What had in recent weeks appeared a foregone conclusion was anything but in Week 17, as the NawFuL's confusing playoff picture affected the level of intesity at which many teams played. Top-seeded Indianapolis and New Orleans rested their key starters and were summarily dumped on the road by weaker opponents. There appeared to be opportunity for many upsets. But in the end Sean and Glenn managed just three splits, thus sealing the season victory for the statue-starved Senior Bro.

Sean did accomplish one goal, taking two of the three games. Even though he missed out on Buffalo's 30-7 win over Indy, he fared better in picking Atlanta's 20-10 win over Tampa Bay and Green Bay's 33-7 destruction of Arizona. Ben, meanwhile, chose an all-or-nothing strategy for the season's final week, picking the opposite team from his dad in all 16 games. Unfortunately for the Chaos Kid, that strategy fared poorly.

Sean won the final weekly battle with a 13-3 record, while Glenn won the season's war at 12-4. Ben, by virtue of his contrarian approach, was 4-12. That was also the reason why there were no games in which we collectively picked the winner or loser, the first time that has happened since the Chaos Kid started joining us for our weekly predictions.

And now it's time for those all-important season-ending statistics...

WINS & LOSSES: Glenn's 177-79 (69.1%) mark set a blistering pace in 2009, a 15.5-game improvement over a year ago when he was 161-94-1 (63.1%), and it is easy to see why the Senior Bro won the Surfy. Sean was 167-89 (65.2%) in 2009, vs. 166-89-1 (65.0%) in 2008. Ben's 152-104 (59.4%) was off from last year's strong showing of 165-90-1 (64.6%).

SPLITSVILLE: The Bros managed 50 splits, with Glenn winning 30 of them and Sean the remaining 20. That breaks the trend of fewer splits each year since 2005, when we had 56. The most splits in a single week was six, which occurred in Weeks 10 and 12. There was at least one split every week. We had an odd number of splits in eight weeks and and even number the other nine.

WEEKLY RESULTS: Glenn and Sean had identical records when it came to weekly victories, each posting the best record outright four times and tying four times. Ben had a record of 4 wins, 3 ties, although one of the wins was "The Great Lost Week" 9 for which we have no verifiable record of his predictions.

BESTS AND WORSTS: No one could get past the hump of 13-3 this year, although Sean compiled that record four times — in Weeks 1, 3, 11 and 17. Glenn and Ben both hit that mark in Week 1. Low points were Glenn's 7-9 record in Week 2, Sean's 6-9 in Week 10, and Ben's 4-12 in the final week of the season.

STRONG SECOND HALF: After stumbling through the first six weeks, falling as many as three games behind Sean, Glenn's luck turned around starting in Week 7, when he swept three splits to grab a lead that he never relinquished. He added another game in Week 9, then swept six more games in Week 10 from which Sean never recovered. Glenn's largest advantage came in Week 16, when he led by 10 games. Ben was tied with Glenn for the lead as recently as Week 9, but faded rapidly down the stretch.

That about wraps up the 2009 season. We'll have the Surfy Trophy presentation sometime during the NawFuL playoffs, so check back here for details. Until then, enjoy your off-season, football fans, and we'll do it all again starting in September.