TBD Bowl V Recap: The One Where D2 Fit The Bill
It was Friday, Dec. 23, the eve of TBD Bowl V. As managers Zachary McVicker and Dan Klempay prepared their squads for their winner-take-all contest the next day, they were still grappling with key lineup decisions.
And little did they know at the time, but the Buffalo Bills would play a crucial role in the ultimate outcome.
Klempay had a more black-and-white decision to make. His starting TE, Tyler Eifert, was ruled out for Saturday. With no back-up on his bench, Klempay dropped RB Duke Johnson and added Bills TE Charles Clay to his starting lineup.
Meanwhile, McVicker was struggling with who to start as his WR2. Now healthy, Julio Jones was a no-brainer at WR1. But the rest of his receiving corps had been a hit-or-miss pile of garbage the entire season, and Week 16 was no different. Taylor Gabriel had been putting up points in Jones’ absence, but his targets were naturally going to decrease with Julio’s return. Sammy Watkins was the top receiver in Buffalo’s offense, but how much did that really count for? Watkins had scored a measly one point in Week 15 (against the terrible Browns defense!) that had almost cost the McLicker Lites a ticket to the championship.
Then there was Chris Hogan. The slot receiver in New England had a great matchup with the Jets, who he had four catches and 70 yards against in their first meeting. The Jets’ secondary also had been unnaturally terrible against slot receivers all year.
At the eleventh hour on Friday night, McVicker made the call — he was starting Hogan over Watkins.
“It was definitely a roll of the dice,” said McVicker. “I knew I was going to need at least one Hail Mary to take down the Gangstas, and asked myself ‘Why not Chris Hogan?”
McVicker’s Hail Mary backfired. Hogan had 2.7 points on Saturday as Tom Brady decided to throw a TD pass to Matt Lengel (who?) and then run the ball to death with the game out of reach. Meanwhile, Watkins had an ungodly 27.9 points as the Bills found themselves in a shootout with the Dolphins.
One of the other benefactors of that shootout? The aforementioned Charles Clay, who had two TD catches and 24.5 points. The Bills offense, which currently ranks only ahead of the 49ers in passing yards per game, went off at just the right time for owners like Klempay.
McVicker was left to play the coulda-woulda-shoulda game the rest of the weekend. What if he had left Watkins in? His squad would have scored 135 points vs. 110. What if Klempay had picked up Dennis Pitta (11.5), Jared Cook (5.2) or Dion Sims (3) instead of Clay? The Youngstown Gangstas would have finished in the neighborhood of 120–125 points vs. 137.
But the matchup underscored what was a theme of the entire season — Klempay’s squad was the strongest from start to finish. Regular season standouts like Matt Ryan (23.9), Mike Evans (19.2), LeGarette Blount (17) and Jordan Howard (16.3) delivered in the TBD Bowl as well. Klempay had more margin for error than everyone else, forcing managers to overthink decisions just as McVicker did in the Watkins/Hogan dilemma.
In the end, there was one team that could not be McLicked — the saliva-resistant Youngstown Gangstas.
“I don’t like to be licked,” said Klempay. “Never have, never will.”
More on the aftermath of TBD Bowl V in the coming days.
