Another year, another 6-7 team takes the title! Last year’s winners, Original Salt, went from losing his last five games of the regular season to a clean sweep of the 2014 championship. This year’s run from Another Bad Creation might be even more impressive. I mean, how many teams start their championship year by offloading Marshawn Lynch and LeSean McCoy during the draft? And then halfway through the season, while struggling and likely out of the playoffs, trade away Aaron Rodgers? That's their top three keepers from 2015!
- #4 Another Bad Creation (6-7) def #2 Sweep the Leg Zabka (8-5), 95.0 - 77.5
The decision to move Rodgers turned out to be a great one, as he only topped twenty points one time in his last six outings, and put up 18-10-7 pts in the fantasy playoffs. After a fling with Alex Smith, ABC stood by Kirk Cousins and was rewarded with 21-35-32 pts games during the postseason run. And well, McCoy and Lynch would have both been unavailable of the Super Bowl, as well as basically having terrible down seasons. Lynch has been out since WK10 and McCoy struggled with injuries all season long as well. So yeah, good riddance!
So how did ABC upset three opponents on the way to their third title of the modern era -(as defined by how far back I’ve tracked on this blog)? Shockingly, the team MVP this year has been Jordan Reed, tight end extraordinaire, who piled up 22.5 - 23.5 - 28.5 pts weeks, and had ABC’s third most points scored on the season. Number one on that list? Rookie running back TJ Yeldon, who didn’t even suit up for the title game due to injury. If you look at ABC’s top scorers on the season, only Reed and Cousins even appear, with Vincent Jackson also taking a seat during championship week.
If we’re looking for additional championship heroes, we have to turn to Patriots DST and Chandler Catanzaro, Arizona’s kicker. The Patriots were huge with 15 and 18 points the first two weeks of the playoffs, especially in the conference finals which featured a margin of only 7.5 points. Catanzaro has been good all season and his steady kicking helped push ABC over the top. We’d love to say that there was more but it was basically the Redskins' passing duo, a tough defense, and some nice kicking that took ABC to an improbable championship.Oliver will celebrate hard and then go home this summer and count all the draft picks he acquired. By unofficial estimate his haul will include three first rounders for McCoy, three first rounders and a second for Lynch, and a whopping five first rounders (plus he received Cousins) for Rodgers. That’s eleven first rounders and a second, starting from 2016 through 2020. Whew! If this wasn’t a dream season for Oliver, what else could have been better? Congrats on another shiny ring Oliver!
As for Sweep the Leg Zabka, who entered the title game on an eight game win streak after starting off the season 2-7, they were headed for a dream season of their own until the Odell Beckham Jr. suspension for the Super Bowl. That cost Zabka not just their top performer but also hampered his starting quarterback, Eli Manning, pretty dramatically. Without his star receiver, Manning managed only seven points during the title match and that helped seal the deal, despite a heroic effort from Latavius Murray. After talking a lot of smack post 131.5 - 44 beatdown during the conference finals, perhaps sophomore owner Alan got what was coming, a karmic upset by Another Bad Creation.
All that aside, GM Alan has put together an incredible first two seasons in Maize and Blue and still has quite the roster assembled and ready for next season, where they'll likely be strong contenders agin. So thanks to Sweep the Leg Zabka for a thrilling Super Bowl and a great post-season run and a great season for everybody!
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