Week 7: Weekend Recaps with Outstanding Individual Performances and 9 Hamstrings on the Field

Hey FPF community!

Welcome to the week 7 edition of my Monday article, posted at 3 am on Tuesday, so technically a Tuesday article. The homestretch of the schedule is just around the corner as some teams are already in playoff-mode as they are battling the cusp of the ill-fated red, cut-off line between eligible and eliminated playoff teams. In this week’s article, I’ll be recapping three Saturday night games that took place in Lachine, including 69ers vs. Sweat and Beers, Finessers vs. Dream Chasers, and Suicide Squad vs. Chambo.  

 

Things on my mind this week at 3 am on Tuesday (early) morning:

• Just that the Post Malone concert was incredible on Sunday Night.
• As Brent posted previews for Monday night games, I got you covered for recaps from the weekend.

 

 

Weekend Recaps

 

Sweat & Beers vs. 69ers (Div 3)

To open up this game recap, it has to be clear from the get-go that Rocco Christiano simply BALLED out in this one, blowing the 69ers out of the water. They simply had no response for his 8 catches, 115 yards and 6, count it, SIX Touchdowns. He was saucin, saucin, saucin. 

The early part of this game was score for score, as Sweat & Beers started with the ball and took it down to the redzone where they had 4 plays to punch it in. The 69ers played some great man coverage D and brought Sweat & Beers to a 4th and goal situation, but a great route by Chris Milard who ran a hook, spun, ran 2 steps for an in-route, and smashed back out, all within 2.5 seconds. The 69ers were fortunate enough to respond with a 40 bomb TD response, as Shea Harbour had Ahston Thibeault running his go route on the far-right side of the field, scoring his first of three on the night. This was almost not-to-be, as the play before, Rocco came inches short of picking off Harbour after reading the QB well on the 5-yard hook attempt. While Sweat & Beers failed to convert their XP, the 69ers did convert, going up 7-6 early.

It was then around 6:13pm when the Rocco show started. The 69ers had so much trouble covering Rocco on post and corner routes all game, and got burned on Sweat & Beers’ 2nd drive of the game, a 40-yard post route from the slot. Once again though, Sweat & Beers failed to convert their XP.

After exchanging 40 bomb TD’s, the 69ers showed what they can do driving the ball, going on a 5-play drive that eventually ended with a 13-yard post route TD from the slot to Dean Demetriou, one of his 2 TD’s.

My comment from Sweat & Beers’ next drive is that they used Chris Milard and Rocco Christiano very well in terms of the routes run. A streaking Milard down field left Rocco open enough to take his 10 out route another 8 yards for an 18-yard gain. Ryan Dobbs-Garnett also make a key contribution on the drive, and he took a drag route 11 yards after shaking 2 defenders to bring the 2. The drive finally resulted in a TD (any time I mention a Sweat & Beers TD, just know it went to Rocco). He made an incredible (and did most of the night) catch in the back of the endzone, snagging the ball out of the air; a ball that was overthrowing defenders and just high enough for Rocco to get there. This time Sweat & Beers converted on the 2-pt convert to go ahead 20-13. The 69er’s showed resiliency on each drive following a Sweat & Beers TD. This time, they responded with a nice hook and go read from Harbour to Darcy Cloherty, connecting for a 38-yard passing play. Cloherty was able to secure the next pass in the back of the endzone to gain all 40 yards on the drive and put 6 on the board. Down 20-19, the 69er’s unfortunately missed the XP for 1 Rob Robinson, with about 4 minutes left in the half, played a great series, killing the clock all the way down to 3 plays left, and methodically drove the ball down the field with a great short game, after the 69er’s had to respect the deep balls to Rocco and Milard. In the end, another 13-yard corner route TD to Rocco is how the half ended (with 2 extra points converted).

