Bombsquad’s Breakdown (D2) – Week 10

Bombsquad’s Breakdown

Playoff Edition

Oh what a tangled web we weave. Do you remember all those weeks ago when I declared the Wolverines were out of the playoffs? Then I kept making these really obscure references to Poe’s poem “The Raven” as that statement was coming back to haunt me? Well they are no longer tapping and oh so gently rapping but banging and shouting and oh so bolding shouting, shouting at my chamber door. Playoff bound and to my door — nevermore. Yes I get to play against this same team this weekend in the first round and so in my playoff edition, I refuse to recap last week’s action as it no longer matters. And no I am not bitter about the Mercenaries’ embarrassing loss at the hands of the Wolfpack, okay, maybe a little. So you shall suffer with me. Even you Alain Rousseau AND your 5 TD’s.

Can anyone smell a little foreshadowing perhaps?

I shall still give you this week’s Golden Boy who is – yes, Alain Rousseau and his 5 TD’s and 86 yards on 5 catches. Yeah, yeah. Good cheer and all that. Way to –whatever.

And why not! This week’s SHOWSTOPPA is Rémy Paré who picked off the Mercenaries QB a total of 3 times. Clean sweep for the Wolfpack. Yay.

Good job boys. Really.

Now to the upcoming playoff matches. As I predicted — sort of. The All Blacks tumbled into 3rd leaving the Gold Standard as the 1st seed and One Night Stands as the 2nd. In the opposite conference, there were no surprises as the Ruff Ryders held on to the 1st seed and the G-Men maintained the 2nd seed. So here is what to come this weekend.

Conference A

The 3rd seed All Blacks take on the 6th seed Air Squad. These two teams faced off in week 5 in a very bizarre game that was decided on the last play where, instead of ending in a tie, Matt René fumbled the football in the end zone on the last play, for a safety, bringing the game to an end. This also sent both teams in different directions. The Air Squad got better with each week and managed two wins while the All Blacks managed one win, one tie and three losses. In my opinion this also reflects how this game will play out. The Air Squad are not the same team they were in week 5 and neither are the All Blacks. The All Blacks have been struggling as teams have begun to focus on stopping Robert Gouldson who has been Chris Bridgeman’s go-to man from the center position. Once they have accomplished that this team becomes very one dimensional as Bridgeman begins to run more often than you’d like. The Air Squad on the other hand, have been growing by leaps and bounds as Matt René has turned players like Kenny Baye and Tevyn Nicholls into big time threats. I look at both teams and I just can’t shake the feeling that this is an upset waiting to happen. And with that said, I choose the Air Squad to win this game in a very tight match.

The 4th seed Wolfpack take on the 5th seed Kingz. The Wolfpack have shown an explosive offense often this season but have stumbled in games they should have won. Pascal Murray had an amazing season as he had three receivers catch over 10 TD’s. Also their defence racked up 20 INTs this season. On the other side, this has been less than a royal court for the Kingz as they finished below .500. Even after missing one game this season, Carmine Pollice was still up with the best of them as he tossed for 1788 yards with 44TD’s but a surprising 10 interceptions. Once again, Pollice did all he could with who he had as he had three receivers over 300 yards and one with over 500 as well as three players with 10 TDs +. The last time these teams met was in week eight and the Wolfpack dominated, picking off Pollice three times while Murray tossed 7 touchdowns. I think this time around things might be a little different. Pollice is known for his playoff success and I believe this will continue. The Wolfpack have had moments of greatness but I just think that this week they will come up short. I don’t think they will pick Pollice off 3 times again and they could be due for a let down game after that blowout against the Mercenaries. So I am calling 2 upsets in conference A with a Kingz win.

Conference B

The 3rd seed Mercenaries take on the 6th seed Wolverines. The Mercs are licking their wounds after getting ravaged by the Wolfpack and Gino Di Fazio comes limping into the playoffs with a 6 INT performance. This team looked completely off their game last week. The mood was light before the game started but darkened quickly. So far this season the Mercs have rebounded the next week after losing in every opportunity. I hope this trend continues. As for the Wolverines, well thank you to Tony Tabet for feeding me my humble pie last week. This team has seen a great change since Tabet took over behind centre. He has brought consistency and in return their defence has improved as well. They have had strong showings against every opponent they have faced since the switch. Now can they take that momentum deep into the playoffs? The last time these two teams met they both looked very different, personnel-wise, so we can’t even gage the result of that game to get an idea regarding this one. So who will win? Only time will tell.

Finally the 4th seed Triple Sixers take on the 5th seed Wildcats. These two teams just played each other last week and the Sixers destroyed the Cats 49-21 even with Pat Chenard at the helm. The Cats were able to hold Pat Jerome, but there was still no solution for JF Marcotte and Corey Greenaway. The Sixers have steadily improved all season and are now a very dangerous team. Karim Chaoual is playing great football as is the whole Sixer squad. As for the Wildcats, they will go from Pat Chenard back to Pierre-Marc Chadi at the QB position. He has not played for two games and this will be his first time back on an FPF field in 4 weeks! This is not the situation to look for going into the playoffs. The Wildcats, who have been stumbling will be taking on one of the hottest teams in Div 2! I do not believe the Wildcats have a chance. I would consider this an upset of epic proportions should the Wildcats win, so I take Triple Sixers.

St Patrick’s is done,

Now it’s time to play,

The second half of the season,

Starts on this day.

The times are set,

Let the games begin,

The challenge set forth,

Now you just have to win.

As always please feel free to message me with your coach’s winning quotes and any and all Jim Mora you tube clips at [email protected]. Until then another week has been defused.