Week 8 Recap: The Race is On

Week 9 is officially upon us, which means only three weeks are left before the field is set for the real season, otherwise known as the playoffs. We’ve already seen some top teams slip up this past week (I’m looking at you, Flying Weasels, Sunshine Island, nearly Junkyard Dogs) and others step up big to keep their playoff hopes alive (shout outs to Space Pirates, Fuzzy-Kittens, and Get On Deck) after they looked like they were on a collision course down the path towards complete irrelevancy. The madness only figures to continue this week. I for one can’t wait to see it all go down. 

Recaps: 5A

Space Pirates Steal a Win

No Ryan Aridi, No Rod Mashtoub for Space Pirates. That means a defensive win for Les Albatros, right? Not quite.

This one was indeed a defensive battle to start, with both teams trading 3 and outs before Les Albatros opened the scoring with a beautiful pass from QB Justin Lafontaine to Etienne Primeau on a post pattern to make it 6-0. Space Pirates soon answered with one of Jad Aridi’s typical hips-don’t-lie runs to make it 6-6.  

The real game-changing moments came in the second half, however, starting with a goal-line-stand-that-wasn’t when an incomplete pass by Jad Aridi on fourth and goal seemed to be the end of a good Space Pirates drive. But Les Albatros were whistled for roughing the QB on the play, giving Space Pirates a fresh set of downs with which they would punch it in to take a 12-6 lead. 

Les Albatros would get their own controversial score shortly after, when Lafontaine found Primeau on the end zone on a pass that may or may not have hit the ground. But the score stood to make it 12-all.

The game looked set to end with a game-winning drive from Space Pirates, who marched down inside Albatros territory before facing fourth down. But instead of going for it, they elected to punt to put Les Albatros on their own one-yard line – a gamble that paid off as Albatros would give up a safety on a bad snap to give Space Pirates the anti-climactic win, but a much-needed win nonetheless. Final result: 14-12, and renewed playoff hopes for a seemingly dead-in-the-water Space Pirates squad. 

 

It’s a Goat-Eat-Dog World

Defense may win championships, but to get to a championship game you first have to win regular season games. And for that, you usually need an offense.

Enter Woofpack, who look to have fallen back to earth after a strong showing versus Fat And the Furious last week. 

Earlier in the season, it was mostly drops that was to blame for their offensive struggles. But in this past Sunday’s 26-19 loss to BMS Goats, it was QB Terry Tam’s turn to shoulder the majority of the blame.

Efficient rushing by Yacoub Telemaque and some chain-moving catches by Federico Alzamora combined to give Woofpack a 19-12 lead midway through the game. But a scoring drive by BMS to start the second half, and a Pick 6 by DB Sean Fiorillo on the ensuing drive resulted in the Woofpack offense pushing the panic button. Forced passes deep resulted in easy interceptions by the BMS defense, and Woofpack were simply never able to recover.

All in all, Woofpack looked to have an easier time moving the ball on the ground than through the air, with some nifty Terry Tam runs bailing Woofpack out on more than a few occasions – and even then, that was only when rusher Dominic Magione wasn’t sacking Terry, which he did four times on Sunday night. 

Rushing QB-based offenses work for more than a few teams down in Div 5, but that’s simply not Terry Tam’s game. Now would be a good a time as ever for Terry and his offense to find themselves again.

 

Recaps: 5B 

Junkyard Dogs Play like Junk in the First Half; Play like Junkyard Dogs in the Second Half 

It’s something we see all too often at this point in the season – top team seemingly underestimates struggling team and proceeds to lose, sometimes badly.

Junkyard Dogs vs. Weapon X was certainly setting up to be that kind of game. Perfectly thrown deep passes from Ryan Browne to Andrew Johnson and Jahlani Gilbert-Knorren resulted in 25 first half points for Weapon X, while solid defensive play from the likes of Andel Thomas-Gordon and Andrew Gurke limited Jason Rossie and the rest of the Junkyard Dogs offense to just two first-half scores of their own.

But the fun stopped there for Weapon X. And it was just beginning for Junkyard Dogs.

