Ciao, Ciao; Bye-Bye

The D2 divisional playoffs are a-wrap, and we are moving on to the quarterfinals for division two and semi finals for division one. The wait is long, and may seem never ending for all the teams on standby waiting to find out who will be their first pray. First week of playoffs for division 2 was a bit of a letdown until the final game of the night between Les Monsieur Chats and Clockwork. As we inch closer and closer to the finals, it’s only normal that a couple hearts will be broken along the way. Sucks to have your season come to an end, but keep in mind that if your season is done, it’s quite simply because you weren’t good enough. For those of you who find yourself preparing for another playoff game, congratulations to you. Nothing is a given moving forward. The match-ups do not favour any side in particular, and that my friends, will make for some really good football. I’m going to quickly recap the first round of division 2 and go straight into next week’s games.

Recap:

-It looks like Nathan Taylor and the boys in black took my advice and made me look like a genius. With Benny Goodfriend not present to witness this beat down, Nathan lined up at QB and put on a clinic. Final score? 39-12 for Flag Football Fantasy who now have their sights set on a rematch against Legends. Not an easy pill to swallow for Served with Ice who ultimately played the role of a pylon in their final game of the season. FFF looks like they’ve got it all figured out. They were one of my early season favourites, but they now have to go back to week ten and figure out where they went wrong against Legends and fix it.

-I had mentioned it on the podcast to Matt Kirouac that Les Monsieur Chats were a nightmare 6th seed and he agreed. I wonder how he feels now. LMC defeated Clockwork 40-39 on their last drive and then stayed strong with three plays to go. Sébastien Deschamps wrapped up the game with an end zone pick to send LMC through to the divisional semi-finals. An unfortunate turn of events for Clockwork who played well enough to win it but then fell just short. This game was the most exciting of the four. Although Clockwork led the way for most of the game, LMC never took their eye off the prize. LMC patiently waited for their chance to pounce and ended up being very opportunistic in the end. Cold Fusion watched from the sideline salivating from the mouth, eager to play. Jason Prince and the boys are probably booking off work next Monday in preparation for this upcoming game against a hot LMC team.

-It’s a cliché but it’s the most realistic and proven one in my books: “defense wins championships”. ONS has the most suspicious defense but they finally showed up this week. Far from perfect, but perfect enough against Wolverines. The biggest improvement is notably at rush. What was a huge void during the regular season was a key adjustment in this win. Jeff Millar was a man on a mission, the mission being: get inside Tony Tabet’s kitchen, because your coverage isn’t going to help you! Jeff found success over and over again when his team needed him the most… in his own red zone. Kevin Wyeth doesn’t ask for much as a star QB in this league, but giving him back the ball just once usually guarantees you the win. Hopefully ONS can build on this and give Chernobyl Circus a run for their money.

-Francois Lebeau showed us all why he deserved the QB award. It almost seems effortless for Frank to repeatedly find his receivers for large gains. My favourite thing about the Glads is their ability to convert extra points. It’s a statistic that goes unnoticed the majority of the time, except to my eyes. Too often teams neglect the importance of these points, and very rarely teams look back on a loss and realize they lost cause they didn’t convert a single extra point. Well, that’s not the case for the Gladiateurs who seem to have it down to a simple math equation.

 

Clutch Freaks:

When it’s do or die, real players show up. The guys that will show up on this list in the next couple of weeks are the kind of guys you want to build teams with.

QB: Francois Lebeau -21/30 for 228 yards and 6TDs-

WR: Nicolas Guimier -8 receptions for 97 yards and 2 TDs-

DB: Simon Rheaume -3 Tackles 2 interceptions-

R: Jeff Millar -3 sacks-

 

The KISH Award:

N/A

 

My Picks:

Last week I was 3 of 4 in the first round of the playoffs. Hopefully I can maintain this cadence going forward.

