Tier 4: Wild Card Preview

Last Monday night ended the regular season for Tier 4. The biggest division in the league this season had 330 regular season games played and after all that, 24 teams remain. For the teams that couldn’t crack the top 24, each has potential to improve in the Winter or future seasons so I hope to see you all then. For the top 8 teams who have obtained a bye, use the time to rest up, you deserved it. The Wild Card round starts on Monday and we have 16 teams trying to advance towards the Divisional Round. What’s unique about this first round is that even though there’s 33 teams within Tier 4, none of the Wild Card matchups have happened so every team will be seeing their opponents for the first time. We will go through each matchup and my prediction but before that, we will go through my fantasy lineup from the final week of the regular season:

QB: Philippe Gélinas (vs NoFlagsGiven)

➡️ Stats: 18/28 260yds, 8 TDs

WR: Jacob Pilon (vs Uncle Rico’s Ryders)

➡️ Stats: 4 rec, 91yds, 3 TDs

WR: Vincent Malo (vs Briscoe Hawks)

➡️ Stats: DNP

Rusher: Rodney Merisier (vs Sans Pression)

➡️ Stats: 2 SKs, 1 TKL, 2 rec, 12yds, 2 TDs

DB: William Seguin (vs Flag Dealers)

➡️ Stats: DNP

DB: Angelo Mourelatos (vs Dog Walkers)

➡️ Stats: 2 PDs, 3 rec, 35yds

Flex: Brandon Kerr (vs Rum & Coke)

➡️ Stats: 7 rec, 61yds, 2 TDs. 2x 1pt convert

Flex: Alex De Luca (vs TuneSquad)

➡️ Stats: 4/7 55yds, 1 TD, 1 INT (defence)

Defence: Monstars (vs Voodoo)

➡️ Stats: 2 INTs, 2 PDs, 1 TD

Total: 11.00 pts

Briscoe Hawks finished with a strong 7-3 record and barely missed out the bye due to points allowed but maybe they don’t want the extra break. QB Alex O’Neill finished with a career high 48 TD passes. With having 4 receivers with over 20 catches, he is able to spread the offence well with Brandon Kerr leading the group with 49 receptions. On defence, Winny Foko had a strong season with 12 sacks and having 5 players with over 3 INTs, this defence can make plays everywhere. Sour puss were able to clinch the final playoff spot after winning their final 2 games. Franco Russo finished with 35 TDs for a solid season and the majority of the offence was through Carl Murray. Nicolas-Emmanuel Pierre led the team with 4 INTs as being a vocal part of the defence. The loss of Felix-Antoine Masseau due to not having enough games played does hurt the dynamic of the offence. With the dynamic play of Briscoe Hawks on both sides of the ball, I would expect them to not have too much of an issue advancing over Sour Puss

After an 0-3 start, Ball Hawks would find its footing towards winning the last 7 games of the year. Richie Mondesir would have a strong showing on both sides of the ball and Rayray Franklin was one of the best redzone targets in the division tied with a league high 18 TDs. The defence got much better for Ball Hawks as they haven’t allowed 30+ points in their win streak whereas they allowed 38+ in their first 3 losses. For First Down Snifflers, Mathieu Couturier has been solid in his 3rd season as QB in FPF and continues to show his dual-threat ability with 3 TDs and nearly 10yds a carry on the ground. Jacob Pilon would lead the receiver group with 13 TDs on 32 receptions and on defence, Thierry Levasseur would lead the division in sacks with 15. The battle between Mondesir and Levasseur will be key and if First Down Snifflers want to pull the upset, the rusher will need to contain Mondesir to make unnecessary throws and get sacks. I think this game will be close early but the veteran Ball Hawks group will pull away in the 2nd half

A much needed 3-game win streak to end the season was what TuneSquad needed after being in the middle of the pack by mid-season. The addition of Kendal Mayers would help this balanced attack as Garner Ross would be able to produce 4 receivers with over 300yds and with Avi Korman not too far behind, has great trust with his main 5 targets. Dylan Merovitz would lead the ground with 14 TDs and over 600yds to lead the group. On defence, having three different players with 5 sacks on the season shows the versatility of the players on this side of the ball. For Not Fast Just Furious, William Seguin would finish with 28 TDs in his 2nd season as QB while also adding 6 TDs on the ground. Vincent Demers would lead the receivers with 35 receptions and would also finish the year with 8 sacks on defence. Due to a forfeit win against The Peckers in Week 8, a loss in their final game would still allow NFJF to finish as the 22nd seed. I think both veteran teams will adapt to the playoff atmosphere pretty well and this might be one of the better games this round. The duel-threat of Seguin and the rushing ability of Vincent Demers might be just enough to pull off a close upset and I predict the win in OT.

The twin-brother connection with the Bottazzi’s will take on arguably the division’s best defence in Dragon Magique. For Chomedey Chodes, their offence hasn’t changed over the years and there seems to be no answer for Jonathan Bottazzi after another exceptional season with 62 receptions and 18 TDs. Teams know where the ball is going and for the most part, can’t contain the brothers from finding each other. For Dragon Magique, Émile Bolullo played well to a 2:1 ratio as QB but what makes Dragon Magique a team to be worried about is their defence. They have the most sacks as a team and have the 5th most INTs while only allowing just under 23pts per contest. Lucien Leontiev and Guillaume Boulanger lead the team as a solid receiving duo and on defence, they have playmakers all-around from Bolullo playing both sides of the ball or even Charles Mimeault with 6 INTs in 6 games. Matthew Bottazzi will need to have an efficient game for Chomedey Chodes to have a chance for an upset. For Dragon Magique, you either contain Jonathan Bottazzi which seems to be near impossible or take advantage of a sub-par defence that their opponents have. Either way, I think Dragon Magique will use their playoff experience and win this one.

