We are down to the final four and now it is time that the big dogs come to play! Bossman and Starrfavrerodg had a week off to prepare for their opponents and they will be in action ready to prove that what they did during the regular season was no fluke. Big Papa and teamAlaska both just won playoff games which is a huge momentum builder and we will find out this week if one OR both of them can use that momentum to carry them all the way to the Super Bowl! Bossman suffered some injuries which may have just evened the playing field. I could see anyone one of these four teams winning the championship! Let’s dive into the games and see if we can pick some winners.
(1)Bossman vs (4)Big Papa
Bossman had yet another great regular season. This team has set the bar really high as it pertains to consistency and winning in this league. They finished as the #1 overall team and left little doubt in the last couple of weeks who the best team in the league was. They own the highest regular season winning % and took over the top spot from Pack Attack with now 13 winning seasons! Only three times has this team failed to be at .500 or above in a season and two of those times they finished at 6-7! That is tremendous consistency and sets the standard for winning in the league. They also have been good in the playoffs as shown by their 18-8 record. This team and manager is well aware that they need to go get that 3rd championship to cement themselves as the best franchise in the league!
Big Papa doesn’t have the resume that Bossman does but they just had their best game of the season last week in a dominating effort and I don’t think they will be intimated by Bossman! Big Papa has made it to one Super Bowl and loss. They will be looking to punch their ticket this week with a win over Bossman! Can they do it? Or will Bossman do the unheard of and quite possibly never duplicated feat of making the Super Bowl for the 4th year in a row!?
Prediction
We start off looking at the QB matchup. Bossman had two big injuries happen over the course of the past couple of weeks with both K. Murray and J. Taylor being lost for the season. That means that we have Big Papa marching out there with P. Mahomes while Bossman counters that by running with D. Jones. The obvious edge here goes to Big Papa and P. Mahomes but D. Jones against a terrible MN secondary is actually a sneaky good play and if this one can be close that would make winning much easier for Bossman.
The WR position was surprisingly solid for Big Papa last week thanks primarily to Z. Jones and his monster performance. Can he do it again? We won’t have to wait long to find out as Jones and the Jags play in tonight’s Thursday night football game. Bossman has a solid trio of WR’s with T. Hill, G. Wilson and C. Kirk. What is interesting is that 3 (C. Kirk, G. Wilson & Z. Jones) of the 6 WR’s will be playing in tonight’s game and that could set the tone for the entire matchup. I don’t see Big Papa winning this position with the players they have but if Z. Jones can do his thing again and keep things close after tonight’s game that would be huge for Big Papa. I am giving the edge at WR to Bossman by a fairly significant margin. In fact, I am expecting that C. Kirk out scores Z. Jones in tonight’s game. Bossman with the edge at WR.
The RB’s are solid for both teams and have had spurts of leading their teams to victory. For Big Papa, these two guys (J. Conner and R. Stevenson) were not trendy draft picks going in to the season but they just continue to do their job and have consistently put up points all year long. Bossman got some monster games from Pollard when Zeke was out and Pollard has continued to be solid even with Zeke now back. K. Walker has been a solid contributor for Bossman all year and they are going to need him to play well this week! This is about as close as it gets for a position but I am going to give the slight edge to Bossman.
Moving to the TE position, both of these players are solid and very similar. Andrews for Bossman and Hockenson for Big Papa. Both of them are getting the type of targets you love to see from the TE position but neither of them are doing much with those targets. The good news is that one of these weeks those targets are going to turn into production and they have the potential to make a huge difference in whether your team will win or lose. I expect both of these teams to be playing with the lead so the question is does one of these TE’s get a TD? I think they do and I think Andrews is the one to do it. This will be his 1st TD since Week 6! A lot of players have led to Bossman getting to where they are but up to this point M. Andrews really hasn’t made a huge impact. Maybe this is the week when they need him most? The slight edge to Bossman.
Lastly, the Flex spot. D. Montgomery has been solid for Big Papa the last few weeks but I don’t like him in this spot this week against Buffalo. Dobbins has looked really good since returning from injury and is in a nice matchup against the Falcons this week. I like Dobbins and Bossman here.
And the winner is, I really want to pick the upset here and I can see it happening but it would take another big time performance from one of those WR’s for Big Papa, another Mahomes 30 point game and solid performances from the RB position which all of that is possible I just don’t see Bossman losing this one. They will get the win and move on to their 4th Super Bowl in a row!
