No surprises: Packers, Recliners meet in JSFL Super Bowl

Spread Beaters try to rally from a 32-point deficit on Monday night, but an ankle injury sidelines George Kittle and Indy's big deficit against SF sends Jonathan Taylor to the bench

Christian McCaffrey ran roughshod over the Colts on Monday night, scoring 25 for the Packers.

Jeff Lambert's gamble on Christian McCaffrey (Go Niners!), selecting him as the first pick in the 2025 draft, paid off big time this season. But never more than on Monday night.

McCaffrey scored 25 points and led the Packers to a 113-94 come-from-behind win over the Gerbils to earn a spot in the 2025 JSFL Super Bowl.

Jeff's Pack will take on Chris Zimnoch and the Recliners, who built a seemingly insurmountable 55-point lead over the Beaters going into the Sunday and Monday night games, only to see that lead whittled away before hanging on to a 90-85 win.

That means an early playoff farewell to Chuck Nelson and the Gerbils, who started the season predicted to finish 8th and shocked ESPN (and everyone else) by finishing fourth overall. Congrats, Chuck, on a well-played season.

And we also bid farewell to Matt Pringle and the Beaters. This one is particularly painful for yours truly, because now I only get a fifth round conditional pick from that Jonathan Taylor trade. I guess it's fitting, because after Colts QB Daniel Jones was lost for the season, Taylor seemed lost as well. More about that later. Congrats, Matt, but you should have at least made the final. More about that later.

Swami update

Swami went 1-1 in the playoffs, correctly predicting the Packers win over the Gerbils but losing when he went with Pringle's non-Beaters against the Recliners. Swami heads into the final (meaningful) game of the season at 49-28.

Playoff recap

Packers 113, Gerbils 94: If only Chuck had played one of the other two teams, we'd be talking about the Gerbils in the Super Bowl. Instead, he had to play Jeff, and the buzzsaw that is the 2025 Packers. In addition to McCaffrey's stellar performance, RB James Cook and QB Drake Maye (MVP? MVP?) each scored 24 and Flex De'Von Achane added 14. No other Packers scored in double digits. For the Gerbils, they went with the Costco attack (bulk). No one scored more than 14 but Chuck did have seven of his nine guys hit double figures and eight of his starters scored at least 9. Courtland Sutton led the way with 14, and he got a disappointing 12 from Jamyr Gibbs (his last seven starts: 35-13-43-7-29-5-12). Woulda-Coulds-Shoulda section (aka On the Bench): RB Jaylen Warren had 26 on the bench for the Gerbils. If he's starting insead of Breece Hall, it's a Gerbils win. For the Pack, their bench receivers (Romeo Doubs and George Pickens) outscored starters AJ Brown and Justin Jefferson 33-17, but who makes that decision (not me, that's a fact). Packers TEs Travis Swift and Theo Johnson were of no help whatsoever, both posted donuts.

Recliners 90, Beaters 85: It was the Puka Nacua and Dak Prescott show for the Recliners, who won despite having only three players score in double figures (Ja'Marr Chase was the other, with 10). WR Nacua went off for 34 on Thursday night against the Seachickens, but the Rams lost anyway (Go Niners!). QB Prescott had 19. Now, about the Spread Beaters. Derrick Henry had 23 on Sunday night, but Matt was still looking at a 90-58 mountain to climb with Taylor and Kittle (Go Niners!) still to go. Taylor was bottled up all game (Go Niners!) but broke loose on a third quarter drive and scored a TD. Kittle had one TD in the first half, almost had a second one (would have been a spectacular grab) near the end of the second quarter and was nearing 100 yards receiving when the Niners marched down the field again (they did it all night) in the fourth quarter. Kittle was alone, wide open in the back of the end zone, but SF QB Brock Purdy instead threw to McCaffrey, who was crossing in front of Kittle (and had a defender covering him) for Purdy’s fifth passing TD of the game. Kittle later came up gimpy with an ankle problem. Out goes Kittle, and with the Niners up 48-27, out went Jonathan Taylor. Comeback denied. Shoulda-Coulda-Woulda Department: Speaking of Purdy, who was sent to the Beaters in the Taylor trade, he was released by Pringle on Friday for the (gasp!) Cardinals backup QB du jour, Jacoby Brissett. Mind you, Purdy looked pretty damn good against the Titans last week (26 points) and he was even better (Go Niners!) last night against the Colts, scoring 29 points. Brissett? Ha! He had 10. <Sad Trombone> I could stop there, but I won't. Let's look at RBs. Omarion Hampton came back from a two-month stint on IR last week and looked good. It was even mentioned in last week's recap about the great timing for the playoffs. Pringle instead went with three WRs instead of three RBs. The wide receivers (yeah, I know, they're good) scored 5-5-2. Hampton had 15. <Sad Trombone>. Oh, wait, there's more. Inconsistent though he is, and yeah, he plays for one shitty ass team (Raiders), but Aston Jeanty is capable of going off, and Sunday was one of those days. Jeanty went off for 30. <Sad Trombone> The Recliners had their own what-ifs, but not as many. Matt Stafford (30) would have been better than Dak at QB, and Stefon Diggs (13) outscored Flex Rico Dowdle (3).