USFFL XX: Week 14

First off, I would like to thank Arizona Cardinal’s Coach Tim Hay for stepping in to write this week’s Weekly recap. Thanks Tim!

In the AFC, New England beat Kansas City 18-13 in a battle for the #1 playoff seed. Baltimore made it a three way tie at the top of the conference with it’s 24-12 win over the Bills. Tennessee dominated in Oakland to keep it’s division lead while Houston beat the Broncos to keep them from tying KC atop the AFC West.


Over in the NFC, the Cowboys maintained their one game lead on the Eagles in the East with their 36-24 win over Chicago, which fell a game back of Green Bay in the North. San Francisco and Seattle stayed atop the West with their Week 17 game looming large. After falling to the Niners, the Saints dropped a game back of Atlanta in the South after the Falcons topped Carolina 30-14.

Division Leads

Check out Tim’s Week 15 Playoff Overview channel in Slack for the detailed playoff picture through Week 14.

Week 15 Preview

There are three Colossal battles with playoff implications this week:

Denver at Kansas City
Atlanta at San Francisco
Chicago at Green Bay

Feel free to share the game times and game numbers in Slack, Gentlemen!

Game of the Week

It was impossible to leave one out, so we chose two this week!

Game of the Week I

Jags Escape with a win against the Chargers 29-23. It was an absolute triller of a game! Matt made many great calls but Jacksonville benefited from getting a couple Long gain rolls.

Jaguars were up 9-0 with 5 mins to go in the 1st half. Then Matt led the Chargers on a 3 minute drive leading to a score 9-7. On the 1st play from scrimmage on the ensuing Jags drive, Gardner fumbled the ball giving it back to the Chargers in their red zone. It took Matt less then a minute to punch in another TD to make the score 14-9 at half.

The third quarter opened with a 7 min drive from the Chargers leading to a FG 17-9. On the following Jags drive, the Jags hit on a long gain roll and Chris Conley scored a 63 yard TD making it 17-15 after a failed 2 point attempt. The Chargers next drive led them to another FG 20-15. The next Jaguars drive had another long gain and ended with a Leonard Fournette TD run from 4 yards out 21-20 Jags. On the following drive the Chargers scored another FG to make it 23-21 with 5:42 to go. The Jags got the ball back, but then stalled and punted with 4 mins to go. A similar thing then happened to Matt and the Chargers and they gave it back to the Jags with roughly 3 mins to go. Jacksonville then with the help of another long gain, managed to March down the field and score a game winning TD with 8 secs left to make it 29-23 Jags (2 point successful).

Great game Matt again! First time the Jags have ever seen 3 long gains in one game so luck was certainly with me.

Game of the Week II

Seattle and the Rams played a defensive battle in this one. At halftime the score was merely 3-3 and everyone who bet the over were tearing up their tickets. With the Rams playing at home and fighting for their playoff lives I knew this was going to be a tough game. In the second half Jared Goff connected on a 50-yard bomb to Brandin Cooks catching Seattle napping. Taylor Rapp picked off Russell Wilson giving the Rams a short field.  Head Coach Scott Schumacher took advantage of it. He drive inside the 10 where Goff hit Tyler Higbee on an 8-yard TD.  Suddenly the Hawks were down 14 points with time running out in the 3rd quarter. The Hawks drove the length of the field and Wilson hit David Moore on a 24-yard TD. Then, following the analytics trend of going for two down 14 the Hawks decided to do the same. Wilson hit Rashaad Penny for the conversion and now they were down only 6. Rams 17 – Seahawks 11. The Hawks forced a punt and felt the momentum shift their way. But a Dante Fowler strip-sack gave the Rams the ball with a chance to go up by two scores again with time running out.  Seattle’s defense played bend but don’t break and the Rams sent out Greg Zuerlein to try a 45-yard field goal. He shanked it! Whew! The Hawks then took over and put a long drive capped by a 5-yard Penny TD run. After a normal conversion this time the Hawks were on top 18-17. But there was still 8-minutes left. Scott drove the field and kicked the go-ahead field goal with 5:42 to go in the game.  A key play was a successful 4th down conversion to keep the drive alive.  But Seattle still had a ton of time and they took the ball 16-plays and 69-yards and kicked the game-winning field goal with just :15 left on the clock at the 2-yard line. Seahawks survive! Fun game. Final score Seattle Seahawks 21 – Los Angeles Rams 20

Weekly Leaders

Passing

Ryan Fitzpatrick 30-57 for 361 yards and 3 TD’s
Drew Brees 3-44 for 313 yards and 4 TD’s

Rushing

Nick Chubb 30 for 181 yards and 2 TD’s
Le’Veon Bell 28 for 122 yards and 4 TD’s
Derrick Henry 23 for 179 yards and 2 TD’s. Henry hit the 2000 yard plateau.

Receiving

Julio Jones 16 for 137 yards
Allen Robinson 10 for 138 and 2 TD’s
Stefan Diggs 8 for 192 and 2 TD’s

Misc.

Chris Jones 3 sacks for 15 on the year

and

league leading Tress Way 2 punts for a 67 yard average