Award Winner Predictions and Let the Most Competitive FPF Division Playoffs Begin
Ignacio Valdes-Manzanedo
16-04-2024 08:07 PM
With 20 quality teams making the playoffs and as deep a player pool I’ve seen in a long time, all in the same division (just look at the names at receiver ranked 60-66 in TDs: Joey Taylor, Ariel Librati, Jordan Dubuc, Justin Blackie, Michael Khazaka, Rich Humes, Danny D’Amour, those are some All-Star, HOF caliber names!), the Division 3 playoffs is going to be an absolute barn burner!
Yes, we finally made it. We know that the season was absurdly long and the regular season stretched out with sometimes weeks before playing a game, and not always the best a team had that one given night. With the bottom teams now eliminated, let’s take a second to thank those who took part. Mel’s Angels, That’s What She Said (last year’s Div 3 finalists!), Greendale Human Beings (went to the Semi’s last year!), Griffnation, Une Phrase Bien Fournie and Speed Academy.
With those teams now looking ahead to the Spring season, the Top 20 look to make corrections to their game and learn from the mistakes endured during the regular season, and for those who know their first-round matchup, starting to game plan their opponents.
This of course naturally leads us to the Div 3 playoff format! The reveal was finally made on CTA, and we are having a March Madness playoff bracket. Finally! it’s been talked about many times in past seasons and the format is truly a fresh feel and has interesting matchups across the board. It’s also (Moe would argue) lessened the likelihood of repeat regular-season matchups, though honestly, I think it’s just as likely to have occurred or not have occurred with a high-low seed format. Either way, it’s a fun, different format that accomplished what the league strives for: making winning a group important, making the regular season success and failures important, and it happened to avoid many repeat matchups.
This graphic can be found in the Playoff Breakdown tab in the Division 3 page.
Basically, the 4 group winners are the top teams in each corner of the Bracket.
EZW and Dime and Bougie, the #1 and #2 seeds respectively, go on opposite sides of the bracket, so the latest they could meet would be the finals and not the Semi’s. EZW went into the Top Left bracket, while D&B slide into the Top Right bracket. You then had the 3rd best group winner, Bruins, join D&B on the right side of the bracket, but on the Bottom Right, and finally Kiss My Inlaws were placed in the vacant Bottom Left corner.
With BrotherHood being the best of the next 4 teams, they went into the same bracket at the lowest group winner, into the KMI bracket, and the teams were snacked back around. Lightweight when into the Bruins bracket, the Bullies in the DB bracket, and AF1 in the EZW bracket. And then the next 4 teams were snaked back down. Mongoose will now face AF1, Sharks will face Backyard Bullies, Minions will take on Lightweight and The Infantry will rematch The BrotherHood where BH ended that game with a 1 point victory.
With that, you then have the Wild-Card matchups that are set, so let’s do a preview for each of those games.
Wild-Card Matchups
(13) Beer Belly Brigade vs (20) Les Gros Coqs
Well this ended early enough.
Les Gros Coqs forfeit and Beer Belly advance.
(14) A-Team vs (19) Dirty Birds
This is going to be a game where the cooler heads will prevail. Lots of talent across the board in this one, and a lot of people are predicting a defensive battle. Both Quarterbacks didn’t put offensive stallworth numbers given the firepower these two teams possess at receiver and turned the ball over 25 teams between the 2 of them.
It’s going to come down to which team has the ball last and whether that QB can come up with the final, game-winning drive.
Recap: It was as expected, a defensive battle, with both quarterbacks struggling to move the ball past midfield and collect first downs. The defenses excelled in this one as both defenses shutout their opponents offenses. A-Team are absolutely telling themselves “We only gave up 13 points in a playoff game, and LOST?” while Dirty Birds are saying “We only gave up 6 and won by 7 points?”.
It did indeed come down to who had the ball last and A-Team were driving, getting down to around the 7 yard line after Dilan Daoust got a key first down on 4th and 10 down the sideline. The next pass though, a 5-yard slant would go off the hands of Dilan and into the hands of Kyle Tyrrell that would cement the tightly contest matchup.
(15) Arouch vs (18) Blue Chips
A low-key, very interesting matchup. The key matchup here will be who and how Arouch decide to rush Blue Chips quarterback Jordan Mitchell. The BC offense runs through his legs and has gotten better at pairing that with his arm as the season has gone along.
The Chips’ D is underrated, with household names like Sanders Armand and Ahmed Boubacar, and some lesser known names (but that don’t lack talent) like Jordan Antoine, patrolling the field. Similarly, the Arouch defense may be underrated as well. If they can send a rush on Mitchell that causes off balance, errant throws, the DB’s on Arouch have the height and athleticism to matchup with Blue Chips. Some plays will go Blue Chips’ way, but don’t be surprised if 1 or 2 goes Arouch’s way.
