Who does Brent have playing in the finals?

The Conference championships are here. One more week left until we crown a new champion.

Before I get into the final four, let me say to L.A’s Finest, Beast Mode, Woofpack, and The Mean Machine, congrats on a great season. You guys were all really good teams that were a lot of fun to watch. Keep your heads up spring season is around the corner, so use the winter campaign as a learning experience and stepping stone to bigger and better things.

In Conference A we have the Flagrant Fouls vs Obamacare, and in Conference B, we have Pardon My Swag vs Wax On Wax Off.

Before I get into the Conference Final previews, let’s examine have all four teams got to where they are. First I will start with Conference A.

For the Flagrant Fouls, their undefeated streak is still intact after a 39-21 victory over the Woofpack.

Double F took advantage of Terry Tam’s generous mood as he threw 4 first half interceptions including one on the first play of the game. The Flagrant Fouls made the Woofpack pay as they converted every pick into a touchdown.

All-purpose threat Yacoub Telemaque mercifully came in before the end of the first half to replace Tam at Quarterback. He instantly provided a spark for his team as they managed to get on the board before the break.

In the second half, Telemaque kept the ball rolling as he dinked and dunked and ran his way to first down after first down.

Despite being down 33-8, Telemaque brought his team to within 2 touchdowns of pulling off the miraculous upset as he made plays with his arm and feet, and kept the Flagrant Fouls’ defense on edge.

Unfortunately for the Woofpack, the early deficit and a much needed late second half stop by the Flagrant Fouls’ defense in the redzone was too much to Terry Tam’s team to overcome.

So despite getting the win, the Flagrant Fouls now face two tough questions. The first of which, is whether they would have been able to pull off the win if the Woofpack had started Yacoub Telemaque at QB instead of Terry Tam who delivered an Ryan Lindley-esque playoff performance.

(The second question I will get to later)

Offensively, the Flagrant Fouls looked good as always. The Tam turnovers certainly helped their cause, but even without them, Double F as expected, still operated like a well-oiled machine.

Despite one series in the second half where the Woofpack forced Double F to punt (that has definitely been a rare sight this season) Ross Olshanksy displayed the poise and rollout ability that have been signatures of his play all season. He ended the game with 14 of 24 for 6 touchdown passes and 0 interceptions.

At the end of the day, while Telemaque did indeed as I predicted put up his numbers (not in the way I or many others imagined, but hey, he still did) the interceptions and the Woofpack’s inability to get multiple stops on D sealed their fate.

For Obamacare, they knocked off the favoured L.A.’s Finest 18-12 before a packed Field #3 in St. Leo Tuesday night.

As I told a few members of Obamacare after the game, I am the first one to admit when I am wrong. In my picks last week, I had L.A.F winning the game. I cited their regular season matchup that was a blowout win for Ara Simonian’s team, and Andrew Hopkin’s suspension as major factors for me picking against the yellow and purple. One again I was wrong, and more importantly, this is why we play the game.

Obamacare took a page out of L.A’S Finest’s book and used great defense to get the win in this one. They made FPF veteran Theo Bekelis look like a rookie QB. Play after play, Bekelis looked flustered.

Whether it was the effective pass rusher of Matthew Barsetti or their aggressive D, Obamacare caused the Bekelis to hold on to the ball too long, stare down one side of the field, and look very indecisive during actual plays as to whether he should pass the ball or run.

When the L.A.F QB did opt to throw, his receivers didn’t really help him out as they dropped numerous balls all night. At least three of those drops were would-be TDs.

Bekelis finished the game with 3 INTs. Considering that he only threw 2 the entire season, you have to tip your hat to the Obamacare defense.

In short, the L.A’s Finest offense looked exactly like many of the D6 offenses after an encounter with the L.A.F defense. Confused, unproductive, lacking rhythm, and just plain horrible.

Impressive Obamacare…impressive.

 

(1)Flagrant Fouls vs (3) Obamacare

Previous Matchup: 34-31 Flagrant Fouls (Week 8)

After their regular season clash, this is a matchup that a lot of observers including myself, wanted to see again. No team gave Flagrant Fouls as much trouble as Obamacare. While the game came down to conversions, but it was unique in many ways. Jordan Mcinnis outplayed Ross Olshansky, the aforementioned Andrew Hopkins had the game of his life, and the dynamic receiving dual of Marty Freedman and Matt Leblanc were pretty much held in check.

Will Obamacare be able to build off of the momentum they gained by knocking off the favoured L.A’s Finest? Or will the Flagrant Fouls be able to pull a 2013 FSU and keep the goose egg in the loss column?

Keys to Victory

For the Flagrant Fouls to keep their undefeated streak alive, they will need to make every offensive possession count.

As we’ve seen throughout the regular season, and especially last week, Obamacare has a very good defense. Through 2 post-season games, they lead all of D6 with 5 INTs.

