...and that's a wrap for Paul's 2K5 Pigskinners. This year had the largest participation since I began doing this online a few years ago. We started the year with 11 players, and lost 3 little piggies along the way for various reasons. Each year I try to have a theme for the awards, and this years awards theme centers on the greatest plays in NFL history. I feel as though since there were a few newcomers to the contest, and to football, I would try and show some of the reasons why the game itself can be so unpredictable and dramatic.
Thanks to all who played this year; it was fun even though once again I had a miserable year at the prognosticating. This years full season players were - Mr Dogajolo, Go Utes, MacDaddy, MacMomma, Scooby's Stone Cold Locks, all returning players from last year, and HerHeart, Grandpa Jones, Flying Elvises, each a new player for the year. My biggest mistake this year could have been letting my wife play - she's steadily kicked my butt all season, and has not let me forget it. Oh well, she had fun with it, and I got a partner to watch all the games with each week (yeah, I tend to look for the silver lining).
Grandpa Jones and HerHeart were the only two players to hold first place at all this year, and went neck and neck to the finish line. HerHeart was in first place 8 of the 17 weeks, and Grandpa Jones was in first place 9 of them, including the all important final week. In the end, it was "Da Bears" who made the difference in the final score. That game in week 17 between the Bears and the Vikings ended up being the one game that made the difference in their scores. If the Bears had won that game, HerHeart would have been the BigSlopper for the year, but the Vikings did them and HerHopes in. Great try though, and it was fun watching you two battle it out all year...from the bottom.
Grandpa Jones began the year with not much hope of winning the competition because as he put it, "I don't really follow the pros, but I will give it a try because it sounds fun." Well, Grandpa pulled off the Immaculate Deception as he ranked either 1st or 2nd the entire year. Grandpa finished the season with 1546 points, the highest total since Paul's Pigskinners began, and also had the highest total of actual correct game winning picks with 177.
You're the "Immaculate Deception" Pig!
"The Immaculate Reception" is considered to be the greatest single play in NFL History. Here's what happened - The game was a divisional playoff between Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers, December 23, 1972. There were 22 seconds left in the game, Steelers trailed 7-6, but had the ball at their own 40-yard line. They were down to their last play, 4th and 10. Terry Bradshaw dropped back to throw, sighted Frenchy Fuqua down field, and threw the pass. The pass hit Oakland's Jack Tatum, and ricocheted back towards the line of scrimmage. Pittsburgh's Franco Harris was heading down field, saw the ball ricochet, reached for it, managed to grab it at his shoelaces at the Oakland 42-yardline. Harris then raced the remaining 42-yards and scored the winning touchdown.
HerHeart also began the year with not much hope of winning the competition because as she put it, "I'll try this out so we can watch games together, but how many innings do they play?" Being her husband, I knew letting her into this competition would mean I would be guaranteed a non-last place finish, umm right. My ultimate objective though succeeded, we watched football together. HerHeart had a great season and surprised me completely as she darn near pulled off BigPig stature! She ended the season with 1532 points and had a total of 174 actual correct game winning picks, each good enough to gain second place honors.
You're the "Catch me if you can" Pig!
Number 2 in the list of greatest NFL plays is "The Catch". Here's what happened - The game was the NFC Championship Game between the 49ers and Cowboys, January 10, 1982. Dallas had the lead 27-21, but the 49ers had the ball deep in the Cowboys end of the field. Time was running out, less than a minute to go. 49er QB Joe Montana took the snap, rolled right and was then subject to a Dallas pass rush that looked like they were going to nail him for a loss of yards. Montana threw the ball high into the end zone to get rid of it and stop the clock. Instead of getting rid of it, 49er tight end Dwight Clark leaped high into the air, and caught the ball for a touchdown that gave the win and Super Bowl birth to San Francisco 28-27.
