Week 17: Finger Bowl 18 preview

FINGER BOWL 18

First-timers meet for Finks League title

HAM N EGGERS (11-5) AT LOCKPORT DISTILLERS (11-5)
At Lockport High School, Lockport, Ill.

Playoff records: Eggers owner Mike Miazga (2-4); Distillers owner Dan Cassidy (1-0)

Previous meetings: Eggers 43, Distillers 36 (Week 2); Distillers 75, Eggers 62 (Week 12)

The skinny: Finger Bowl 18 features the the top two teams in the Thorpe Division with champion Distillers and runner-up Eggers. The two owners appear in their first Finger Bowl while Distillers' Cassidy is in his rookie season.  Miazga is in his 13th Finks League season and is making his fourth trip to the playoffs. His last appearance was 2004.

Projected starters: Eggers -- Brady, Benson, Bradshaw, Wallace, Gronkowski, Akers; Distillers -- Brees, C. Johnson, Lynch, Welker, Nelson, Nugent.

The pick: Eggers 35, Distillers 30 

Week 16: Boxscores

WEEK 16 SEMIFINAL RESULTS

Brady, Akers carry Eggers

LONDON -- Tom Brady nabbed player of the week honors with 22 Finks points and record-setting PK David Akers added 19 points to lead the Ham N Eggers to a 59-26 victory over Love's Labour's Lost Fumble in the semifinals at Wembley Stadium. 

Longtime Finks League owner Mike Miazga advances to his first Finger Bowl in Week 17.

EGGERS 59
QB Brady NE 22
RB Benson CIN zero
RB Bradshaw NYG 12
WR Wallace PIT 3
TE Gronkowski NE 3
PK Akers 19

FUMBLE 26
QB E. Manning NYG 6
RB Rice BAL 9
RB Jacobs NYG zero
TE J. Graham NO 6
WR S. Smith CAR zero
PK Crosby GB 5

Brees' record-setter beats Brawlers

LOCKPORT, ILL. -- Drew Brees' 19 Finks points on Monday Night Football boosted first-year Lockport Distillers past the Dublin Brawlers with a 66-53 semifinal victory. Brees established an NFL single-season record for yards thrown in the game. Entering MNF, the Brawlers owned a 53-47 lead behind Aaron Rodgers' 20 points and Neil Rackers' 14 points.

Dan Cassidy will attempt to become the fourth rookie owner to win the Finger Bowl, following Mike Wilcox (1994), Steve Cline (2004) and Kris Herigodt (2008).

DISTILLERS 66
QB Brees NO 19
RB C. Johnson TEN zero
RB Lynch SEA 11
WR Welker NE 5
WR Nelson GB 17
PK Nugent CIN 14

BRAWLERS 53
QB Rodgers GB 20
RB A. Peterson MIN 6
RB McGahee DEN zero
WR Cruz NYG 13
WR Brown PIT zero
PK Rackers HOU 14

Week 16: Semifinal previews

HAM N EGGERS (10-5) AT LOVE'S LABOUR'S

LOST FUMBLE (10-5)

At Wembley Stadium, London

Playoff records: Eggers owner Mike Miazga (1-4); Fumble owner Dah Commish (2-1)

Previous meeting: Eggers 61, Fumble 34 (Week 3)

The skinny:  The Eggers make their first playoff appearance since 2004 while Dah Commish returns for the first time since winning the 2003 Finger Bowl with As You Hike It. Miazga is in the postseason for the fourth time while it is only the third trip for Fumble's Dah Commish, the only original owner left in the league.Miazga is looking for his first trip to the Finger Bowl. Dah Commish won a division title for the first time in his 18 seasons in the Finks League.

Projected starters: Eggers -- Brady, Benson, Bradshaw, Wallace, Gronkowski, Janikowski; Fumble -- E. Manning, Rice, Helu, J. Graham, Green, Crosby.

