Another round in the books and I only got 2 picks right. Looks like we'll be seeing the 1 and 3 seeds from both conferences facing off in the Conference Championship game. Winners move on. Losers come back next season to the annoyance of most other teams.
WESTERN1 Vancouver Lions vs 3 Chicago
Lions proved me wrong big time. What a showing they had against the Monkeys when they exploded for 41 points in the 2nd Q behind 2 TD passes, an 87 yd punt return TD, a fumble recovery on the ensuing kickoff that got returned for a score and a FG with 6 seconds left in the half. 31 points scored in the final minute of the first half. Ridiculous. 7 turnovers on the day and they stuffed MEMs run game. Just a scary showing today and until today I didn't know if they could handle Chicago. All doubts erased.
Chicago started off slow against Stormwind but, as predicted, the Gryphons couldn't keep them off the scoreboard forever. After giving up 2 FGs in the 1st Q, Chicago went on to score 40 unanswered points in a rout of the Gryphons. Some serious rushing yardage was piled up with 250 yards on 50 rushes. The Hedgehogs also did a better job with ball security with a +2 turnover differential on the day.
Now can the Lions survive another round to set-up a possible game against the last undefeated teams in USAPL for the LC game. I'm going to say Y...E...S. I believe.
EASTERN1 South Otto Fragile Porcelain Mice vs 3 Las Vegas Gold Diggers
After a narrow 5 point win over the Fury, the Mice came out on fire against Denver outscoring the 9'ers 20-7 in the 1st Q thanks to some great running by McFaulk. Things cooled off for both teams through the 2nd and 3rd quarters but the Mice wrapped the win up with a 17 point 4th Q while shutting out Denver in the 2nd half. Strong passing attack by the Mice as they piled up almost 400 yards through the air and if you take away the 91 yd TD run by McFaulk they really didn't run the ball too well the rest of the day. Average but not great which is what I've come to expect from these Mice. Still a big win that sets the Mice up to play the highly impressive Diggers.
What can I say about those Diggers right now after that crushing blow they just handed to the Men. Offensively, they got just enough out of their run game to complement their passing attack with QB Powers throwing for almost 450 yds. They held the ball for almost 40 minutes as they methodically went down the field for 5 TDs. On defense they could do no wrong. For 54 minutes they kept the Men off the scoreboard before finally giving up a FG. They made the Mens run game a non-factor, got constant pressure on the QB, 2 turnovers and threw in a safety for good measure. Dominating win and now they have to get by the Mice if they want to move on up.
While I give the Diggers credit for what they accomplished on the field today, I have to ask myself if I think they can do that against the Mice next week. There's no denying Las Vegas has turned it up for the playoffs but the Mice have been doing the same thing all season – with little to no effort. I've been saying all season that this is the Mice's conference to lose and for one more week I'm going to stand by that.
Mice win and set up a game against the Lions to see if either team cares enough to game plan for 20-0 or will just be happy to make it to WL.
The mutual respect has always been there 
