2nd-and-Short

It’s now down to a matter of days. That’s all that remains until the Division D championship game at the Bell Complex on Sunday night at 5 p.m., when T.C.O. will take on The BrotherHood in the season’s ultimate battle.

I think it will prove to be one of the better games that we’ll get to see this Sunday, and I’m not just saying that because I’ve been covering Division D all season long.

The beauty of this particular matchup, aside from the fact neither team has played each other yet this season, is how they’re almost polar opposites of each other.

On one side is T.C.O., one of the more established teams in the league that has always been good enough to make the playoffs but never been able to win much when they do. That all changed this season with the addition of Doug McKernan at quarterback alongside the trusty Tony Lalla at snapper. This is a team that has adapted well to the lower divisions of FPF, living by the short pass offensively and quality schemes defensively.

On the other side stand The BrotherHood. They’re new kids on the block, as most of the team never played a down of FPF coming into this year, while QB Jamal Gittens entered the season a rookie at the position. They’ve had their ups and downs in their first year of FPF as a team, jumping out to a hot 3-0 start only to lose three in a row at the midway point, but they’ve finished strong and exercised old demons on their way to the championship game. Their M.O. on both sides of the ball is simple: “if the ball is in the air, we’ll come down with it and break your ankles on the way to the endzone.” 

We’ll break down this game in a minute, but before that let’s look back at how we got here.  

 

Recap 

Orange Isn’t the New Black

The only thing that sucked about T.C.O.’s semi-final game against Backyard Bullies last week is that it had to end.

This was one of the most hard-fought matchups of the weekend, with both sides having to fight and claw for every yard to the point that each offence had only two full possessions in the first half. Converts gave T.C.O. a 14-13 lead going into the second half, but that’s where T.C.O.’s true character would be tested.

After trailing the entire game, Backyard Bullies drove the field on the opening drive of the second half and capped it off with a perfect pass from Rich Humes to Brennan Burke on a post pattern to make it 19-14 ByB.

The pressure was on T.C.O. to answer and they did, with Doug McKernan coming right back with a quick TD pass to Chris Millar.

With the score 20-19 T.C.O., ByB again looked poised to drive down the field and score, but the T.C.O. defence got the stop it needed when Humes wound up overthrowing his receiver on 4^th and long.

It gave a short field for Doug to work with and he made ByB pay for it, running it in from about 10 yards out to make it 26-19.

ByB had one final chance to tie or win the game with just a few plays left and the ball in T.C.O. territory, but the boys in black stood tall to clinch the win.   

 

Non-Stars

From the game’s first play, you just knew the second semi-final of the night wasn’t going to end well for Monstars.

That first play, if you haven’t guessed it yet, saw a deep pass from Monstars QB Rod Mashtoub make its way from one end of the field to the other—and land in the out-stretched hands of Jamal Gittens.

The BrotherHood went on to score on that drive, and that was basically it, with BrotherHood going on to put up 18 points in the half to Monstars’ 6 and moving on to the finals with a 24-18 win.

It was a game that never felt that close, with Mashtoub realizing far too late that there was no hope of completing anything deep against the rejuvenated Monstars D, as he finished with three picks on the night—all to Gittens.

On the other side of the ball, that original matchup of Kevin Gauthier vs. Gittens wasn’t much of a battle—Gittens dominated, getting around Gauthier just about every time to buy the time he needed to chuck the ball downfield. It was to the point where Monstars eventually switched Gauthier out for Isiah Allard, who didn’t fare any better.

It wasn’t a perfect game from BrotherHood, who themselves made some ugly mistakes. But it was certainly the kind of performance that gives hope Division D’s final will be an epic one.

 

Finals Preview

T.C.O. (2) vs. The BrotherHood (6)  

Previous matchup: N/A 

 

Quarterback

Tangible skills separate good quarterbacks from the bad. But it’s the intangibles which separates great QBs from the good ones. This is Doug’s fourth season playing QB in FPF, dating back to Winter 2011, and he’s made the postseason while playing the position in each one of those seasons despite playing on a different team every time. That’s not a coincidence—Doug is a smart, effective QB who keeps high-risk throws to a minimum and knows when to pull it down and run the ball to move the chains.    

