2022 Power Rankings-Playoffs 2

## Introduction

Two weeks ago, Pain Train defeated Papa's Posse 222.68-196.90 (margin of 25.78). In the quarterfinals, Papa's Posse defeated Pain Train 222.78-196.20 (margin of 26.58). He calls it "Papa Magic." It is the indescribable force that is propelling this team, ranked just 7th in points scored, to yet another run that can only be described as miraculous.

There are two active teams in the LOC that have never seen Papa's Posse win a playoff game...until now. Papa's Posse snapped an 11-year playoff victory drought in their triumph over a hobbling Pain Train. It was his first win since Glory Bowl I in the Festival of Champions, a season in which his quarterfinals matchup was also against Pain Train. Whether the Papa Magic can keep going through the holidays remains to be seen, but this was a sweet, sweet victory. Pain Train falls to 12-12 in the postseason and will look to win the Cinco De Lose-O to notch his big 100th franchise victory in week 16. He is now 3-3 lifetime against Papa in the postseason and heads into a matchup with RIPDab, against whom he is 1-1.

It wasn't all Pain Train's fault. First overall pick Jonathan Taylor went down in the first series for the Colts. That left Kirk Cousins to go nuclear in the second half and pull off the biggest comeback ever, a huge momentum swing on Saturday afternoon for a Papa team that had already set a good base with second overall pick CMC on Thursday. From there, it was all about maintaining the lead. Despite a 60-burger from Allen and 24 points from GB defense late Monday night, Papa was able to hang on.

On the other side of things, we saw something we see almost all the time. RIPDab was one-and-done for the second year in a row, dropping a second consecutive quarterfinals game to The Stupid Idiots and a fourth overall postseason matchup to Nick. Injuries played a part in this game, with Dab never able to find a solution at TE or WR after the crushing losses of Kupp and Goedert earlier in the season. Thinking he maybe found a QB/TE cheatcode, Dab started Jeff Driskel to the tune of 1.62 points. On Monday night, Aaron Jones did he best to close a massive gap with a 28.30 point performance, but it still wasn't enough to overcome. WR1 and WR2 (Olave, Chris Moore) combined for 19.50 against Idiots' tandem Wilson and Hill (41.30). That's a difference of 21.80 in a game Dab lost by 17.99 points.

Idiots will now play in their third straight semifinals game (1-1 in previous two).

In week 16 we will see a postseason matchup that has never happened in LOC history, as well as Duck and Momma both hoping to cast aside their demons and punch tickets to the Glory Bowl after failing to capitalize on their byes just a season ago.

A lot on the line and it's all spread across games on four different days, making for a long and dramatic weekend ahead.

## Matchup Recap

* The Stupid Idiots has the last laugh after getting swept in the regular season, with a Quarterfinals victory against RIPDab (8-5). **Next Matchup: 2023 Regular Season Double-Header**
* Papa's Posse wins the 2022 rubber-match in an historic victory against Pain Train (10-13). **Next Matchup: 2023 Regular Season Double-Header**

## Stat Chat

* RIPDab becomes the 6th team to lose 90 combined games.
* Duck Punchers becomes the second team to reach the semifinals seven times (Shotti).
* Papa's Posse becomes just the third team to log a postseason victory in nine different seasons. Mattness can join if he wins one of his two remaining games to close the year.
* Papa's Posse becomes the 8th team to break 200 points in 90 combined games.
* RIPDab scored the 15th-highest losing score in postseason history.

## List of All Quarterfinal Performances

Updated Through 2022 season.

Last year, Commish became the first team to score under 178 points and win. This year, RIPDab became just the 7th team to score over 220 points and lose. This is the second time this has happened to RIP in a row. Last season he scored the 221.37 points and lost.

Pain Train, who still holds the record for best quarterfinals performance in LOC history, became just the third team to finish with between 190-200 points and the first of those three teams to lose.

## Total Quarterfinals Points Scored by Year

Updated through 2022 season

About as average a performance as you can get, though technically 10ish points below average. The 2022 quarterfinals clocked in as the 6th-most points in LOC history. Nothing to write home about.

## All-Time Franchise Festival of Champions Records

Updated through 12/21/22

With his 5th win in 7 career games, Idiots moves all the way up to fourth on the all-time list of playoff wins (main bracket) and 5th on the playoff wins (including bowl games). These are for the Festival only and not the Consolation Bracket. Idiots has the second best win% in main bracket games and the best overall win% when factoring 3rd and 5th place contests.

Papa has only had 7 opportunities in the main bracket in 12 seasons, but has capitalized with four wins (more than RIPDab in 11 contests and tied with Pain Train who has had 12 tries).

