1. Supreme Court
2. Orangeville Ducks
3. Sloppiest Lobsters
4. Supreme Court (via HAIL)
5. Supreme Court (via TUCK)
6. 4th and Medium (via GOLD)
7. Orangeville Ducks (via RSC)
8. Hail Gary (via CALF)
9. Supreme Court (via 4TH)
10. Hail Gary (via REDZ)
Redzone (192.92) def. 4th & Medium (176.82)
[REDZ 1st Championship Through 8 Years Of Battle]
[9-5 Record]
[Garage Division Champion]
Ho, ho..... ho, boy. Christmas football should be banned forever, that's what all 4th & Medium fans should be saying right now at least. Coal in the stocking and then whipped at the side of your head. That's what 4th & Medium football felt like on Christmas. Jameson Willaims was on a TEAR for many weeks prior to this week. The homecoming was going great! And then it ended with 5.70 FPTS. Courtland Sutton was on a tear for many weeks prior to this week. Undeniable WR1 on the Broncos after the BYE in Week12. 8.00 FPTS when it really mattered. Even the kicker Jake Bates did his best grinch impression, putting up just 6.80 FPTS. Not the merriest Christmas for any fans of the blue squad. Yeah yeah, QB2 of Redzone Josh Johnson (now GFL Champion Josh Johnson) only put up 9.32 but still!
Not the start they wanted, but if Derrick Henry just relaxes on Saturday and has a normal 10-20 point performance and Zay Flowers doesn't catch any touchdowns, 4th & Medium could be right back in the fight for Sunday! But those GFL Playoff momentum juices were flowing through that Red cube of Redzone... HEAVILY. 45.60 FPTS from Derrick Henry on Saturday night plus a 1 TD performance from Zay Flowers who had 13.00. The red squad arrived with an absolute bang. If Christmas was the 1st quarter, then Saturday was the 2nd quarter and Redzone went into halftime JUICED up, while 4th & Medium hoped for a much better 2nd half.
Quarter 3, Sunday, first thing I remember was BAM Rhamondre freakin' Stevenson. Ol' Mondre. Everyone's favorite RB. 27.20 FPTS early on. But in that SAME game, QB1 of 4TH Drake Maye had himself a 5 TD performance & 32.44 FPTS! Not too shabby, back & forth early on, BAM Chris Olave 26.30 FPTS catchin' bombs from Tyler Shough all day long. JSN did JSN things again, putting up a solid 16.20 FPTS, and Ja'Marr Chase of 4TH did his thing with a 2 TD 25.00 FPTS day. The blows started hitting Redzone a tad too. Michael Pittman got hurt, came back, didn't do much. 3.60. Tre Tucker did normal Tre Tucker things with just 9.90. Juwan Johnson continued to be a consistent contributor for this Redzone squad with 13.50. Who whoulda thought. Red's buccaneer, the kicker McLaughlin did even worse than Medium's kicker with just 5.30, but it was the buccaneers of 4th & Medium that dug the hole a bit deeper. 12.10 out of the Hall Of Famer Mike Evans, not bad, & on par with what he's been doing, but man a CLASSIC Mike Evans game would've really boosted spirits at that time. That woulda done numbers, coulda swung the momentum. Just didn't happen. And then there was the young buck Bucky Irving finishing the day with just 8.30 FPTS. Hate to see it. Another thing you hate to see? Kenneth Gainwell tanking his GFL Comeback Player Of The Year odds, stinkin' it up with 7.72 FPTS after 3 straight weeks of near 20 point games. Sunday ended with QB1 of Redzone Caleb Williams (is he finally home?) putting it all together with a rock solid 23.00. One quarter left, but Redzone's offense was over, and it was over to the tune of 192.92 total. A job well done.
The 4th quarter, Monday Night Football... 4th & Medium has a lot of history with Monday Night Football. Down near 90 points? Puka Nacua. Bijan Robinson. & Matthew Stafford. If there's any 3 guys that can get it done, it's probably them. And man it got close!! Bijan Robinson, the golden child 1.01 for this team 2 years ago with a 2 TD day including one of which being a 93 yard sprint. It could be happening! Puka Nacua targeted throughout the night, 10 targets, 1 TD and another coulda freakin' been TD, but 1 TD after all... to finish with... 15.60 FPTS. But potentially old Matt Stafford was cookin' & tossin' the ball around elsewhere? 3 INT. 2 TD, but 3 INTs. 13.76 FPTS. He sure did try to give Puka all he could though. When the final whistle was blown, it was 176.82 points, just 16 PTS away from glory. Redzone's defense couldn't stop the power of Bijan, but somehow kept the Rams stack in check. We have a newwwwww GFL Champion.
Congrats to GM Red & the whole squad at Redzone. GM Red has been a member of the GFL since Day 1. He was there in-person at the first GFL draft and has been at every one since. He's made it to his first championship game back in our final year of redraft, GFL Year 4, losing to GM Gabe by just 2 points. 4 years wasn't enough, 8 years was. The team was a contender in Year 1 of Dynasty in GFL Year 5, but GM Red didn't like the vibes. At least he liked the vibes of being the first team to really enter rebuild mode more. Rebuilding after ONE year of Dynasty? Crazy. Those picks were worth something entirely different than they are now just a few years later. But he did it, drafted some guys, kept some, traded many others away, but in Year 8 the trades he made leading up to that magical playoff run is what sealed the deal. I've always said it because I always see it, but that GFL Playoff momentum is something special. When you got the juice, you just got it man. And similar to the last several seasons, both teams representing their division had the damn JUICE. But Red's cube got the last squeeze of the juice this time around. 4th & Medium, kudos to you guys. It was a long & grueling season filled with hardship in many departments, but you pushed through it all and got so very close. And I have no idea what it will take to finally get it done but gosh darnit one day... one day. The chase continues I hope.
The Garage reigns supreme again, and the garage is filled with a very bright Red light for the next several months. REALLY bright red light. And there might not be an off switch.
