we lead the whole way till the end. We did everything we could to eliminate the big plays that killed us in previous match ups, but missing our top CB and LB definitely hurt.

The Paydirt Report
MM Beat Edition: Wild card week
by Meatmen

Happy Monday Sports Fans! Welcome to the Wild Card week report that saw 2 Division winners and home teams, no less, go down in defeat. This week also set up 2 very interesting contests between division rivals in the divisional round. Let's take a look at the action.

AFC

Indianapolis Colts (9-7) 13 @ Houston Texans (10-6) 15
The Colts started the season 5-O well the Texans have a tough start at 2-3. The two teams battled it out all season along with the Jags until the final weeks of the season. The difference between the outcome was that the Colts and Jags could not beat the Texans head 2 head. The Texans going 4-0 over The Colts and Jags.

After a scoreless 1Q that saw three interceptions the Colts got on the board first in the 2Q with a seven-yard run by Michael Richardson to finish a 39-yard drive and capitalize on a Calvin Lopez interception. Lonnie Henson’s extra-point was good. Calvin Lopez led the Texans on a nine-play 87 yd Drive capped off by a 5 yard touchdown pass to McClung with a minute 32 left in the first half only to have Nicholas Pereira miss the extra point wide right. The Colts got the ball back before the end of the half **** fumble and on the ensuing play Kevin Lopez threw his fourth interception of the game as the half came to a merciful end. Display the sloppy for a tab that's all 6 turnovers the second half had none. Instead, this half featured was the battle of the field goal kickers. Head coaches Rick Reed (Colts) and Lester Chambers (Texans) seemed to move towards a more ball-control offense as both teams ate up the clock with longer possessions and ultimately settling for FG’s. The Colts went up 13-9 with 13 mins to go in the game but could not hold off the Texans who came up with 6 unanswered points to ice the game and claim their 3 win of the season over the Colts.

Houston moves on to meet the Broncos in the divisional round in the mile high city.. The Broncos will be looking for revenge as the Texans beat them in overtime in Houston in week 15. Is this the year that the Texans take the next step to the conference Finals? OR, Have the Broncos recovered from their off your last year to return to to the CC and possibly the big Dance again?

Cincinnati Bengals (10-6) 24 @ Miami Dolphins (9-7) 13
The Bengals had a much better year than their record would indicate. The Dolphins got off to a rough start, thankfully, (for them) a 5 game win streak in midseason helped as they finished strong winning seven of nine to clinch the division in the final week as the Bills and Jets faded.

Another game, in which the first quarter was scoreless. The Dolphins were held to 62 yards of total offense and forced to punt 4 times and the Bengals Michael Lemanski was intercepted twice and the Cats had to punt twice as well. The Bengals got on the board first (2Q) with an 11-play 71-yard Drive that saw John Huff catch his first of two touchdown passes. On the ensuing Drive, Eric Fiorini,Took the dolphin 75 yards in 8 plays, in just 2: 22 seconds to tie the game. A 17-yard Bill Kibbe run, and 28 yard catch by Micheal Anderson propelled the drive as Fiorini floated an 11 yard pass and Henry Davis escaped his defender to tie it up. Lemanski atoned for his earlier mistakes as the cats got the ball back with 1:22 left and in just 20 short seconds went 75 yards capped off by a 56-yard TD (2nd) catch-and-run by John Huff to put the Bengals up 14-7 at the half. Lemanski would throw one more TD pass and the Bengals would add a FG in the 4Q. All the Dolphins could muster would be 2 field goals of their own Lemanski had an incredible day even with throwing 5 INT’s he still managed 355 yards and 3 TD’s.

Bengals move forward to the divisional round to face the Ravens who are heavily favored and have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. These two teams split in the regular season with the Bengals winning the first match-up 41-26 at home and the Ravens taking the second one 35-31 in Baltimore.

