1 is the Loneliest number… but the Best Feeling!

It has been a busy month and an even busier 3 weeks for FPF! After a long 15 week season and an intense 3 playoff games, we have finally come down to the final 2: AT LEAST WE TRIED vs THUNDER VILLAINS! And what a showing it will be! Both of these teams are experienced in the playoffs and have had their time in championship games – in fact, these 2 teams faced off against each other last Spring under the names DRINK TEAM and THUNDER BUDDIES – and here they are again! Some rosters/positions may have changed and teams have developed chemistry throughout the year, but this is the Finals, where anything can happen!

It took a lot of teams and a lot of losses to get here, and while the usual suspects were able to win in Round 1, the rest of the playoffs were more exciting! Shout out to DREAMKILLERS, who truly took away the dreams of MICHEAL SCOTT’S TOTS in the upset of the 1st week! A game that was won the week before by MST turned out completely differently the 2nd time around, which seems to be a staple of recent playoff matchups i’ve seen. Unfortunately for DREAMKILLERS, they had to face AT LEAST WE TRIED in round 2 and were shut out 18-0.

BANDIT(E)S faced BLOCK PARTY in the Quarter Finals for what I thought would be an easy win for BANDIT(E) having played them in their last game of the regular season and winning 36-14! (Sound familiar??) In this match, Xavier Parent struggled to hit his targets and could not score on his first possession or last possession, going 4-Out! Big win for BLOCK PARTY! But as tradition would have it…. They faced off against AT LEAST WE TRIED in Round 3 and followed the same trajectory as DREAKILLERS.

HALF N’ HALF was a team I knew would make the final 4, and I solidly believed would be in the Finals. They had 2 decisive wins over FLAMINGOS and AIGRE DOUX, thanks in part due to Aryane Boucher and Camille Ste-Marie, but also to Gabriel Wiseman having a larger presence in the roster! In Round 3, they came up against THUNDER VILLAINS, in what I knew would be a close game! Both defences had 3 PDs, 1 Sack, and both QB’s ran in a TD, but what set them apart is Gabriel Poulin’s 1 INT which Terry Babalis was able to make a TD. HNH found themselves losing 25-20 and THUNDER VILLAINS stealing the win and sneaking their way into the finals (yeah, that sounds villain-y enough).

Now THUNDER VILLAINS face off against AT LEAST WE TRIED a most anticipated rematch! Terry Bablis is running again, Darryl Dorcely has always been running, so let’s catch up to them and truly break down our Finals! Thanks everyone for joining this season and although it hurts to get eliminated, every season is a new start! The best way for a Finalist spot is by playing consistently in the league with a core of consistent players! If you want tips and tricks, or to check out some talent and good plays, come support the finalists in person if you can or online Live as it is streamed by FPF!

IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!

The last time these 2 teams faced each other Alexandre Roel was QB for AT LEAST WE TRIED and Terry Babalis was coming off of an injury and wasn’t very mobile. Beatrice Henault had been a big piece to ALWT offence, but is not on the roster this season. THUNDER BUDDIES didn’t utilise their female players enough in last season’s game.

AT LEAST WE TRIED has bulldozed their way through the CO-ED 3 division, scoring a whopping 320 points on offence in 10 games and only allowing 120 points on defence, which puts them at #1 in both categories (and is probably why they are undefeated haha). This isn’t to say that EVERY match has been easy – they previously faced THUNDER VILLAINS in week 2 of the season and barely managed a win 23-22. As we saw above, the trend seems to be: if you lose in the regular season, you get redemption in the playoffs! Let’s break down each position and see how likely that is to happen:

QB:

It’s hard to distinguish between these 2 QB’s because they really are among the top 4 QBs in the division! Darryl Dorcely isn’t new to FPF, but has only recently tried his hand at QB. Having only started in the aforementioned spring season, this is Darryl’s 3rd season at QB and he is showing that he is a quick learner and skilled player! 1708 Total yards in the regular season with 41 TDs (2nd only to Xavier Parent’s 44 TDs!) is a stellar performance, and should be a good confidence booster that a CO-ED 2 Championship could be the next milestone! Darryl is averaging 4 TDs a game, but just barely. He has put up some great 5-6 TD games, but has also been kept to 2-3 (big outlier being kept to 2 TDs against FLAMINGOS). Darryl has done a great job spreading the ball and using all of his receivers this season: Although Shelder Valéry has the most targets, Antoine Gaudet has the most TDs. And despite all of that, Erika Magini has 300+ yards and 8 TDs, and the female players make up 16 of the 37 possible receiving TDs! This is a well balanced offence and Darryl Dorcely has been able to find success buying time with his legs and being a dual threat in the air and on the ground.

Terry Bablis is a known player in FPF as well, but also a recent QB addition, starting his tenure with the THUNDER BUDDIES. Since then, Terry has been able to put up a consistent 40 TDs every season, including this season where he also played in Div 5! Like Darryl, Terry is also averaging 4 TDs a game, though most of these have gone to the CO-ED 3 Superstar – Jérémi Thompson OReilly! Having already lost to ALWT this season by converts while heavily relying on OReilly (seriously everyone, these convert things are crucial in FPF!), will Terry have learned from his lesson and be able to keep ALWT on their toes? Terry has been able to put up an additional 6 TDs in the postseason, and while both Terry and Darryl have allowed 3 sacks in the playoffs, Terry has allowed the only INT so far…

Now, these are just stats on paper and don’t necessarily dictate how a game will go, but, surprisingly, I find myself giving the edge to Darryl and AT LEAST WE TRIED here! On face value, and having played both of them at different points, I instinctively would have given Terry the advantage, but looking at stats and seeing that Darryl may also be rushing Terry this game, I think Darryl will have an easier time against Jenna Araujo.