Entering the second half, Junkyard looked like their old selves offensively, moving the ball down the field with ease. Defensively, Junkyard adjusted to Browne’s penchance for the deep ball, setting Weapon X up with some would-be easy short passes underneath to move the chains and eat up the clock. Instead, Browne continued to heave prayers deep – paying dearly for it as he connected on none of them, leading to a second-half shutout by the Junkyard Dogs D behind a total of three interceptions. 

Junkyard escape unscathed as their hopes of an undefeated season remain alive and well. 

 

Les Huards Visit the Sithstine Chapel

They were left speechless afterwards, but not in the way people leave the Sistine Chapel speechless.

Behind the efficient play of QB Gabriel Beland-Lapointe and a sweet Pick 6 by DB Nicolas Lefebvre, Les Huards were up two scores near the end of the first half and looked poised to take that well-cushioned lead into the second half. 

But that’s when Siths turned to their bag of tricks, calling the likes of a direct snap to halfback Mosha Moreau Coté who took the Huards’ defense by surprise when he threw the ball on the run for a touchdown. 

Les Huards’ lead was cut to 20-14 by halftime, and things only went downhill from there.

Siths found their rhythm at that point, with QB Steph Chartrand moving the chains on a big run seemingly every third down attempt his offense faced. That and some big plays by Tyler Grondin on both sides of the ball proved to be all the difference in this one, with Siths doing just enough to pull out the 32-26 comeback win.

It’s certainly a frustrating loss for Les Huards, but they have reason to be positive moving forward. With only one win separating them from a playoff spot, and a QB that has shown great improvement in a short period of time, a late-season surge is not out of the question.

 

Power Rankings: 5A

1. Obamacare (6-1): I’m not sure how Trapstars of all teams scored the most points on Obamacare’s defense all season, but who cares when you drop 40+ in division 5.

 

2. X-Men (7-0): X-Men once again score 30+ while allowing three touchdowns or fewer. In other news, the sky is blue.

 

3. Top Sauce (5-2): Last week I said I would vote Robbi Dejean for FPF rookie receiver of the season. My keyboard got the letters all wrong – the name should’ve read Chris Milard.

 

4. Watch Me Whip (5-1-1): To pick off a QB like Eric Lalonde five times in a game is insane. Only 4 total TDs though… not so much. On the other hand, five freaking interceptions!

 

5. Dope Boys (5-2): You won’t win throwing 5 INTs in a game. Trust me, I’ve tried.

 

6. Les Verges Folles (5-1-1): They may be currently the second seed in Conference B, but their offense is playing far from championship football at the moment.

 

7. Sphinx (5-2): A part of me feels for Sphinx for essentially losing as a result of an unforced safety. On the other hand, it seemed it was just a matter of time before their sputtering offense would catch up with them.

 

8. Team Rocket (4-3): The best team no one’s talking about, myself included. They’re slowly but surely morphing into a darkhorse contender.

 

9. Tomahawk Nightmare (3-3-1): No J-F Marquis means Olivier Savage at QB means no Olivier Savage at receiver means no offense for Tomahawk Nightmare means they fall down my power rankings, but not out.

 

10. Supply and Command (4-3): I’ll give my guys some recognition for at least a week, especially on defense. Just eight TDs allowed (and one was a pick 6) over our past four games certainly helps explain how we’ve won all of them despite having a QB statistically worse than Peeze in his own rookie QB season.

 

Power Rankings: 5B

1. Junkyard Dogs (7-0): Good teams are those that win games doing what works. Great teams are those that make adjustments when doing what works suddenly doesn’t work. Junkyard proved they’re of the latter category this past week.

 

2. Les Pitriotes (6-1): I Rep That West may not have had their starting QB, but that doesn’t make 8 passing TDs from Eli Saleh any less impressive. Seven weeks in and I still don’t know what a Pitriote is, but I know these guys are for real.

 

3. Sunshine Island (6-0-1): And here I was so proud of 5B for not having any ties up to this point.

 

4. Les Guerriers de l’espace (5-2): Clearly, we were deceived early on in the season. It seems the Guerriers don’t win because of Alex Rivet the QB, but rather because of Alex Rivet the DB.

 

5. Flying Weasels (6-1): If there’s a team to lose to and not feel too bad about it, it’s Jaguars.

 

6. Takeover (6-1): Takeover keep edging bad teams, and I keep doubting whether they truly are as good as their record shows.