(16) Friends with Danny vs (17) Wide Open Bar
Wide Open Bar 👏 I gotta hand it to you, I did not see a 4-6 record in your books to start the season and much less so after a 0-3 start and 1-6 after 7 games. The team won out the rest of the season to squeak in and tip toe their way around the endzone cone into the playoffs. They are now coming in hot into the playoffs while Friends with Danny are trending in the opposite direction. Losers of 3 straight, they are looking to turn around their season in the playoffs. FWD are that tricky team that can cause problems, given the right matchup, and Wide Open Bar might be one that Jared Buck carves up, as long as he stays away from Charles Verreault. Those might be words to re-iterate once the box score is up and the next article is written.
Both sides have got some talent and the QBs will try to get the ball in the hands of their playmakers. Buck has the better deep ball and play calling experience, but guys like Philippe Leroux, Édouard Leroux, Louis Lussier and CV4 are dangerous with the ball in their hands and can find the endzone in just one flashy play. This could be another lowkey exceptional game, but also has the same odds of being a dud of a game. If they both show up and execute like they can, expect a 40-36 kind-of-score.
Quick Recap: I only caught bits and pieces of this game, but I did see Édouard Leroux make an ABSOLUTELY insane one handed, high pointed touchdown catch, going up crazy high and falling down HARD with complete control of the ball. Oh and all this was on the final play of the game to be down 1 point, 26-25 and keep the WOB season alive for 1 more play. Unfortunately for them, they wouldn’t be able to convert for 2 points and run out of there with the win, and instead, Jared Buck once again found a way to win. Remember, this guy took his Primal team all the way to the Div C finals, so let’s see if Buck has some more playoff magic left in his arm.
🏆 Award Winner Predictions 🔮
I don’t think there’s much debate on these, so let’s get Iggy’s predictions for the best of the best in Div 3.
Quarterback of the Year Award prediction: Simon Dagenais
Posting over 2400 passing yards in his return from Winter 2022, Simon had a career year, posting the most yards in his HOF FPF career and was one touchdown shy of his career high he set in the Spring of 2019 (55). He was also one QBR point shy from that same year as well (127.9). While he took 13 sacks, he opted to play it safe, throwing only 3 interceptions all year. Playing QB has a huge mental component to the game, and limiting the unforced errors is massive, especially once you hit Div 3 and above, and Simon was simply the best this year at doing that. Many voters in our community pool were right from my early articles, Simon was the best QB in his group and the best in Div 3!
Receiver of the Year prediction: Alexandre Barros (EZW)
After EZW suffered the loss of Sam Pelchat to the Australian ways, EZW were in need of a replacement for the big piece in the EZW franchise. In slides in Alexandre Barros and casually found the endzone 23 times and stretched the field for the EZW offense with his 12.7 yards per reception. His 634 yards were 5th best, but he was 6 TD’s clear of the next closest receiver.
Defensive Player of the Year prediction: Etienne Laurence-Gervais (EZW)
Uhhh… do I even need to say anything else? 12 INT’s to lead Division 3 and the next best was half of that from James Tyrrell and Jeremy Rooney with 6. Not only did he lead Div 3 in picks, he added another 4 passes batted down, and oh, he did it in 7 games! Etienne is your nightmare safety to throw against in Div 3 as he covers so much ground, so quickly, getting from sideline to sideline in a flash.
2-way Player of the Year prediction: Jeremy White (EZW)
The most prestigious of the awards to hand out, I see White‘s outstanding and dominant performances on both sides of the ball end with the 2-way player of the year award. With the only team in Div 3 to score 400+ points, Jeremy threw the 2nd most touchdown passes (53), had the 4th highest completion percentage (71.2%), the 3rd best QBR and finished as the 3rd best runner in both yards and Rushing TDs to compliment his passing accolades. Jeremy‘s effectiveness and efficiency in putting up points while protecting the ball was second-to-none. Sure he gave up a Div 3-high 20 sacks, but its better to keep the ball and find the endzone on that same drive than throw an errant pass that ends the chance at 6 points. Defensively, while others did the same or better than Jeremy, he still contributed with 5 key interceptions, one of which went back for 6, and added another 4 PDs to stifle opposing offenses. Overall, his impact on a football game was clearly elite and top of his class, leading his team to a 9-1 record, and hopefully for him and his teammates, a deep Div 3 playoff run.
Divisional Round Game Picks
The BrotherHood vs. The Infantry – Iggy’s Pick: The BrotherHood
Kiss My Inlaws vs. Beer Belly Brigade – Iggy’s Pick: N/A
Dime and Bougie vs. Blue Chips – Iggy’s Pick: Dime and Bougie
Air Force 1 vs. Mongoose – Iggy’s Pick: Mongoose
Bruins vs. Friends with Danny – Iggy’s Pick: Bruins
Backyard Bullies vs. Sharks – Iggy’s Pick: Sharks
Lightweight vs. Minions of Migdesyan – Iggy’s Pick: Lightweight
EZW vs. Dirty Birds – Iggy’s Pick: EZW
Epilogue
Alright Div 3, that does it for this week. Congrats to the Wild Card winners and good luck to you all in the Divisional Round as the games go down on Wednesday night in April!