The pick: Eggers 45, Fumble 35

DUBLIN BRAWLERS (9-6) AT LOCKPORT DISTILLERS (10-5)

At Lockport High School, Lockport, Ill.

Playoff records: Brawlers owner Kris Herigodt (3-1); Distillers owner Dan Cassidy (0-0)

Previous meeting: Distillers 57, Brawlers 50 (Week 3)

The skinny: Cassidy is looking to become the fourth rookie owner to win the Finger Bowl, following Herigodt (2008), the late Jeff Ponczak (2006) and Mike Wilcox (1994). Herigodt's Brawlers advanced to the playoffs for the third time in four years. The Distillers won the Thorpe Division title.

Projected starters: Brawlers -- Rodgers, Greene, Spiller, Cruz, L. Robinson, Rackers; Distillers -- Brees, Lynch, Green-Ellis, Colston, Nelson, Longwell.

The pick: Distillers 48, Brawlers 30

Mongolia rioting

Khans owner D.J. Wanberg sent this picture. There was rioting in the streets of Ulan Bator after a Week 14 loss ended the Khans' slim playoff chances. And Vancouver thought it was in bad shape after the Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup.

More from Week 14

From Serkus owner Goff: "Dan, I believe your victory this week all but assures the Distillers are playoff-bound and the Serkus Act has no shot at a three-peat. After two years with the Abe Gibron Trophy residing in Naperville, looks like it will be making a move.
You and Ham N Eggers are each at 9-5 and I’m at 8-6. Think I split with each of you guys and am too far behind in points scored to pull out any tiebreakers. I believe getting swept by the Khans has proven too much of a hurdle to overcome.

Good luck...and George, it’s also nice to see you headed to the playoffs. This snaps a lengthy drought, correct? "


From Eggers owner Miazga: "I show Stan with a 59-55 win thanks to Bryant and Bailey in the Cowboys' game (20 points between them). If I start Nicks in that game, I win by three, however, I don't second-guess that decision for a minute (though I did go back-and-forth). My choice was between Wallace and Nicks. Wallace was at home against the Browns and had two scores the week before. Nicks had a good game the week before, but was playing on the road.

Looks like Week 15 will be quite interesting in Finks action."

Week 14: Clinchers

Fumble and Brawlers clinched playoff berths with victories in Week 14. For the Brawlers, it was business as usual by clinching their third postseason berth in four year. The Brawlers won it all in 2008. Fumble gave Dah Commish its first playoff berth since the 2003 Finger Bowl championship. Fumble's 10th win all but wraps up the Harvey-Ponz Award title for Dah Commish.

Playoff berths are on the line for the Thorpe Division in Week 15.

Week 13: Too close to call

Week 13 is such a make or break time for a few Finks owners. The division leaders have come close to clinching playoff berths, but in a few cases I have not done the math on tiebreakers to determine which teams have won divisions with two game leads with two matches remaining.

We might have a new champion though as Serkus owner Stan Goff finally felt the curtain closing soon on his chances:

"I could not handle the Aaron Rodgers and Greg Jennings machine...if only that juggled pass in the end zone did not count as a Packers TD  :)

It looks like my playoff hopes have been dashed by a tiebreaker waiver claim I put in for Lynch 3 weeks ago....all season long Dan was ahead of me in record and points....the one week we each tried to claim Lynch, we were tied and I had just edged him in points scored at the time. Ever since thern, Lynch has powered Dan's Distillers to wins and I have now dropped two straight."

Week 12: Unbelievable

It looks like Distillers and Eggers had a shootout, but I couldn't believe my good fortune on MNF. I was down 40-12 to Quags entering the Giants-Saints game when I caught a break when WR Manningham NYG was a scratch for the game.

Then the even bigger shocker was watching QB E. Manning NYG and TE J. Graham NO score 15 Finks points each to bail me out for a 42-40 come-from-behind victory. A stunner. I can't remember the last time I have been four games over .400. Maybe never.

Here's the lowdown on the Distillers-Eggers match from Eggers owner Mike Miazga:

"I show a distillers 75-62 win with Brees pulling out the come from behind win with 27 points.

