The Prospectors, last year's Iron champions, led the Turbines 20-3 before twenty-four unanswered points won it 27-20, the Turbines' first playoff win in six years. Both fourth-down touchdowns came from the twelve: fourth-and-ten to Beau Adeyemi II, fourth-and-five to Grant Klump, in for the hurt Klaus Bombardo.
Demarcus Vinatieri was thrown to ten times and caught four for seven yards. He was thrown to 176 times before the playoffs, the league's most, from the first line of a chart he took off Adeyemi in week 9 and lost back in week 18, when the club said on The Yard it would look obvious in a month. One playoff game later, the man listed first caught a fourth down and the man listed second two yards on second-and-twenty.
He is thirty, on $4.5 million for one year; his ring is from the Hellcats' title six years ago, a run where he was thrown to twice and caught neither. Asked about the seven, he said, “They threw it to me ten times. I count the ten.”
The Marauders, 29-20 winners over the Turbines in week 8, come next in the divisional round. They will throw it to him ten times again, because a chart does not change the shape, and the spring decides which of the two numbers to pay for.