Week 12

Dirty Birds (121.50) vs El Nino's (62.50)
In a moment as delicious as it was certainly fated, the Dirty Birds eliminated the El Ninos' playoff hopes by beating them by a wide margin. One could call it stomping on their necks. It seems like Hong's Midas Touch has faded, as his twenty point scorers (Marion Barber, Devery Henderson, Marty Booker) all sat on the bench, along with Jerricho Cotchery and Brandon Jacobs -- both of whom scored more than anyone who started. Not gonna win a whole lot of games with Eli Manning as your best player, when he puts up only 11 pts no less. The Birds flew high behind Larry Johnson (21.5), a rejuvenated Carson Palmer (23), and a touch of TJ Houshmandzadeh (16.5) and Donald Driver (15). Perhaps this game might have been better as a bench brawl, as Jon left Joseph Addai's 45 points and Larry Fitzgerald's 22 pts on the hot seat. Still, a win is a win.

Dukes of Hazzard (123.00) vs Jedi Knighs (89.50)
Try as he might, Lum just can't stop the rampaging beast that is Gene. The Baltimore Defense put up a fabulous effort, 25 points, but effort only wins you cheers from the babes -- not actual wins. The Jedi Knights are star deprived and depleted, and they are limping into the playoffs with Delhomme and Pennington at the helm backed up by slumping stars like Hines Ward (5) and Warrick Dunn (11). The Dukes are just starting to warm up, with new Cowboy legend Tony Romo (35 points) flinging the ball to Steve Smith, Andre Johnson, and Reggie Wayne (37 points combined).

And look who's back just in time for the playoffs, number three overall pick, Shaun Alexander! With a nice debut of 20 points (on 40 carries for 200 yards), can Shaun power another team to a championship?

Fobulous (155.50) vs Pizza the Hut (113.00)
In a last ditch attempt to stay in playoff contention, Marcus marshalled his forces of evil (or ineptitude, however you want to see it) and tried to let Frank Gore power his way to victory. Gore's 24 points wasn't quite enough however. And even with the efforts of Matt Leinart (20), Tiki Barber (13.5), and Chad Johnson (15.5), the Huts are going to fall in defeat during the regular season -- before they even get the chance to defend their championship. Hey, at least they're out of the cellar -- Hi Hong!

Oh Jimmy, ride that LT train to victory! LT is the MVP this year, I don't care what anyone says. Another 26.5 points, this time supplemented by Brian Westbrook (25.5), Anquan Boldin (24.5), and Terrell Owens (20). If the Fobsters can capture lightning in a glass every week like this, they can beat anybody. It looks like they are currently on a one week on, one week off win-loss pattern. So whoever plays Jimmy in Round One, watch out!

Razor Ramon (154.50) vs Brown Starz (107.00)
If consistency is the hallmark of champions, then Ryan deserves the championship this year. He only has one game under the century mark (in WK 6) and five games over 130+. He's nigh invulnerable most weeks. Drew Brees, hit'em high with 25 points. Steven Jackson, hit'em low with 29.5 points. Chester Taylor will run (21.5), Michael Vick (20 pts) will pass -- sort of -- and Terry Glenn (22) will catch, and this team will win win win!

The Brown Starz remain an enigmatic team. W-W-L-W-T-L in the past six weeks. They can take you out if you're not looking, but aren't quite good enough to win if you focus hard on them. This team really needs QB Peyton Manning to step up. Brad Johnson should not be outscoring him (26 to 11) and if Peyton doesn't want to play fantasy MVP, who will on this team? Do you really want to rely on Rudi Johnson, Jamal Lewis, Roy Williams, or Darrell Jackson leading the championship drive? They're all nice players but they aren't Peyton now are they?


Next week: Dirty Birds versus The Dukes of Hazzard. Neither team play each other, but with Birds win and a Dukes loss, the Birds could sneak into a playoff bye. Unlikely, but possible. Other than that, it's just playoff jostling.