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Holy Meow! Commando Cats Capture Championship The 29th version featured a perennial power house and a team that had never been there before. In one corner, you had the Atlanta Jesters who were making their 6th final appearance. In the other corner, you had the Commando Cats of Anaheim who were making their first trip to the big game. Atlanta has the most post-season wins with 48 (in 26 seasons) vs Anaheim who had 5 post-season wins (in 9 seasons). The comparison couldn't be more stark. It was shaping up to be a true David vs Goliath showdown. Despite the vast difference in experience and accomplishments, Atlanta entered the game as a 5 point favorite with both teams each taking a win in the regular season. But it was Anaheim who had the better seed (#2) and beat out Atlanta (#4) for the Blue divisional crown. The only way to determine a champion was to see how the week would play out. For the second straight year, Week 17 games would start on Christmas Day. The Woodhaven Fantasy Bowl got things going with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb on the early afternoon Xmas game. It was just two years ago where that same connection won a Fantasy Bowl for San Francisco combining for 86 points. The duo could not meet those lofty expectations but did have a modest 43 point total to set the tone. Anaheim had their chance to respond with their own Xmas game with Jared Goff at QB. For the first two games of the playoffs, he was simply dominant, scoring 90 points. But then the Minnesota D dominated the Lions offensive line created all sorts of havoc for Goff. It was a cringe worthy performance of 5 points. Their kicker didn't help chip away at the lead contributing just 6 points. The Jesters had a huge 32 point advantage on the holiday. Atlanta did some more padding with Fairbairn booting 8 more points to increase the lead to 40 points through Saturday games. Onto Sunday. There would be champion crowned at the conclusion of the day. By the end of the 1 o'clock games Atlanta would be done, and Anaheim would know exactly what they would need to win. But before that, there were some lineup changes that would cost them crucial points. For Atlanta, they continued to ride Jonathan Taylor for their success. He produced 22 points to finish the year as the highest scorer with 518 points. But the Jesters didn't have much to speak of after that, adding 34 from the rest of the team. They missed out on 17 points after benching Stevenson in favor of Carter at RB2. Anaheim had their first taste of Fantasy Bowl success when Chris Olave had his way against Tennessee for 30 points. But for the second week in a row, they put up a goose egg at tight end with Taysom Hill. The Human Swiss Army Knife could be a cheat code because he can score throwing, running, and catching the ball from the tight end position, but not on this day. With the conclusion of the early games, Atlanta was up 107 to 41. Then the shift started to happen. The Commando Cats picked up 19 points from the New York Giants defense for their first start of the season. Now the Cats were down by 47 with Christian McCaffrey, D'Andre Swift, and D.J. Moore to go on Sunday Night Football. The ultimate prize was within reach. SNF turned out to be a shootout with the Bears and 49ers combining for 80 points. It was the perfect script for making some new history. CMC and Swift combined for 3 TD's. McCaffrey was huge (38 points) and Swift was stellar (23 points). Queue the confetti. It didn't matter that Moore scored just 1 point. The Commando Cats did it! They won the Woodhaven Fantasy Bowl 120 to 107. And they won all the bragging rights and trophies to cement their historic season. Fantasy Bowl champs, Best Playoff team, and Coach of the Year. They become the 14th different person to win the championship. Meanwhile, Atlanta lost their 3rd consecutive championship (2015, 2016, and 2025) despite winning championships (2004, 2009, 2013) in their first three tries. The Bronze Bowl was a matchup of two original teams, San Francisco versus Denver. Despite their long history, this was only the second time where they faced each other in a bowl game. That first bowl game happened to be the 2007 Fantasy Bowl where the Diamonds won their first of two championships. But enough of the history lesson, this game really came down to one person, Derrick Henry. He had a stat line of 36 carries for 216 yards and 4TDs. It added up to 65 points, and it was the 7th highest RB total ever. Game, set, match. Denver handily beat San Francisco, 148 to 119. San Francisco put up a fight despite starting a third different quarterback this post season after losing Mahomes and Love in consecutive weeks. Tyler Shough was impressive with 33 points in his FFL debut. Trey McBride finished his historic season in perfect fashion, going 17-0 in player stats. He becomes the first 17-0 and only the third player in FFL history to finish undefeated with more than 6 starts (George Kittle 15-0 in '24, Larry Johnson 9-0 in '05.) With the loss, the Rattlesnakes dropped to a 2-5 record in the Bronze Bowl but finished with another 10-win season (for the 16th time). Denver finished the season with a losing record at 8-9 but had a top 3 finish for the first time since 2014. The Root Beer Bowl was the stage for the second battle between Fort Wayne and Tampa Bay in a bowl game. The Blizzard took their first bowl matchup in the 2020 Garbage Bowl. As the #1 seed, Fort Wayne hasn't won a post season game this year and went winless last year in the post season. For Tampa Bay, they hadn't won a bowl game since 2020. So it was a 5-game post season losing streak for the team with the most all time toilet bowl wins versus a 4-game bowl game losing streak for the team with the longest championship drought. The Pistons looked more like the Triumph because their QB and both RBs came from that team. That trio of Burrow, Bijan, and Kyree were amazing and scored 96 points. The Blizzard struggled all day and had their second worst week of the year. JSN had 16 points to finish an amazing year and led all wideouts with 414 points. Cameron Dicker had a horrendous day missing two kicks even as the recipient to the Special Teams award. This was a one-sided affair and Fort Wayne dominated Tampa Bay 162 to 89. Fort Wayne captured their first Root Beer Bowl victory. Tampa Bay lost their 5th straight bowl game but did get a top 6 finish for the 4th year in a row. The Overrated Bowl was the ideal matchup where the winner of the game would finish the season with a winning record and the loser of the game would finish the season with a losing record. Sterling Heights and San Diego both entered the game level at 8-8. Surprisingly, this wasn't a snooze fest because the two teams combined for 248 points. The Hooligans had Drake Maye who was absolutely sensational tossing 5 touchdowns on his way to 44 points. Ever since he replaced Josh Allen at QB, he's averaged nearly 32 points per contest en route to winning the Most Explosive Award. The Surge countered that with Chase Brown who had 100+ rushing yards and 2 touchdowns for 39 points. But Sterling Heights had a little more fire power and took this one 139 to 109. With the win, the Hooligans avoided a winless post season. They only have 2 previous winless post seasons coming in 2012 and 2019. Unfortunately for the Surge, it was their 9th straight bowl loss pushing their career record to 7-19. It's been since the 2017 Woodhaven Fantasy Bowl for their last bowl win. But hey, at least they won the Best Drafter award without even being there. The Garbage Bowl never promises an epic showdown, and this game lived up to the billing between Los Angeles and Detroit. It was the lowest scoring game this week with 176 points. It was the only game this week where the winner didn't score at least 120 points. It was the only game this week where no player broke 30 points. This was simply garbage. But out of that heap, the Bombers prevailed over the Devils 112 to 64. LA had 3 guys score at least 25 points on their way to victory. Both of their receivers (Wan'Dale Robinson and Stefon Diggs) had 100+ receiving days. LA finished on a roll winning their last 3 games for their 5th undefeated post season. On the other side of the spectrum, Detroit finished with the lowest score of the year in this game and was the lowest scoring team for the year in total. One week after going for 83 points, Herbert and Jeanty combined for 32 points. Despite the bad performance, Ashton Jeanty would go on to win the Rookie of the Year award. Josh Jacobs and Jalen Waddle did even worse collecting just a single point between the two. The defending champs suffered their 10th loss making it their 10th season with as many losses. The Toilet Bowl had the teams with the worst records squaring off. Both North Dakota and Chicago each had 3 wins. North Dakota has never finished in last place which included a 2-win campaign in 2014 when they won the Toilet Bowl. Chicago has never won a Toilet Bowl losing in 2003 and 2017. Well, the Toilet Bowl provided a first for both teams with Chicago beating North Dakota 129 to 94. The Triumph made a huge pickup of Jacory Croskey-Merritt the week prior that tilted the score in their favor when he broke off a 72 yard rushing TD. JCM finished with 27 points. The Nimrods countered with both of their running backs rushing the ball 18 times for a combined 34 point modest total. But they got no help from their wideouts (Ladd and Marvin) who amassed 4 points. Chicago finished off North Dakota when Caleb Williams got a double bonus for the first time this year. The 2 TDs were icing on the cake and 39 more points to the total. The loss means North Dakota ended the season on a 7-game losing streak, the longest to end a season since the 2021 San Diego Surge. With Chicago's Toilet Bowl victory, Detroit becomes the only active team without a Toilet Bowl trophy.
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