[the board]
 Week 16
2004

by Gerald Udowiczenko

Hello to you all and hope you had a good Christmas and New Year? Unfortunately due to illness and the Superbowl (I got out of my sick bed to watch the game at the Hard Rock Café and I'm so pleased I did, boy what a game.), this will have to be a shorter issue than I had planed.

Thanks to Graham, Richard, Brucey & Jon for their contributions this week.

No time to calculate how people did while I was away. With luck I should be able to do so for the next issue...

NE (5-10, L2) @ BB (13-2, W3) Last time : wk 5, 2004 (25 - 31)
Richard : No Comment.
SPLATT : Buffalo by 7.

NY (9-6, W2) @ MD (10-5, W1) Last time : wk 5, 2004 (17 - 10)
Richard : Fish by 4.
SPLATT : Miami by 5.

TT (3-12, L4) @ CL (11-4, L2) Last time : wk 5, 2004 (5 - 38)
Richard : Browns by 7.
SPLATT : Cleveland by 16.

CI (7-8, W5) @ PS (10-5, W4) Last time : wk 5, 2004 (44 - 20)
Richard : Steelers by 3.
SPLATT : Pittsburgh by 8.

OR (3-12, L9) @ KC (4-10-1, L3) Last time : wk 5, 2004 (27 - 34)
Richard : Chiefs by 3.
SPLATT : Kansas City by 4.

SS (3-12, W2) @ DB (11-4, L1) Last time : wk 5, 2004 (19 - 21)
Richard : Broncos by 7.
SPLATT : Denver by 10.

PE (11-4, L1) @ WR (12-3, L1) Last time : wk 5, 2004 (16 - 3)
Richard : Redskins by 1
SPLATT : Washington by 5.

AC (0-15, L28) @ DC (3-12, L8) Last time : wk 5, 2004 (7 - 10)
Richard : Cards by 1.
SPLATT : Dallas by 5.

MV (15-0, W17) @ CB (6-9, W1) Last time : wk 5, 2004 (41 - 10)
Richard : Vikings by 3.
SPLATT : Minnesota by 11.

TB (6-9, W1) @ DL (3-11-1, L1) Last time : wk 5, 2004 (28 - 7)
Richard : Lions by 1.
SPLATT : Tampa Bay by 2.

AF (9-6, L1) @ NS (5-10, W3) Last time : wk 5, 2004 (30 - 23)
Richard : Saints by 3.
SPLATT : New Orleans by 2.

SF (10-5, W1) @ SR (10-5, W1) Last time : wk 5, 2004 (19 - 14)
Richard : Rams by 1.
SPLATT : St Louis by 5.

by Graham Canwell (Week 15)  
Offence New York Over 300 rushing yards and over 30 first downs, which is quite an achievement in anyone's book. Bengals, Bills and Dolphins all deserve a mention too in another good week for AFC offences.
Defence New England It wasn't the fault of the Pats D that they lost. One of the more remarkable statistics this year - Seattle had 39 passing attempts and suffered 34 hurries (not to mention the 5 sacks). No wonder they only managed 28% completions! Given that they still won the Hawks D clearly deserves an honourable mention too.
Coach Guard (MD) Getting better by the week, and surely ruing that slow start. This weeks runners-up (in no particular order) are Richard and Terry
 
Offence Chicago Haven't had the best of years offensively so this would have been particularly satisfying. Best of the rest were the Saints, now firing on all cylinders, and (of course!) those Vikings.
Defence San Francisco The pressure was on the Niners D, as their offence was always likely to struggle against that tough Eagle D, but they rose to the pressure magnificently.
Coach Daniels (SF) Given that we won in DC a defeat in Philly (a notoriously difficult place to go) would have effectively eliminated the 49ers from the West title race. But they produced one of their best results of recent years to set up the week 16 showdown.
 
  The Diddley Seattle With offence that bad you shouldn't be able to win, but they did. In their defence I must point out that even under all that pressure they avoided committing a turnover, which ultimately proved decisive and makes this by my own admission a fairly harsh award.  

 

Gerald to Brucey : Sorry due I wasn't able to put your stuff in this week. But I will be there next week.

Gerald to Richard : Thanks for the letter. But how come no e-mail. Did you flunk the class? :o)

Graham to Jon : Well I held up my end of the bargain. I'd be NFC West champ now if you'd held up yours. Shame on you - and you'll probably knock me out of the playoffs in a week or two just to rub it in!!

Graham to Steve : Great win! Congratulations - sets up a week 16 showdown for the title, which doesn't happen too often so I'm looking forward to it.

Graham to Tim : One more hurdle to go to match my efforts last year. You've looked a bit better (ie. less lucky) than I did doing it though so I don't expect you to copy my playoff shambles.

Richard to Bruce : Good luck with the defensive record attempts.

Richard to Graham : Excellent game plan back in week 12, you were well worth the win as usual.

Richard to Gerald : Could be an interesting games with the usual pressure.

Richard to Gary : Good luck with the new team and welcome to the league.

Richard to Troy : Please to see you back in the league and even more so that you are in NFC.

Richard to Tim : no matter what happens from now on congregations on an excellent season.

View from Orchard Park

by Richard Ogg

Here in Buffalo we are surprised and delighted by the regular season as we did not expect to win the AFC East, the most competitive division in AB for the past few season. That honour should soon move to the NFC West, especially with Troy's arrival. It was supposed to be a rebuilding season but as the Rams have in the past found it is difficult to rebuild on 10 LP's per season. Weeks 11 and 12 showed how vulnerable we can be but we 'fluked' several wins this season, with Stuart being particularly unlucky.
Right at the start of the season I fancied the Vikings to win the NFC. I played Tim in his first ever AB game and it was clear then that the Vikings were destined for serious improvement. So over to the AFC where last year the Browns worried me before the playoffs. This year all the teams concern me and there is no place to hide. I expect the Jets will lose out in the wildcard race, their squad looks weak to me, but Terry always gets wins against the odds.

The Fish when on song can be unstoppable and were probably unlucky not to win the division. Mark has been amazing at the Steelers and finished the season wit some style. For an omen, the Bills beta the Browns in the first game of the season last year in a close game and they won the Superbowl, this season they gained a close win against the Steelers in week one. I know wildcard teams have won the Superbowl in AB in the past and it could be repeated again this year. The Broncos are also very strong this time around and have a coach who already has an AB winners ring. They are capable of going all the way again and could well do so. My choice for AFC representative at the start of the season was the Browns and if pushed I am sticking to this. They have a very strong squad and a coach that has never lost a post season game in AB and if Julian gets the luck he could well two peat.


The Season so far

by Jon Heath

I have to say this is one of the best seasons I can remember. It's been extremely competitive (for example, I'm 11-4 & 2 of those losses have been to teams with losing records) and we're now set up for a stunning set of final games. OK, so the Vikes have run away with the Central, but both the NFC East & West are being decided on head to head meetings in the last game of the season. If only the Falcons had won as well. Then we'd see an awesome dogfight this week. On top of that the W/Cs in the AFC are also dependent on
this week's results and we've got a cracker of a game between the Dolphins and Jets that could see one of them out of the post season, if the Steelers win. Great stuff and it should make for a very tough set of playoff games.

 

All the best for the week 16 lottery. Obviously I wish some less luck then others. As usual the usually stuff to the usually place.

The Editor can be contacted at magestones@yahoo.co.uk, or for mails with attachments, magestones@aol.com

The NFLAB website takes no responsibility for any errors in the newsletter, spelling or otherwise. Any problems, feel free to get in touch with the editor, who will be happy to help. Right Gerald ?