A Game Preview and Game Recap for the Same Game, the Top 3 Super Bowl Snacks and Top Performers

We are entering Week 5 already and some teams, having played last night are already 5 games in, whereas Teams like Buffalo Wild Wings have only played 2, while 7 teams have played three games so far. While the scheduling has been odd, the biggest news in Division 5A is the roster shake up with Big Fat Bats. The rumblings around the league are that they have lost Sam Mashtoub for reasons that are cloudy and fuzzy. Though, it appears that they have found a more than suitable replacement for him in Jordan Lessard, playing for 4th and Shlong in Division 4. I already saw AJ Zeppetelli play a game for 4th and Shlong, so maybe they made a deal with the devil and is now locked into a Division 4 team. If there’s any receiver I ain’t worried about making the move up to Div 4 it’s AJ. He will fit in just fine with Caparelli slinging the rock to him.

With the Super Bowl this weekend, there ain’t no FPF games on Sunday, but also no games on Saturday so you can shop all the good food to snack on. Speaking of snacks, let’s start this article with a Top 3 Power Ranking of the best Super Bowl snack foods as we go through the article:

#3 – Potato skins with sour cream, 3-blend cheese, chives and bacon (and uh, real bacon please, no bacon bites) – This beats out the often too salty, fried cheese sticks and is a banger if the potato is cooked well. Bonus points for a crispy (not burnt) skin.

Keep reading to find out what comes in at #2 and #1, but for now, let’s get it going with the FPF content.

Division 5A

Week 4 news and headlines

Our list of undefeated teams has gone down from 6 last week to 5 now: Red “Not” Skins, Ballers, Save The Turftles, Big Fat Bats and The Process but BFB were close to losing their game after they intercepted a ball with 4 plays remaining, but made a poor decision from excitement to score the pick 6. This gave the Tokyo Sandblasters a chance, down 7 points, to drive the field, score a TD, which they did on the last play of the game, and go for 2 points, which they failed to convert. As you move up the divisions, game management becomes more and more important, and simply taking a knee after the pick in that situation ices the game, and that’s what they should have done.
After not getting a good feel for The Process early on, they impressed, beating Les Petites Carrotes by 26. Damn! That was not close.
After taking an L to No Friend Zone in Week 4, Ice Up quickly rebound against Him University, who had Kris Hope subbing in at QB for them with Joey Notaro and Travis Moses out in Torronna. Him University looking for a better 2nd half as they finished the 1st half 1-4.
Written Sunday Morning: NOW the Glory Boyz can’t afford to lose on Sunday to Buffalo Wild Wings. They have a TOUGH schedule after BWW.
Written on Monday: Damn, Glory Boyz got the huge win they absolutely needed.
Red “Not” Skins get a big win over Rico Ryders, stopping them on RR’s last drive of the game. That’s how they enter their bye weeks, as they play next on Feb 19th against the aforementioned Wild Wings.
The Tokyo Sandblasters have VASTLY improved since the start of the season. They were a hot mess in Week 1, and ALMOST got a victory over the undefeated Big Fat Bats.
Tony Vo is your sack leader with 8 in 4 games. Behind him are 4 rushers with 4 sacks each: Seb Dufour (No Friend Zone), Dylan Scattolon (Rico Ryders), Luca Leccese (Big Fat Bats) and Surya Chandel (Ice Up).
Justin Lerner (Rico Ryders) has converted the most XP1’s with 4.

Tip Top Shape got their first win of the season in dramatic fashion yesterday in Lachine. David De Andrade after hearing about his “worst season in the past decade” showed that he can still put forth an outstanding performance, going 23/30, racking up 241 yards and putting up 5 TDs for a 125.1 QBR. Down 31-20, De Andrade went on an 8-play drive, where he converted on a 4th-and-9 situation to keep the drive alive to Simon Dufort for 17 yards. They ended the drive with a 4-yard TD to Vincent Lajoie on the 5th-to-last play of the game. Forced to go for the onside, it was Bakley Charles, already with a 20-yard TD who was the hero, converting the onside pass for 17 yards that led to Lajoie‘s 2nd straight TD. This left only 1 play for Michael Deguire which Antoine Charlebois put to rest any attempt of a comeback with the last-play INT.

