And Then There Were Four...

If I sound bitter...it's probably because I am.

The first round of the playoffs illustrated precisely why I'm starting to think that fantasy football should never include match-ups. Since it's a "sport" where we can't impact our opponent's performance (i.e., we can't play defense), why should we be impacted based on our opponent's performance?

This week, the four teams that were playing put up the following point totals: 131, 108, 71, and 59. Now tell me which of those two teams should be moving on? (Here's a hint: they both scored over 100 points!)

And yet because of the head-to-head match-ups, Willey is moving on while my season is over -- even though my squad put up 37 MORE POINTS THAN HIS! Sigh...

While I'm uber-frustrated, I am also quite happy for Willey. He had an amazing second-half of the season, and he's taken advantage of some weaker divisional match-ups to put himself in the Divisional Championship game.

Swanny also deserves a lot of credit for putting up a monster week. Brandon Marshall and Dallas Clark had their best games of the year, and Matt Schaub and Thomas Jones also contributed to the cause by putting up 20+ points. Those four dudes combined for 101 points!

This week's two games should be quite entertaining. If Willey is going to have any chance of knocking off Big B, his team is likely going to have to put up a lot more than 71 points - as the Love have been rolling of late. (During their "bye week," Macon still put up an eye-popping performance.)

In the other game, Swanny and CCD will be facing off. While CCD has a much better record and ranking, Swanny's squad is actually projected to score 20+ points more than CCD's team. Although we should all know by now that those projections are ridiculous.

May the best teams win! (And by "best," I mean the teams who score the most points.)

P.S. You should all expect a proposal from me next year to run the playoffs as follows:

- 4 teams play in the first round; the teams with the two highest point totals advance
- 4 teams play in the second round; the teams with the two highest point totals advance
- 2 teams play in the Super Bowl; the team with the highest point total wins

No more divisions or match-ups!