2nd-and-Short (Div4) – Week 9

Only one batch of games left before the all-important Week 10. I’d say something inspirational for all those teams playing this weekend, but I think it’s pretty clear what’s at stake here. Let’s just dive right in, shall we?

 

 

With a team featuring two Division 2 receivers in Alex Pilon and Serge Jr., for the longest time it seemed an elite QB was all 57 needed to go froma  barely competitive team into a dominating one. 

 

Well, it looks like they found one in Jeremie Mongeon-Duby.

 

Mongeon-Duby played his first three games of FPF as DB before switching to QB in his last three appearances, the most recent of which was “offensive” to say the least.  

 

Taking the snaps for 57 on Tuesday, Mongeon-Duby absolutely laid waste to the Coyotes defence to the tune of 17-for-18 passing for 248 yards and seven touchdowns. Coyotes were keen on playing man-to-man often, and Mongeon-Duby made them pay every time. It didn’t matter if he was throwing to Alex Pilon, Nick, Serge or Serge Jr.—all of them seemed uncoverable as 57 just kept pouring it on drive after drive.

 

Unfortunately for Coyotes they simply weren’t able to keep up as they fell 51-31 in the end.

 

Serge Pilon has proven his ability as a solid quarterback having thrown for nearly 1,000 yards and 20 touchdowns in six games at the position. But it’s abundantly clear that with Mongeon-Duby at the helm—he who has already thrown for a whopping 623 yards and 17 touchdowns in his three games as QB—this team is a new beast entirely. 

 

 

After a 3-1 start, Channel 4 News Team looked to be more preoccupied with giving us weather updates than winning FPF games—their only win in the last five weeks was originally a loss they ended up winning by forfeit. But they got a very real win on Tuesday night.

 

Facing off against Eskimo Brothers, our young newscasters’ offence looked back to early season form with QB Jake Appelbaum finding the endzone four times in the first half alone as C4NT led 26-19 heading into halftime.

 

But Eskimo Brothers weren’t going away so quietly, answering back in the second half with big plays to receiver Shawn Steen. The two teams would end up going strike-for-strike until, tied at 32, C4NT found themselves with the ball 15 yards away from the Eskimo endzone with one play left.  

 

It came down to a classic jump ball, with Applebaum throwing to the young Justin Mcinnis, who was able to out-leap Steen in man-to-man for the game-winning score—in Mcinnis’ first-ever FPF game, no less. How’s that for an entrance. 

 

 

 

I have officially converted to La Sauceism.

 

Though they had dominated for eight straight weeks heading into their game versus Broccasion on Wednesday, a part of me still felt some of that had to do with an easy schedule.

 

Not anymore.

 

La Sauce were clearly the better team in their 43-33 win over seven-win Broccasion, and they proved it in more ways than one.

 

First was the resilience: two quick interceptions thrown by La Sauce QB François Raymond to start the game gave Broccasion an early lead. But La Sauce had other plans in mind, namely staying calm and playing their game as they bounced back to make it 24-19 at halftime.

 

Then came the defence: two pick-sixes midway through the game—against one of the more athletic teams of the division—put La Sauce in firm control and made it their game to lose.

 

Last was the offence: La Sauce went mistake-free in the game’s second half, with Raymond making smart reads and not trying to force any play.

 

I’m mentally bowing down.

 

 

 

 

The no. 1 seed in the East subdivision is at stake, and the big question heading into this one is who will play quarterback for Healthy Scratches. The team has split evenly between pocket passer Anthony Vendrame and scrambler Cedric Langevin so far this season, and while the offence has rolled more smoothly with Vendrame at the helm, Langevin has shown he can win a few games, too.  

 

Regardless of who starts though, I have to say I like The Replacements’ chances in this game, for two reasons: one, QB Matt Bishara has been on fire as of late and I don’t see him slowing down anytime soon, especially not against a defence that has given up fewer than 20 points just once in eight games this season. Second, Healthy haven’t faced a defence quite like The Replacements’, who have given up over 30 points just once all year.  

 

All to say, Healthy are going up against a team featuring one of the division’s coldest defences and an offence on a hot streak. Heathy can definitely keep it tight—I’m just not sure they’ll come out on top.

 

 

 

-Daylight Saving Time. Why do we still do this to ourselves?

 

-So Alex Pilon has three rushes for 120 yards and two touchdowns so far this season. That means he juked out the entire opposing defence twice and most of the opposing defence a third time. If he started offering juking training lessons today he’d probably be a millionaire by Monday.   

 

-Looks like Dragons vs. Predators will be Game of the Week next week. I originally didn’t vote for it, but then I realized the potential to see Simon Dagenais throw three interceptions and lose is way more desirable than any scouting I could do watching Sea Assassins play Outlaws.

 

-“F Hamel” has played five games for The Junks so far this season. I’m officially dedicating myself to learning his first name before the end of the season.

 

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That’s all for this week. As always, you can reach me by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @JBlanch6. And be sure to check out the latest Division 4 podcat with Peeze and Brent Callendar at http://www.theunclehood.com/flag-plus-football/division-4/. See you at the fields!