Categories: Division D

2nd-and-Short (Div D) – Week 4

A few days from now and we’ll officially be at the midseason point. The playoffs may still be six weeks away, but surely I can’t be the only one already thinking ahead to them.

With Les Affreux coming off their first loss of the season and Les Rois Lions coming off their second, it’s clear now that, well, nothing is clear. 16 of the 30 teams competing for the championship will make the postseason, and I could probably make a case for how 20 of them have a legitimate shot at winning it all. I certainly couldn’t have said the same about the division this time last year.

 

Recap

Still Awaiting Detonation

Losing blowouts are tough. Losing tight games are tougher. Coming up short on the last play of the game? That, my friends, is a true heartbreaker.

Jagerbomb had a first-hand taste of the first two kinds of losses in the first three weeks of the season, and completed the trifecta in a 37-31 loss to T.C.O. on Sunday.

The 2-1 T.C.O. likely thought they had an easy win ahead of them when they took the field against the 0-3 Jagerbomb at Catalogna, but that was far from the case as Jagerbomb fought hard from start to finish, answering T.C.O.’s every score with one of their own and even going up 31-25 late in the game.

But that was when T.C.O. finally woke up, first scoring on a long touchdown pass from QB Doug McKernan to Chris Millar to tie it up before Millar intercepted QB Simon Duchesne on the next drive. Moments later McKernan found Sami Beg to make it 37-31 with four plays left.

Jagerbomb gave themselves a chance in the end when Duchesne hitting Jonathan Cloutier at about the five-yard line on the game’s last play, but Brent Callendar made the game-saving tackle right at the goalline to clinch the T.C.O. win.

Making this pill even more difficult to swallow for Jagerbomb is the fact they lost despite perhaps Duchesne’s best game ever at QB in FPF, as he threw for over 230 yards and five touchdowns to just one interception. If your QB ends up with those kinds of numbers in a game and still loses, it’s pretty clear where the changes will have to be made if this team has any hope of turning it around this season.

 

Call it a Draw

I still can’t decide who got the better of whom in BrotherHood’s 26-26 tie against Ball Busters over the weekend, but what I do know is that it was one heck of a game.

After the first half saw the two sides deadlocked at 14, perhaps the game-defining play came on the second half’s opening drive, when Ball Busters QB Hai Minh Luong drove his offence right down into BrotherHood territory only to misfire one of his passes right into the hands of DB Omar Jackson in the back of the endzone.

But Jackson dropped the sure pick, and just a few plays later he paid for it dearly when Luong found receiver Dylan Taylor in the front of the endzone to make it 20-14 Busters.

BrotherHood eventually get it back to 20-20, but see that tie quickly return back to a deficit when Luong hit Taylor on the very same route as before to make it 26-20 with just five plays left.

Fortunately for BrotherHood Gittens was able to hit Jeremy Ronsin for a touchdown with three plays left to tie the game up at 26-26. After missing the convert Luong had three last plays to try and win it for Ball Busters, but was picked on a Hail Mary on the game’s last play to clinch the tie.

 

Cleaning Up the South

I got the prediction wrong, but the game was every bit as tight as I thought it would be—in fact, even tighter.

It didn’t start the way I thought it would, however, that being with QB Mike Addona hitting his brother Danio on a bomb down the right sideline for a 38-yard gain. But that was all it was—a big gain.

Dirty South held for a 4-and-out, and from there the defensive battle was on. Both sides combined for just six scores right up until the game’s dying minutes—in between throwing a total of four interceptions and turning the ball over on downs a few more times.

With the game tied at 18-18, Dirty South scored what appeared to be the game-winning touchdown when receiver Junior Luke came down with a redzone jumpball pass by QB David Polynice to make it 24-18, leaving SMYTDs just two plays to answer.

As it turns out, that’s all they would need, moving up past midfield on a 25-plus yard catch along with an extra five yards on a penalty on the play.

With one play left, Addona did what top QBs do—deliver in the clutch, finding his brother Danio on a dart to his chest in the front of the endzone for the tying score, then finding him again in the back of the endzone on the conversion to win it 25-24 in the end.

 

Power Rankings

  1. Primetime (4-0): They’re taking care of business, but I’d still like to see what they can do against tougher competition.
  2. Monstars (4-0): Similar case as Primetime’s, but back-to-back games against SMYTDs and The BrotherHood should help determine whether Monstars are truly for real.
  3. Lobster Dinner (4-0): Still awaiting a game versus a team with at least a .500 record…
  4. The BrotherHood (3-0-1): Ties suck, but BrotherHood should be comforted by the fact they were perhaps one dropped interception away from being 4-0.
  5. Show Me Your TDs (3-0-1): Those two picks by Mike Addona were ugly, but that game-winning drive was beautiful.  
  6. Grip n Rip (3-1): No matter whom it’s against, 62 points will always be impressive.
  7. Fun Boys (3-1): Letting Nicolas Gendron-Vallée go off for four touchdowns is bad. Winning regardless is good.
  8. T.C.O. (3-1): Three straight one-score wins. That’s either the sign of a good team or a lucky team. I’d like to believe this one is a case of the former.
  9. Les Affreux (3-1): With their upset loss only sealed on the last drive, I’m going to consider it a stumble on the road to the playoffs.
  10. Ball Busters (2-1-1): If and when Hai Minh Luong improves his deep ball accuracy, this team will be among the most complete in the division.

 

Quick Picks

9-5 week for Mat Domon, 9-5 week for yours truly. Still I lag behind Domon one game, with him sitting at 36-20 and me at 35-21. That’s okay though—it brought me great joy to see him lose his game this past week.

Loose Cannons vs. Trapstars

The BrotherHood vs. Grip n Rip

The Dirty South vs. Primetime

Jagerbomb vs. Lobster Dinner (N/A)

Fun Boys vs. Tomahawk Nightmare

Les Rois Lions vs. Les Affreux

Les Blues Branleurs vs. Pardon My Swag

Angry Birds vs. Speed Demons

Fools of the Country vs. Tyrants

Scared Hitless vs. Warriors

Longhorns vs. T.C.O.

Ball Busters vs. Big Blue Wrecking Crew

Monstars vs. Show Me Your TDs

Tune Squad vs. Los Banditos

Backyard Bullies vs. Recipe 4 Disaster

 

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That’s all for today. A quick reminder that I’ll be splitting my midseason breakdown over my next two articles, so don’t expect any game recaps until late next week. Another quick reminder, you can always email me at [email protected] or tweet me @JBlanchFPF. If you missed Monday’s Calling the Audible podcast with Peeze and Brent, you can watch it at http://www.theunclehood.com/flag-plus-football/division-4/. See you at the fields!