Midseason and the Gas Pump Time Machine
Paolo Della Rocca
06-08-2021 08:52 PM
Peeze’s Playbook Week 6
The midseason report is here. Man is it gruelling. For those who don’t know, I actually write three times the amount and then pare it down to the final product. This specific article has a lot of research involved. However, I decided to include as much narrative based analysis for the midseason breakdown as it will help teams understand each other’s stories and how we all ended up here.
Musings, Ramblings, Lies and Other Assortments
- Have I never written chock-full before? Did I think that the origins were to describe a container of chalk?
- Is Will Farrell a really bad good singer or a really good bad singer?
- The Fender Telecaster is simply the greatest guitar ever made. This is especially true if you’re rocking a three saddle bridge. Any other opinions are simply wrong. Slash and Jimi, imagine how great they would have been if they were Telecaster dudes.
- Chris Rivest; Nimrod; Drone; Roadshow; Collision course
- Despite my criticisms of Pincellos and Vince Romano they had one great redzone play that I’m totally stealing!
- Twix was an awesome candy bar to an 8 year old Peeze. You got two candy bars when the rest of your friends were stuck with one! SUCKERSSSSSSSSSS. Man, kids are dumb.
- Incredible Thought: The Oscars Trophy is basically a statuette of Nicholas Cage as they ready him for his coffin.
- Gas Pump Time Machine: imagine a tv show where you can only travel through time to the year that corresponds to the dollar amount you’ve pumped. Going to 1951 because you couldn’t stop it at $19.50 would make it difficult to alter events.
The Peeze Curve
While I didn’t think this was necessary I think i need to explain how it is that I score my weekly power rankings and how it differs from the mid season report. I am an educator by trade so do note that it is convoluted, unfair and meant to infuriate everyone involved.
For the weekly power rankings, rank the team’s progress and specifically overreact to the week that was. The reason for this being that if it were the same as the standings then you could just read the standings. I also take season-long context into consideration but it’s meant to reflect that given week. So if you beat a team three weeks ago, they may still be ahead of you in the power ranking because in the week that was, they may have had a better performance.
The rankings here are a prediction with regards to how I believe everyone will finish by season’s end. The key players are not the players I like best or who I believe are the best players on the team but rather it is based on their usage and how they are contributing this season. The letter grade reflects the following scoring system:
A: You’ve blown my expectations away. I never would have thought the team in question would have performed this well.
B:The team is surpassing the expectations that I placed on them ahead of the season.
C: I was right, and the team is performing exactly as expected
D: The team is underperforming and should probably send me a jar of pickles. I like pickles, they really enhance the Cubano sandwich.
E: Evil, this team is full of people I consider evil. They should be worried about mummy curses and being struck down by powerful deities.
F: Your team is really underperforming.
So essentially, this is based on how the team is performing as compared to preseason thoughts and rankings. Sometimes you’ll see 2 win teams with an A and other times you might see an undefeated team with a C rating. Finally, for the remaining records I actually went ahead and predicted games from here to the end of the season. These may change in future articles and on the pod because the future is ever changing. Unless you believe in determinism. However I prefer to think of the legendary Sarah Connor “no fate but the one we make for ourselves”.
- Ravens (4-1): They’ve been a little underwhelming and if they were being honest with themselves, they would admit that to themselves as well. However, the preseason front-runners still have what I believe the best top-end talent. Their only loss came against a solid GreenMeansGO! club. Predictably Kamba Kathcelewa has bolstered this defense. The McGill linebacker has 3 interceptions through 5 games. He’s added complimentary offense as well though it doesn’t appear as though he has developed a regular role in Joel Houle’s system. Houle would also benefit from improving his repertoire of throws as he tends to throw every ball exceptionally hard which isn’t always conducive to FPF’s smaller fields. Still Ravens have the best collection of talent in the division.
