2nd-and-Short (Div4) – Week 2

Week 2 is here, and just about the only thing I’m certain of at this point is that I’m not certain of anything. Teams I expected to lose big in this week’s games so far instead won big. Teams I expected to dominate instead were tested—and in most cases lost. And of course, there had to be yet another one of those pesky ties. This season is making my head spin—and that’s a good sign.

 

 

 

 

Recap

 

Eskimos Leave Knights Out in the Cold

My gut told me Eskimos would take this one. My head told me different, and I predicted they’d lose. It looks like Eskmo Brothers had more guts than I did. Taking on Knights, who went 6-4 in Division 4 last season, last year’s Division E champs made them look more like a Division 6 team in an absolutely dominant performance. Led by QB Mitchell Muir, Eskimo Brothers had little trouble marching their way up field and capping off their drives with touchdowns as they took a commanding 25-14 halftime lead.

It was more or less the same story in the second half, where while the Eskimo offence slowed down, their defence led the way as they intercepted QB Stefano Spinelli multiple times, including returning one for a pick-six en route to a 44-20 victory.

 

Breaking News: Channel 4 News Team Move to 2-0

After not winning their first game of last winter—their inaugural season in FPF—until Week 6, the wins keep on rolling for Channel 4 News Team, who move to 2-0 to start this season. And boy did they have to fight for it. 

Taking on Fun Boys on Tuesday night, defence was the name of the game to start, as the first half saw only two touchdowns, the second one coming on a Hail Mary pass from Fun Boys QB Scott Mironowicz on the last play before halftime to make it 7-6 C4NT. 

But the game opened up quickly in the second half, with C4NT QB Jake Applebaum finding Zack Goldstein wide open downfield for a 35-yard gain before later hitting Mary Freedman in the endzone for the short touchdown pass and a 13-6 lead on the opening drive.

Both sides went back and forth from there, until C4NT found themselves up 20-18 with three plays left in the game. Fun Boys gave themselves a chance to come back thanks to a Mironowicz run to midfield on the third-to-last play, but C4NT were able to bat down his heave into the endzone two plays later to clinch the win.

 

Banana Republicants 

After finishing 3-7 in Division 4 last season, SWCP Bulldogs went out and brought in a pair of former Division 1 players in QB Anthony Vendrame and receiver Pierre-Olivier Brunet, and this year became Healthy Scratches. 

Not surprisingly, Vendrame and Brunet played key roles in the Scratches’ first game of the season, and did so again this week. Vendrame threw for 188 yards and five scores this week while Brunet led the team in receiving yards with 54 along with a score. But they weren’t the only contributors to Tuesday night’s victory.  

With the game tied 18-18 at the half, Scratches defender Kevin Laliberté gave his side the lead with a dazzling pick-six to start the second frame before intercepting Banana Republicans QB Seth Galina a second time two drives later.

It allowed the Scratches to build a two-score lead heading into the game’s final minutes, and ultimately proved to be the difference as the Republicans’ last score of the day, coming on the third-to last play of the game, only served to pad stats as they fell 36-31.

 

Scoping Saturday

 

Pickle Fiasco vs. Broccasion

It may prove to be Pickle Fiasco’s toughest game of the season and we’re only Week 2. The determining factor in this one figures to be the running game. Broccasion QB Kristian Cerantola found the endzone three times on the ground as he finished with eight carries for 92 yards against an athletic Les Prédateurs team last week. If Pickle Fiasco are able to keep him in the pocket and finish off their drives, I see them leaving this game with a win.   

 

BearSkins vs. KGP Lite

KGP Lite QB Phil Cutler dominated with six touchdown passes last week, but I think he’ll have a hard time repeating the feat against the BearSkins defence. Aleksander Papich, Kevin Libman and Marco Bertoldi are all very formidable defenders and should make for a much closer game than KGP’s 41-12 blowout win over Checkmate in Week 1. That being said, I still expect KGP to score more than a few times this weekend, and I’m just not sure BearSkins, coming off just a 14-point showing last week, will do the same. 

 

Random Thoughts

• First, a word of clarification. As it turns out, my predictions record from Week 1 is indeed 11-9 after some scores from last week’s games were corrected over the past few days. (No, I did not count ties as wins, as Simon, with his TMZ-like journalism, led you all to believe.) 

• Unfortunately, I’m still behind Simon despite the corrections, as he jumps to 13-8.

• To make matters worse, my record this week after eight games stands at 2-6, again behind Simon’s 4-7. Three of the six games I was wrong about were decided by one score and one was a tie. Curse you, FPF gods.

• Speaking of single-score games, a quick calculation shows that 14 of the first 29 games this season were decided by one score or finished in a tie. Last year, the same was true for only six of the first 29 games to the season. It may still be early in the season, but so far it certainly seems as though the cap system is working as hoped. 

• Last week, Channel 4 News Team’s Mikey Sananas led the Division with 149 receiving yards. Eight games into this week, his teammate Zack Goldstein is currently the weekly leader in the category with 113 yards. Are these great receivers, the product of a great quarterback, or both? Whatever the answer is, it bodes very well for C4NT.

• I’ve pondered for a week now and just can’t figure it out: what the heck is a Pickle Fiasco? 

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That’s all for today. As always, you can reach me by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @JBlanch6. And be sure to check out http://www.theunclehood.com/ for this week’s Division 4 podcast, the first of the season. Tune in to see Peeze Della Reeze, Terry Tam and Brent Callender discuss FPF football and potentially their online dating lives. See you at the fields!