 

Halftime score: 28-19 Sweat & Beers

 

The 69er’s started the ball in the 2nd half, and were faced with an early 4th down situation. They decided to go for it on 4th and 6 and as Harbour was rolling to his right, throwing on the run, his pass sailed on him and was thrown wide right out of bounds. He immediately let out a scream in frustration, as he knew as soon as the ball left his hands that it was mis thrown. I felt like here is where Sweat & Beers could take a strangle hold of the game. The way both the short game and deep corner and post routes were going, that they were surely going to both chew the clock and put up 6 on the board. HOWEVER, Robinson took a shot deep that I think he would like to have back, as it was well defended by Demetriou and picked off to give his team another shot to get back in the game.

Unfortunately, their excitement for a chance to drive down the field was short-lived, as a tipped ball got picked off on the very next play by Dwante Morgan of Sweat & Beers. Sweat & Beers once again had a chance at the kill shot, and this time, Rob Robinson was determined to take advantage of what his defense provided him. In just 2 plays, he was once again able to connect with Rocco on yet another corner route.

The teams would go on to exchange scores, but it was truly this last one that cemented the victory for Sweat & Beers, who improved their record to 3-3 and took one step closer towards their playoff-push, as they now have a huge matchup next week against a team they are tied with for the last playoff spot, District.

 

Final score: Sweat & Beers 48 – 69ers 38

 

 

Finessers vs. Dream Chasers (Div 4B)

The key observation and note that needs to be vocalized to the readers is that the Finessers were missing 2 regulars to start this game, including starting Quarterback Ryan Kharouf. They needed players, and got 3 if not 4 players from Team Y.S to play for them, who had just finished beating Chocolate Barracudas in their 7pm Div 5B game.

Ralph Najem was great in relief of Ryan Kharouf, who did eventually make it to the field and played QB starting the 2nd half. He has a great deep ball, and hit Philippe Michalk-Rousseau for 37 yards, and then connected with fellow Team Y.S’er, Olivier Cool for the 1 yard score on the next play. On their second offensive drive, after being sacked on 3rd down by Kevin Donnet, Finners went for it on 4th and 16th. Najem, already 15 yards deep from the snapper, dropped back another 5 yards and launched one to the left corner of the endzone for another teammate of his, Nykolas Pierre-Masse, to go up and get. While these are usually 50-50 balls, this is just not the case when Nykolas is going up for it. It becomes more like a 70-30 ball in favor of NPM, and he did it again against Dream Chasers, coming down with it for a 30-yard score, which was more of a 50-yard TD pass with how far back Najem threw the ball.

After 2 possessions of their own, Dream Chasers did score one which went unregistered in the stat line, and turned the ball over on downs on their second possession. So down 12-6, Ben McMahon went to his safety blanket in Kevin Donnet, reaching out and grabbing a great corner route pass for 36 yards, that would have gone the distance had Ryan Kharouf, now in the game, not made a great tackle. Unfortunately for Ryan, he got on the field too quickly, and forgot to take his chain off and was forced to sit another 5 plays off (the Team Y.S guys joked that the chain on their (Finessers) jerseys wasn’t enough, they needed the real thing too). Ben was able to finish the drive with a nice TD pass to Hasani Worrel, his first of 2 on the night. Ralph Najem had to stay in at QB and again, excelled in Kharouf’s absence. In 2 plays, he was able to drive Finessers down the field, first a 24-yard completion to Michalk-Rousseau, and then 17 yards to Karim Madji, who must have been inspired by Nykolas Pierre-Masse, because he POSTERIZED the defender in the back of the endzone, leaiping over a guy from behind to come up with a huge touchdown grab that came off a cross body throw from Najem. Pierre-Masse converted the XP to give the Finessers a 19-13 lead.

With the last drive before half, Ben McMahon didn’t start the drive the way he would have wanted to, getting sacked by Ramsley Brice for an 8-yard loss. This was a game within the game, Brice rushing vs. McMahon running. If you’ve never seen McMahon run on the field, think Shady McCoy cutting and shaking players in his prime, with the stature of Tyreek Hill. For Brice to end up with 2 sacks in this game was huge in containing McMahon, but Ben was able to gain valuable yards on certain drives, including this one. He first hit Phil Roberts for 23 yards up the middle, and also made a nice fingertip catch on the sideline for 5 yards. It was then that McMahon broke free for 6 yards, bringing his team to 1st and goal. After 2 well defended plays by Finessers, McMahon was able to hit Anthony Drysdale on a nicely run smash out route for the 3-yard score to tie the game at 19. For the XP, Hasani Worrell is just too much to contain, and converted for 1 in the back of the endzone, an easy jump ball over everyone to go up 20-19 at the half.

