Week 15: Begun, the Playoffs Have

After 14 weeks of fighting, we finally got the final 6 for the playoffs. Despite how bad the year was for certain divisions, each division got 2 teams into the playoffs. We saw the 5-time champion, the three 2-time champions, and two of the 1-time champions make the playoffs.  The defending champion was eliminated in week 14. We will either see Skyler extend his lead at the top, Rob, Matt, or Brady win and separate from the other two, or for Tyler or Kyle to join the 2x club. I wonder how they all did in week 15...

Weekly Recap

Skyler vs Tyler: The first game of the week on Thursday night saw Skyler get out to a strong start with Bijan Robinson nearly putting up 30 points. Tyler tried to counter that with Stafford, Swift, and Olave all putting up 20 points, but it wasn't enough as Skyler had J. Williams, Kittle, and the Bears DST join Bijan in the 20+ point group. Skyler ended up winning by 36+ points and led the whole time.

Rob vs Brady: On the other side of the bracket was a much closer game where the lead changed a handful of times, and Brady ended up winning by 10 points. Rob started off hot with a career best (45+) game from Kyle Pitts, and with Mike Evans coming back from injury to put up a season high (19+) points. After starting off hot with a nearly 65 points, Brady was able to claw his way back with a lot of people having solid games, with the Eagles DST (26) and Trey McBride (37+) pushing him over the top and getting the win. Rob had Goff score 30+ points to keep things close. What it finally came down to was Brady's Cowboys out-duelling Rob's Cowboy on Sunday Night.

Award Season

MVP: McBride put up a huge amount to help Brady come from behind and win.

LVP:  Jahmyr Gibbs didn't have his worst game of the season, but it was a bottom 3 game of the season. Coming from someone who scored 37, 38, and 55 points this season, 9.8 is a real dud.

Unlucky/Lucky: The top 2 teams won, and the bottom 2 teams lost, so I'll give Unlucky to Rob because Javonte Williams was out for a while on SNF.  Lucky will go to Skyler for playing against the lowest scorer of the week.

King of the Court: Brady holds onto it this week. Because the King of the Court made it to the playoffs, the champion will end the season as the King of the Court.

Game Previews

Skyler (5) vs Matt (1): Skyler has 0 players during the early games (Thursday and two games Saturday), and 2 players in primetime. Matt has 4 players in the early games, and 1 player in primetime.

Brady (6) vs Kyle (2): Brady has 1 player during the early games, and 1 player in primetime. Kyle has 2 players in the early games, and 0 players in primetime.

It looks like we will have plenty of opportunity to have people sweating out close games on Monday night.

Historical Information

Skyler vs Matt: Matt won this match-up in week 8, 158.86 to 102.56. If they played each other every week this year,  Skyler would have won 7 games, while Matt would have won 8 games.  After the first 9 games of the season, Matt would have gone 8-1 over Skyler.  Since week 10, Skyler would have gone 6-0 over Matt. Will we see Matt revert to the first 2/3 of the season form, or will Skyler's final 1/3 prevail?

Brady vs Kyle: Kyle won this match-up in week 8, 99.98 to 97.22. If they played each other every week this year,  Brady would have won 5 games, while Kyle would have won 10 games.  Kyle started off the season 9-2 over Brady. Brady would have gone 3-1 over the home stretch. Who knows if this is a trend for Brady, or just bad luck for Kyle.

Matt and Brady both made the semi-finals last year.  Actually, the last time Matt DIDN'T make the semi's was 2021.  Brady's last time to not make the semi's was 2019.  This is Skyler's first semi's since 2023.  This is Kyle's first semi's since 2016.

Matt is playing for the chance to make back-to-back championship appearances. Brady and Skyler last made the championship in 2023.  Kyle last made a championship appearance in 2015.

As far as I can tell, this is the first matchup between either of these teams in the playoffs.

Lifetime Head-to-Head Record

Skyler 10 wins, Matt 8 wins - Matt is on a 6-year win streak, Skyler had an 8-year win streak before the current streak.

Brady 11 wins, Kyle 7 wins - Kyle is on a 2-year win streak, Brady had an 6-year win streak from 2016-2021.