Go UTES was the reigning Paul's Pigskinners 2K4 Champion and had great pressure on his shoulders to pull off back-to-back Pig Sty honors. His valiant attempts to swing the pressure away from him by claiming poor picking were offset by again, continued consistency throughout the year, which won it for him last year. Go UTES ended the year with 1451 points, and did manage to show his entrepreneurial tendencies when near the later stages of the season he wrote a book, "Progressively Worse: The Modern Persons Guide to Make Consistently Inaccurate Football Predictions". I bought two copies for Christmas, one for me (Mr Dogajolo) and one for HerHeart. She refused to read it, so I read her copy too, did it show?
You're the "I'm taking the plunge this year" Pig!
"The Plunge" is the third greatest play in NFL history and took place on December 28, 1958 in what is considered to be the greatest game in NFL history. This game is said to have triggered the love affair between NFL and TV. Back before they played the Super Bowl, they played the NFL Championship Game. In 1958, it was between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants. Here's what happened - The game was tied 17-17 at the end of regulation, and went into overtime. In overtime, Colts QB Johnny Unitas marched his team from the Colts 20-yardline, 79 yards to the Giants 1-yardline. At this point, Unitas handed the ball off to running back Alan Ameche, who had already been stopped at the 1-yardline on a fourth down play earlier in the game. This time however, Ameche plunged into the end zone and gave the Colts a 23-17 NFL Championship victory.
MacMomma was last years runner up piggie and had her sights on the Big Pig Trophy at the onset of this years competition. She honed up her icy hot prognosticating tools and started the year off with a bang - next to last! She did manage to pull off a respectable 1416 points though to lock up fourth place this year, and most important to her I am sure, showed MacDaddy who wore the pants in that family. As a bonus told-ya-so, she kicked her big mouthed brother-in-laws hiney too! MacMomma and HerHeart brutally showed us that the women are to be reckoned with.
You're the "Take a Chill Pill" Pig!
Number 4 on the list of greatest NFL plays puts us in the frozen tundra of Green Bay's Lambeau Field on December 31, 1967 for the NFC Championship game between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers. The game itself, "The Ice Bowl" is one of the most memorable ever due to the importance of the game - for a birth to the second Super Bowl, and the weather conditions for the game - negative 13-degrees at kickoff and a literally frozen playing field. Here's what happened - The Cowboys led 17-14 late in the fourth quarter. Time was running out, but Green Bay had worked the football down to the Dallas 1-yardline. With 13-seconds left on the clock, Green Bay QB Bart Starr took the snap from center, ran a QB sneak, and pushed his way into the end zone to give Green Bay the 21-17 win and second trip to a Super Bowl in as many years.
Scooby gets the nod because well, Yahoo listed him first, and I wanted MacDaddy closer to the bottom, with me.
Scooby's Stone Cold Locks was Paul's 2K4 Pigskinners last place pig (Texas Rednecks), so he showed marked improvement this year. Many feel that this improvement was due to his ability to actually remember to make his picks (except for one relapse week) this year, a vast increase over last years 6 absentee votes. Scooby's Stone Cold Locks (what the hell are stone cold locks anyway?) scored a total of 1368 points this year.
You're the "Wing and a Prayer, Dang Astros, Hail Mary" Pig!
In the 1970's, a new weapon became widely used in NFL games. Football was no longer a rushing only game, and when a team was desperate at the end of the game, they threw up a prayer - throw the ball as far as you can and hope your player can catch up with it and catch it. These end of the game prayer-backed plays became known as "The Hail Mary" pass, and this takes us to the fifth greatest play in NFL history. Here's what happened - It was a NFC Divisional Playoff game on December 28, 1975 between the favored Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys. The score was 14-10 Minnesota with 24-seconds left in the final quarter of play. Dallas had the ball on the 50-yardline when QB Roger Staubach dropped back and threw up the Hail Mary pass. Down the field WR Drew Pearson was able to grab the football in the end zone and give an upset 17-14 win to the Dallas Cowboys.
MacDaddy, what can I say? Plenty! Let me start by saying, you let your wife beat you, you worthless bacon bit of a man. Just kidding, I love ya bro! We got our arses splintered up perty good by them their (what's a female pig called anyway, woman? hogette?). Man, I think I am going to suffer for that comment, maybe they will get bored with the page and not read this far down. Anyway, MacDaddy scored 1368 points this year to technically tie for fifth place with Scooby's, but butthead that I am, I gave him sixth.
