Chicago HEAVYWEIGHT Championship sure lived up to its billing this past weekend. Well, at least in the Mixed division. I unfortunately screwed up my predictions slightly because of my misread of the 1 seed crossovers. At the risk of dislocating my shoulder, let me pat myself on the back:

1. On the pool play predictions, I nailed every spot except the C1/C2 spot. ICE won 9-8 to take the pool by a hair, else I'd have been 16 for 16.

2. Though we didn't meet in the 1 seed crossover, Moe's D was indeed too much for Puppet Regime. Our O line troubles in this game were a microcosm of our tournament as we began the game failing to get a break on D followed by our O line being broken 4 points in a row. The 5-0 gap closed as soon as the O line scored, though, and our D line got on the field. We closed it to 6-5 before the D finally missed a break. The O line then got broken again to make it 8-5 at half with the cap nearly upon us. The O line started second half going downwind and scored in just a few throws, then our D line ran the table to win the game 9-8. D line was 7 for 9. Exciting win to make it to semis.

3. Briefcase did, in fact, make use of their home field advantage with an impressive showing.

4. DoG and Sub Zero in the finals with the DoG victory. I wish I'd have recorded my predicted score, as it was just what I was thinking.

I think my Moe predictions to win weren't because of my provincial nature, but because at press time I didn't know we would be missing 2 of our top 4 O line players, including our #1 handler whose name I won't bother mentioning.

One thing I really liked about the weekend (and all season long) is that we're shedding what was evidently a very bad image. Call it what you will, but many refer to it as the Paul Norgaard effect. With Mr. Norgaard off the roster, it's pretty hard to find anything or anyone to dislike about any of our players. Even the remnants of the hateable me have seriously diminished if not completely vanished -- though that still doesn't prevent some people from occasionally projecting fault of bad circumstances onto me by virtue of proximity. A number of our opponents didn't say "good luck" or "good game" in the post game handshake, but "we better see you guys at Nationals" instead. We even had a player in the finals wearing a Moe temporary tattoo. On his forehead.

In terms of how Moe played, as I mentioned, our defense was more than any team could handle. Our O line, however, was a bit worrisome. Despite missing 2 of our top 4 offensive threats, we still should have been able to convert at a much higher rate than we did. Just 2 of 8 in the quarterfinals and I think it was 4 of 14 in the semifinals. I think maybe part of the problem is that our O line tries a little too hard to win the game for us. Truth is, O line can't win the game for you. The O line can only lose the game (barring 0 breaks, 0 turns, which will never happen against an elite opponent), whereas the D line can only win the game. Thankfully, that's exactly what the D line was doing most of the weekend.

Overall, I think we established ourselves as being in the UPA Championship conversation. With an anemic offense we still only lost 2 games, one point each to the two teams in the finals. It seems, though, that we need to feel like our backs are against the wall in order to get to get really fired up. If we can manufacture that state for ourselves, I don't envy our opponent, whomever they may be.

My play was a little better on O, a little weaker on D. I still made several unforced errors, though I did come closer to identifying the cause. On Saturday, I had 5 passes that fell incomplete. Two of them went to receivers who were wide open and made a totally unexpected cut in a direction away from where I was throwing and one hesitated as I threw the disc to make the pass uncatchable. I'll take 25% credit on the first two and 75% credit on the last one, leaving me at 3.25 turns for Saturday. My first two touches on Sunday were turns, but perfect after that. On hucks, I was 2 for 3. One was about 55 yards and perfect to Pat. Another was ugly, but right on target. And the turn was about 50 yards and caught, but the wind pushed it about 1 yard out of bounds. As usual, no drops.

Saturday, I had 5 Ds. One point block, one block from the cup, 2 dumps shut down, and 1 D on a cut underneath. I was scored on 3 times. Twice deep, and once on a break throw while guarding the ISO that I still hit pretty hard. One deep score on me was pretty embarrassing. The guy had position on me while we waiting a long time for the disc. He boxed me out and was pushing me back and back and back until he caught the disc easily. My embarrassment got the best of me and I didn't call a foul. Thinking back, calling anything would started a serious argument, even though it was unquestionably a foul. Sunday I shut down 2 dumps that resulted in turnovers. My D play of the day, though, had to be stopping a first throw after a pull that landed in the back corner while we were putting on our zone D.

Saturday I had 4 thrown goals and 2 received. Sunday, 1 thrown goal.

Total line, 5 TG, 2 RG, 7 D, 5.25 TO. I'm very happy with these numbers. Relative to the rest of the handlers on the team this weekend and most of our O line, that line is pretty good. Moreover, I'm happy with my play. One thing I noticed is that I was again involved in another momentum building big play. I like making big plays. Last season at Sectionals, I had a callahan that started a run of 7 points needed to beat Madison in the semis. At MUDI in the CLX game I had a poach D and huck that helped start a run. In Madison, I made a first throw layout D in the endzone against Optimus Lime that sparked some more focus in a contentious game. At Cooler, I had a pretty unexpected layout D in the endzone, although that didn't have the same effect as the others. And in our Annapolis game this past weekend, up by one late in the game, I shut down a dump that forced a bad throw. Mike caught the pass and I was already busting deep. I ran it down and caught it just inside the goalline. The team got a bit energized and we ran the table to win the game. I'm not saying that I'm the team inspiration, because in fact Baker's and Mike's catches this weekend were far more inspirational, but lately it's been fun to be lucky enough to be a part of momentum shifting type of plays.

As well as our whole team played this weekend, if we're able to get healthy enough by Regionals, I can honestly see us not giving up 10 points to anyone until Nationals. Considering our season until this point, though, that's kind of a big IF.