Though Alex won by nearly 20 points, there were multiple moments, including early in the final game of the week, where it looked like the outcome could very easily go the other way.

Alex entered Monday night's matchup between the Ravens and 49ers holding a roughly 5.5-point advantage. His lone remaining player? Justin Tucker, Baltimore's kicker. William also had one player left to go: Jake Moody, holding the same position on the opposite sideline.

When Moody hit a 45-yard field goal with six minutes to play in the first quarter, giving San Francisco a 5-0 lead, Alex's lead was cut to one and it looked like William might be making a record fourth Sabol Bowl appearance.

Baltimore righted the ship and kept the Monday Night Football underdog streak going and Justin Tucker wound up with 16.10 points, which ties two other kicker performances for #89 on the AFL's all-time kicker list. In all, Tucker went 7-for-7 on kicks on Monday night, including four field goals, and he put Alex over the top after a solid 26.80-point performance from Josh Allen Saturday night and then an equally strong 25.30 points from Mike Evans Sunday afternoon.

Justin Fields did all he could to help lift William's team to the title game. His 26.57 points were more than he combined to score as a starter in William's semi-final and Sabol Bowl X victories a year ago. Unfortunately for William, he was the only 20-point scorer in his starting lineup and even if he'd started Younghoe Koo, who made five field goals and scored 20.30 point on his bench, over Moody, he would have finished just over three points shy of a berth in this year's championship.

Alex, finishing Year 4 as a manager in the AFL, is making his first playoff appearance this season. He is the ninth AFL manager to win his first career playoff game and he joins the other two most recent managers to join the league in accomplishing this feat.

Stephen April made the playoffs for the first time in 2020, his third year in the AFL, and beat Cory Puffett 148.22-113.46. A year later, also in his third year in the league, Alex Kincaid made his first postseason appearance and beat Stephen 146.82-126.26.

While Alex Kincaid did not win the Sabol Bowl, losing to Evan Ash in the ninth installment, Stephen did win the 2020 league title. Alex Mayo hopes to channel his inner Stephen, just not this year's version that just came up short against Brandon Saunders.

Speaking of Stephen, for the seventh time in eleven seasons, the second highest scorer in the semi-finals will not be playing in the Sabol Bowl. Instead, Stephen will have to settle for appearing in this year's Pro Bowl opposite Cory Puffett. They were the top two scorers and the top two all-play winners from the regular season and, just like Cory and Sean Kennedy a season ago when they were in the same position, neither will be playing for the Sabol Trophy.

Brandon rode two huge games to this year's title. Puka Nacua got things started for him on Thursday night as the Rams beat the Saints and he very nearly joined the AFL's Top 100 receiver list with 30.56 points. A few days later on Sunday afternoon, Breece Hall took it to the Commodes. The Jets lead back has been very up-and-down of late, but this week he posted his highest career point total with 38.65, good for #41 on the AFL's Top 100 running back list.

While Stephen got two strong performances at running back from Christian McCaffrey and Jahmyr Gibbs, the two barely combined to outscore Hall, and even though Cole Kmet outscored by Travis Kelce by more than 7 points, and the Browns defense outscored the Jets defense by about the same margin, it wasn't nearly enough for the manager who began the year with five picks in the first three rounds of the draft to punch his ticket to a second career Sabol Bowl appearance.

For Brandon, this was his fourth career playoff win, third most in league history and three more than any other manager without a Sabol Trophy in his possession. He now has 880.00 points in the postseason, second only to Anthony Battle's 880.06 points.

Butkus Bracket

The top two seeds in the consolation won their matchups this weekend. They finished the regular season tied with William Battle, and though they both missed out on a playoff appearance on tiebreakers, both posted scored that not only outperformed William in the AFL semi-finals, they both posted scored that would have beaten Alex Mayo and launched either one into a Sabol Bowl XI matchup with Brandon Saunders.

Instead, Cory Puffett and Eric Meyer, each a one-time Sabol Bowl champion, will face off for the rights to the first choice in the 2024 Draft Pick Draft. With several solid first round options at play, the first overall pick in next year's draft could very well go to the victor. Nobody knows what Stephen April will do with Christian McCaffrey, but Justin Jefferson cannot be kept next year and no doubt there will be other worthy running backs and wide receivers available, so win or lose, both these managers will have their pick of the litter.