RIPDab's win% drops to 0.273 in main bracket games, making him the worst playoff performer in league history. Only Duck Punchers has more playoff losses (10) but two Glory Bowl runs (and one Glory Bowl victory) has put him narrowly ahead in win% for now.

Pain Train's 6 overall wins puts him low on the list of playoff performers, ahead of just Sweet Dee and Papa's Posse. But a 5th place victory will move him up this list.

## All-Time Postseason Win/Loss Records

Below are the win/loss records for every team for every postseason game. This combines Festival main bracket, Consolation bracket, and all consolation games (including Bowl Week games). It does not discriminate between Glory Bowl wins and Million Dollar Game wins. Therefore, the records should be taken with a grain of salt.

Updated through 12/21/22

Shotti and Paddock 9, both favored to win their matchups this week, could potentially be playing in the Heart and Soul Bowl next week for the chance to be the outright winningest postseason performer of all-time.

## List of Most Consecutive Top-4 Playoff Finishes by Team

updated through 2022

Three of the four final teams are on the longest streak of top-4 finishes in their franchise histories (although Papa's streak is just one). Duck, at 4, and Idiots, at 3, make their semifinals showdown even more epic.

## The History of the Top Seed

Every top-seeded team that won the semifinals has won the Glory Bowl. But just two Commissioner's Cup winners have won their semifinals matchup in the last six years. Can Duck Punchers punch his ticket?

## Longest Playoff Appearance Droughts by Team

Both Sweet Dee and Shotti, who play each other in week 16, are on the longest playoff droughts of their careers. Now, this is because Shotti has never missed back-to-back playoffs, so his drought is only at one. Sweet Dee, amazingly, has never missed three Festivals in a row. This bodes well for them in 2023.

## Active Playoff Appearance Droughts

The active list does not offer up much, as the league's parity is in full swing of late. None of the consolation teams are on massive losing streaks at the moment.

## Playoff Game Victory Droughts

Updated through 2022 Quarterfinals

Sortable table, click on header arrows.

He doesn't have the biggest losing streak (that belongs to RIPDab), but momma is on the longest win drought in playoff history. It has been seven years since his last victory, a 2015 semifinals matchup against Commish. Since then he has become one of three teams whose active losing streaks began with a Glory Bowl loss to The Shotti Bunch (defunct Jar Jar and depressed Dab being the other two). The only person who has ever won a playoff game after previously losing a Glory Bowl to Shotti is Pain Train, but his current losing streak dates back to a more recent Glory Bowl loss (a narrow defeat at the hands of Paddock 9 in 2019).

Even though he has not logged a victory in two seasons, Paddock 9 still has the longest active win streak with 5 wins. He's basically the Denver Broncos of the LOC (Denver has not made the playoffs since 2015 but they have an active win streak because they won Super Bowl 50).

## Power Rankings - Playoff Semifinals

* APT: Record Against Playoff Teams
* L3: Record Over Last Three Games
* PB: Pro-Bowlers

### 1(1). Duck Punchers

* APT: 5-2
* L3: 2-1
* PB: 3 (Lamb, McLaurin, Myers)

Last year Duck entered the semifinals against Commish, a team he had never beaten in the postseason. He lost. This year, he faces The Stupid Idiots. This is a team he has lost to only once in franchise history. That fact alone gives him an edge. Couple that with the fact that Idiots already did an Idiot thing and started Garrett Wilson in a bad weather game with a terrible QB in a terrible matchup and Duck has a big lead heading into Christmas Eve.

### 2(4). Papa's Posse

* APT: 5-4
* L3: 2-1
* PB: 2 (Jacobs, Cousins)

Papa has defied the odds, overcoming the worst keeper selections in the league and winning as the underdog nearly every week. It's Papa Magic, and it cannot be bet against.

### 3(5). The Stupid Idiots

* APT: 5-4
* L3: 2-1
* PB: 3 (Chubb, Hill, Hockenson)

Idiots is trying to run it back with a similar cast of character, but there will be no more easy outs. Both Duck and Papa have W's already against Idiots, while they beat Momma during their three-game slump in the middle of the season.

### 4(6). ma ma momma said

* APT: 2-5
* L3: 3-0
* PB: 3 (Kittle, Chase, Mahomes)

In "Big Daddy" they ruin the good surprise on Adam Sandler. In the LOC, it's possible momma ruined the good week on the bye. He put up 279 points, the most in the league. But already he's down bad, having scored just 2.28 against a projected 13.69 with Zay Jones. Both of momma's keepers made the pro-bowl, as well as Mahomes who many were shocked to see still on the board that late in the draft. If Momma makes it to the Glory Bowl on a "down" week this week, they are going to be favored against whoever gets there with him.