With their 4th straight win on the season, Ballers keep BALLIN’; or are they? Their opponents have a cumulative 3-10-1 record, so they might just be beating up on bad teams 👀. Let’s see them in their last 3 games of the season again Red “Not” Skins, Ice Up and No Friend Zone.
We’ve got a good matchup Wednesday in Laval; Les Petites Carottes vs. No Friend Zone.

Okay, at #2 in the Super Bowl snack department:

#2. We’re going with the chicken and ground beef-filled Nacho platter; extra cheese. Gotta love the nachos topped with onions, jalapenos, crisp tomatoes (not soggy so as to get the chips wet), beef, chicken and loaded with cheese. A great guac on the side and you have a sick QB-WR tandem going.

Game Preview/Game Recap

Save The Turftles vs. West Island Boys

**Written on Monday Feb 6th, prior to the game being played**

It’s the Game of the Week in Div 5A and also a rematch from last Fall Cup’s Semi-Final, where Save The Turftles came out on top with a 30-20 victory that lead them into the Tier 4 finals, which, we you don’t want to remember if you are Save The Turftles. That was then, and this is now. Then, we had Vince Cheung at QB. As good as he was as a QB, he is arguably better positioned as a receiver. They also didn’t lose a step at all at QB, with Sébastien Noël now entering his 4th full season throwing in FPF. He has thrown for 128 TDs and 49 INTs in his career, including the Fall Cup seasons for over 5,500 yards. While he looks the part, those numbers are a 2.6 TD:INT ratio, where the minimum for a good QB is 4:1. He has often hit that 4:1 mark during most of the games he’s played 2-3 seasons under his belt, so a lot of those INTs came early in his career (like most QBs in FPF) and now where he is playing in Div 5A, where the defenses are much more competent. The offense has always been well spread between 4-5 receivers, with Chaussé and Cheung being the WR1/WR2 combo.

As for the West Island Boys, I mentioned them on CTA as my candidate for disappointing team in Group B. With a 1-2 record going into this game, this is a team that has the skill that should be 2-1, if not 3-0. I love the team composition and style of play on both sides of the ball. On offense they are explosive but can also be methodical and drive the field. On defense, when the full roster is there, they can force turnovers off the heels of the speedy Julian McLaren-Thompson chasing your QB down. Zack Stacey has impressed in his early quarterbacking seasons in FPF. After breaking into FPF in Winter 2020 as a dangerous receiver with Primetime and WIB just last season, he’s gone from catching 22 TD passes in 20 games to throwing 87 TDs in just 21 games, averaging 4 TDs per game. And this is in his first seasons as QB! As he would probably know, you only keep learning with every game, every down and every decision, and he is just going to get better and better.

Alright, so that was the short introduction I wrote on Monday night BEFORE the game.

Then I scorekept the game and My oh My. West Island Boys were in complete control of this game from the second series. Starting on O, WIB would cruise to the endzone, as Stacey went 5/5, hitting Anthony “00” Grotto for his first of 2 touchdowns on the night. Then the Turftles offense took to the field and it started sloppy, with 2 incompletions, but things looked okay once they converted a 3rd-and-10 with a 23-yard completion to Guillaume Dubois. The drive ended sour though, as Noël would be picked off by Nick Di Maulo who would bring it to the house for 6. 12-0 for WIB after 2 drives isn’t prime position, but it’s not insurmountable. The STT offense would need to score on their next though. Instead? The complete opposite, as Noël threw a deep ball that should have been thrown deeper. Perhaps it’s not “short” against most defenders, but against the range that Julian McLaren-Thompson has, it was, and McLaren-Thompson made him pay with the INT on the 1st play of the drive. Zack Stacey made STT pay by converting their drive for 12 points off of turnovers. 8 minutes into the game and the score was already 18-0.

Late in the first half, with STT finally having scored and an 18-7 score, Tony Vo took things into his own hands to try and get his team back into it. With WIB just outside the redzone and having picked up a first down, Vo sacked Stacey for a huge 10 yard loss as Stacey tried to spin out the rusher to buy extra time. The STT defense even held WIB to a 4th down situation, but Grotto came up huge to convert the 4th down, which also went for a touchdown.

While 24-7 is quite the hole, but even being down 3-possessions, as long as STT could score with the final 5 plays in the 1st half, and starting with the ball in the 2nd half, they could recover and make it a 1 possession again. They started their mission well, making it all the way to the 2-yard line with 2 plays remaining, but as Noël was rolling right, he planted and saw an open Cheung in the back of the endzone in the left slot, but I guess he didn’t learn that throwing against a guy who can close the gap so quickly as McLaren-Thompson, Julian all but cemented the victory for WIB in the 1st half with the interception in the endzone.