Key Players: Justin Sarlabous, Mathieu Houle, Joel Houle, Kamba Katchelewa
Grade: C+
Predicted Record: 9-1
- Dilly!Dilly! (4-1): If the Bud Light theme seems familiar it’s because it is. This team has taken a couple of pieces of the Bud Knights from previous seasons and added the Ledoux brothers who brought in some of their former Rancerz’s teammates. The team’s calling card is their defense. They have allowed more than three scores only once this season and Maxime Ledoux is an incredible rusher. When I had the opportunity to watch them I realized that the team is built to make Jeremie Ledoux’s life easy. The team can win matchups on offense and the strong defense means he can keep making easy reads and rarely needs to play over his head to have an effective game. Ledoux is a very good quarterback in this division and he is far outplaying his career 1:2.36 TD to INT ratio. Essentially, this is a well built team across the board with no weaknesses in sight. They lost their last game but Stan Marino went down early in the game and Riccardo Desrosiers was exercising load management.
Grade: B+
Key Players: Stan Marino, Jeremie Ledoux, Maxime Ledoux
Predicted Record: 8-2
- Pincellos (5-1): I addressed the team and Vince Romano directly on the show. It was a ten minute segment so I don’t want to re-hash it here but definitely do check it out on Calling the Audible. During that convo Eagle pointed out that when Vince Romano faces a good defense he’ll struggle. I’m 50/50 on this idea. The play concepts are actually quite strong. There’s a red zone play that I’m straight up stealing and adding to my playbook. The only issue I saw in the Game of the Week from Vince Romano’s play is that he throws off his back foot too often and he sometimes throws the ball downfield late. For guys like myself and Romano who don’t have a cannon, the idea is to rad deep and then short and throw the deep ball early. Don’t take this to mean that he’s not plying well. This is by FAr his best season thus far. The team defense is also quite impressive. Matt Moreau and Mike Apa have combined for 8 interceptions between them. They’ve also only lost in the season opener which is a bad measuring stick. Their wins against Rainmakers and Green Means Go which is an impressive resume. However, since we’re enemies. Second round exit LFG!!!!!!!!!
Grade: A
Key Players: Vince “Karen“ Romano, Jocelyn Calixte, Matt Moreau, Giancarlo Brullo
Predicted Record: 8-2
- Rainmakers (5-1): The low division edition of the Rainmakers has improved drastically since the fall season where they ended with a 3-3-1 record. For those new to the proceedings, Rainmakers used to be a stalwart in Division 1/A. After losing some pieces and aging a little Derek and Ryan Kastner switched positions to quarterback and snapper respectively. While this doesn’t guarantee success necessarily, their understanding of concepts and play calls allow for rapid improvement and growth. This is particularly true of teaching less experienced players. So, all that being said, I am surprised by how well they are playing this season (even though I shouldn’t be). Early in the season I was reluctant to jump on board. I was worried about the red zone inefficiency and the team’s general scoring output but have been on a tear in their last three games. They’ve scored 95 points in their last 3 games.
Grade: A
Key Players: Derek Kastner, Ryan Kastner, Nick Prokow, Matt Parent
Predicted Record: 8-2
- Green Means Go! (4-1) Green Means Go! Is a an interesting way to build a team. At quarterback you have long time FPF veteran snapper Dave Allen. The QB is looking like Tim Allen in Santa Clause these days but there is some wisdom behind that snow-white beard. The dude has forgotten more about flag football than most people will learn in a lifetime. The team isn’t chock-full of speed but has players who execute properly and win within the margins. Having watched them on Game of the week we saw what happens when Dave Allen and his receivers aren’t on the same page. As is typical with former snappers-turned-qbs he relies heavily on his snapper and when he and Eugene McLaren could not exercise that telepathic connection the team went on to lose their first game of the season. I saw specifically instances where Allen rushed a throw into the endzone and ended up grounding it on a smash-out route and another time where McLaren didn’t open up with his hands up to catch the ball on his cut. On defense the team covers grass more than they do routes. Good zone defenses pickup and release responsibilities. If they watch GOTW, the drone cam will reveal what I mean.