 

Halftime score: 20-19 Dream Chasers

 

The second half was less exciting as there was less scoring on both sides. For Finessers, Ryan Kharouf finally got into the game, but understandably, seemed off. He was coming off cold and with some new teammates that didn’t help sustain drives. For the Dream Chasers opening drive in the second half, although Ben did pick up 11 yards running, he was later contained by Brice just enough on 2 plays that in the end forced McMahon into a tough throw on 4th down, resulting in a turnover on downs.

While overall, Kharouf’s game was a little off, he did start his first drive quite decently, hitting Alex “The Mapinguari” Bachaalani for 11 and Michalk-Rousseau for 10, which brought them immediately into the redzone. The drive did stall in the redzone though, and it started with a big sack by Kevin Donnet, helping the Dream Chasers redzone defense come away with the turnover on downs. To get out of their own 5-yard line, McMahon once again went to leading receiver Donnet on the same corner route as earlier in the game, and my god, my attention got distracted from a play on the other field, but I heard a jolt from the Dream Chasers sideline, and only saw Donnet hitting the ground with the ball secured in his hands. Sorry I wasn’t able to give a detailed play-by-play of what happened on what I think was a sick diving, outstretched, leaping catch for 35 yards. 6-yard catches from both Drysdale and Colantonio brought the Chasers to the redzone, where Hasani Worrell is just a matchup nightmare. He was able to get in for another 1-yard score. Now up 26-19, Dream Chasers opted to go for 2 to make it a 2-possession game, and again, Worrel with a post-up of his own gave the Chasers a huge 9-point advantage.

While the Finessers did end up scoring on their next drive, led mostly by Alex Bachaalani who came down with a 5-yard TD from the slot, back on the endzone hook, the 9 plays, and 6-7 minutes off the clock was too much. Finessers did have a chance with their 2 timeouts remaining to make a stop on defense and try and go for the win, but on the first play, McMahon hit Anthony Drysdale down the right sideline for a 38-yard gain (minus 5 for flag guarding). While Finessers actually did prevent a score and forced a turnover on downs, they had only 2 plays remaining from their own 3-yard line. With McMahon rushing Kharouf as well, its hard to buy time, and the Dream Chasers were able to defend their lead and take the win on Saturday night.

 

Final score: Dream Chasers 28 – Finessers 26

 

 

Suicide Squad vs. Chambo (Div 6) – Ask Alex Noel how to play an FPF game with 9 Hamstrings

The key context that readers need to be aware of, is that Suicide Squad only had 5 players lacing them up to start the game. So, what seemed like would have been as “easy” game for Suicide Squad, was quickly becoming a difficult challenge.

Why not add to the challenge? Have a snapper that hasn’t snapped in 2 years put one over Alex Noel for a safety to start the game. Sounds like a good challenge, and that’s what happened in this one. Chambo got out to an early 2-0 lead and had possession of the ball.

Between Arie Baazov (28 yards), John Perez running (9 yards), and Jakob Boidman (1 yard TD catch), Chambo was able to easily get down the field and stretch their early lead to 8-0. Even if you know your up a man, knowing your facing Alex Noel, you want to stretch out a lead as fast as you can, and let emotions of frustration to set in for Suicide Squad and have a daunting task loom large over their heads. So far, so good for Chambo.

On Noel’s 2nd drive, but first really moving the ball, he told me after the game, was still an adjustment drive, as he was a little unsure how-to best lineup his 3 WR’s besides the snapper. After 2 incompletions, he took matters into his own shifty feet, and scampered upfield for a big 18 yards. His next pass however was a little forced, and Liam Assayag made a good jump on the ball for his 3rd pick of the season.

Perez continued to roll, and hitting Suicide Squad where it hurt most, into the endzone on a single play to Tyler Baliesch for a 30-yard score. Score was now at 14-0 after the 2 points convert was no good.