Put me down for idiot owner of the year. I went back and forth on whether to start janikowski over Akers on thanksgiving and contemplated changing during the fox pre game show that morning. Janikowski scored 28 points and Akers 11. Akers had the hot hand of late for me and that game figured to be field goals which it kind of was just not enough. If I start him I win 79-75. I knew there was no way I was getting away with a 12 point lead heading into Monday night against Brees at home.

Nice win Dan. This was a fun game to chart during the course of the holiday week. You have a good team."

From Distillers owner Dan Cassidy:

"It was a great matchup all weekend long. And I almost didn’t start Brees. I thought about starting Cam Newton since he was playing against the Colts, but then thought better of it (thank God. I would have been doing a lot of kicking of myself today."

Week 11: Serkus review

From Serkus owner Goff: "Please double check my math...when I saw Cam Newtom running (and throwing) wild and Jordy Nelson having a huge game, I thought I had no chance, yet somehow had a 53-50 lead tonight that I didn't expect to hold up...but sure enough Welker doesn't catch a single pass (???) until late in the game and ends up with just 22 yards. I couldn't believe it when NE passed into the end zone with 1 minute left and up 27-3, but thankfully for me it went to Hernandez (and actually was called back by a penalty).

Anyway, I think I somehow won 53-50 despite 21 points from Newton (2 rush TDs, 1 pass TD, 280 yards and 1 pont for a PAT pass) and 17 points from Jordy Nelson.

I was saved by the kicker position where Bailey got me 11 points while Longwell gave the Distillers just 3 PATs. Romo paced me with 14 points and Vincent jackson had 13 points."

Finks celebration

Finks owners Dan Cassidy (from left) of the Distillers, Chris Traczek of the Barrels and Stan Goff of Serkus celebrate Dan's birthday at a local Bolingbrook establishment over the weekend.

Finks owners at the Foundry

Khans owner D.J. Wanberg (from left), Serkus owner Stan Goff and Dah Commish take in the action Sunday at the Foundry in Aurora.

My wife's team is better than mine

I doubt I can manage like the husband and wife team of Mike Miazga and Kris Herigodt by competing in the same league with my spouse. My wife and I each have fantasy football teams, but in different leagues. She's in a Yahoo league with coworkers.

We don't talk about our teams much. I prefer it that way. One common rule of fantasy you often hear is to not tell others about your team. No one wants to hear about your team, the refrain goes. And so it goes, until I'm giddy with excitement. I can't help myself gushing in my two-games-over-.500 glory when I turn to my wife willing to share my 5-3 record with her. Certainly she will be impressed by my fantasy football glory.

So I turn to her. "How'd your team do today?" I say to her.

"We did pretty well."

"What's your team's record?"

"Six-and-2," she responds.

Well, done, hun. Well done.

I was in the room when she did her online draft just a couple of days before the Saints' NFL season opener. I remember she took Brees No. 1, Manningham at some point in the draft, and consulted with me before taking the Ravens defense. Oh, and she selected LaGarrette Blount. I have no idea who is still remaining on her team. We don't talk about rosters.

My wife is awesome.

Visiting Khans HQ

Khans owner D.J. Wanberg sent this picture of some guests coming to make a visit recently to team headquarters in Ulan Bator.

Week 7: Household Bowl

The battle between husband and wife owners Miazga and Herigodt came down in favor of Herigodt's Brawlers, 57-32.

From Miazga: "At least I got all the byes out of the team's system. Kris has a very good team with Rodgers and Peterson combo, tough to beat a 57-point effort even with a full team most of the time. That was our only regular-season meeting I believe. And if memory serves me, she moves to I think 3-1 or 4-1 lifetime against me."

Week 6: That winning feeling

My Fumble's 48-37 victory over Quags left me scrambling through recent results for my Shakespeare teams. Holy jeez. When's the last time I've been two games over .500? I finally found the answer going back to 2008.  The feeling was fleeting. Just Week 8 in 2008 and then my team suffered another loss to drop down closer to .500.