 

7. Small Giants (5-2): In the span of five weeks, Small Giants have gone from dominant on offense and dominant on defense, to bad on offense and dominant on defense, to dominant on offense and bad on defense, back to bad on offense and dominant on defense, and back again to dominant on offense and bad on defense. If you can’t make sense of what I wrote, the point is SG have become consistently inconsistent. That’s not a particularly reassuring sign.

 

8. St. Lunatics (5-2): So guys, how was it to get a second bye week this season?

 

9. DG Goons (4-3): It seems every time they impress me enough to earn a spot in my power rankings, they turn around and disappoint me the very next week. With a game against the Guerriers coming up, it’s time to find out whether that big win over Ghosts was a fluke.

 

10. Jaguars (3-4): The most unpredictable team in 5B? Perhaps. The most talented 5B team without a winning record? Absolutely.

 

 

FPF Fantasy Showdown: 5A

Last week… 

QB: Jad Aridi (Space Pirates): 74 passing yards, 1 passing TD, 0 INTs, 77 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD, 2 sacks = 28 points. Justin Lafontaine (Les Albatros): 75 passing yards, 2 passing TDs, 0 INTs, 3 sacks = 10 points.

WR: Federico Alzamora (Woofpack): 62 receiving yards = 12 points. Joseph Buffone (BMS Goats): 40 receiving yards, 2 TDs = 18 points. 

D: Get On Deck: 12 tackles, 4 sacks, 1 INT, 2 PDs, 15 points allowed = 24 points. Voo-Zoo: 8 tackles, 1 INT, 1 PD, 18 points allowed = 13 points.

 

Correct picks in the QB and defensive categories put me at 2-1 on the week and bring me to 10-11 on the season.

 

This week: 

QB: Vincent Richard (Trapstars) vs. Emilio Pampena (Blackshirts): Simply put, Richard has given me plenty of reason to pick him coming of a string of strong performances. Emilio Pampena has done just the opposite.  

WR: Xavier Plante (Trapstars) vs. Dylan Taylor (Blackshirts): That’s right, I’m going double or nothing this week. Trapstars’ offense runs through Plante, while Taylor is far and away Blackshirts’ best receiver. But if I expect Richard to have the better day throwing passes, you can bet I think Plante will also have the better day catching them. 

D: Sticky Hands vs. X-Men: I’m gonna call this one my lock of the week. The Sticky Hands offense has lost its way in recent weeks, and X-Men’s stingy D figures to only exacerbate that problem. 

 

FPF Fantasy Showdown: 5B

Last week…

QB: Justin Lerner (Small Giants): 253 passing yards, 6 TDs, 0 INTs, 56 rushing yards, 1 sack. Vincent Guillette (Genie): 197 passing yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT, 7 rushing yards, 2 sacks. More yards, more TDs, fewer INTs and fewer sacks makes it obvious Lerner gets the win. 

WR: Antoine Hall (Jaguars): 67 receiving yards, two TDs. Alexandre Girard (Flying Weasels): 70 receiving yards, 2 TDs. Girard wins by three yards… I demand a recount!

D: Ghosts gave up 30 points to DG Goons. DG Goons in turn allowed only six. I think it’s pretty clear who won this match-up.

 

Thanks for giving me my one correct prediction this week, Justin Lerner. 1-2 on the week drops me to 10-11 on the season. 

 

This week…

QB: Jason Rossie (Junkyard Dogs) vs. Jonathan Lemieux (Flying Weasels): Both rank no. 2 and no. 1 respectively in touchdowns passes on the season. Over-under 12 TDs combined between them in this game? I’m giving Lemieux the slight edge here, if only because Flying Weasels rusher Jesse Besnier Leblond is coming off a 5-sack performance against the mobility-dependent Jimmy-Lee Janvier, and that doesn’t bode well for the also mobility-dependent Jason Rossie. 

 

WR: Sabes Bouchard (Been There Done That) vs. Yossi Saleh (Les Pitriotes): BTDT’s season may not be going so well as a team, but individually Bouchard’s team has been going just fine with 10 TDs on just 15 catches thus far. Saleh, meanwhile, has 8 to his name in his six games played. In a battle of one-man attack vs. balanced attack, I’m going with the one-man attack in this one.