Olshansky will need to be as accurate as ever, and his WRs will need to get out of their breaks fast against this aggressive D.

The second key to advancing for the Flagrant Fouls is can they stop the run? This is the second, and probably the one question that matters most.

In their previous meeting with the purple and yellow, Mcinnis had 56 yards on 5 carries. I am not a math major, but if my calculations are correct, he averaged over 10 yards a carry.

In their Quarter-Final game against the Woofpack, Yacoub Telemaque rushed 3 times for 37 yards, but more importantly, he was able to pull a page out of the book of Olshansky by keeping plays alive with his legs, and giving his WRs time to get open. That along with the deep ball is a specialty of the Obamacare QB.

Simply put, for the Flagrant Fouls to advance, they will need to contain Mcinnis. That job will fall to rusher Alex Evangelidis.

For Obamacare, while they have ball hawks in their secondary, most notably Matthew Pisatro, Mike Ambro, and Mickey Morini, being aggressive won’t be enough, they will need to be disciplined in their coverage.

As I said throughout the season, Olshanky is arguably the best QB in D6 at extending plays with his feet, and giving Marty Freedman, Matt Leblanc, Evangelidis, and the Castiel bros an extra few seconds to shake their man.

The yellow and purple would also be wise to win the time of possession battle. While they like to go deep early and often, throwing the short and intermediate passes and creating long drives that keep the Flagrant Fouls’ offense on the sidelines and out of rhythm would be a good idea.

Prediction:

Despite their record, the Flagrant Fouls have looked anything put sharp the last two weeks. They were almost upset by The Pocketwatch, and were arguably a complete game of competent quarterbacking away from getting beaten by the Woofpack.

Obamacare on the other hand has looked fantastic under the big lights. Their 25 points against also lead D6. Their offense hasn’t looked to bad either as they’ve combined to score nearly 50 points in two games.

Momentum is a funny thing, and right now Obamacare has it.

Obamacare 30 – Flagrant Fouls 28  

 

The Conference B matchup as I mentioned earlier, has Pardon My Swag taking on Wax On Wax Off.

Both teams are coming off of dominant victories in their respective Quarter-Final games.

For Pardon My Swag, their 31-18 win over Beast Mode must be satisfying after the controversy that surrounded their Divisional round victory over the Tigerz, and for the fact that they proved me wrong in my prediction last week.

Swag QB Brad Evans had a strong game as he went 25 of 30 for 225 yards and 5 TDs. He did a great job of distributing the ball, as 6 WRs caught at least one pass.

After being relatively held in check against the aforementioned Tigerz, the Bronx native (thanks again Vince) Jason Grizzley came alive and had great game on both sides of the ball. On offense, he made a ton of plays and came through with clutch first down catches on third down that seemed to break the collective backs of Beast Mode.

Where he really hurt Beast Mode is when he scored a TD one play before the half, then scored another one on their first possession of the second half.

Simply put, whether it was out-jumping his man for a ball, catching a pass between two defenders, or coming through with a big bat down on D, Grizzley made his presence felt.

Despite all of his great plays, the play of another Pardon My Swag two-way player is what really stood out in my opinion. That was the play of Alex Torres.

The FPF rookie only had 3 catches, but he made all of them count as they all resulted in a TD.

On his first score, Torres took advantage of a blown coverage by Beast Mode and ran a seam route down the middle untouched for a TD.

After that Beast Mode decided to cover him, but it didn’t matter, as Torres was able to use his size advantage to create separation and get up high to jump balls in the end zone.

Torres wasn’t done there however as he recorded two sacks as well.

Beast Mode played a good game. Their snapper in particular, the big man Marc Lapointe, had a Marshawn Lynch style catch up the left sideline that he ran to the house for a 20 yard TD.

My only question for them is why they chose to start Maxime Turpin-Lalonde at QB. Yes, he did have a really good game in the Divisional Round against the Sun Bros, but he is best used as a WR, given his explosive ability.

Add that to the fact that it’s the biggest game of your season, and your regular QB Samuel Saumure is a better pivot than WR. I am not inside their huddle, so I don’t know their reasoning, but the decision seems more than a little odd.

Turpin-Lalonde finished the game with only 8 completions. It feels like Beast Mode wasted a good opportunity.

In the Wax On Wax Off vs The Mean Machine matchup last week, I predicted that one team would win convincingly, and that the squad would hit the 40 point plateau in doing so. I picked The Mean Machine to accomplish both feats. WOW was I wrong.

For Wax, the Dangerous Danny D’Amour show was in full effect. While he posted normal (for him) offensive numbers with 6 catches for 58 yards and a TD, he was a monster on the defensive end as he recorded a pick, 2 tackles, and a season high 6 bat downs. Those bat downs however weren’t the average kind either, D’Amour batted down at least two would be TDs. He even did the same on offense when he knocked down a few Jordan Bellemare floaters that were sure to result in a turnover.

