POTW Season Finale

So when the dust settles on the 2009 season (which it has) this is what it looked like. A taste of the new (the Fatboys Championship and the Techies missing the playoffs) with a dash of the old (Vipers again fail in the playoffs and the Baconators are in last place).


Fatboys
Down the stretch Coach Fudge outcoached us all. The number of free agent move made by him in the final weeks of the season helped to secure his victory over the Pineapple Express and Tenn. Valley Vipers. The team that was once a doormat of the league is now the #1 team in the league.





Tenn. Valley Vipers
The 2009 Appalachian Conference is the close as Coach Swirl will get to his El Dorado this year. Another year, another playoff run, another disappointing end. The Vipers are not the first team to go through this, and like the teams before them you have to wonder if their window of opportunity has closed.



Pineapple Express
Disappointing could sum of Coach Ov's season as well, but it shouldn't. The Pineapple Express ran away with the PAC 4 title, lead the league in victories-posting a 10 win season to do so. The Pineapple Express struggled last year with on 4 wins and the turn around the team made for the 2009 season should not go unnoticed by anyone. The season will not end with a title, but it will end with a World Cup win and a lot more respect.



Fergs
The Fergs expectations for themselves are high, as high as any team in the league. It is for that reason that Coach Ferg will not be happy with the results of the 2009 team. However, in all fairness this is a team that started out dead last due to a bizarre auto-draft that saw Pat White and 2 kickers be placed on the roster...an awesome start to the season for sure. It took a few weeks to trim the fat from the roster but Coach Ferg showed why he is one of the best coaches in league history. The Fergs rallied to win the Road to Auburn and make a good showing in THE playoffs. Ferg; the draft will be around the end of August/early September. Plan your babies accordingly.





Gusmeisters
If not for the Fergs late season it would have been the Gusmeisters in THE Playoffs. As it stood Coach Gusty's squad was dropped to the NIT, but once there they made a statement by knocking out both opponents and securing the #1 overall pick in the 2010 draft. The Gusmeisters have an excellent draft history and career record so they should be a real threat given the #1 overall pick....not to mention back-to-back picks every other round. Good time to replace that Larry Johnson guy.







Mallards
In 2006 the Mallards made the Super Bowl. I point that out to point out the fact that this was the best Mallards team in the history of their franchise. The team's first round pick never took the field and their TE went out for the season while leading all TEs in points. Add to that LaDanian Tomlinson starting to show signs of age and a WR being suspended of substance abuse and it could have been a nightmare of a season. Despite all of these challenges Coach Murphree held the team together with roster moves that made the team remain competitive all the way to the end. It was a ship that was taking on water for most of the season, but he kept it afloat all the way to the last week which is a noteworthy performance.



Frat-tastics
In the past two years the Frat-tastics have quietly snuck in among the top teams in the league. A Championship Game appearance last year and only missing THE Playoffs by 1 game this year shows that Coach Askew has real potential to field a Championship level team. If not for QB Matt Ryan's injury he may have made that championship run this year.





Turbo Techies
Well this is the first time I have ever written a season finale that didn't start out with the Turbo Techies. The Techies 2009 campaign was in many was stranger than their first two seasons that resulted in Championships. In 2009 the Turbo Techies lead the entire league in scoring and were within reach of the record for most points scored for an entire season. Despite this massive scoring the team still struggled to win week in and week out and only snuck into the NIT on the last day of the regular season. Add to that a blowout once they were in the NIT and it will go down a year that looked a lot better than it actually was, or was a lot better than it looked. Such is the enigma that is the 2009 Turbo Techies.

Steel Dragons
Perhaps Randy Moss is showing his age with more and more inconsistent performances or perhaps that is just the Randy Moss we always knew. Regardless of the case the Steel Dragons, much like their WR, were up and down most of the season...mostly down. QB Philip Rivers and RB Maurice Jones-Drew gave Coach Plousis two of the best players at their respective positions but the lack of consistent role players doomed this once fierce reptile team into another Christmas spent at home instead of playing in any playoff scenario.