 

D: St. Lunatics vs. Takeover: St. Lunatics haven’t given up over 20 points defensively in three weeks and have yet to give up over 24 in a single game all season. I think that’s all that really needs to be said here. 

 

Random Thoughts

• An FPF cooking channel on YouTube would be dope. Just… maybe not with Eagle as the host. Peeze, where you at? 

   

• I’m embarrased to say I only just now realized that the idea behind the Woofpack team name is the fact it’s composed of a bunch of guys who work at Fido. 

   

• Dropping two wide open touchdowns in my Div 4 game is much more embarrasing. Dagenais says I owe him two in the playoffs now. In that case bud, don’t forget you owe SnC an interception after dropping that floater last week!  

• If I wasn’t for Vince Nardone, I would be convinced there was a QB curse for FPF media members. Moe Khan went from decent, to good, to pretty terrible, to MIA in the span of two years. Peeze Della Reeze had a decent rookie season, but everything went downhill from there. Simon Dagenais still has a love affair with interceptions. I’m probably forgetting someone. In any case, the point is that it looks to be Terry Tam’s turn to experience some form of a slump. Only Vince’s insane play this season gives me hope I too, can avoid the same fate as our fellow media members. 

 

• I learned this week that at least one team in Division 5 has made an effort to scout its opponents week-in and week-out so far this season. How bad do you want to win an FPF championship?

 

• My fellow FPF Atlanta Falcons fans (all two of you): here’s to Roddy White’s career. May he not land with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers so I don’t have to watch Desmond Trufant shut down the best receiver in Falcons history twice a season for the next few years.

 

• A reminder that the season is a marathon and not a race: in 5A, as it stands, two teams that started 0-3 (Supply and Command and Hot Boys Hotline) are in position to make the playoffs, while a team that started 3-0 (Sticky Hands) and two that started 2-1 (Blackshirts and Woofpack) are facing the very real possibility that they’ll be on the outside looking in come Round 1 of the playoffs. Cue the “it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish” cliché. 

 

• That being said, I’m actually surprised to see that everyone is still playoff eligible in Division 5 with just three games to go. Like how epic would it be to see Siths go from 0-5 to having a chance to hoist the 5B championship trophy at season’s end? Don’t roll your eyes. It’s March, and that means it’s a good time to remember that Cinderella stories happen all the time in March Madness. 

 

• A reminder that the tiebreakers are as follows: two-team tie: wins, head-to-head, divisional record, points allowed, point differential; three-team tie: wins, divisional record, points allowed, point differential.

 

• If you’re sitting at 3-4 in Conference B in 5A, that means you especially might want to keep an eye on your points against to finish out the season. A whopping four teams (Get on Deck, Trapstars, Sticky Hands, BMS Goats) all are tied at 6 points at this point in the season. You can bet at least two of those will finish with the same division record. Which means at least one playoff spot may very well come down to points against.  

  

Playoff Picture

As the messenger and not the auther of the playoff picture, please don’t shoot me if there are any mistakes in this. If there are any, it’s Simon Dagenais’ fault (I mean what isn’t in life). 

 

Legend: 

Name bolded (and underlined): clinched playoff spot

Asterisk next to name: clinched subdivision 

Name italicized: eliminated from playoff contention

 

Division 5A: 

Conf A	Team	GP	PTS	W(P-F)	DIV	PA
1	X-Men	7	14	7	[4-0-0]	114
2	Dope Boys	7	10	5	[2-1-0]	141
3	Top Sauce	7	10	5	[2-2-0]	121
4	Watch Me Whip	7	11	5	[2-1-0]	167
5	Supply and Command	7	8	4	[1-1-0]	137
6	Tomahawk Nightmare	7	7	3	[2-2-0]	167
7	Hot Boys Hotline	7	6	3	[0-2-0]	141
8	Woofpack	7	6	3	[0-2-0]	113
9	Gators	7	4	2	[2-1-0]	195
10	Space Pirates	7	4	2	[1-1-0]	150
11	Blackshirts	7	4	2	[1-3-0]	207
12	Pardon My Swag	7	3	1	[1-2-0]	199

 

