We’ve just completed our 3rd regular season, and we have our 3rd different team attaining the top seed. Both previous times, the top-seeded team has fallen to the eventual champion in the playoffs. Will that happen again this year? Rob Conrod from the Knuckle Ballers is our guest this week with his predictions on how the 2016 EBFL playoffs will shake out. Either way, congrats and good luck to the Chalupas, Stache (1st appearance), Rexes, Bandits, Boners (1st appearance) and Bananas.
At the bottom of the standings, we have WDJFS, Ballers, Dancers and Idiots trying to avoid following in the Stache’s footsteps as Frittata Bowl ‘winners’. This is the first playoff miss and Frittata Bowl for the Ballers, while the other 3 have all been here before. Again this season, an impressive 3 out of 4 Frittata Bowl teams turned it around and made the playoffs. Only the Chalupas, Nagintas, and Bananas haven’t been a part of one in the short history of the league.
Playoff Preview
Last year we had Bobber (San Juan Bananas GM) give us his spot on predictions, but he’s back in the show this year, so we head over to the Taco Corp division and Conrod (Knuckle Ballers) to give us his Igloo Bowl predictions:
Wildcard Round
#3 Rex in the City vs #6 San Juan Bananas
Going into the playoffs after a week where both Rex and San Juan would have lost to WDJFS can’t give them any confidence in their match up. I’m going to pull out my inner John Madden and say “I think the difference in this one is going to rely on how they go about setting their lineups”. San Juan has a tough choice with picking which QB he’s going to sit; you have to remember how shitty Rivers is vs these lower ranked defenses (14.64pts vs ALT & 11.24pts vs IND). Same can be said for Rex; does he play Manning vs the Cowboys where he got 18+pts in week 1 or does he go with the inconsistent Wilson vs those homosexual Packers. Both Rex and San Juan could make a critical choice that will either put them into semi-final round or have them getting out the ol’ noose & stool and looking for the closest ceiling fan. This is going to be a tight match up. I’m taking a blindfolded shot in the dark on this one and saying San Juan will come out on top. I also predict Lamar Miller will be POTW and be the deciding factor in this one.
Prediction: San Juan Bananas
#4 Loose Bandits vs #5 Fear Boners
The Boners and the Bandits meet in the first round to make for the most interesting matchup of the 4 teams that actually matter this week. The Bandits can be seen as the favorites to go the distance, having scored the most points in the league by nearly 100 pts more than the 2nd seeded Mustaches. In the last 5 weeks, Bandits have scored an average of 215.02/week, with the record-shattering 285.45 in week 10. Led by Julio, Bell, Brown, Brees & Ogletree the Boners are going to have their work cut out of them. The Boners aren’t going to make this easy for Mo. Although he only mustered 151.21 points only 5 weeks ago he would have beaten Bandits in weeks 11, 12 &13. If the Boners can keep rolling the way they have been, I could foresee an upset but in reality The Bandits will be moving on to the semis.
Prediction: Loose Bandits
Semi-Finals
#6 San Juan Bananas vs #1 Chalupa Batman
Chalupa Batman enters the playoffs as the clear favorite to make it to the finals, racking up 44 VP for the 2nd highest total in Eskimo Bro’s history and leading the power rankings going into playoffs. But if EBFL history tells you anything, it’s that victory points mean sweet FA in playoffs. Chalupa’s also had the 3rd easiest schedule and just squeaked two wins vs the Ballers and WDJFS. Losing Green to a 2nd-grade hammy tear and relying on a tiring Frank Gore might spell disaster for CB but luckily Cousin’s and Rogers have a buttery matchup in week 15 (You can only pick one though Laker…choose wisely). San Juan will look to keep his team rolling against CB. Pretty much Juan’s entire team, from QB down to CB, has juicy match-ups but again it’s all how Juan wants to set his line-up. Juan has led the league in bench points and had the 2nd worst efficiency in scoring…so in other words, he has the team to do it; he just needs to submit the right line-up and the players need to do their job. I can see this coming down to how each team’s defense performs and really I don’t want to predict an upset….but I’m saying upset.
