Categories: Division 4

2nd-and-Short (Div 4) – Week 9

Week 8 is officially in the books, and it’s amazing how it didn’t clear up the playoff picture much more than when Week 7 ended—of the 52 teams in the division, only three have eliminated from playoff contention up to this point. 

It’s setting up to be the wild, wild west these last two weeks. You gotta love it.

 

Recap

T.C.O. Renamed T.C.O.B.

As in, Taking Care Of Business. That’s the simplest way to describe what T.C.O. did this past week as they took down the mighty Family 36-28.

T.C.O. never trailed in the game, led on offense by QB Matt Bondoux playing perhaps the best game of his season while defensively DB Brent Callendar and rusher Ryan Best were both back from injury.

It all came together for the T.C.O. as they led 14-8 at halftime. Family QB Maxime Forget had to leave the game with an injury early in the second half, but it’s not like he was doing much to help out his squad before going down, throwing for juts 85 yards and tossing two picks in the game.

Florian Bouer stepped in for Forget and had a chance to give his side the lead following Bondoux’s only interception of the day a few moments later, but the T.C.O. defence stood strong with a goalline stop to clinch the win—and guaranteeing that some trash talk from Brent on the upcoming division 4 podcast is headed my way after underestimating his team in my midseason breakdown.

 

Win or Tie Trying

Field A at the Loyola dome was the place to be on Sunday night if you were looking for miraculous finishes to FPF games, featuring back-to-back games that weren’t decided until the very end.

After a last-minute sack in my division 3 game against Usual Suspects ensured my team a two-point win, the FPF gods decided the game right after would have an even crazier finish.

And so it was that the 2-5 Fun Boys and the 3-3-1 Knights played a tight game from beginning to end, with both team’s defences holding strong to allow just two touchdowns each heading into the final stretch.

The back-and-forth affair looked to had come to a head when Knights QB Antonio Lanni threw his third touchdown pass of the night on the second to last play of game to make it 18-12.

With one play left all Knights had to do was bat down one final hail mary pass by Fun Boys QB Scott Mironowicz. And they did—right into the hands of an unsuspecting James Clément for the 40-yard touchdown on what wound up being his only catch of the game to end it at 18-18 following the missed conversion.

I think everyone on the Knights roster is still in the hospital recovering from shock.

 

Can’t Trap This

On a three-game skid entering Saturday’s game against Trapstars, the 2-5 Prédateurs finally said enough is enough.

Prédateurs QB Frédéric Paquette-Perrault picked a good day to give us one of his best performances yet as he looked unstoppable getting rid of the ball quickly and efficiently, taking what the Trapstars defence was giving him and running only when needed.

Despite receiver Marc-Antoine Chaput going down with an injury early in the game Paquette-Perrault was undeterred, leading the offence to three first-half touchdowns to make it 19-6 at the half en route to an easy 38-18 win.

It was a complete game for the team, with the offence scoring on all six of its possessions and the defence making the most of its athleticism to hold QB Vincent Richard to his third-lowest completion percentage on the season as he finished 9-for-27 for just 61 yards and a score.

At 3-5, Les Prédateurs are now just a game behind the 3-4-1 Flying Comics for the eighth and final playoff spot in the south subdivision. The FPF media member in me would like to see them make it in their first year as part of the league. The FPF player in me would most certainly not considering how dangerous this young group can be.

 