One shocker for Fumble is that the team already has surpassed last year's franchise-worse three-win season.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: The matchup of week for Week 7 belongs to the Herigodt-Miazga household. Wife and husband are tied for first in each division, which led Dah Commish to wonder what happens if the married couple meet in Finger Bowl 18?

Week 5: Watching football with my wife

I root for the Saints. My wife roots for the Bears. She doesn't understand why I don't root for the Bears. Well, that's because when I was growing up in the 1970s, I don't remember anything but Bears losses. Who would want to root for that? I was originally a Raiders fan as a kid, but found a different team when the late Al Davis took his Raiders to L.A.

Sunday was a typical day of watching football with my wife. We watch silently, but have different reactions. We attended a kids birthday party early in the afternoon when the host finally turned on football as the party came to end. I was wearing a Saints hat, watching the end of a rare Saints game on the a Chicago market TV when the host asked me what team I root for. Believe it.

When I watch the Saints, I am usually grinning and have no other expression. When my wife watches the Bears, she is usually seething and has no other expression.

Which takes us to a bizarre Monday Night game for the Bears when my wife expresses disgust for Lovie Smith's decision making and I am smiling just a big when Jahvid Best breaks a big one against the Bears to help give me a 59-57 fantasy victory over Newt.

NEAR RECORD: The Brawlers scored 82 points in Week 5 to come within eight points of equaling Matt Simo's league record of 90 points for a single game in 1995.

One more thought from Eggers owner Mike Miazga on Week 5: "This is a win I was lucky to have. I thought for sure I would get killed given I left Janikowski and his 3 50-yard field goals and 1 40-yard field goal on the bench (24 points) as well as Bowe from Kansas City who had a big day (17 points, I believe). I went back and forth with Janikowski and Akers but went with Akers kicking at home. Bowe I also thought about quite a bit given I do not like starting two players from the same team. Roethlisberger (5 TDs) I did not even consider starting."

High-stakes fantasy football draws players with six-figure payouts - Pioneer Local

High-stakes fantasy football draws players with six-figure payouts - Pioneer Local

Week 4: And then there was none

Newt had one of his best efforts of the season to topple the Eggers from the ranks of the undefeated, 58-27.

On the sports radio, some owners complained that they still lost despite QB Rodgers GB big weekend. Not so in Finks League, the Brawlers earned 33 of their 52 points from the QB. That is one of the greatest single-match totals by a single player in recent memory. At least in the last two years since we began keeping track of P.O.W.s on the website.

From Serkus owner Goff: "Serkus Act is regretting having benched my Player of the Week Cowboys kicker this week. (Sure could use his 3 FGs and 3 PATs). Should also have went with Romo....but at least I did get two Dez Bryant TDs out of that disgusting Dallas loss."

 

And then there was one...

The Eggers remain the only undefeated Finks League team through three weeks by virtue of their 61-34 victory over Fumble. It would take a little bit of research to determine the last 3-0 start for veteran owner Mike Miazga.

The Eggers play Newt (1-2) in Week 4 to try to keep its season-opening streak alive.

Reports from around the league in Week 3:

From Serkus: "Serkus Act can report an improbable win -- the second week in a row a kicker scored big points for me -- after Dallas kicker Dan Bailey booted 6 field goals last night to outscore the rest of my entire lineup. Hurricanes held a 34-13 lead going into MNF and while Dez Bryant was blanked, Bailey tallied 25 points (three 40-yarders, one 30-yarder and two short FGs)."