 

Game Time:

Rainmakers 2nd VS Demons 3rd

Surprisingly the last time these two teams met, the Demons beat the Rainmakers. At the time, Rainmakers were at the trough point of their season, in other words they were at their worst. Did Demons catch them at a very opportunistic time? Hard for me to say since I don’t know Rainmakers all that well on a personal scale. On the field it’s no secret that Demons have had their fair share up of hiccups. While Rainmakers had a four game losing streak, they never played poorly in that streak. Can’t say the same about the Demons who made the playoffs with a 3-7 record. Demons finished 6th overall offensively. The only two teams worse than them were Terror Squad and Express, and both didn’t make the playoffs. Defensively it’s more of the same; they finished 7th overall while Rainmakers finished 3rd giving up 48 less points on the season. Carmine Pollice has shown the ability to put up points, but I believe a defense is the key for success come spring time. For that reason alone I give Rainmakers an upper hand in this game.

Advantage to:

QB: Rainmakers

Receivers: Demons

Coverage: Rainmakers

Rusher: Rainmakers

Rainmakers advantage 3 to 1

 

Key players:

Rainmakers: Ryan Kastner, Charles-Antoine Sinotte, Tim Kraemer

Demons: Carmine Pollice, Sean Kennedy, Jonathan Grizzley

 

My Prediction: Rainmakers 38- Demons 37

 

D-Boys 2nd VS DK 3rd

Hate to be the one to talk about this match up seeing as I will be in this game and don’t want to give any unnecessary information to my opponents. Although, I strongly believe they need no scouting report from me. Here are some facts everyone could look up if they wanted to: In the two games they played against one another this season DK put up 79 points versus D-Boys’ 74. Rochdi threw 12 TDs and 1 interception versus Marco Masciotra’s 11 TDs and 2 interceptions. Ryan Aridi and Matt Kirouac both have 2 sacks; pretty tight rivalry. More fun facts for you: D-Boys have made the playoffs in the last 3 winter seasons. Two years in a row DK was the team to kick them out or beat them in the finals. For better game preview listen live Thursday night for GM’s unbiased analyses.

Advantage to:

QB: DK

Receivers: DK

Coverage: D-Boys

Rusher: DK

Advantage DK 3-1

 

Key players:

DK: Rochdi Benabdelkader, Ryan Aridi, Alex Pilon

D-Boys: Marco Masciotra, Matt Kirouac, Jamal Gittens

 

My Prediction: DK 40 – DBoys 39

Cold Fusion 1st VS Les Monsieur Chats 6th

I can almost guarantee the previous match-up between these two teams was by far LMC’s worst game in their flag football history. I’m not trying to take any credit away from what Cold Fusion was able to accomplish. But it is not realistic to think you will be able to hold Nicolas Centomo to 58 yards through the air again. It is also unrealistic to believe you are going to keep Patrick Jerome off the offensive stats sheet again. The reason I say this is because of how confident Cold Fusion was watching the Clockwork versus LMC game this past Sunday. It was a decent performance mixed with an awful game by LMC that had all the stars lined up last time, don’t confuse it for anything else. Justin Lavallee has given me all the reason to truly believe in his potential, and therefore I do. I also believe in the combination of Samuel Bibeau, Alexandre Branco, David Centomo, Patrick Jerome, and Sebastien Deschamps; an elite defense in division 2. On the flip side you have the defensive player of the year in Jordan McLaren and a couple of really athletic guys. Does that give CF a defensive advantage? Must I remind you what I think wins championships? I hope not, but just for laughs: defense!!!

 

Advantage to:

QB: Cold Fusion

Receivers: Les Monsieur Chats

Coverage: Les Monsieur Chats

Rusher: Les Monsieur Chats

Advantage LMC 3-1

 

Key Players:

CF: Justin Lavalle, Jourdain Alexis, Jordan McLaren

LMC: Nicolas Centomo, Samuel Bibeault, JC Mercille

 

My Prediction: 34 LMC – 33 CF in what is going to be a wicked game to watch!