The end of October didn’t go Super Troopers’ way as they would end a month where they played 7 games with 3 losses and put themselves in jeopardy of missing the playoffs. Luckily for them, an OT victory over Monstars in game 10 would allow them to clinch a spot into the big dance. I spoke to Kenny Boutilier earlier this season and the schedule he felt did play a factor in how the team played as they were the last team to start their season. Nevertheless, Boutilier would find consistency with a trio of receivers in Kyle Martel, Robert White and Gioavani Antonacci. The problem was that they couldn’t score when they would march down the field and their defence couldn’t slow down their opponents. For this game, they are facing a team that loves to score points. The reigning Tier 4 champs are back and even if they aren’t near the top at the moment, they have championship pedigree and swagger on the field. Tyler Stewart leads a solid receiving group and Amine Encina is the focus on both sides of the ball. I do think the reigning champs will win this one to advance but it won’t be perfect and Super Troopers will hang in there throughout the whole game.

An exciting matchup to notice in this game is Charles Presser against rusher Alain Keb as both players are athletic and fast off the line which will demonstrate a cat and mouse type of game. Monstars finished 5-5 this season having a balanced offence and defence. A deep receiving core would have 6 different receivers over 19 receptions. On defence, not one player stood out but rather a collective unit of playmakers. For Team Ethnik, Benoit Lawlor’s 52 TD passes will be an issue in this one for Monstars. Simon Dufort and David De Andrade account for nearly half of those TDs alone and Angelo Morelatos would add 9 on his own too. Keb will be a key towards the defence of Team Ethnik as his 11 sacks will be looked at against Presser’s 330yds and 4 TDs on the ground. Even though Team Ethnik has a strong offence, I do think Monstars can hang in there especially if Presser can avoid turnovers and key sacks. This might be the highest scoring game of the week and I think Monstars will come out on top.

This matchup will include the youth of Bend Don’t Break against the veteran Brewers squad. After a 4-2 start, Bend Don’t Break would lose the momentum including losing their final two games preventing a chance on a first round bye. Luke Moreau played a good regular season with 33 TDs with 14 of them going to his go-to receiver in Dominic Weidner and Moreau made a huge impact on defence by leading the team with 7 INTs. On the contrary, Peeze Della Rocca threw a career high 46 TDs with an even distribution around as he would have 4 different receivers scoring at least 8 TDs. On defence, Alexi Dubois would lead the team with 4 INTs, continuing his leadership on that side of the ball with the veteran group. Bend Don’t Break will bring a level of physicality to this game where Brewers will not back down from this contest. Bend Don’t Break has shown that if Weidner is having extra attention by other team’s defence, other players such as Jonah Lazarovitz or Ryan Quesnel. Brewers don’t have that issue but Bend Don’t Break’s defence is athletic and eager to make a play so Della Rocca will need to keep the ball extra secure. I don’t see this being a high scoring game but I will take the veteran Brewers team in a close matchup

The closest matchup based on seeding is one where I thought that these two teams could’ve finished higher in the standing but a lack of consistent lineups and forfeits have put them this close in seedings. Rum & Coke goes through Dante Gerardi and even though he says he would rather not play QB, he threw his best season at the position with a career high 54 TDs. His receiving core is strong, probably the strongest in the division with 4 players scoring at least 9 TDs, with Hunter Beriault and Matteo Gerardi leading the group with 15 and 16 TDs respectively. Rum & Coke can score points at will but it’s their sub-par defence that brings them away from their full potential with only 9 INTs and 7 sacks on the year. For The Peckers, they finished 6-4 but with two forfeits against teams ranked lower than them altered their true abilities. Noah Lieblein would throw nearly 70% completion en route to 36 TD passes and have a deep receiving core with Dylan Dayan leading the group with 10 TDs himself. The defence is solid as Nathan Twik leads the team with 8 sacks and with a unit allowing 24pts a game in 8 actual games, they have a tall task against one of the better offences. The Peckers will have to lean on controlling the tempo, getting RUm & Coke off their game by keeping the game low scoring. For Rum & Coke, they just need stops, they have had several games lost because of the lack of stops on defence, and can't always keep up. When it comes to playoffs this early, I can’t go against the firepower of Rum & Coke, especially if their stars are at full strength for an “upset” but if that isn’t the case, I see The Peckers willing to close.

For the playoffs, I will reset the pool of players for those who are eligible during the post-season but due to the amount of players being ineligible after each round, the pool will restart every round, however,I won’t be allowed to use a player in back-to-back rounds unless there’s noone in their position that I can use.

QB: Dante Gerardi (vs The Peckers)

WR: Jonathan Bottazzi (vs Dragon Magique)

WR: Carl Murray (vs Briscoe Hawks)

Rusher: Alain Keb (vs Monstars)

DB: Amine Encina (vs Super Troopers)

DB: Fabrice Agelus (vs Sour Puss)

Flex: Ben Arnovitz (vs Team Ethnik)

Flex: Olivier Lledo (vs Ball Hawks)

Defence: Bend Don’t Break (vs Brewers)

That wraps up my preview towards the wildcard round which starts tonight on Monday November 24th. I’ll be around for some of the wildcard games to see the talented players in action. For the teams in the playoffs, make sure your players are eligible or have the medical note sent before the game or you’ll get a forfeit loss. I can’t wait to see the talented teams in Tier 4 with the biggest division this season in action. The latest FPF Podcast is up on Youtube; hosted by Brent Bodkin and Quaysie Gordon Maule. See you next week after we cover the wildcard results and go through the Divisional round starting next weekend. If you have any comments or suggestions, you can always reach out to me on Facebook or Instagram @keyoncyrus!