Snow Flurries Playoffs 2011- We are (almost) the champions!

Our Fantasy Football playoffs are over.  The results are in- and I cameTHISclose to being the champion of the Center League.  THISclose.  In the end, I fell short in the second round against Drew Brees Team Dennis and bowed to a far inferior 7-6 squad Team Dennis.  I'd love to make excuses- really, I would- but in the end, he just had a better day than I did.  Congrats to Dennis, and to the SHEagles, the eventual champion.
And now I get on my soap box.  After I find it.

So this definitely defines why Fantasy Football is so frustrating for me (and millions of people like me, I'd imagine).  I was 11-2, unequivocally the best team in the league, top-3 QB, 4 legit starting RBs, solid WR corps/Defense, the top 2 TEs- and I got bounced by a team that barely made the playoffs simply because I had a bad week at the wrong time against a guy who had a great week at the right time. 

And it's a matchup that almost didn't even happen!  In the first round of the playoffs, Team Dennis beat War Machine 101-100.  1. Single. Point.  Basically that's all that separated me from the glory of playing for the championship, because I would have beat War Machine by almost 40 in the second round.  That's honestly what should have happened- War Machine gets a nice little first round upset, and then gets taken out in the second round by the heavyweight.  That would have been justice, and proof that God does exist.

Instead I spent that Sunday's early games watching in horror as Reggie Bush (where the hell did you come from, Reg?) and Drew Brees combined for almost 75 points by themselves while Team Dennis built a 100 point lead on me heading into the back half of the schedule.  I made a gallant effort to come back but still ended up losing by almost 50 points.  

I do take some solace that even had I made the championship game, I still would have lost (although if I would have played the Giants D...GAH, FUGHETABOUDIT), and I don't want to take anything away from Dennis' win.  I have to acknowledge that for most of the regular season, I managed to avoid the injuries that other people suffered that probably enabled be to win some games that I might not have won if some of my guys had been hurt (fortunately those injuries decided to happen at playoff time).  So 11-2 was probably a bit of a mirage.  My team probably wasn't that good.   

Still, it was a really solid team that unfortunately couldn't withstand the loss of two top RBs so late in the season.  I think that's probably why I won 11 games but lost the championship- I had pretty much the same level of injuries as everyone else did this year, just at the most inopportune time.  In the early going, you can turn an injury into a gold mine with a sweet waiver wire pick-up.  That's how I got Victor Cruz.  But later on in the season, all the guys who are going to score significant points have been gobbled up and you're left with what you have.  For most of the year, that was enough to win.  But not in the playoffs.  Not in the playoffs.

In the end, I was able to rally the troops and walk away with a 125-111 win over arch rival Fergy.  Third place.  Bronze medal.  It feels....okay.  I placed, I guess.  I'm on the victory stand.  But it could have been better.  It should have been better.

However, I did win the championship in my concubine league, which means that yes, I do expect you all to refer to me as the King of the Universe for the next calendar year.  And yes, you do have to do the hand motions that go along with the song.  Because I am, after all, a Fantasy Football champion.