Raging Girth of Fury
Despite some criticism from fellow coaches around the league Coach Hand's first tour of duty could have gone much worse. Playing in his first fantasy league, and in a league where the other teams have years of experience on him, you could have expected this team to go winless. It would turn out that not only was the team not winless but they finished ahead of many established teams. The Ragin' Girth of Fury is only learning how to make a few free agent moves away from being a top 8 team.

Bama Black Bears
Holy shit where to start. If you just read my "feel good-moral victory" post on the Ragin' Girth of Fury then your going to love this. The 2009 Bama Black Bears have officially become a verb. If you were going to use it in a sentence it would sound like this, "Don't fuck up and pull a 2009 Bama Black Bears."

Decepticons
At times last year the Decepticons looked like a good team that caught a lot of bad break. In 2009 they looked more like a bad team that just broke a lot. The Decepticons had moments and even some big scores in 2009, but they never strung enough of them together to turn the season into a playoff level performance. The good news? Coach CT is only in his second season and he was able to beat a couple of teams that are seasoned veterans.

da Bears
Eventually POTW will stop picking da Bears to win it all with every pre-season poll...and that is the year they may do it. da Bears were in there annual pre-season "picked to win it all" contender spot and again this year they were unable to perform up to those expectations. The team is not without talent in spots, and Coach Doyle has shown he can field a winner, but this version of da Bears appears broken. The start players such as Andre Johnson and Stephen Jackson do not get any significant, or consistent, support from the rest of the roster.



Baconators
If consistency is important to you then it was a great season. The Baconators finished last in 2008 and repeated the performance in 2009. I'm not sure if they are the first team to accomplish this feat but they are certainly the most recent. The bright spot on Coach Al's roster was QB Peyton Manning, followed by backup QB Ben Roethlesberger...no, you can't start 2 QBs but if you could the Baconators probably would have won more games this year. The star of the WR corp for years has been T.O. but he is starting to show his age and it could be him for Coach Al to overhaul this last place crew.

POTW PRO BOWL TEAM:
QB-Drew Brees Turbo Techies
RB-Chris Johnson Fatboys
RB-Maurice Jones-Drew Steel Dragons
WR-Wes Welker Bama Black Bears
WR-Andre Johnson da Bears
WR-Percy Harvin Mallards
TE-Dallas Clark Pineapple Express

ANTI-PRO BOWL TEAM:
Just as important as the Pro Bowl is the team that is made up of first round players, or better yet keepers, that helped to destroy their team's season

QB-Jay Cutler Bama Black Bears: high point total but high INT total
RB-Larry Johnson Gusmeisters/Turbo Techies: Called his coach a faggot on twitter, was suspended twice in one season, and was finally cut by his NFL team in the middle of the season...POTW should name an award after him
RB-Marshawn Lynch da Bears: he started the season off suspended. He ended it just barley in top 50 fantasy points for all RBs. Top 50. For a keeper.
WR-Roy Williams Bama Black Bears: At this point we should all stop over paying for this guy. Just because the Cowboys are overpaying him doesn't mean you have to.
WR-T.J. Howsyourmadden Decepticons: He started off the year bitching about how low his character was rated in Madden NFL 2010 (seriously, I couldn't make that shit up). He backed up his big talk by spending most of the season as a complete non-factor, indicating that the guys who program the Madden games may know more than T.J. about T.J.'s ability

AWARDS:
Rookie of the Year: Percy Harvin-Mallards
Best Free Agent Move: Coach Askew/Frat-tastics: RB Jamaal Charles
Most Points Scored (Team): Turbo Techies

Well that about does it for the 2009 season guys. Thank you to everyone for making this another great year, this league wouldn't exist without the time and support you all put into it. Enjoy the next few months of not having to worry about which 10 point RB you should start or who is playing the Browns/Lions/Rams/Raiders this week.

See you in August...