Top 10

  1. Sea Assassins (8-0): Daniel Lazzara threw five touchdown passes in this past week’s win—all to different receivers. I would usually be surprised, but at this point it’s the kind of performance I’ve come to expect from Lazzara.
  2. La Sauce (8-0): I’m not sure if I should applaud them for winning despite giving up a season-high 28 points in their game Wednesday, or take that as a reason to worry.
  3. Broccasion (7-1): Without even checking the rest of the schedule, there’s no doubt in my mind their matchup against La Sauce this Wednesday is the game of the week.
  4. Predators (7-1): The website shows that just one game separates Predators and Coyotes for top spot of the West subdivision, but after the former put up 40 points in a single half against the latter, we know that gap is much greater than that.
  5. Six Fast Guys Plus Ryan (7-1): Something something we won.
  6. The Replacements (6-2): The Replacements have scored 39 points or more in each of their last three games. They never scored more than 32 in any of their first five. Now that’s what I call peaking at the right time.
  7. Lynx (5-2-1): Their midseason slump looks to be behind them.
  8. 69ers (6-2): Going 7-for-16 for 67 yards with a touchdown and a pick is ugly. Winning regardless is beautiful.
  9. KGP (6-2): They should’ve been back on this list a while ago.
  10. Outlaws (6-2): Having finished 4-6 last season, I thought Outlaws were just overachieving this year. But at 6-2, it’s pretty clear I was wrong—this team is not that same 4-6 one.

 

Playoff Picture

An asterisk indicates a team has clinched a playoff berth; teams in bold are currently holding a playoff spot; teams in italics are eliminated from playoff contention:

East

  1. The Replacements* (6-2, 12 pts, 6-2, 163)
  2. Healthy Scratches* (6-2, 12 pts, 5-2, 235)
  3. Two and a Half Dans* (5-2-1, 11 pts, 5-2-1, 162)
  4. Lynx* (5-2-1, 11 pts, 4-2-1, 228)
  5. TCO (5-3, 10 pts, 5-3, 215, H2H over The Family)
  6. The Family (5-3, 10 pts, 4-3, 222)
  7. Team Ethnik (4-2-2, 10 pts, 3-2-2, 151)
  8. Smokin’ Aces (3-3-2, 8 pts, 3-3-2, 251)

  9. Quack Attack (3-5, 6 pts, 3-4, 168)
  10. Fruit Loops (2-6, 4 pts, 2-5, 277)
  11. Primetime (2-6, 4 pts, 2-5, 219)
  12. Longhorns (2-6, 4 pts, 2-5, 253)
  13. Banana Republicans (1-7, 2 pts, 1-7, -154)

 

West

  1. Predators* (7-1, 14 pts, 6-1, 168)
  2. Coyotes* (6-2, 12 pts, 5-2, 187)
  3. Dragons (5-3, 10 pts, 4-3, 243)
  4. Monstars (4-3-1, 9 pts, 4-3-1, 219)
  5. 57 (4-3-1, 9 pts, 3-3-1, 215)
  6. Eskimo Brothers (4-4, 8 pts, 4-3, 205)
  7. Channel 4 News Team (4-4, 8 pts, 4-4, 187)
  8. Knights (3-3-2, 8 pts, 3-3-2, 194)
  9. X-Men (3-4-1, 7 pts, 3-3-1, 178)
  10. Fun Boys (2-5-1, 5 pts, 2-4-1, 179)
  11. Turf Toe Inc (2-5-1, 5 pts, 2-4-1, 213)
  12. Kingdom (2-5-1, 5 pts, 2-5-1, 241)
  13. Project Mayhem (2-6, 4 pts, 2-6, 212)

North

  1. Sea Assassins* (8-0, 16 pts, 7-0, 185)
  2. Six Fast Guys Plus Ryan* (7-1, 14 pts, 6-1, 185)
  3. 69ers* (6-2, 12 pts, 6-1, 221)
  4. Outlaws* (6-2, 12 pts, 6-2, 207)
  5. Ball Busters* (6-2, 12 pts, 6-2, 213)
  6. Mustangs (4-4, 8 pts, 4-4, 175)
  7. Angry Beavers (3-5, 6 pts, 3-4, 211)
  8. Fools of the Country (3-5, 6 pts, 3-4, 212)

  9. Lockdown (3-5, 6 pts, 3-5, 245)
  10. Gotham Knights (2-6, 4 pts, 2-5, 259)
  11. Playground (1-6, 2 pts, 1-6, 300)
  12. The Junks (1-7, 2 pts, 1-6, 215)
  13. Les Affreux (0-8, 0 pts, 0-8, 280)

