A famous COWer moves up on Mooooooving Week

Franzen wins week for first time since 2003

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It was early November of 2003, and the Marlins had just beaten the Yankees in the World Series, Arnold Schwarzenegger had just been elected governor of California, Jessica Lynch was making headlines, the 3rd Matrix movie had just disappointed the world, SLO was preparing for the FunkyBowl and FunkO, Paris Hilton accidentally leaked a sex tape, and Eric Franzen won the week in the FMNFLP.  Ninety football weeks and SIXTEEN last place finishes later, habitual COW-winner Eric "I am now a Bills fan" Franzen has finally won another week.

    As predicted here on the Weekly Recap, Week 16 was a potential moving week.  Franzen won the week despite missing his 16- and 15-point pick, and only tabbed 9 of 16 games correctly.  Pool leader Mike Godsey kept the pace despite missing half the games and giving the entire pool a chance to gain almost 70 points.  In reality, however, only 13 points separated 5th place Ken Vis from 22nd place Wego.  A case of boring picks, or just everything evening out?  Godsey's picks were particularly soulless, with a 9 against the Chargers and a dime on the Broncos, but he admitted he was just laying low during Moving Week.  Everyone else?  Franzen won the week thanks to a dozen on his new Bills, and Money took 2nd with a boat on his Bears.  Everyone else pretty much stood pat.  As a result, Godsey keeps his 20-point lead, and the Emertons and Scott Wyat continue to lurk.  Everyone else is hanging back, waiting for a playoff miracle.



If Only...

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Dylan Oliver would have won the week if he had picked his Raiders against the RoadTexans.



KenDoggie Vis would have won the week if he put his boat on his Raiders instead of against them (the RoadTexans?)



Scott Wyatt would've made money if he had the same faith in his Giants as he did the RoadTexans.



JLee would've made money if he had the same faith in his Niners as he did the RoadTexans.



Mike Godsey would've won the week if he had picked the Chargers and against the Broncos, as he has all year.



Robert Emerton would've won money if he switched his faith in his Giants (at home) with his faith in the RoadTexans.



Diane Emerton would've won the week if she had put 15 on her Bills instead of against them.



If Dallas or Denver had won, Kurt Schwartz wins the week.



A Browns win (against the RoadBengals), and Money wins the week.  He also wins with a Chief or Viking win.  Or the Panthers with an 8-point lead.  Sorry.



One more thing: Money wins the week if it weren't for that Niners Hail Mary (or if the Rams could gain 8 more yards).  Sorry again.



Adam Jennings wins with a Lions win, whatever that means.



With a Zona win, Wyatt wins the week by 14, and pulls within 4 of the playoff line.



DOliver wins with Pitt or NYJ.



Or wait: If the Eagles could score more than 3 points, Money might've won the week.  Sorry once more.



If the Bucs had won at home as heavy faves, Money would've won the week.  Deepest, deepest sympathies.







Stats and observations

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We never thought we'd type this, but Money was the only one to correctly pick the Raiders.  It's his 6th career solo shot, and puts him 7th on the all-time list.



After going 14-0 with the Detroit Lions, Diane picked them this week against the Saints.  Now only Mike Godsey is 15-0 with them.



Going 16-0 with a team is apparently not THAT difficult since Robert Hassanali did it with TWO teams last year (Miami and New England).







COW and POW

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Since nobody voted, we did it ourselves this week.  If Diane had put a 15 on her Bills against Kathy's full Bronco boat, not only would that have been an awesome chick fight, she would've won the week and been just 9 points behind Godsey for the overall lead.  She led a gaggle of players (Raider fans in particular) who dropped the ball on their own team during Moving Week.  But since only "retards" and "schmucks" talk about team pride, we'd also like to point out that she led the whole group of Emertons with boring 15's on the Broncos, when the NFL would clearly like to see them lose.  Eric, in particular, should know better.  And yes, we are retarded schmucks who believe that the Broncos have been getting railed since the ugly fix in Week 2.  Also, the Broncos blow.  Ass.

    A POW to Franzen, who stepped up in her absence, declared himself a Bills fan, and winning the week.  Congratulations.





Speaking of Which...

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We think this is a good time to thank all the ChargerHaters for keeping quiet (and picking the Chargers) during a season in which they've been absolutely embarrassing, both physically and behaviorally.  Almost everything Wyatt said (statistically, not personally) about the Chargers has proven correct in 2008.  It's a good thing that no contender actually stood up and picked big against the Chargers this season, or Godsey would be out by about 30 points.  If nothing else, never has it been more clear that nobody wants to hear the Godseys talk anymore, even if it's in comical defense of an indefensible team.





Next Week!

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Pool leader Mike Godsey is giving everyone one last chance at a 16-point swing when he puts another full boat on his 7-8 Chargers in the first playoff game of the 2008 season.  After a sell-out pick in Week 16, he's hoping they've grown up in the past month, and get back to believing in themselves.  We're guessing most poolsters will leave the opportunity rather than take it, but still--it's there.



Meanwhile, the Emertons and Scott Wyatt will show the first indications of whether they're going to make a run at Godsey or just fight amongst themselves for a FunkyBowl ticket.  Godsey will probably wait and see what they do first, but he's had a history of throwing long when he should just run the clock out.  Jennaroo, Kathy Wathy, and Wego will all have a chance to bomb away before the playoffs begin, though they too might just wait for the postseason.  The only truly interesting race is back at the playoff line, where Scott Farnsworth is just a single point out, with 4 poolsters within 10 points of him.  A good week will certainly get him in -- who will be the odd man out?  Ken Vis and the Sabbes also have a longshot in, and you can never count out Bill Ellis until all the votes are in.



In actual football, we have

Kathy's Broncos at Charger Nation (full boats) in a rematch of the controversial game in Week 2.

Giant Nation at Kevin's Vikings

Money's Bears at Schussel's Texans

Kurt Schwartz's Dolphins at Zack Schwartz's Jets



See ya then...