[League Update] Week 15: Family drama in the RWC championship

Father/Son Inscoe Bowl IX will the be biggest one yet; It will decide the 2014 Royale with Cheese championship. And it happens that Dolphins of Old's owner and I will be celebrating Christmas together this weekend. That could make for a tense Sunday.

How did we get here? Dolphins of Old blew out semifinal opponent Cant Be That Hard 126-77 last weekend. CBTH only had to players score in double digits: Matt Ryan (21) and DeMarco Murray (20). Dolphins could have had even more points had it started the Patriots defense (18 points) over the Rams D (5). Dolphins also had two players score less than two points: Keenan Allen and Tre Mason. (Yes, I'm worried.)

Morgan Beggs ‏@MorganBeggs   Dec 15

@RoyaleWCheeseFB Second year running, I've made the playoffs and run out of steam when it really mattered

The other semifinal was much closer. Jeff Fisher's Mullet outlasted regular season champ Turn Down For Watt 97-82.

@RoyaleWCheeseFB I can't watch. I'm down by 25+pts. Someone wake me up when it's over. #Turndownforplayoffs
— Evelyn Ann Greene (@eagreene) December 16, 2014

@fearthemullets @RoyaleWCheeseFB I think I'll just go back to my knitting and antiques roadshow #playoffsmakemesad
— Evelyn Ann Greene (@eagreene) December 16, 2014

It came down to Monday night, when TD4W had three players playing -- Matt Forte, Martellus Bennett and Shayne Graham -- and the Mullets had one: Marques Colston. Lucky for the Mullets, Colston scored a touchdown and the Chicago offense is a hot mess. (This evening, the Bears announced that Jimmy Clausen would be the starting quarterback. Jimmy. Clausen.)

Here are some interesting numbers heading into the RWC final:

• This is the ninth meeting between Dolphins and Mullets. The Mullets lead the series 5-3. 
• The two teams met twice this season. The Mullets won both, including a 103-101 win in the final week of the regular season to get the Mullets into the championship playoffs.
• This is Dolphins' first appearance in the championship game. The team has only made it to the playoffs once before: 2011, when the team was called Tobs 11 and finished fourth.
• This is the Mullets' second appearance in the championship game. The Mullets lost to Taking it to the next level (Go big or go home) 113-69 in the 2011 championship.
• This is the second year in a row that the Nos. 3 and 4 seeds will meet in the championship. This will also be the third straight season that the regular season champion doesn't win the league.
• Projections give Dolphins a 115-93 edge, but we all know how reliable those predictions have been.

Academic Probation and The Reservoir Dogs will meat in the finals of the consolation bracket.

Academic Probation beat Big Kahuna Burger 118-72 in the first semifinal and The Reservoir Dogs beat Big Poppa 76-46 in the other semifinal. 

And six other teams didn't play at all last week. Womp. 

To the awards! 

Dolphins of Old was the week's highest scorer with 126. Here's hoping it scores half that this weekend.

The Sad Trombone goes to Big Poppa, which went from taking over the Twitter avatar in Week 7 to playing in the seventh-place game. 

What. Just. Happened?

There's no Jameis Winston Award this week because I didn't notice any egregious decisions in the semifinals. Instead, watch this:



The final Thursday night game that anyone cares about this season is between the Titans and Jaguars. Wait, what? How in the world is that a primetime game? Wow.

No teams have a bye this late in the season.

Best of luck to everyone in the playoffs this week! Except Dolphins. Less luck to you.

Corey