Speaking of the Wax pivot, despite a few of those aforementioned floaters, he had a really strong game. I mentioned last week that when he has time to throw, he and his offense can be unstoppable. That’s exactly what happened, and that’s precisely what he and his O were Tuesday night, as Bellemare finished the game 15 of 20 for 156 yards, and 6 TDs. If it wasn’t for a couple of bad balls and two drops, he might’ve finished the game with a perfect completion percentage.

For The Mean Machine, Tuesday night had to be an example of worst case scenario coming true. All-Star QB Daniel Goloff had without a doubt the worst game of his rookie FPF season. He finished 8 of 26 for 130 yards, 2 TDs, and an INT.

To make matters worse for Goloff, he picked up an Unnecessary Roughness (UR) penalty after he tried to run over a Wax defender on a QB scramble.

The only positives for Double M was that Goloff and DB Derek Sigler were able to pick off 1 point conversions and run them back for scores.

(1)Pardon My Swag vs (5) Wax On Wax Off

Previous Meeting: 34-12 Pardon My Swag (Week 10)

As stated above, these two squads recently played each other. As you can tell by the score, it was no contest.

Swag QB Brad Evans had another stellar performance as he threw for 5 TDs. His counterpart Bellemare had a decent first half with 2 TDs, but once again I am no math major, but it appears they got shut out in the second stanza.

The highly anticipated D’Amour vs Grizzley matchup delivered, but it was more one-sided than anything else. D’amour caught 4 balls for 84 yards and 2 TDs, while Grizzley caught 6 for 48.

Just like last week’s playoff game, Alex Torres had a standout Week 10 contest as well. On offense he only had 2 catches, but both went for TDs. (His teammate Vincent Duquette also accomplished the same feat) On D, Torres tied a season high with 3 sacks.

Keys to Victory

For the team with all the swag, they will need to continue to get the high powered and efficient play that they’ve been getting on offense.

Brad Evans has looked great all season behind center, and his under rated ability to pick up yards with his legs just add to his effectiveness.

On defense, they will need to shut down my pick for my Category Number 2WR and two-way player of the year Danny D’Amour. He is the key to their entire team, let alone the offense. It will be interesting to see who Pardon My Swag chooses to cover him.

For Wax On Wax Off, they will need to neutralize the dynamic duo of the aforementioned Grizzley and Torres. To do that, Wax will need big performances out of rusher Justin Matteo and All-Star WR/DB Alex Geary.

On offense, Bellemare will have to protect the ball. If he throws too many wobblers and floaters against this defense, they will result in turnovers.

Prediction: On paper, Pardon My Swag appears to be the better team. Their Divisional Round game against the Tigerz seems to have been the wake-up call that the team needed, after seemingly coasting through the last half of the regular season.

While I have been impressed by Wax’s play in the post season, I just don’t see them getting the same break (the horrible QB play they played against last week) again this week.

I also don’t see how they can slow down Alex Torres who has arguably been the best red zone target in all of D6 over the last couple of games.

There’s a good chance I could be wrong, but I’m going with Pardon My Swag in this one.

Pardon My Swag 34 – Wax On Wax Off 30

 

I don’t know about you guys, but I feel that the playoffs have been great so far. As Wax On Wax Off and Obamacare taught me last week, throw the regular season records out the window. Playing FPF and tackle football for as long as I have already taught me that a long time ago, but both teams just hammered home the message last Tuesday. Here’s to hoping tonight’s games continue to showcase the fantastic football we’ve been treated to so far.

 

 

Picks

Obamacare

Pardon My Swag

Playoffs: 9-3

 

Last Week: 1-3 Clearly, I shot my mouth off a little too much last week.

*Before I forget, how about my Blue Devils!!!! A lot more questions than answer about Okafor after it’s all said and done, but it’s all good. We’re the champs. And no, I am not a bandwagon jumper like a lot of you Wisconsin, Kentucky, and for that matter Seahawk fans out there. I’ve bled Blue since 92’ when the likes of Grant Hill, Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, all the way through Elton Brand, Chris Carrawell, Shane Battier, Trajan Langdon, J.J Redick, Nolan Smith, the Plumlee bros, and Quinn Cook, et all played in Durham.

If you’re a real Blue Devil fan like me, I hope Monday night was as amazing for you as it was for me. If you’re a bandwagon fan, hit the bricks!!!!

That’s it for this week. I’ll be back next week with the review of the Conference-Finals, and I’ll set you guys up for the Division 6 Championship Game. Yours truly will be doing the play-by-play in Brossard for the game.

Once again, if you loved the article, hated it, or simply felt I left something out, don’t be shy. You can shoot me a tweet at @BADNEWS51, or do it the semi-old fashioned way and e-mail me at [email protected]

I’ll see you guys tonight!