Prediction: San Juan Bananas
#4 Loose Bandits vs #2 Tom Selleck’s Moustache
Tom Selleck’s Mustache is making his EBFLs playoff debut…fashionably late. Mustache’s finished the regular season as the 2nd highest scoring team. Mustache’s is also going into the playoffs red hot, scoring 240+ points in weeks 12 & 13. He has to have hope that his offensive studs don’t go cold by week 15. Bandits are looking for a little redemption after the Mustache’s handed them their first loss in week 6 in a 203.03-190.93 match up. I could see these two 10-4 teams being in the final if the seeding turned out a little differently. It almost seems like yesterday both these teams were fighting for an extra pick in the Fritatta Bowl but alas here they are showing us they are yesterday’s Ballers and Foxes. I think the only thing that might hurt Mo is his QB match ups. Every one of his quarterback’s face off against stingy defenses. But sometimes that just doesn’t matter when you have Bell, Brown, Cooper and Jones.
Prediction: Loose Bandits
Finals
#4 Loose Bandits vs #6 San Juan Bananas
So it comes down to this and if I’ve predicted correctly up to this point (a long shot prediction) Bandits and San Juan will be making their Igloo Bowl debuts. Not much more can be said up to this point. For the Bandits a lot will rely on the health of some of his players. How has Julio’s turf toe held up in the last 3 weeks? Will Jordan Matthews be healthy? Will Brees still have anything left after 15 weeks of noodle arming? San Juan, hoping to have a healthy Ryan Matthews and Jordan Reed, will need his team to bring their A-game into this one. But if there’s a team who can pull off two upsets in the playoffs it can be San Juan…who am I kidding. Listen…if there’s one thing I’ve learned from reading and listen to the shit Mo shit out of his mouth it’s that you can say enough crap that eventually you’ll be right at least once. And if there’s one thing I can say where I feel I could be right about, it’s this Igloo Bowl Champion prediction.
Prediction: Loose Bandits
Ed. – Thankfully Rob didn’t predict the Nagintas this year. I made it easy on him by skipping the playoffs this year and giving someone else a chance. Good luck, you dirty pricks.
Year End Award Preview
As we near the end of the season, it’s time to start seriously thinking about award winners for this year. There have been numerous outstanding performers this year, but these few names stand out up to this point. With 3 weeks to go, anything can happen.
Offensive Player of the Year
David Johnson – It’s his award to lose at this point. Best running back season in a long ass time, and currently the leagues highest scoring player. I’m sure Mo will still vote for someone else…just because he’s Mo.
A-a-ron Rodgers – It hasn’t been his best season, but he has been this year’s Blake Bortles (King of Garbage Time), and racked up enough to be the highest scoring QB through 13 weeks. He’ll need a DJ injury and 3 huge games to have a shot in my opinion. Tom Brady sitting 4 games is probably the only reason he’s here.
Zeke Elliott – Take away David Johnson, and Zeke has done something no other running back has done in the history of the EBFL, score in the top 3 as a non-QB. He’s also done it as a rookie. He likely walks away with the ROTY, but may have to wait another season or two for his OPOTY award.
Antonio Brown – It’s been somewhat of a down year for the WR position, but Brown continues to be the best of the best.
Defensive Player of the Year
Landon Collins – Before last year, I didn’t think a DB could do enough to win the award, but Jones proved us wrong. Collins has slowed a bit of late, but he’s still the top defensive player thus far.
Khalil Mack – Mack isn’t quite the force JJ Watt was, but take away the offensive points, and he’s probably not far off. He’s currently a huge positional advantage and could end up netting the Boners a sweep of the major awards.
Zach Brown, Alec Ogletree, Kwon Alexander, Bobby Wagner – These guys are pretty bunched up in scoring. If one of them can separate themselves in the fantasy playoffs, they could challenge Collins and Mack for the award.
Rookie of the Year
Zeke Elliott – This is basically Zeke’s award to lose. He’s been over 10 points every game this season, including one of almost 40.
Dak Prescott – The Cowboys rookie signal-caller has been solid all year and is top 10 in overall points.
Michael Thomas – It’s been an up and down year for Thomas, but he has had some stellar games and has had the best rookie season of any WR in this class.
Jordan Howard – Take away the Cowboys rookies and Howard would likely have a legit shot at the award as a solid RB2.
Tyreek Hill – Hill has been very boom or bust but has been much more boom than bust lately as the Chiefs get him involved a number of ways.
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