Grade: A
Key Players: Dave Allen, Eugene McLaren, Nicholas Di
Predicted Record: 7-3
- Suicide Squad (3-2): This is where I draw the line for true contenders in this division. The division has been less predictable than ever. However, the cream is starting to rise to the top and while SS have been a little underwhelming, they’re solid and a well built team from top to bottom. Their postseason hopes will fall onto the shoulders of quarterback Jahmaal Roach. Roach’s ability to throw hard on the run is huge in this division. He can buy time and change throwing windows against some of the more stagnant defenses in the league’s lowest division. His QB rating is 113.2, his completion percentage is high and unlike a lot of running quarterbacks he is ALWAYS looking to throw downfield when he leaves the pocket. This gives the team a remarkable competitive advantage. On defense this team will challenge everyone in the division. Just because Alex Noel is smiling it doesn’t mean he won’t rip the face off your offensive concepts. It’s maniacal in reality! They lost two games they really shouldn’t have. One was week one to a brand new team but I did not see a loss to Balls’ Deep coming at all. Let’s hope they shake it off and improve down the stretch.
Grade: C
Key Players: Alex Noel, Gab Wiseman, Jahmaal Roach
Predicted Record: 7-3
- Save the Turftles (4-3) They are improving rapidly. They started the season against two of the division’s front-runners (Dilly!Dilly! And Ravens). They lost those games but would learn their lessons as in the last two weeks they pushed a tough Suicide Squad roster and showed that they could absolutely hang with them. In the last game they dismantled the experienced Blast from the Past in an impressive victory. Turftles has a lot of learning to do but their raw skill is impressive. They will be a tough out in the playoffs because of their speed but will be matchup dependent against teams that can neutralize that. They also need to develop a third receiving threat beyond Vincent Cheung and Tony Vo.
Grade: B+
Key Players: Vincent Cheung, Tony Vo, Sebastien Noel
Predicted Record: 6-4
- Oreos (4-2): I’ve made no qualms about professing my appreciation for the talent on Oreos. There are several players on this team who I have no issue saying that I believe will be top division talent in this league. They burst onto the scene scoring 71 points in their first two games. However, other than a forfeit win in week 5 they’ve since lost 2 of their last three games. Justin Charles has only a single game this season where he hasn’t thrown an interception. Given that this team was supposed to be in the oldest division for FPF Jr their success is still impressive. However, the other side of the coin is that there are reasons that their young QB shows marks of FPF immaturity. The loss to Quatrium scares me a little because Quatrium themselves are a team who is still in development.
Grade: C+
Key Players: Jaeden Edghill, Dylan Blumer, Ukiah Best, Justin Charles
Predicted Record: 6-4
- Menace II Sobriety (2-3): I’ve done a lot of writing up to this point on MIIS. Bobby Sepentgis (mentioned henceforth as Bobby Spaghettis) had enlisted someone to play quarterback. Because that man is a coward (“I’m not a coward you’re the coward, you coward”!). So Mr.Spaghettis had to take over behind the snap. He confessed to me that he’s not a quarterback and is simply trying his best not to make a mess of things. They won their first game against what was then an upstart Oscar’s Hockey School and then they beat V-Town this week. Those are teams I expect Menace II Sobriety to win. However, there is enough talent here that now that they’ve seen some success we may see some upsets in the second half of the season.
Grade: C+
Key Players: Chris Williams, Mike Zenobi, Andrew Dennis Lynch
Predicted Record: 6-4
- Quatrium FFC (2-3): When I first saw Vincent Benjamin play my mouth was agape. The dude was more akin to a wrecking ball than any aging pop starlet. When I see his stats on defense he must not be playing defense. I instantly thought this guy was division 1 caliber and he has yet to record an interception in division 6. It’s impossible to me that he would be on defense and murdering opposing offences. The team got off to a rough start but they’ve won two of their last three.
Grade: B
Key Players: Vincent Benjamin, Julien Wilson, Gabriel Manseau
Predicted Record: 5-5
- V-Town (3-2) The thing I like about V town is that they’ve scored more than 26 points in all but one of their games (which came in the first game of the season). Their record is slightly inflated because they faced Mathieu Gascon quarterbacking trailer Park Boys rather than Antoine Meunier. This isn’t their fault but it does distort the outlook on them. They have 4 receivers with double digit receptions but none of them have a yards/reception greater than 10. This makes sense as Jonathan Velasco hasn’t had a game with more than 200 yards passing and when Matthew Cabral threw, he didn’t complete more than 100 yards in either of his starts. The team hasn’t been explosive but this surprises me considering their youth, exuberance and speed. They face some stiff competition ahead so I do think they will fall off a little in the second half of the season.