NFC

Seattle Seahawks (11-5) 22 @ Detroit Lions 30 (12-4)
Seattle opened the season 6-0 and looked like they may be running away with the division as usual. New GM jmvda led the team to a respectable winning record but missed out on the division title. The Lions went 6-0 vs their division rivals turning it on in the final 3 weeks to run away with the NFC North.

This game was never as close as the score indicates. The Lions ran off to a 24-13 lead at the half. Despite the weak and desperate Punt-Block nerf scheme of the Seahawks The Lions came out on top with a quiet piece of professional showmanship. Vincent Moses tossed two TD’s and led the Loins to the victory over the hawks that couldn’t score an offensive TD until 3:26 of the 4Q . Detroit’s Micheal Paschal (113y) and Andrew Hobbs (111y) ran over the opposing defense as Moses hit 8 different receivers 28 times (293y) 4 of them over 50 yards to send the Seahawks in search of a better game plan. If you are thinking that I am being hard on Seattle oh, no.. I am sorry jmvda no slight against you… it could have 4.5 curse. I believe this is stuff for the public leagues. I just don't see it as being a valuable part of this league. Where our GM's are so talented and experienced that they don't have to stoop to that level. Our 2 AFC Games had over six turnovers between both teams per game and 15 total…..It is just the state of the game right now. The turnovers are no more realistic than the punt blocks. We are all at the mercy of this god-forsaken version, so we **** it up and move on…….:(

The crazyrazor and his Loins move on to Dallas and face Hector93 and his Cowboys who enjoyed a bye week finishing the season winning 9 out of 10. These two teams look to be equally on paper..will the wily veteran prevail? OR, the rookie (Paydirt) who just so happens to have a Super Bowl trophy named after him (Paydirt “B”)?

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (14-2) 31 at Los Angeles Rams (11-5) 10
The Rams came into their own finding their defense half way through the season. They went on a tear winning 8 in a row and 9 of their last 10 to snatch their first division title from the Hawks who had won the last 6. The Bucs beat the Panthers 24-22 in week 1 and held the division lead/tie over their heads until week 14 when the streaking Panthers got even 36-17 and purloined the division lead and subsequent title.

Unfortunately, for the Rams they get no parade this year. A late-season win streak was not enough to push them over the top as the Bucs made short work of the Rams in the Wild Card round. Tampa combined three sacks with three interceptions To keep QB Roger Zook off balance all day. Zook threw for 311 yards and a TD but the Bucs defense had other plans. Marvin Walker went 31/ 42 for 345 yards and 3 TD passes and Dale Hart scored on a 1 yard run to capitalized on a LA interception to send the Bucs forward.

Tampa Bay at Carolina this one is going to be a doozy! It always is when these two teams meet. Tampa won the first meeting 24-22 in week 1 at Tampa. Carolina then we are about 15 straight to win the division defeating Tampa in Carolina on week 14, 36-17. Anything can happen when these two powerhouses meet as we witnessed just about every season.

There we have it. My look at the wild card round 1982. Once again opinions in this column are strictly mine and not meant as any type of detriment to any GM. I have the utmost respect for all of you. As we all know opinions are like A$$*%^e$ everyone has one and they all stink. SO, If you have beef please message me privately and do not use the GG (1982) forum to air your grievances. If you feel I’ve acted out of line please do not hesitate to contact beercloud. Till next round guys “THAT’S THE MEAT OF THE MATTER...............................................................MM

Sorry to ask but what is the "Punt-Block nerf scheme"?
i really don´t know what it is, never changed nothing substancial in special teams formations.

Good game by Detroit and best of luck to the next round.

Great game Baltimore. You created 4 turnovers and took advantage of the short fields. Not nearly as close as our other games. GL to you in the conference championship.

Baltimore had the most attendance at memorial stadium since 1970. Maybe it helped that there was finally a 12th man. Unfortunately Baltimore has still never had a sellout crowd maybe we can make it happen next week.

HOW BOUT DEM COWBOYS!!!