South

  1. La Sauce* (8-0, 16 pts, 7-0, 122)
  2. Broccasion* (7-1, 14 pts, 6-1, 104)
  3. KGP Lite* (6-2, 12 pts, 5-2, 218)
  4. ZOO* (5-2-1, 11 pts, 5-1-1, 235)
  5. BearSkins* (5-2-1, 11 pts, 5-2-1, 207)
  6. Backyard Bullies (4-3-1, 9 pts, 3-3-1, 212)
  7. Les Maloudes (4-4, 8 pts, 4-4, 201)
  8. Flying Comics (3-4-1, 7 pts, 3-4-1, 232)

  9. Checkmate (3-5, 6 pts, 3-4, 247)
  10. Les Prédateurs (3-5, 6 pts, 3-5, 270)
  11. Jaggerbomb (1-6-1, 3 pts, 1-6-1, 253, H2H over Pickle Fiasco)
  12. Pickle Fiasco (1-6-1, 3 pts, 0-6-1, 285)
  13. Trapstars (1-7, 2 pts, 0-7, 255)

 

Fantasy Football

So I actually didn’t totally understand how we were doing this last week. These are the actual final standings:

1. GM Kolethras (3-1, +33.50)
2. Justin Blanchard (3-1, +84.53)
3. Alex D’Aquila (2-2, +89.17)
4. Mathieu Domon (2-2, +1.57)
5. Simon Dagenais (2-2, -79.77)
6. Brent Callender (2-2, -82.27)
7. Roger Emeka (1-3, -6.83)
8. Paolo Della Rocca (1-3, -39.90)

 

And this past week actually saw just the 3rd seed taking on the 5th seed and the 4th seed facing the 6th, with the top two getting byes. The results for those games:

Brent Callender (6) (174.83) vs Alex D’Aquila (3) (185.60): Alex D’Aquila
Simon Dagenais (5) (157) vs Mathieu Domon (4) (165.83): Mat Domon

As expected, Simon couldn’t even make it past the first round of the playoffs. I don’t know how he lucked his way to two wins in the first place.

This upcoming week’s matchups:

GM (1) vs. Mat Domon (4)

Justin (2) vs. Eagle (3)

 

Picks of the Week

Simon’s 18-7 edged my 17-8 this past week. Knowing him, I’m sure he paid off Project Mayhem to lose against his team in their matchup last Wednesday just to be sure he’d finish a game ahead. Our records now stand at 118-82 and 132-68 respectively. With just two weeks left, it’s gonna take a miracle for me to beat him. I’m sure it’ll happen. We’ll add it to the list of other miracles the world has seen: the birth of Jesus, the Miracle on Ice, that one time you leaned too far back on your chair but didn’t fall over, Simon Dagenais completing a pass etc…

57 vs. Coyotes

X-Men vs. Project Mayhem

Channel 4 News Team vs. Eskimo Brothers

Les Prédateurs vs. ZOO

Turf Toe Inc. Vs. Monstars

T.C.O. vs. Kingdom

Checkmate vs. BearSkins

Broccasion vs. La Sauce

Backyard Bullies vs. Les Maloudes

Trapstars vs. Pickle Fiasco

Banana Republicans vs. Primetime

The Family vs. Smokin’ Aces

Angry Beavers vs. Lockdown

Sea Assassins vs. Les Affreux

Lynx vs. Two and a Half Dans

Team Ethnik vs. Fruit Loops

Fun Boys vs. Predators

Six Fast Guys Plus Ryan vs. Outlaws (N/A)

Healthy Scratches vs. The Replacements

69ers vs. Ball Busters

Gotham Knights vs. Fools of the Country

Dragons vs. Knights

Mustangs vs. Jaggerbomb

The Junks vs. Playground

KGP Lite vs. Flying Comics

Quack Attack vs. Longhorns

***

That’s all for today. As usual, you can reach me by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @JBlanch6. If you haven’t done so yet, you can check out the latest division 4 podcast, Calling the Audible, with Peeze and Brent Callendar, at http://www.theunclehood.com/flag-plus-football/. Good luck to all playing the early week games!