### 5(7). RIPDab

* APT: 5-5
* L3: 1-2
* PB: 0

The only team with no pro-bowl players. But that's okay! It's about TEAM. There's no P, R, O, B, O, W, L, R in team. There is an E but that's okay.

### 6(3). Paddock 9

* APT: 4-6
* L3: 3-0
* PB: 3 (Kelce, Hurts, Diggs)

Paddock 9 is the best consolation team, but will need to operate without pro-bowl QB Jalen Hurts and also needs to navigate Stefon Diggs who is on the coldest streak of his season (and possibly the last two seasons). If Paddock 9 had entered the tournament as the 6th seed, he would have defeated Idiots in week 15. We'll see what kind of numbers he puts up this weekend, imagining he would be facing Duck Punchers in this alternate reality.

### 7(2). Pain Train

* APT: 4-6
* L3: 1-2
* PB: 4 (Adams, Josh Allen, Pollard, Geno Smith)

Leads the league with four pro-bowl selections but Geno Smith is a backup journeyman fantasy player. Losing JT doomed this team, which was already struggling with consistency. Had JT been ruled out prior to the game, Cam Akers was waiting on the bench with 19 points. Still wouldn't have been enough, but there was plenty on the bench to close the remaining gap. It's a disappointing season for a team that lead the league in points.

### 8(8). The Shotti Bunch

* APT: 3-6
* L3: 1-2
* PB: 4 (Barkley, A.J. Brown, Sanders, Tucker)

Shotti is tied for the league lead in pro-bowlers with 4. He enters into a postseason matchup with Sweet Dee for the first time in franchise history, but thus far has not set a lineup that is due in just over two hours time. If he does not swap in a QB, his pristine postseason record could be tarnished. Fantasy Gods...not pleased.

### 9(9). Multiverse of Mattness

* APT: 1-7
* L3: 0-3
* PB: 2 (Andrews, Jefferson)

Everything was clicking for Mattness through six weeks. Head-scratcher of a draft, but it was really coming together the way it was envisioned. That was when 1st and 2nd round picks Andrews and Breece Hal both injured their knees. Hall was lost for the season, and Andrews might as well have been. Andrews had 39 rec, 455 yards, and 5 TDs between weeks 1-6, enough to be considered as the possible TE1 of the year ahead of Travis Kelce. Since returning from his knee injury five games ago, Andrews has just 19 receptions, 214 yards, and not a single TD.

### 10(10). Sweet Dee

* APT: 3-6
* L3: 0-3
* PB: 2 (Henry, Burrow For sure-oh)

Realistic chance to defeat Shotti this week with the Bunch's QB room in turmoil and his general lack of interest in the consolation tournament. Inexplicably, Dee started Carter over Evan Engram, who is playing for one of the hottest offenses in the league and coming off three straight games in which he beat his projection (now a 4th after 25.10 vs. the Jets). It's frustrating to watch this team play against herself every week, but hopefully she can pull the victory.

## The 2022 Cinco De Lose-O

After never playing in the game before 2021, RIPDab will head into the Cinco De Lose-O Bowl for the second straight season. Pain Train is making his fourth appearance, which ties Duck Punchers for the most visits to the 5th place game. RIPDab is the reigning winner, while Pain Train won in 2020, making this a showdown of the bowl's two previous winners. The teams are 1-1 against each other in the postseason, with one Lose-O victory each, making this a true rubber match.

A loss by Pain Train would give him the most losses in 5th place game history, passing Duck Punchers (2).

## As For The Rest...

A lot has been said already about the lopsided matchup between reigning Commisioner's Cup champ Duck Punchers and defending Glory Bowl champion Idiots.

Still, that one victory has come quite recently...

This is the first time Momma and Papa are meeting in the playoffs, after facing off twice in the Consolation Bracket.

Momma has the edge in the series but has not won since September 2021.

This is the first time Shotti and Dee will meet in the postseason (playoffs, consolation, everything). It's one of the few remaining matchups that has not happened in the postseason.

As you can plainly see, this is a one-sided affair similar to Duck and Idiots. Dee has not won a game vs. Shotti since November of 2020 and is on a four-game losing streak. But surely this is the week...

And finally, a third matchup against Paddock 9 and Mattness that seemed destined from the start of this shitty season.

Mattness has owned this series until the last three years, when an 11-6 record has now turned into an 11-10 record. One more loss for Commish and they will be all tied up heading into 2023.

### Conclusion

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and we will talk once more before the new year as we head into Bowl Week.