Conf B	Team	GP	PTS	W(P-F)	DIV	PA
1	Obamacare	7	12	6	[3-0-0]	124
2	Les Verges Folles	7	11	5	[3-0-0]	142
3	Sphinx	7	10	5	[3-1-0]	131
4	Team Rocket	7	8	4	[2-1-0]	133
5	Flagrant Fouls	7	8	4	[1-1-0]	136
6	Get On Deck	7	6	3	[2-2-0]	178
7	TrapStars	7	6	3	[2-2-0]	193
8	Sticky Hands	7	6	3	[1-3-0]	185
9	BMS Goats	7	6	3	[0-2-0]	161
10	Voo-Zoo	7	4	2	[0-3-0]	170
11	Les Albatros	7	2	1	[1-1-0]	152
12	Fat and The Furious	7	2	1	[0-2-0]	241

 

Division 5B: 

Conf A	Team	GP	PTS	W(P-F)	DIV	PA
1	Junkyard Dogs*	7	14	7	[2-0-0]	120
2	Takeover*	7	12	6	[3-0-0]	161
3	Flying Weasels	7	12	6	[2-1-0]	181
4	Les Pitriotes	7	12	6	[3-1-0]	117
5	St-Lunatics	7	10	5	[2-0-0]	114
6	DG Goons	7	8	4	[2-2-0]	125
7	Ghosts	7	6	3	[1-2-0]	200
8	I Rep That West	7	6	3	[1-2-0]	213
9	Creamsicles	7	6	3	[1-3-0]	157
10	Jaguars	7	6	3	[1-3-0]	181
11	The Pack	7	5	2	[0-2-0]	230
12	Siths	7	2	1	[0-2-0]	236

 

Conf B	Team	GP	PTS	W(P-F)	DIV	PA
1	Sunshine Island*	7	13	6	[2-0-0]	151
2	Small Giants*	7	10	5	[3-1-0]	159
3	Les Guerriers de L’Espace	7	10	5	[3-1-0]	183
4	Rednecks	7	8	4	[3-1-0]	94
5	Blue Devils	7	6	3	[1-2-0]	207
6	Fuzzy Kittens	7	6	3	[2-1-0]	189
7	Green Lantern Corps	7	4	2	[2-1-0]	146
8	Been The Done That	7	4	2	[1-3-0]	177
9	Weapon X	7	4	2	[0-2-0]	198
10	Les Huards	7	2	1	[1-1-0]	210
11	GENIE	7	2	1	[0-3-0]	191
12	Bruins	7	0	0	[0-2-0]	210

 

 

Predictions: 5A

A 6-5 week in 5A and a 6-6 week in 5B puts me at 92-69 on the season. Belleau’s 8-4 week in 5A and 5-6 week in 5B means he’s also at 92-69. I’m not sure how we got to this – I had this race all locked up midway through the season. Miracles happen I guess. Too bad Belleau’s won’t be followed by a storybook ending. I’m waking him up from his dream staring this week.  

 

Flagrant Fouls vs. Obamacare

 

Fat and the Furious vs. Team Rocket

 

Supply and Command vs. Top Sauce (N/A)

 

Trapstars vs. Blackshirts

 

Woofpack vs. Watch Me Whip

 

Sticky Hands vs. X-Men

 

Hot Boys Hotline vs. Pardon My Swag

 

Les Albatros vs. Les Verges Folles

 

BMS Goats vs. Voo-Zoo

 

Get On Deck vs. Dope Boys

 

Space Pirates vs. Gators

 

Sphinx vs. Tomahawk Nightmare

 

 

Predictions: 5B 

 

Weapon X vs. Fuzzy-Kittens

 

Les Huards vs. Green Lantern Corps

 

Bruins vs. Genie

 

Been There Done That vs. Les Pitriotes

 

Sunshine Island vs. Blue Devils

 

Les Guerriers de l’espace vs. DG Goons

 

Small Giants vs. Creamsicles

 

Siths vs. Ghosts

 

Junkyard Dogs vs. Flying Weasels

 

St. Lunatics vs. Takeover

 

Rednecks vs. Jaguars

 

The Pack vs. I Rep That West

 

***

As always, tune into this week’s Division 5 podcast at www.youtube.com/flagplus. See you at the fields!