Grade: B-
Key Players: Jonathan Velasco, Jason Cassandra, Joseph Battaglia
Predicted Record: 5-5
- Trailer Park Boys (2-4): I can’t defend a loss by forfeit but struggling because your QB went down, in the immortal words of J-Roc “It can happen to you, cause it happened to me”. TPB are a fun group of guys with an aggressive defense. Actually they’re aggressive on both sides of the ball tho, I will say their ability to attack the flats on defense is what I thought would have made them a contender this season. However, missing game one and assuming you’d steamroll the competition is the height of arrogance. At the moment they are on the outside looking in. I am perplexed with this team as they shutout Brewers with Gascon at QB and lost the next game with Meunier at the pivot. My immediate thought is that he must not be 100% yet. In the end, if they enter the playoffs with Antoine Meunier healthy and ready, expect to see a Cinderella run by Trinity riding the sh!t pumpkin to the sh!t dance accompanied by Randy Bo-Bandy.
Grade: D
Key Players: Chris Williams, Mike Zenobi, Andrew Dennis Lynch
Predicted Record: 4-6
- Melons (2-3): This team is inconsistent. This isn’t surprising considering their inexperience. However they have yet to truly get blown out. I think this has a lot to do with their team defense. They are far from perfect but they are a defense that will force turnovers. While Dante Gonsalves leads the team with two interceptions they have combined for 7 interceptions in 4 games (they won a game by forfeit as well). I think they have some good building blocks with which to build a foundation for success. However, I believe that success will be limited.
Grade: B-
Key Players: Manny Bizogas, Dante Gonsalves, Nino Lombardi
Predicted Record: 4-6
- Blast From the Past (2-4): While I mentioned that there was a request to call Blast From the Past, Blast in The Cap due to the team’s initial cap hit. The fact remains that a lot of these players haven’t played in a long time and their ratings, clearly, do not reflect where they are right now. Given Frank Grenier’s ability and intelligence I do not doubt that had he been playing during his hiatus we would be a Div D quarterback or greater. However, I mentioned in a previous article that the play calling seems a little stale and his reads seem slightly slow. I will point out that while Hai Minh Loung did throw 3 passes in the game he isn’t a viable option for the team as his QB rating would result in a cap violation.
Grade: D+
Key Players: Maurice Dykmans, Adrien Dusautois, Frank Grenier, Hai Minh Luong
Predicted Record: 4-6
- Ball’s Deep (2-4) Michael Hiotis looks the part. Not only is he a great athlete but his flowing head of hair adds a level of excitement. The 16 passing touchdowns don’t seem impressive on the surface. However, once you add the 5 rushing touchdowns it becomes clear that this is a great start to a brilliant debut. The main criticism I have besides the team name (guys the placement of your apostrophe would make one think that the depth belongs to the balls rather than describe the depth as being as deep as said balls), is the playbook. When seeing them in person it was clear that Hiotis is a one read quarterback at the moment. If he’s not comfortable or the defense changes their look he’s off to the races. It’s a decent strategy but it is an indicator of being at level one of development. That said the massive underdogs upset Menace II Sobriety and Suicide Squad in back to back weeks. Look out for Lucas Crivello to start becoming a name brand in FPF as well.
Grade: B-
Key Players: Michael Hiotis, Lucas Crivello, Antonio Venturino
Predicted Record: 4-6
- Oscar’s Hockey School (3-4): Since the time that Moe Khan jumped on the bandwagon OHS has seemingly jumped off a cliff. I don’t know much about the actual hockey school but I’m learning a ton about the FPF team. It’s a big roster, this is typical of new teams that come into FPF sometimes it works out and in some cases some players find it best to try another team or another sport. The commitment thus far is impressive however as 10 players have played at least 4 games. After starting on a 2 game heater Oscar’s Hockey School has entered a 4 game skid. The greatest issue however is that I don’t see them recovering. They play improving Melons and Ball’s Deep teams and then end the season against division leading Pincellos. It’s a good start but Oscar’s Hockey School will need to improve beyond this campaign.
