5 Plays ‘Till Halftime Week 9 – FlagPlus Football League

5 Plays Till Halftime

Week 9

Another Huge Win For BearSkins, Are they Kings of the Power Rankings?

by Paolo Della Rocca

Each week Simon Dagenais will send me 5, rapid-fire questions intended to excite and educate. I will answer without thinking and see what we’ve got brewing. Feel free to contact Simon at @DagenaisFPF to suggest questions and topics for next week’s article.

Simon- After 8 weeks of ups and downs who’s really impressed you? Who’s let you down?

Peeze- I am particularly proud of a few teams this season. However, for those who let me down, know that I am not mad, just disappointed. I am fairly impressed by the teams that have moved up and I am now noticing that most of them are contenders. Les Buddays, BearSkins, Predators, Sea Assassins, Monstars, and Mongoose have all moved up from having played in lower divisions and are making noise in division 3. Six teams from Division 4 have made the jump and are holding over a third of the available playoff spots and many of them are holding top seeds.

The teams that I am disappointed in are teams that I had high expectations for and yet, have failed to deliver. I will give La sauce a pass because they have moved up a division and while I did predict that they would be a top 10 team, they are still moving up in the ranks and are facing the challenges associated with it. Instead I look at BD Bandits and Prestige World Wide whom I thought would be frontrunners and instead find themselves to be very average, middle of the pack teams. This is a great surprise and a source of sore disenchantment.

Simon- Is Conference A really much stronger or does Conference B have more parity?

Peeze-On the surface, I would say yes, Conference A is stronger. Beneath the surface, I would also say that Conference A is stronger. In head to head, cross-conference matchups Conference A has won 62% of those games. Conference B does have some interesting teams that can put up points and thus, challenge any team for the throne (Moose, Sea Assassins,Mongoose). It also features experienced teams who tend to do well in the playoffs (Prestige World Wide, VPC). However, with 3 undefeated teams looking to do damage in the post season, and a slew of strong battle-tested teams, Conference A does appear to be much stronger. However, once the playoffs start, it will be anyone’s championship to win.

Simon- Being the gambling man that you’re known to be, who would you put your life savings on to win it all this year?

Peeze- I wasn’t aware that you could use debt as a bankroll. Given this new, wonderful knowledge I need to ensure that I keep myself HOF relevant and don’t fall down the same path as Pete Rose, as such I will eschew Moose as my obvious choice. Wild Boys have been my favorite for a while. This is the safe bet because the payout won’t be great. BearSkins look like the poison pill in this scenario. I don’t mean that they are shaped in oblong fashion but rather, I believe that the payout will not be very good and I do not see a development where they get by the Wild Boys. An interesting pick would be Les Buddays as they have only lost two the two aforementioned teams, they are the type of team that will be tough to beat and I could imagine getting at least 4:1 odds on them. This is all hypothetical of course (unless you want to contact my bookie @EagleFPF).

Simon- When this season comes to a close who do you see winning awards this season?

Peeze- QB of the Year: This will be a toss-up between Dan Lazzara of Sea Assassins and Mathieu Réne of Wild Boys. Lazzara still has not thrown an interception after 8 games and he leads the league in passing touchdowns. Réne may lead a team into the playoffs with an unblemished record and may have similarly impressive stats. I think whoever does not win it may find themselves up on the podium in protest saying, “I’m a let you finish…”

WR of the Year: Zach Jauniaux of Sea Assassins is leading the pack with 19 touchdowns after 8 weeks. He is Lazzara’s main threat and is still beating teams up even though he has had four 4 TD games this season. Wild Boys Rashawn Perry is another interesting choice but he is currently 5 touchdown’s shy of Jauniaux’s current mark. This seems to be another race between the Sea Assassin’s top dog (Sea Horse perhaps) and the Wild Boys featured Stallion.

Defender of the Year: In this case I would probably give it to Céderic Nuckle of Mongoose. He is probably going to get out bid for Two-Way player of the year but given his i8 interceptions and 3 defensive touchdowns thus far, I can see a strong case for him winning the defender of the year. Interesting candidates include Kevin Wilson from Past our Prime who has 7 interceptions and J-m Laplante of BearSkins who also has 7 interceptions. However, ultimately I see this honor going to Aleksander Papich of BearSkins. He has 8 interceptions and I think will win this award despite losing the trade-off with knuckle for the two-way player of the year award.

