Band Aids win a thriller on Monday night

Kareem Hunt's overtime TD puts it away against Spread Beaters; Recliners extend their lead in the Silent Division with win over Rangers

Kareem Hunt's overtime TD came a play after Beaters TE Kravis Kelce was stopped just short of the goal line, and gave the Band Aids a thrilling victory on Monday night.

It was a battle for the ages on Monday Night Football, both in the NFL game between the unbeaten Chiefs and the upstart Bucs and the JSFL battle between the Shitty Teams Division leading Band Aids and the defending champion Spread Beaters.

Bob Garcia's Band Aids held a slim 109-108 lead over Matt Pringle's Beaters going into the fourth quarter, with the Band Aids relying on Hunt and Buc's kicker Chase McLaughlin down the stretch and the Beaters hoping that Travis Kelce could pull off a miracle comeback. And Kelce had his opportunities. He caught a third-down pass near midfield that appeared to extend a drive, but then fumbled... Beaters now down by two.

Then it became a battle of wills. The Chiefs used Hunt, Kelce and recently acquired WR DeAndre Hopkins to drive down for a go-ahead TD (Mahomes to Hopkins, more about him later) with less than a minute to play. On that drive, Kelce got the Beaters to a tie for a moment, then they fell behind by two again thanks to Hunt's determined running. The Bucs responded with a TD drive of their own to tie, and we go to overtime -- there is still hope for the Beaters.

And there was more than hope as Mahomes drove the Chiefs downfield and threw two passes to Kelce in the Red Zone -- and the second appeared at first to be headed for paydirt. Kelce caught the ball at the five, darted between defenders and looked like he'd plow into the end zone. Until he was stopped at the two-yard line by the Bucs defense.

Two more yards and the Beaters would have scored a thrilling upset win. But no.

Instead, you can guess what happened. Hunt gets the ball on the next play and ices the Band Aids win with a rushing TD. Ouch.

Speaking of painful losses, the aforementioned Hopkins was left on the bench by the Tirades, and his 20 points with him. Guess who lost by 13? Yep, the dipshit Tirades, whose playoff hopes dimmed to (according to ESPN, 25%) just as the cavalry was arriving. RB Christian McCaffrey is expected to make his first start of the 2024 season this week in Tampa.

WTNE remained in the playoff hunt thanks to a 110-104 win over the Gerbils. The Packers ended an eight-game losing streak with a 76-64 win over Who Dey. And in the battle of the Silent Division titans, the Recliners scored a huge win over the second-place Recliners to extend their lead to two games.

Here's a look back at the Week 9 games...

BAND AIDS 118, BEATERS 111: Bob got 21 from QB Lamar Jackson and 42 from his trio of RBs (Hunt, James Conner and Chuba "Who-ba?" Hubbard) and it was Hunt's late score that made the difference. The Band Aids might be concerned that Conner saw two TDs go to other Cardinals RBs on Sunday. Amon-Ra St. Brown added 11 for the Band Aids. The Beaters RBs were even better than the Band Aids -- Derrick Henry had 24, JK Dobbins 22 and Tony Pollard 14 -- but Pringle didn't get much help elsewhere. QB Kyler Murray could only come up with 5 and usually-reliable kicker Younghoe Koo had only three (and missed an XP). On the Bench: Bob could have been +3 with K Matt Gay instead of McLaughlin, but that was it. Pringle would have been +4 with TE Cade Otton over Kelce, but that was still not enough for the win.

Saquon Barkley does an amazing reverse hurdle over a Jacksonville defender.

WTNE 110, GERBILS 104: Every game is a must-win for Jordan Garcia's team at this point, and his boys came through last weekend. Saquon Barkley had 30 points (and one of the most spectacular non-scoring runs of the year) and Alvin Kamara 21 to go with QB Jayden Daniels' 19. The Gerbils, who dropped to 3-6, got 19 from QB Sam Darnold and the Rams defense and 21 from RB Chase Brown. On the Bench: Jordan would have been +10 with Joe Burrow at QB (five TDs) instead of Daniels and at least +11 at a WR spot had he played Tank Dell (his starters combined for 1 point). Chuck Nelson's lamenting the fact that he didn't start QB Pat Mahomes (+5) over Darnold and WR Zay Flowers (+21) over AJ Brown.

Garrett Wilson's Halloween night catch was scary good.

RECLINERS 92, RANGERS 87: WR Garrett Wilson scored 21 points and made one of the most spectacular scoring catches in Jets history on Thursday to lead Chris Zimnoch's Recliners (8-1) to the victory over the division rival Rangers (6-3). The Recliners also got 29 from RBs Bijan Robinson and Joe Mixon and 14 from WR DeVonta Smith and survived an off-day by QB Caleb Williams (8). QB Jalen Hurts came through with 29 points for the Rangers and WR Davante Adams scored 15, but John Lambert got let down by almost everyone else (WRs Amari Cooper and DJ Moore combined for 2 points). On the Bench: For the Rangers, not much there but Austin Eckler was +6, which would have been enough for the win, over either Breece Hall or Kyren Williams (both had 8, and it's the first game I can remember that Williams did not score a TD in). For Chris, he could have been +15 with Quentin Johnston in at WR over Marvin Harrison Jr (the king of boom or bust this season) or +14 with Courtland Sutton.

INVAIDERS 78, TIRADES 65: Vern Ahrendes' team plays the Tirades twice in a three-week span, and will likely enjoy the McCaffrey-less version of the Tirades better than the one he'll face in Week 11. Only three Invaiders scored in double figures in the win -- RBs Rico Dowdle and Rhamondre Stevenson each had 16 and QB Bo Nix had 15. But that was three times better than the crap the Tirades threw out there on Sunday. Only QB Josh Allen (21) scored more than 10 freaking points in a game that the team was predicted to score 100. Among the underachievers: TE Kyle Pitts (1, not 7), RB Nick Chubb (3, not 11), WRs Brian Thomas and Ja'Marr Chase (8, not 20). On the Bench: Tirades would have won had they started WR Hopkins (+16) over either WR, and he was in there until a Sunday morning swap. Whomever is making lineup decisions for this team should be fired immediately. The Invaiders had 9 points total from their bench, so nothing would have improved from there.

PACKERS 76, WHO DEY 64: Finally, commissioner Jeff Lambert gets a victory. We knew it would happen sooner or later, but sheesh, it took a while. De'Von Achane led the way with 23 points and QB Matt Stafford added 17. Keeper WR Justin Jefferson led Who Dey with 13. On the Bench: Matt McCumber is lamenting the fact that he didn't start Jaxon Smith-Njigba at Flex or WR, because he went off for 30 points; QB Geno Smith (+11) would have helped over Jordan Love. The Pack could only have improved +3 with K Evan McPherson over Austin Seibert and +6 with Jordan Addison over Diontae Johnson at WR.