You're the "I'm MacDaddy, Cover me three times baby" Pig!
Number 6 in the greatest NFL plays ever, "Triple Coverage", took place during the AFC playoff game between the Oakland Raiders and 2-time defending Super Bowl Champion Miami Dolphins on December 21, 1974. Here's what happened - Miami led 26-21 with 26-seconds left in the game, but Oakland had the ball on the Miami 8-yardline. Raider QB Kenny "The Snake" Stabler took the snap from center, dropped back and was barraged by Miami defensive linemen desperately trying to stop him. Stabler scrambled and evaded, but was eventually caught by the Miami defense. As he began to fall, he spotted WR Clarence Davis, and threw towards him. Davis however was covered - by three Miami players and seemingly had no chance to catch the ball in the end zone, but he did, under triple team coverage giving Oakland the 28-26 win and killing Miami's hopes of becoming the only team to win 3 Super Bowls in a row.
Flying Elvises started the season as Uncle Rico, and started it rough. Uncle Rico showed true rookie form by making all his picks but not realizing that you had to put points on them. This of course hampered him from the start, but he shook off his nervousness by week 2, and started off on his quest to save face by at least catching one person even with a 0 in the first week. Well, he soon changed his name to Flying Elvises and before long had soared right past Mr Dumpajolo. Flying Elvises ended the season with 1354 points, not far from that fifth spot, so a pretty good first season! Ask MacMomma (ref Pigs 2K3), that first week is important!
You're the "Holy Cow, I forgot to put points in, Holy Roller" Pig!
The seventh greatest play in NFL history left people wondering - Can they do that? Is that fair? It became known as "The Holy Roller" play, and effectively changed some rules about how fumbles could be advanced in future games. Here's what happened - On September 10, 1978 in a game between the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers, San Diego led late in the game 20-14. Oakland had the ball on the Charger's 14-yardline, there were 10-seconds on the clock, Oakland had no timeouts left, and the clock was ticking. Raider quarterback Kenny Stabler took the snap and began to scramble. San Diego's defense had him, and he was going down, which would have ended the game. As he was falling to the ground, Stabler just flung the ball to the ground, and it was ruled a fumble. With the ball loose on the ground, Oakland's Pete Banaszak batted it forward so that it would roll towards the end zone. The ball eventually rolled forward about 20-yards in to the end zone, with some help from Raider players who seemed to treat this as a strategically planned play, and with the ball loose in the end zone, Raider TE Dave Casper fell on it and cradled it. Touchdown Raiders! Raiders win 21-20.
Mr Dogajolo (your host) had a horrid season. His expectations qualify him for the Falcon of Fate award, as they too were greatly disappointing in a year they were supposed to dominate. The tutoring Mr Dogajolo provided to HerHeart obviously drained him of his mental capacities early, as he showed dreadful form throughout the year. Mr Dogajolo scored a total of 1293 points for the year and had a lock-on-last place by week 11.
You're the "Would somebody release the anchor please?" Pig!
Number 8 on the NFL greatest play list is based on a single performance mark by a rookie running back, "Six Touchdowns". The date was December 12, 1965. The running back was Chicago Bear rookie Gayle Sayers. Sayers had already scored five touchdowns on this day against the San Francisco 49ers. Late in the game, Sayers, who was pulling double-duty as a punt returner, was deep in the Bear side of the field awaiting a punt. He caught the ball at his own 15-yardline, headed up field, and made a dramatic cutback against the flow that sprang him into open field where he capped off a NFL tying six touchdown game with an 85-yard punt return for TD.
On October 25, 1964, during the Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers game, the 49ers fumbled the ball. Alertly, Viking defensive end Jim Marshall scooped the ball up and took to running for a touchdown. Only problem, he ran the wrong way and instead of getting six for the Vikes, scored 2 (safety) for the 9ers. No wonder he wasn't tackled. Mr Dogajolo, this is the kind of year you had. Better luck next year.
Keep your piglet ears open for Paul's 2K6 Pigskinners.
If you weren't in on this year's contest, send me an email to get on next year's list.