week 13

Another exciting Monday night finish and another week full of joy and heartbreak. They say baseball is a game of inches, but once again, it was the FFOC Las Vegas eliminator bracket which came down to a matter of inches.
In a weekend where everyone should be thankful, three teams were really thankful. New York Bretts, Dexter3, and J-E-T-S!!!! came inches away from missing the cut when Rob Bironas' 43 yd field goal in the 4th quarter on Thursday hit the upright and went in. Had the kick been an inch to the right, it probably would have bounced out, giving them 6 less points this week.
Being a Packer fan, most of my focus on Sunday was on their game. A play in the 4th quarter turned out big for 6 owners. Jake Delhomme connected with Steve Smith on a long pass and he was ruled to be tackled inside the 1 yard line. Both live and on the replay, I swear that he landed on the defender and by the time his right shoulder hit the ground, the ball was across the plain of the goal line. Carolina never challenged the play and D'Angelo Williams ran it in the next play making Williams owners happy and Delhomme and Smith owners upset. Had they reviewed the play and ruled that Smith got in, then Cheddarheads, The Titans, and D&K Giants all would have advanced to week 14 and Jacked and Tan, MarissChris3, and DTC XII would have been playing the woulda coulda shoulda game while in the 1st and goal bracket. I'm sure there were numerous other plays which were big points swings that I didn't see. I read in the forum that Wayne dropped a TD pass from Manning in the Colt game.
The number 1 seed in the Vegas bracket, Datsyooks, sneaked in by less than 2 points thanks to a solid night by Kris Brown. Although he hung on, 3 of the top 25 Vegas bracket teams did not make it through to week 14. Other Monday night winners (mainly Slaton owners) were www.peedpot.com, pimpin' hooters (I love to pimp Hooters), and skowman. I'm sure the owner of Florida is a few pounds lighter today if he was watching the live scoring last night as he ended up right on the cut line and had no players in last night's game. A simple 8 yard run or pass could have allowed someone to leap frog him and end his chance at a million dollars. Instead he lives to see another week...probably. Now he gets to sweat out the weekly stat changes by Elias. Since the scores are so close, a simple 4 yard change could make a big difference.
Now that it's getting down to the final weeks, I will be tracking owners with multiple teams left. I know of 4 for sure and I'll look closer at another time to see if there are any others. Three owners have 3 of the 141 teams still alive. Donald T, Chad S and Rick T all have the best odds of going to Vegas. Jarred D has 2 teams alive. Rick T is the only Wisconsin owner left, so I'll definitely be rooting on his teams. Along with Rick, my main allegiance will go to two childhood friends who I haven't seen in decades. Due to their unique names, I recognized them and have confirmed their identity. Gentan S. and Kalen S. could be the only brother tandem to both make it to Vegas. What a fun trip that would be if they both made it!

Congratulations to the 141 teams still alive. Nice run to those of you who were knocked out this week. On a side note, currently there is a 42 point difference between the first place team in the Vegas bracket and the last (141st) place team, just to give people an idea of how many points may need to be made up in Vegas to win it all.