(2)Starrfavrerodg vs (3)teamAlaska
Starrfavrerodg had a great season which allowed them to have a week off to rest up and prepare for this week! This only their 3rd season in the league but they have now made the playoffs in 2 of those seasons. Their first year in the league they made the playoffs and seemed a bit overwhelmed as they got crushed by 64 points in the first round. They have since gained some confidence and seem like the stage won’t be too big for them this time around. They have a team that has proven they can beat anyone as they haven’t lost a game since week 6 which was over 2 months ago! Confidence is high, this team is ready to go and a Super Bowl berth is on the line!
TeamAlaska did what they needed to do last week as they got the win and now have themselves setup in a prime spot to get back to the Super Bowl for the first time since they won it back in 2011. This is a good team that has to like their chances of not just winning this week but also winning the whole thing. They aren’t lacking confidence and it should be a fun game. I can’t wait to see who comes out on top!
Prediction
At QB we have Tua vs T. Lawrence. Lawrence has been on fire these last two games putting up 30 + points in each while Tua hasn’t had a 30 point game since week 8 and has been average at best over the past 4 weeks. Lawrence is up against the Jets in NY while Tua is at home against the Packers. I don’t love either spot as I expect the Dolphins ground game to be really good against a bad Packers run D but with Tua at home in a game they need to win. I like Tua and Starrfavrerodg a little more here. The fun part is that we will get to see what Lawrence does in tonights game. There is a lot riding on this game for this matchup as well as for the Bossman / Big Papa game.
The WR position is fun for both teams. These two teams both took WR’s in the first round with teamAlaska taking Jefferson at 5 and Starrfavrerodg taking J. Chase at 7. Chase was injured for a few games mid season but he has come back strong while Jefferson is likely going to break the single season receiving record! D. Smith and J. Jeudy have been solid the past couple of weeks for teamAlaska, DJ Moore has had a solid season for Starrfavrerodg and M. Evans despite his disappointing season thus far has the potential of a 20 point game any time he steps onto the field. This is going to be close but Chase is going up against NE while Jefferson gets to be at home against the Giants. I like Jefferson and the teamAlaska WR’s better this week.
Now to the RB’s, we have Zeke and Chubb for teamAlaska vs Jacobs and fresh off the waiver wire, Zack Moss for Starrfavrerodg. Jacobs has been outstanding this year for Starrfavrerodg and is a big reason why they finished where they did this season. They are going to need a big game from him this week and while he projects as a top 5 back this week I kind of think they may need a 20 to 30 point game from him. Chubb and Elliott are capable of big games and if teamAlaska needs one player to step up big this week I would say it is Chubb (assuming he plays). At home in tough weather, this feels like it could be a good game for him. I am torn here as I don’t love any of them and I am still not sure if Chubb plays so I am going with Starrfavrerodg to have the edge at RB.
The TE position is not terrible for either team but again if you don’t have Kelce you really don’t have much. We have Okonkwo for teamAlaska and Engram for Starrfavrerodg. Engram has really come on as of late getting 25 targets total over the past 2 weeks. This sets up nicely for Starrfavrerodg as teamAlaska has Lawrence the QB so in a perfect world for Starrfavrerodg they want all of Lawrence’s TD’s tonight to go to E. Engram! Okonkwo has been a good pickup but the edge here goes to Starrfavrerodg.
Lastly to the flex position, we have J. Meyers for teamAlaska vs D. Johnson for Starrfavrerodg. Meyers may very well be in the dog house as he just literally threw the game away last week for the Patriots. Johnson has had a tough season but has had two solid weeks and his best game of the season last week. I like Johnson to keep things going and I will give him and Starrfavrerodg the slight edge here.
That’s it so who wins? It would seem obvious because the only position I have teamAlaska favored in would be the WR position however I do think that they win that position by a lot and the rest of the matchups look really close. I expect this to be a really close game and come right down to the wire which would be exactly as expected for this Starrfavrerodg team. I am thinking they are going to need a 15 point effort from Z. Moss on Monday night and they will get 9. teamAlaska gets the bit of an upset win and gets back to the Super Bowl for the first time in 11 years!
Good luck everyone!