Two-Way Player of the Year: I would probably have to give this one to Cédric Nuckle. He has caught 8 Touchdowns, recorded 8 interceptions and brought three back for scores and he has won a game at quarterback without having thrown a touchdown in that game. I`d like to say someone else stands a chance here but seriously, I think Nuckle is in a class of his own here.

Simon-What color Power Ranger are you?

Peeze- Red! Without a Doubt! There are probably a lot of reasons why I should have a Power Ranger that I most associate with. However, I have one reason and it is somewhat of a depraved sexual tradeoff. This Halloween I get to live my lifetime dream and ‘get with’ the pink Power Ranger. I know you are all jealous; I don’t blame you.

Power Rankings

The development in division 3 has shown that the top 10 teams have been quite static in recent weeks. We are starting to see a separation in what we once that was a conference with a lot of parity. Still I think that the surprises will come in the playoffs. If you disagree with my ranking let me know by tweeting me @PeezeFPF.

Wild Boys (8-0): I’m running out of ways to keep saying their awesome. So there you have it.
BearSkins (8-0): BearSkins are more 1a than 2 but because I don`t have that option I rank them at 2 and hope for a head to head matchup in the playoffs.
Predators (7-0-1): Predators keep finding ways to win and seem to be abl to compete no matter if you want to play a fast paced style or slow down the tempo.
Les Buddays (6-2): Offense and defense still rolling and Les Buddays look as good as advertised. They have 2 winnable games ahead.
Past Our Prime (6-2): They look forward to one of the most intriguing matchups of the week as they face off against Predators. This will show us whether or not POP can run with the best of them.
Moose (6-2): This Moose team doesn’t look like the one trick pony of past seasons. This incarnation finds ways to win and have now won 5 straight games.
Sea Assassins (6-2): La Sauce’s defense is not what it once was but, you can bet that putting 50 up against them is no small feat. Sea Assassins offense is looking deadly enough to take them places.
MetaMayhem (5-3): MetaMayhem may be one of the most complete teams that no one is talking about. They have started to come together as a team and now this group of athletes are starting to look like a cohesive unit.
BD Bandits (5-3): What has me worried is that BD Bandits have won and lost a lot of close games and it’s hard to predict their future.
Monstars (5-3): Monstars may be starting to fade. They got blown out last week and won by forfeit (in a game they would have otherwise lost) 2 weeks ago. I see a chink in the armor. Still, I believe they will get it together heading into the playoffs despite the two trap games ahead.

Others receiving votes

This time around, I asked people who actually proof read and edit their work. They told me it was overrated so instead I decided to talk, in depth about some teams who didn`t quite make the cut.

Mongoose: Mongoose are talented but lack one key piece. They fall out of the top 10 because we have seen that their offence will struggle against good defensive schemes. However, given the many games they have played together you will expect that they will not go down without a fight.

Broccassion: Kristian Cerantola was hurt in this game and it looks like he may be out for some time. This doesn`t bode well for Broccasion who have been slipping having lost 3 in a row. This loss may be huge but in the hopes that it is nothing serious, I see Broccasion as a potential contender nonetheless.

VPC: The reality is that this is a team with a very good quarterback, a very good receiver and snapper, and not much else. The issue with building your team centered on upper division talent is that the team will inherently be unbalanced. However, if they can slow the pace down Rob Robinson is good enough to score on evcery drive so I can see them being dangerous and winning many close battles.

Snatchers (4-4): I’d like to say that this has been a disappointing season for Snatchers but I did have concerns about building a team with name brands rather than players that served the system well. They have two terribly difficult games ahead (Les Buddays and BearSkins). They can prove me wrong with at least one upset over the next 2 weeks.

OTF (4-4): the mark of a team that has talent but lacks leadership and experience in key positions is one that wins games by being the better athletes but loses when the other team is on par or superior in that category. This is not a recipe for success in division 3. Still, if they step it up and display said leadership, they have the talent to beat anyone in this division.

Thursday’s Table Toss

My full weekly article is coming out in a few short days that will cover recaps and announce my picks for the upcoming week. Until then please remember to tune in tonight (Thursday night) at 7:15 pm eastern standard time, as Brent Callender and I will go head-to head and discuss the past week of action. He’s as interesting as Kanye at the Grammys so follow him on twitter @DatPrettyBoyBC.

You can watch us live at www.theunclemikeshow.com or download the podcasts via iTunes or at http://fpf.podomatic.com. If you’d like to live tweet the show you can do so by tweeting our producer @EagleFPF.

See you then!