Inside the Redzone (DC) – Week 7

Welcome to Inside The Redzone, a la week sept! I would like to apologize for the tardiness of my article but we have to be positive and as such, a few good things can come out of it. First, you will have gotten a chance to read all the other weekly columns posted on our website and thus you were looking forward to my column that much more. Second, as you wake up on Sunday morning you can now read something great and entertaining rather than that awful Gazette or any other newspapers out there. And last, it builds suspense and you develop a craving for it all week. Therefore any way you look at it, I would like to thank you for your patience and I will make sure that I don’t disappoint. Jumping into the world of FPF, For Teh Lulz are still stuck at three wins but since Martin Tougas has played five games (qualified for playoffs), the drive to five will be awarded to Martin Tougas. We are now only THREE WEEKS away from playoffs. Next column, I will start looking at teams who are on the outside looking in and have a chance to make playoffs. Also I will take a look at the candidates for QB, Receiver, Two-Way and Defensive player of the year award but now let’s look at last week’s headlines.

 

Week 7 Headlines

 

Down to ONE

The Flying Weasels are the only undefeated team left in Division C. With three games left on their schedule, it appears they are going 10-0 because they play Affreux, Eagles and Snookers; all teams who have no chance of beating the Weasels. Their offense is ranked second in conference A however their defense is ranked number in Division C with only 58 points allowed, that is just a bit over 8 points against a game. This team is now the number one contender although they haven’t had any tough opponents thus far so their road might be a tough one in the playoffs.

First Loss

Flight Of The Concords pulled out a huge win, defeating the Triple Sixers last weekend but if you talk to any one of the Concords, they’ll have you believe that it was just like any other win. Flight Of The Concords are a mystery because two weeks ago they got smacked around by the KGP Champs and last Sunday, they took out the then undefeated Triple Sixers. I am still not sold on the Concords because look at some of the stats from last game, Jonathan Lemieux had only 79 passing yards which will not get you the win on most nights. Marvin Renaud believes this team can beat anyone on any night however I still think they are not consistent enough at this point but they should use the remaining three games as tune up

Moving on, the Rude Bwoys have now won three in a row (Cobras and Cowboys last two weeks) with their latest victim being Chaos. They have given two losses to two undefeated teams and are getting stronger every week. Matt Clow has done a phenomenal job on offense and that is clearly visible by the receivers’ statistics. Four receivers have over 200 yards and another 189 yards, four receivers have at least 3 TDs. Their last three opponents are Run’n’Wild, Monstars and Balls Deep that are all beatable opponents. Hence they can easily go 7-3 which would be a remarkable season for these guys. For your viewing pleasure, Vadim Chernyak of the Rude Bwoys has compiled a video of their win over Chaos, enjoy! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/video/video.php?v=107570119523&ref=mf

 

Cutler and the Champs

Under the spotlight game, they came up big and are now showing to the rest of the Division C that they are a top contender. They have only lost one game so far because Phil Cutler is taking this team to new heights. I believe he has become a better QB because he is forced to throw rather than relying on his legs. Everyone should look at the video (FPF Game of the Week Spring 09- KGP Champs vs. Cobras) on the main page of www.flagplusfootball.com. The whole team is finally coming together and is doing it more efficiently than in previous seasons. Once again, I believe it is attributed to the fact that Phil Cutler is becoming a pocket QB and that there are receivers who can be a threat on the field at anytime (Olivier Saleh, Phil Clark, Niki Thorpe, Bel Wilner). Their next big challenge should be in two weeks against Chaos.

Bandits: Bust?

I have no idea what to make of the recent slump by the Bandits. Are they really that bad or are they catching bad breaks? They lost to Boom! Goes The Dynamite by a score of 20-15. Greg Cerallo was 7 of 22 for 95 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT, these numbers are unacceptable for a QB of his caliber. They had a couple of TDs called back but when it came down to it, they were on BOOM’s 1 yard line with 4 plays left and couldn’t punch it in. It is absolutely mind boggling for me to see a team of Bandit’s caliber lose games like this however all the credit goes to BOOM who are 3-0-1 in their last four games. Bandits have Lockdown, The Commission and For Teh Lulz to end the season so they better get it together. Otherwise, they might be looking at no playoffs.

What is wrong with the Cobras?

This team should have gone 10-0 or 9-1 at the worst has already suffered two losses with the next three opponents being Triple Sixers, Cowboys and Chaos. Some people are predicting that the Cobras will finish 6-4 which would be a shocker to all of Division C. So what is wrong with the Cobras? Their offense is putting up close to 32 points a game (they still have more dropped balls than they should but they can work on that) but their defense is allowing close to three TDs a game. Their last three games (1-2) were all close and the result was separated by a score. Therefore if they want to go all the way this season, their defense will have to be more stifling and shouldn’t allow more 10-14 points a game. As stated above, they have a tough end of the regular season therefore it would be interesting to see how they are going to respond.

 

Three STAR-wars Of The Week

 

3rd star: Matt Clow (Rude Bwoys) – 16 of 28 for 196 yards and 4 TDs with 1 INT. He is playing smart and being methodical while engineering upsets after upsets.

2nd star: Olivier Saleh (KGP Champs) – On offense, 4 catches for 74 yards and 2 TDs while on defense he had 1 tackle and two huge interceptions.

1st star: Phil Cutler (KGP Champs) – He was 15 of 23 for 223 yards with 5 TDs.

 

Tip Of The Week

There are a lot of fast guys in this league who can cut and juke well. If you are in a situation in which you’re faced with one of those guys, you must do two things. First, always push him to the inside because you have more help. A lot of times a defender pushes a player to the outside (sidelines) thinking the opponent will go out of bounds. Instead, the offensive player stays in bounds and the defender doesn’t even de-flag him. Therefore always push a player to the inside.

 

Also, always make it a habit to tackle using a two hand rub down. Simply put, if you have a player coming towards you with the ball, put your hands on his hip (like it is a dance position) and bring them down rather than trying to grab it with one hand. This will increase your chance of grabbing the belt. Don’t get me wrong, there are some players in the league who are excellent tacklers and do so by using only one hand but their concentration is so strong that they could find a needle in a haystack. So for the rest of us, we should utilize techniques that have high odds of success.

 

Week 8 Review

These are a few of the games that will be fun to watch:

 

1. Triple Sixers vs. Cobras (8 pm on field 1) – Both teams are coming off a loss and have candidates for QB of the year but something more important is on the line, pride and momentum. This will be the best game to watch this weekend.

2. Eagles vs. For Teh Lulz (7 pm on field 3) – FTL are going to be fighting to stay in the playoff picture but with a loss can drop down to 9th from 6th. Eagles have had a mediocre season at best but will need to win this game to have any chance of making the playoffs.

 

3. Snookers vs. The Commission (4 pm on field 3) – Snookers are having a sub par season but thus far are hanging on to the 8th and final playoff spot. They are in tough against a strong Commission squad that is peaking. Michael Mendell will have to keep the ball away from Andre John.

 

Next week, I’ll be breaking down the playoff picture and briefly look at candidates for FPF awards such as QB, Receiver, Two-Way and Defensive player of the season. That’s it for this week’s column, hope you enjoyed it. As always, I welcome your feedback and welcome any suggestions you might have for my column. Please contact me at [email protected] or via Facebook. Good luck to all this weekend and catch you all next week!