From Barrels: "In front of a hostile, bloodthirsty throng in Ulan Bator, the Creighton Barrels escaped with their first Finks League victory of the season, a 28-19 defeat of the homestanding Khans. Despite losing Kenny Britt to a knee injury and the less-than-stellar Barrels debut of Rashard Mendenhall, the squad was able to prevail thanks to the performance of quarterback, and POW Nominee, Matthew Stafford, who rolled up 15 points in the second half of the Lions' OT defeat of the Vikings, quite possibly the best 0-3 team in the history of organized sports (Hey, I'm a Vikings fan; I have to console myself somehow). Creighton also benefitted from Mark Ingram's first career touchdown, while the Khans could only manage TDs from Freeman and Fitzgerald and 7 Kasay kicking points, which were offset by the 7 points from the Barrels' Bironas."

Look who's 2-0

The first two weeks of the Finks League season has provided some fun times in the Miazga/Herigodt household in Elmhurst. Husband and wife are both 2-0, but don't meet until Week 7. Quags also is 2-0 while Finks spectators try to determine if there is a dominant team in the league this season.

In breaking news this week, the Barrels and Newt have completed our second trade of the season. Details at Trans.

The Week 2 files from Serkus owner Stan Goff's win over Newt: "Man., as I was rooting for my Cowboys to battle back and watching Miles Austin score all those TDs I thought I had no chance.

I got lucky in choosing the right kicker and having the Colts offense settle for 4 FGs...then Vick's injury helped a bit last night. Also, after a slow first half, Rivers to Vincent Jackson did come through for me."

Booming business

Thanks so much for getting results in for Week 1.

It appears ratings are sky high for NFL broadcasts over the weekend. Let's try a poll...

Auction is complete

Bid sheets are in and Finks League football is ready to kickoff for 2011.

Check out the Rosters page for the latest. If you are missing a player in a certain position, then you were outbid on your choices. Some of you only submitted a few names in certain positions, which lessened your chance of getting your player.

Here are some highlights for you from Auction 2011:

TOP BIDDERS: QB Vick PHI 36.00 (Newt); RB Foster HOU 32.15 (Khans); WR Fitzgerald AZ 22.15 (Khans); PK Crosby GB 4.01 (Fumble)

BLIND DRAWS: Only two this year for RB R. Bush MIA at .10 and PK Vinatieri IND for 1.00.

LLAMA DRAMA: These bids brought some excitement... Quags bid 8.53 and Barrels bid 8.52 for QB Ryan ATL. Brawlers bid 13.21 and Distillers bid 13.00 for WR Jennings GB. Khans bid 22.15 and Quags bid 21.53 for WR Fitzgerald AZ.

BEST BARGAINS: Will QB P. Manning IND ever go for 1.00 again? Vb5ds was the only bidder for the injured legend. Other bargains were Eggers' penny for WR A. Johnson HOU and Newt's .10 for PK Gostkowski NE.

STILL OUT THERE: WRs galor are available free agents after Week 1. No one bid high enough for Maclin PHI, R. White ATL and S. Johnson BUF to pick them up.

Season No. 18 is coming

Bid sheets for the 2011 season are due Saturday, Sept. 3. I would like to hold a live auction draft with fellow owners Sept. 4 at a Darien-area saloon. Attendance is not mandatory. Let me know if you think you can make it.

Week 17: Finger Bowl, consolation boxscores

FINGER BOWL 17
SERKUS 40, BRAWLERS 17

Serkus (40)
QB Schaub HOU 8
RB Charles KC 9
RB Foster HOU 19
WR Austin DAL zero
WR J. Jones zero
PK Crosby GB 4

Brawlers (17)
QB Rodgers GB 6
RB A. Peterson MIN zero
RB Hillis CLE zero
WR Jennings GB 3
WR Harvin MIN zero
PK Graham NE 8

CONSOLATION

POSSE 52, NEWT 33

Posse (52)
QB Rivers SD 7
RB Mathews SD 23
RB F. Jackson BUF zero
WR V. Jackson SD zero
WR Floyd SD zero
PK Kaeding SD 22

Newt (33)
QB Cassel KC zero
RB Turner ATL 6
RB Mendenhall PIT 12
WR Colston NO DNP
WR Wayne IND 6
PK Cundiff BAL 9