Now, the first line of the above paragraph isn’t to say that being a physical specimen doesn’t have its advantages. Look no further than Jamal Gittens for proof. Gittens has a strong arm and speed that kills, and has made the use of both to win games. That being said, he hasn’t yet fully developed his ability to read defences, and too many times have I seen him toss up a prayer and hope one of his receivers come down with it.

In short, whereas Gittens is still learning how to play quarterback, Doug has proven he can deliver in the clutch when there are five plays left and the game’s on the line. There’s no doubt who the better athlete is. But there’s also no doubt in my mind who’s the more dependable QB is at this point.  

Advantage: T.C.O.

 

WR

While Gittens has tossed up many a prayer this season, more times than not his receivers have come down with the ball. But that’s a testament to how deadly his receivers are. Indeed, few have as good a pair of hands as Jeremy Ronsin, even fewer can keep up with the shiftiness of Shakeel Phinn, while probably the only guy in Division D who can jump higher than Omar Smith-Jackson is Jamal. (Which gets me wondering: why hasn’t Jamal thrown a jump ball to himelf yet this season?) 

As for T.C.O., Sami Beg is definitely a star in the making, and it’s true that Tony Lalla has put up unreal stats (52 catches for 464 yards and 9 TDs). But Beg isn’t a star yet, and Lalla’s statline this season have more to do with Doug’s affinity for throwing to his centre than anything else. (That’s not to discredit Lalla however, who’s been making plays at receiver for years in the league’s higher divisions). 

All to say, T.C.O.’s top receivers are good. But I think The BrotherHood’s are great.    

Advantage: The BrotherHood

 

Defence

Defence has always been T.C.O.’s strong suit, and this season has been no different. Brent Callender’s takles and Curtis Drakes’ ball-hawking skills have perhaps been the most noticeable contributors on that side of the ball, but don’t think for one second they’re the only ones you have to worry about defensively. All of the team’s 10 playoff-eligible players recorded at least one pass deflection this season, and seven of them recorded at least one interception. These guys communicate well, rotate their players, and know how to gameplan.

However, I have to give the ever-so-slightest edge to the BrotherHood’s defence, which has completely turned around since Jamal started playing on that side of the ball. With Jamal on one side and Omar the other, quarterbacks have been learning the hard way that you’re not going to complete many deep passes on this defence, while Brandon Keiller has been a man on a tackling mission week-in and week-out.

And that’s not to mention the emergence of rusher Quasyie Gordon-Maule. if Doug isn’t yet having nightmares of his blistering speed, he will soon enough.   

Advantage: The BrotherHood 

 

Conclusion: 

Doug all but begged me to pick against T.C.O. in this game, either because of how much sweeter a win it would be, or because he believe his team does better when I predict a T.C.O. loss. 

But you know what, I tweeted before the playoffs that I was on the T.C.O. bandwagon. I’m staying on it. 

Perhaps it’s because I’m not much of a gambler personally, but I have less faith in Gittens’ high-risk, high-reward offensive gameplan of tossing up deep jump balls to his receivers than I do in Doug’s short-yard, high-efficiency philosophy. It figures to completely neutralize BrotherHood’s best assets defensively—the closing speed and hops of Smith-Jackson and Gittens—and instead put the pressure on The BrotherHood’s defence to make tackles, something they’ve struggled with at times this season.

And this all while keeping any chances of a turnover to a minimum—something Gittens’ own offence certainly doesn’t guarantee.

All to say, Gittens may have been fortunate enough these last few weeks to see QBs fail to capitalize on easy interceptions from Gittens by giving the ball right back to him on intercepted deep bombs on the ensuing drive. I have a hard time seeing Doug make that same mistake.  

Prediction: T.C.O.

 

*** 
That officially brings this season’s edition of 2^nd-and-Short to an end. It’s been a blast covering Division D this season, and it saddens me to say I won’t be able to cover it all the way to the very end as I won’t be able to be a part of the championship game broadcast on Sunday night—I’ll be busy preparing for my own championship game at that time. But I’m sure Moe Khan/Daron Basmadjian and Peeze/Terry Tam/whoever else along with the rest of the Road Show Crew will do an amazing job.

You can still reach me by email for one more week at [email protected], or on Twitter @JBlanchFPF. If you haven’t yet checked out the last episode of Calling the Audible this year, you can do so at www.theunclehood.com/flag-plus-football.

Best of luck to both teams!