Consolation games don't count toward league stats or records or managers' head-to-head standings, but Cory has won the last five head-to-head matchups with Eric. While he will carry that streak into the 2024 season regardless, he'd prefer not to do so on a technicality.

Sean Kennedy and Evan Ash, also one-time Sabol Bowl champions, lost to Cory and Eric, respectively, and will play for the third and fourth picks in the Draft Pick Draft. Their regular season meeting came back in Week 4. Evan was coming off claiming the Week 3 David Carr Award as the AFL's lowest scorer, while Sean had won that week's Tom Brady Award at the highest scorer.

Evan won that game easily, 125.04-88.08 thanks in large part to a pair of 2-touchdown performances from Justin Jefferson and Mark Andrews. He'll be without the latter this week, but Jefferson is coming off his best game since that 25-point outing in Week 4 and Evan will hope for more of the same from him.

Sean, meanwhile, will be hoping for Brock Purdy to bounce back from his second stinger in as many weeks so that he can feast on the Washington Commanders defense in Week 17.

Snyder Bracket

The toilet bowl bracket of the AFL, the one thing nobody wants to do in our league is win the Snyder Award. Two managers from this bracket are already safe. Anthony Battle actually scored more points than anybody else in the league this week to escape that fate, and he will face Alex Kincaid, who was the third lowest scorer of the week but was lucky enough to be matched up with one of the two managers who scored fewer points than he did.

While the two of the play for the rights to the fifth and sixth picks in this summer's Draft Pick Draft, Will Massimini and Andrew Perez will face off in the 2023 Snyder Bowl.

Will took home last year's Snyder Award, the first in league history to carry an added punishment. Thanks to Cory Puffett's 2022 Pro Bowl win and his selected punishment, Will, a die-hard Steelers fan, had to wear a Baltimore Ravens t-shirt during the 2023 AFL Draft.

This year's punishment will again be selected by the winner of the Pro Bowl, which will see Cory Puffett return, this year against Stephen April. They will announce their selected punishments before Thursday night's Jets/Browns game.

The winner between Will and Andrew will get the seventh pick in the 2023 Draft Pick Draft. The loser has to serve the Pro Bowl winner's punishment and gets the last pick in the Draft Pick Draft. Now, they can choose not to complete the Pro Bowl winner's punishment, but their alternative is to lose $50 from their FAAB next season and have the Pro Bowl winner select their fantasy football team name for the 2024 season.

Brandon opens as a 14-point favorite and he hopes that line will hold through the end of the day Sunday. With no Monday Night Football in Week 17, there will be no extra day of anticipation or worry for either manager to sit through. We will know, roughly, before the ball drops to bring in the 2024 calendar year, who the Sabol Bowl XI champion is.

While Alex is hoping to become just the third manager to win the Sabol Bowl in his first playoff appearance, joining Danny Hatcher in 2013 and Stephen April in 2020, and the sixth to win in his first Sabol Bowl appearance, Brandon is hoping to avoid becoming this league's Minnesota Vikings.

Brandon played in Sabol Bowl I (lost 103.70-122.10 to Danny Hatcher), Sabol Bowl VII (lost 107.76-121.40 to Sean Kennedy), and last year's Sabol Bowl X (lost 88.22-129.44 to William Battle). Losing a fourth Sabol Bowl would be quite frustrating for one of the AFL's most consistent managers through the years. With the exception of a very bizarre 2021 season, Brandon has never finished worse than one game below .500 and among managers with at least 75 regular season games played, he has the fifth best winning percentage at .516 through his career.

While he might not end up using him regardless, Brandon will be keeping an eye on Michael Pittman's status through the week as he attempts to return from his concussion and shoulder injury suffered in Week 15.

Alex, meanwhile, will most likely be without Isiah Pacheco after the Chiefs running back suffered a concussion after losing his helmet and being kneed by a teammate on Monday afternoon. With Keaton Mitchell going on IR last week, that's two strong running back options he's lost in the last two weeks. While he can turn to Gus Edwards off his bench, who has back-to-back games with 14+ points, the rest of his depth is quickly disappearing so he'll hope for continued production from Mike Evans and just the second double-digit game for Stefon Diggs since his 20-point game against Cincinnati in the first week of November.