This is where Noel got more comfortable in the game, lining up his receivers mostly trips left, and Chambo never adjusted to it. Noel managed to move up field in a 9-play drive, ending in a 5-yard TD to Andrew Krause. On the drive however, I noticed Noel limping, crutching is hamstring…

Chambo had a chance to go up 2 scores and start with the ball in the 2nd half, but squandered that opportunity when Alex St-Arnaud came away with a key interception, and Suicide Squad were holding their own, down by 8 after the first half.

 

Halftime score: 14-6 Chambo

 

With the first offensive possession, Chambo did move the ball, but found themselves in a 4th and 10 situation near mid-field. They went for it, as you should being up in the game and having an extra man on the field, and came away with a big 24-yard completion to Eitan Assayag. A single play later and Arie Baazov punched it in from the 1 to go up 20-6, after failing to convert the 2pt attempt.

While the half had just started, down 2 scores, Suicide Squad needed a quick score. Probably the turning point of the game occurred on this drive. Martin Jackson took an out route 6-7 yards. He then went up the sideline, clearly was not deflagged, and the ref’s whistle clearly never blew. Jackson seemed to have been down and touched by a Chambo defender. Everyone kind of expected a whistle, but none came, so Jackson kept running down the sideline and took it to the house for 40 yards. What was very questionable, especially from my vantage point, was whether he was a) down (knee on ground), b) touched while he was down, or c) never down and kept his balance with his hand holding him up. It was a very tough decision as it all happened so fast, but the ref never blew the whistle, and the flags were never removed. So, Noel and SS got the quick score they needed to stay in the game. Especially important, they went for 2 and converted, and remember, all while Noel is hopping around one just 1 hamstring. Score was now 20-14 and could tell Chambo was feeling the nerves of “don’t let this one slip away / can’t give up this lead”.

Chambo did everything right on the next possession, hitting all hooks 3 times, which quickly set them up in the redzone, from 4 yards out. I also remember hearing Noel on the drive, showing his game awareness, telling his rusher and DB’s to not play stupid and recklessly, for if they were to get injured, they would be down to 4 guys.  With 4 downs in the redzone, I found Perez made 2 bad reads, and 2 other plays were well defended by Krause and St-Arnaud, forcing Chambo to turn the ball over on downs.

Alex Noel is a true leader, and led his 5-man roster down the field on a 5-play drive where he went 4/4 for 40 yards, with an 8-yard run, en-route to score the tying score, Krause’s 2nd TD of the game. The game was tied at 20, with an XP attempt upcoming, but Chambo played it well, and Perez was able to get enough pressure on a hobbling Noel to keep the score tied at 20.

Chambo had one last drive to go up field and get the winning score. I saw a lot of 5-yard hooks off a balanced set, which is perfectly fine, targeting Arie Baazov 3 times. To be honest though, there were some key drops by Eitan Assayag that in the end, proved too much, and the Suicide Squad defense came up HUGE and gave themselves 2 last plays to get a score.

On that last play, Suicide Squad opted for the double QB option, but with only 3 receivers downfield, the ball was easily batted down by the converged Chambo squad, resulting in a 20-20 tie.

I mentioned the leadership of Noel above during the game, but even right before the handshake lineup, I overheard him thanking his teammates for their efforts, telling them they should be proud of what they accomplished, being a man down all game and playing 9 hamstrings to 14.

As for Chambo, not sure how they feel. Suicide Squad is a top-tier team, but it must hurt to let a 20-6 lead disappear when you’re up a man on both sides of the ball.

 

Final score: Suicide Squad 20 – Chambo 20

 

 If you made it ’till the end, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the analysis as much as I enjoyed writing it. I’m always open to new ideas, suggestions, or shoutouts, so feel free to email me @ [email protected], or message me on Facebook (I’m pretty sure I’m the only Ignacio Valdes-Manzanedo on FB in Montreal). If you feel like you prefer talking FPF over a pint, I sometimes host trivia, and often attend trivia as a player at NDG’s own local pub, Honey Martin, on Tuesday nights. Come swing by and we’ll analyze divisions, teams game strategy and playoff matchups! Good luck to everyone in Week 7!

Cheers,