ADVANTAGE – AT LEAST WE TRIED

RUSHER:

In their last showing both QBs got a taste of what was to come now, in the finals. Jenna vs Darryl – Darryl vs Terry, and at the end of the game Darryl had come away with 2 sacks and shutting Terry out of the run game, while Jenna, despite not getting any sacks, was able to keep Darryl to only 23 yards! What a match!

Darryl is an experienced rusher in FPF and has had his share of great seasons, usually getting 10+ sacks regularly! This season seemed to be an anomaly, in that he only came away with 5 sacks in 3 games. Obviously, not getting sacks does not mean you aren’t putting pressure on the QB or forcing bad plays – see the above example of Jenna rushing Darryl – but i’m surprised that in a division where multiple players achieved 10+ sacks, Darryl wasn’t one of them.

Jenna, on the other hand, has been all over the field! Not only was she at the cusp of being in the 10+ range (8 sacks), she accumulated 34 tackles!!! It’s always a bummer when you miss a sack and have to settle for a tackle as the QB crosses the line of scrimmage, but 34 tackles shows a great resilience in always chasing down the QB! As a rusher myself, i’m always chasing the QB, but I cannot imagine getting 15, alone 34 tackles in a season (i’m not lying, I usually get less than 10 tackles a season). Coming away with at least 1 sack in each of the last 4 games, how can I not give Jenna the advantage here. She may not stop Darryl completely, but if she can contain him and frustrate him enough, he will make a mistake and give the VILLAINS a chance to capitalise!

ADVANTAGE – THUNDER VILLAINS

RECEIVER:

This breakdown should be self-evident: THUNDER VILLAINS has Jérémi Thompson OReilly, and I expect him to be the best receiver on the field despite, probably, being double covered by ALWT. However, having the #1 best receiver doesn’t mean your offence is automatically better, we have to look also at the depth of your roster. VILLAINS have Roxane Roy as their 2nd best receiver and she is no slouch. 6 TDs and 231 yards, she will be Terry’s bail out or 2nd target in most plays. The rest of the offence shows a bit of a troubling picture: every other receiver has under 200 yards receiving and 4 or less TDs. They may be great targets and have great hands (as shown in their target:reception ratio), but they aren’t seeing the ball nearly as often as Roxane and Jeremi. Kayla Gauthier, Samuel Thompson OReilly, and Gabrielle Fortin seem to all be able to handle the intensity on offence but each have 3 TDs or less. Will Terry be forced to spread the ball more this game to overcome their rivals and will his receivers be able to step up under the pressure?

I don’t have as many questions about the ALWT offensive unit. I already spoke about Darryl’s ability to hit all his receivers and keep his possessions alive with key runs, but taking a closer look at his offence gives us a better picture of how dangerous this unit is: Antoine Gaudet, Erika Magini, and Shelder Valéry all have 300+ yards and have 11 TDs, 8 TDs, and 7 TDs respectively, which is much better compared to the VILLAINS’ 17 TD – 6 TD disparity! Looking even deeper, I can see that although the big 3 just named are clearly the center of this offence, both Marina Scalzo -Chrétien and Lilianne Roy have 25+ targets, 100+ yards and 4 TDs each! The playoffs are showing that Darryl is beginning to favor Antoine Gaudet a bit, but coming into this last game I can foresee Darryl wanting to keep THUNDER VILLAINS guessing and using as many different targets as he can to expose the weak points in the VILLAINS defence.

ADVANTAGE – AT LEAST WE TRIED

DEFENSE:

On paper, AT LEAST WE TRIED has the better defence. Keeping their points allowed to 120 in the regular season and getting a shut out in the postseason leaves little doubt in my mind that they are the #1 defence… but THUNDER VILLAINS have actually out performed them in the postseason defensively. Thanks to a PICK-6 by Terry Babalis, Samuel Thompson OReilly’s 3x PDs, and Jenna’s 3 sacks, I can confidently say that the VILLAINS are proving to have a stronger defence to break than most teams would expect! That’s not to say that ALWT’s defence is lacking.

Where THUNDER VILLAINS have got 5 INT’s, AT LEAST WE TRIED got 4. Where VILLAINS got 3 sacks, AT LEAST WE TRIED got 2. Both teams have come away with a PICK-6, and AT LEAST WE TRIED have the lead in PDs 6-5. Given that ALWT are the #1 defence and should be ahead of any team they face, I’m shocked that it hasn’t carried into the postseason! In their past 2 games ALWT has scored 50 points and allowed 25 points. THUNDER VILLAINS has scored 47 points and allowed 27 points.

They are almost identical and I don’t think there is a TRUE advantage to any team in this regard… but when I see identical stats, I think I should also see an identical record – and I dont. ALWT is 12-0 and THUNDER VILLAINS are 10-2, and in that regard, I have to compliment THUNDER VILLAINS’ ability to put up a defensive performance that is only rivalled by the last undefeated team.

ADVANTAGE – THUNDER VILLAINS

I have no idea how this game will turn out, but I can’t wait to watch it go down! I have to throw a prediction out there and who am I to bet against the FPF gods who seem keen on giving all teams their postseason revenge.

PREDICTION: AT LEAST WE TRIED 28 – 33 THUNDER VILLAINS

Prediction Record: 23-9

And that’s a wrap! Last article of the season! Thanks for hanging with me and taking the time to read my Blurbs. Hope to see you on the field next season or when I write about your team in the Finals! GOOD LUCK!