uflyguy's round 1 playoff preview

What happened to the UFL this year?

Teams that were supposed to be mighty ended up being puny. And team’s that were given very slim odds to accomplish anything have made the playoffs. Mighty teams to fear became teams to pound. And perennial winners remained perennial winners. Where, why, when, and how did this happen.

I don’t have the time or desire now to review but a good old fashioned playoff preview and prediction game seems about right.

Home teams in CAPS.

Eagles (+5.5) over GIANTS

Yes the Vegas Zone for this one.

Coach, GM and Commissioner Gabriel Porrovecchio slaughtered all who challenged him in 2011. That trend continued up until the midpoint of 2012 and then a funny thing happened, the wheels started to rust sooner than expected, and their vaunted depth was challenged. In a bid to shake things up the trigger was pulled on a deal to bring Wes Welker and Reggie Bush in to maintain supremacy, but in the end it could not prevent the skid. The Giants are a team that is limping into the playoffs and has everyone in the UFL wondering what comes next.

Imagine your team consisted of Eli Manning, Ron Gronkowski, MJD, Dez Bryant, a stud kicker and a defense/special teams juggernaut. On fantasy paper you have all the ingredients for domination. And it appeared to be going that way until injuries struck and Eli regressed. Just like the Giants, the Eagles peeked off their perch too soon and stumbled into the playoffs based on their early season success.

This matchup in the end is a tale of redemption. Whoever wins will finally, after weeks of futility have something positive to look forward to… well at least the Giants will, because if the Eagles win they have a week to get their butt holes lubed up for the Bills to mercilessly buck on into.

Cowboys (+2.5) over DOLPHINS

If you would have polled the UFL GM’s at the start of the season and asked them to predict a first round matchup, one of these two teams would have received a majority of the votes and the other, just one vote.

By now we all know the story of how a terrible 2011 Miami Dolphins team trolled the depths of awful with a season to be forgotten. But rewards will often emerge from dark misery and struggle, and in this case that reward came with 1^st overall pick, Andrew Luck (editor’s note, we would like to present our condolences in advance to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the soon to be winner’s of the toilet bowl on their options for who to pick in a very weak draft year). Luck saved a potentially dreadful Dolphins season along with some snazzy free agent pick ups, and trades. If there was a GM of the year award in the UFL, GM Pasquale would have earned that particular piece of hardware this year.

Coach Kavaldjian is a perennial playoff attendee in the UFL. Unfortunately regular season successes have not translated into anything except bitter season ending losses, culminating in last year’s loss to the Giants. Now, back in the playoffs yet again and facing their former rival the Dolphins, the Cowboys are in an unfamiliar role, that of underdog. Cam Newton is heating up, and if Cam is firing on all cylinders than that will change the whole dynamic of the UFL playoffs. On paper the Cowboys are sneaky good, like sneaky upset all the way into league champions good.

I just can’t see the Dolphins being able to match the yardage and TD advantage the Cowboys will most likely have this weekend. The Dolphins have terrible matchups for their D’s while the Cowboys have a D playing against an Eagles team that has basically given up. I would love to see this magical season continue for the scrappy Dolphins, but sadly it will end this weekend.

Toilet Bowl – Bucs (+3) over RAIDERS

How does a team with Tom Brady leading the charge end up in the toilet bowl? How does a team that makes the toilet bowl still have Tom Brady as their QB? Now I don’t want to go off on a rant here… but… look we all saw this demise coming, we all were spectators to this train wreck. God Bless GM Yanicki for pulling the trigger on some deals to shake up his team, but looking back on it, the hole was just too deep to crawl out of. Now, I don’t know if there were any offers made for the Golden Boy, but if there were, and no action was taken then there should definitely be some second guessing going on here.

And what can we say about the Bucs? The Bucs were like a loveable sitcom this year, they made you laugh, they made you cry, they made you pull your hair out and feel deep pain for GM Michaud’s catastrophic fall from grace. In some ways they were reminiscent of another Floridian UFL franchise, the 2011 Dolphins (wait, who am I kidding, that 2011 Dolphins team was beyond pathetic). And in that example they should feel hope…

I just can’t see the Raiders pulling this one off. The Bucs have been a lot better than their record has shown, and the Raiders.. well… it would pretty much be par for the course. After their shocking title in 2010, back to back toilet bowl appearances have flushed whatever significance that bought.