 

CLR Forces 2nd VS Gladiateurs 3rd

The Gladiateurs filled up the board of clutch freaks last weak with no surprise. A team proud of their identity, they are willing to leave it all on the field on any given Sunday. The worst thing about playing a team like Gladiateurs is the deception in skill level you perceive them to be at, and the level they quickly wake you up with. Last time these two teams met, CLR won by a score of 40-37. CLR had themselves a very good season. I busted their balls for the majority of the season because they always seemed to get lucky in their match-ups. Don’t be fooled by my opinion of CLR Forces. They are a very good team. A team led by Frederic Dupuis and a very strong defense. The challenge on hand here is going to be Gladiateurs’ ability to stop Dupuis. CLR’s defense is in for some running around but I feel like they’ve been waiting for a chance to have their come out party, and this might just be the perfect game.

 

Advantage to:

QB: Gladiateurs

Receivers: Gladiateurs

Coverage: CLR Forces

Rusher: Gladiateurs

Advantage Glads 3-1

 

Key Players:

Glads: Francois Lebeau, Alex Nadeau-Piuze, JS Gradowski

CLR: Frediric Dupuis, Guillaume Ward, Olivier Bourdages

 

My Prediction: 32-30 CLR Forces… I feel like the Glads are favourite but will fall short.

 

O.N.S 4th VS Chernobyl Circus

Now here is an interesting game! These guys met up for a date 10 weeks ago and still haven’t called each other back. Might have been because that was the first time Kevin Wyeth had lost in over a decade. Seems like ages ago but I remember it clearly. Kevin Wyeth was going through personal things and was definitely off his game that week. He ended up throwing two picks that game… since then he’s only thrown 2 other picks. When Kevin Wyeth is on, HE IS ON! The problem for ONS has always been their mockery of a defense. Last week they patched one of the holes by having Jeff Millar go to rush… great success! BUT, that didn’t help the pathetic excuse for the coverage going on behind him. Chernobyl Circus has one of the most talent line up in division 2. Last time they met, Nicolas Arseneault-Hum only touched the ball on offense once, and that has to change. Patrick Chenard was perfect on the night; Kevin Wyeth threw two picks; and Chernobyl still only won by one score. Chernobyl needs to make one stop to win this game, one stop! If Kevin Wyeth makes it past this round with the defense ONS has, we’re going to change the phrase from “Defense wins championships”, to “Defense wins championships, unless you have Kev”.

 

Advantage to:

QB: ONS

Receivers: Chernobyl Circus

Coverage: Chernobyl Circus

Rusher: Chernobyl Circus

Advantage CC 3-1

 

Key Players:

ONS: Kevin Wyeth, Chris Pinsonneault, Jeff Millar

Chernobyl Circus: Patrick Chenard, Nicolas Arseneault-Hum, David Polynice

 

My Prediction: 44-38 Chernobyl Circus

 

Legends 1st VS Flag Football Fantasy 4th

Another game I’ll be part taking in and therefore saying very little about. Quite simply the game that was played between Legends and FFF was gritty to say the least. Emotions were running high, feelings were catching fire and Legends ran away with a dominant victory. Nathan Taylor had his worst outing against rusher Jeremy Cola. After the game FFF played last week, I think Legends would be foolish to under estimate the power these guys hold. Jonathan Lyristis showed last meeting that he is way more than the “token white guy” on FFF’s offense, he’s a key-player. I’m sure adjustments were made for both teams going forward. May the beast team win!

 

Advantage to:

QB: Legends

Receivers: FFF/Legends

Coverage: FFF

Rusher: Legends

 

Key Players:

FFF: Nathan Taylor, Adam Bailey, Chris Robertson

Legends: Corey Pecker, Jeremy Cola, Ryan Lelinowski

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to read my article. Once again good luck to everyone who has made it into the post season! Me and GM will be back at the weekly podcast so don’t forget to tune in Thursday night around 10:15! The link is on the FPF site’s home page. Follow me @VinceNardone for very little action on twitter or stop me at the field to chat. Till next time… Win or be left with the unbearable wait for the summer season!