Grade: B-
Key Players: Giordano Giannini, Luca Leccese, AJ Zepetelli, Matthew Zeppetelli
Predicted Record: 3-7
- Les Mythiques (2-4): This team’s roster reads out like the receipt after I go grocery shopping after having a smoke. There’s a bunch of things I don’t need, some I can’t use and no matter what I have, I have a lot of it. It’s all good, I can afford the extra shimp, perogies and peanut butter. However, this team can’t afford not to have their players in attendance. Les Mythiques are solid but we rarely have seen the same line-up game after game. This is detrimental to new teams. The team had Vincent Maquis and Alexandre Jubinville on the team. These are the kind of things that can help tech a new team but that would only work if you have a core of committed guys surrounded by a couple of veterans to show them the ropes.
Grade: C-
Key Players: Etienne Cantin, Antoine Ouellet, Joel Laberge
Predicted Record: 2-8
- Brewers (1-4): As a man who makes his own beer, I am appalled by this development. Brewers have been around for too long to be struggling this way. Only 48 points scored with your QB there for every game is atrocious. The worst part is, Jeffery Lefevbre is solid. He’s been solid but this season seems to be a regression. His 7:8 TD to int ratio is very weak and he hasn’t converted a point after a single time this season. They’ve scored only 20 points in the last three weeks and they were shut out against Trailer Park Boys last week. Captain Chris Morin needs to find out which ingredients he needs to pull together before the season leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. By that I don’t mean a beautifully balanced and crisp IPA but like the bitterness like the lingering flavor of brussel sprouts that haven’t been drown in butter or bacon fat.
Grade: D
Key Players: James Moulton, Jason Stephenson, Mathew Guevremont.
Predicted Record: 2-8
- Les Cheavliers Du Rohan (2-5) Eagle’s sweethearts are improving quickly. The humorous anecdote of not knowing about special teams in flag is well behind them. The offense is not great but rusher Charles-Olivier Touzel is leading a defense that has only allowed 18.4 points per game. They’re on a two game run. But I do worry that this was just simply related to matchups as they’ve only beaten other new teams. Unfortunately I see only one more winnable game if they don’t start scoring more and through 5 games QB Kevin Hebert Pedulla has only thrown 7 touchdowns. This is largely related to not having a smart and effective playbook for FPF. The team is loaded with athleticism, plays need to be developed in order to showcase that.
Grade: C
Key Players: Antoine Bonine, Charles-Olivier Touzel, Frank Cardinal
Predicted Record: 2-8
- The Bad Batch (0-5) I believed in you! I trusted you! Ok, I got that out of the way. My first season in FPF, I played for Punch Panda. This is statistically one of the worst teams in the history of FPF. In my second season we went 7-3 and then 10-0 the season after that. The point of the story is, the first season, for most teams, is about learning. This isn’t a beer league. It is competitive and once you cross that threshold you’ll see how rewarding it can be. They’ve played three games that have been remarkably close; the last two games have been tight games and they lost to the Ravens by a single score. The last half of the season is mostly a murderers row. If Vincent Malo was on the team permanently that would allow the team to improve quickly. However, as is, use this time to learn from your opponents, reach out to me and learn what it takes to win and you’ll see how quickly the game starts to feel different.
Grade: F (I know it’s aggressive but I believed in you! I trusted you!)
Key Players: Alonso Guevera, Marc-Andre Tremblay
Predicted Record: 1-9
Visions of the World of Tomorrow
The start of the second half of the season is here. Let’s see how my predictions will hold up with more information at hand!
Denouement
For those who have any thoughts, commentary or complaints, I am very easy to find. I’m @peezehss on twitter, @pdellarocca and Peeze Della Reeze on facebook. You can also take a chance by emailing me at [email protected] but I don’t check it because it’s a death trap of junk emails all trying to sell me hair and penis growth solutions. I really need to use incognito mode.
Remember that each week you can join the party on our Facebook page or at www.youtube.com/flagplus on our weekly podcast: Calling the Audible. We are still trying to figure out when the shows will be available and how to get it live on air.
Till next week, I want to thank you falettineme be mice elf agin!