2020 Playoffs are upon us!

It took a Wednesday game, two Monday night games and a Tuesday game, but the 17^th regular season of Sacred Sundays has come to a close.  The top seed this season goes to the South Division champion, sprouts, who dominated early and often and finished with a league best record of 10-3.  In the North Division, Attack of Mahomes takes the top spot by virtue of an 8-4-1 record, and thus receives the 2^nd seed.

Third seed goes to Sofa King American with the second best record in the South Division (9-4).  The King is the hottest team in the league now, currently riding a 7-game winning streak and a 3-week streak for Weekly High Scores!  James was the only team to break 100 this week, thanks to four players in double digits led by Davante Adams (24), Deshaun Watson (18), Harrison Butker (17) and Chris Carson (16).  This marks James’ 5^th Weekly High Score Prize this season, overtaking sprouts for the most.  The league record for most WHSP’s in a season is 6, set by Joe’s Pats in 2017. 

Fourth seed goes to Longshanks, by having the second best record in the North Division (8-5).  The two wild card teams are:  Young Guns and Joe’s Pats by being the teams with the two next best records (8-5 and 7-6, respectively).  After all the scenarios, tie-breakers and what-ifs, it simply came down to the overall records.

So there you have it… playoff qualifiers for 2020:  sprouts, Attack of Mahomes, Sofa King American, Longshanks, Young Guns and Joe’s Pats.  Do you know what this means?  It means that my playoff predictions in Week 5 were 6-for-6!  I’m getting that dialed in!

For the non-qualifying teams, the ranking as of now determines the final standing order and thus the draft order for next season.  The order for the 1^st four picks will be:  Big Sack No TDs, Coors Light Drunk Guys, American BadAss and Vandelay Industries. (Teams finished 10^th, 9^th, 8^th and 7^th).  The remaining positions will be determined by the playoff matchups.

First round matchups will be (3) Sofa King American vs. (6) Joe’s Pats and (4) Longshanks vs. (5) Young Guns.  For any tie game prior to the Championship game, the tie goes to the higher seeded team.  If there is a tie in the Championship game, the champion will be decided by the following tie-breakers:  1) Team with the highest scoring QB wins, 2) Team with the highest scoring RB wins, 3) Team with the highest scoring WR wins, 4) If still tied at that point, co-champions will be declared.

EVERYONE NEEDS MONEY, THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT MONEY

Here is a reminder on the prizes for this season:

Weekly High Score Prize = $50

Count of WHSP's so far = Sofa King American (5), sprouts (4), Longshanks (2), American BadAss (1), Vandelay Industries (1)

Champion = $225

Runner-up = $125

3^rd Place = $75

4^th Place = $25

LEGENDARY TIGHT END PERFORMANCE

Las Vegas Tight end Darren Waller accomplished something never achieved by Tony Gonzalez, Rob Gronkowski, Travis Kelce, Antonio Gates or any other legend of the position…he led all fantasy scorers this week!  Waller posted 35 points on 200 yards receiving and 2 TD’s, which also happens to be the highest score ever posted by a tight end in Sacred Sundays history.  (George Kittle has the next closest with a 30 point performance in 2018.)

BEST BENCH(ES)

Double duty on handing out Best Benches this week… for Week 12, it was the team with the second-longest non-Best Bench streak in the league.  Not since Week 16 of 2018 had this team won the honor, but alas, all things must come to an end.  With a solid 41-point improvement possibility, welcome back to the Best Bench – Coors Light Drunk Guys!!  Shawn needed only 3 roster moves to make it happen:  J. Landry for J. Jones +20, Houston for Cleveland +19 and J. McKissic for T. Gurley +2.

From a team we haven’t seen win a Best Bench in a while, to one we’ve seen here quite a bit this season… in fact this marks the 4-and-a-halfth time this season for the Week 13 winner.  Also with an impressive 41-point improvement possibility, the Best Bench for Week 13 goes to… Young Guns!  John needed to swap J. Allen for J. Herbert (+29), W. Gallman Jr. for M. Sanders (+10) and R. Woods for A.J. Brown (+2).

We are just three short weeks away from crowing a champion!  Let’s do this!!