The 2nd half was much of the same, with Noël overthrowing receivers on his way to a night to forget, finishing with 5 INTs and the offense couldn’t tackle or catch up to the speedy Nick Di Maulo as he had another pick 6 in the back half of the game.

And here we go, rounding out the Power Ranking of the Super Bowl Snacks:

#1. The Mighty Chicken Wing: Sauced or Dry Rub, you can’t get better than the wing. Whether it’s the flat or the drums, afternoon or night, gimme ‘dem wings. Just make sure they are bone-in and not boneless! C’mon now! Boneless is just a round chicken tender. Gotta go bone-in.

Master best ever chicken wings with our ultimate guide! - Kikkoman UK

Smoked Strawberry Barbecue Chicken Wings | Urban Cowgirl

Week 4 Players of the Week

QBs of the Week (2)

QB1 – Ignacio Valdes Manzanedo (No Friend Zone): 17/23 (73.9% completion), 215 Passing Yards, 6 TDs, 0 INTs, 2 Rushing Attempts, 16Rushing Yards.

QB2 – Vincent Guillette (Buffalo Wild Wings): 16/23 (69.6% completion), 175 Passing Yards, 6 TDs, 0 INTs, 4 Rushing Attempts, 54 Rushing Yards.

Receivers of the Week (4)

WR1 – Fred Mallette (Buffalo Wild Wings): 9 receptions, 12 targets, 124 yards, 3 TDs

WR2 – Félix Boutet (No Friend Zone): 5 receptions, 7 targets, 81 yards, 4 TDs, 1x XP1

WR3 – AJ Zeppetelli (Big Fat Bats): 7 receptions, 8 targets, 81 yards, 3 TDs

WR4 – Ariel Librati (The Process) 7 receptions, 10 targets, 91 yards, 2 TDs

Defensive Players of the Week (4) + 1 Rusher

DB1 – Riley Pincombe (Red “Not” Skins): 2 tackles, 1 INT, 4 PDs, 1 Def INT

DB2 – Greg Castiel (The Process): 3 tackles, 3 INTs

DB3 – Daniel Pereira (Big Fat Bats): 1 tackle, 1 INT, 1 Def INT

DB4 – Louis Gaitanis (Rico Ryders) – 1 tackle, 1 INT, 4 PDs

Rusher – Sebastian Dufour (No Friend Zone): 3 sacks

Division 5B

Week 4 chatter:

Week 4 in 5B saw a ton of Blowout games. 6 of the 10 games were waved early, as one team won by 18 or more points.
No Punt Intended were on both sides of the blowout. They took a beating from Red Dragons while they laid down a similar fate to Cover 3.
Team Sexy pitched a shutout in Week 4, trouncing the Brewers 43-0.
HimU had no answer for the trio of Jeff Tayeh, Max Burah and Craig Browning, as the latter 2 names combined for 13 receptions, 122 yards and 4 TDs.
Les Bleue Dry vs. What Could Have Beens was a great game where they had the slight edge in Quarterback play last Monday night.
As Brent Bodkin wrote in the game recaps, Green Monster squeaked out an ugly win on the last play of the game against Pocket Rockets.
After Primetime took a whopping in Week 3, they came back strong in Week 4 against the Bulldogs. The defense forced 3 INTs on Jordan Schwartz, including a pick 6 from Willie Habimana.
WIthout their stud Benji Ziegler, Warriors look like a much different team. That said, the then 0-3 Ball So Hard U’s offense did exactly what they had to and slow this game down to limit the number of possessions the Warriors had. In the 2nd half, BSHU had a 10-play Touchdown drive that probably milked 8 minutes off the clock. Even then, it took Fergenbaum only 4 plays to turn his possessions into touchdowns.
The Penetrators will play their next game almost 1 month since their last game. Geez, that’s a lot of time to get cold. They should be alright against Bulldogs, but damn, that’s a lot of time between games!
Group D in 5B is looking MIGHTY strong. With Red Dragons, Bleue Dry and The Penetrators, that’s a combined 9-2-1 record. Then you’ve got a good Primetime squad who drew the short end of the stick.
Damn, What Could Have Beens are 1-3. I had them being a Top 5 team in 5B. There’s still 6 games left, but they must be a bit disappointed with their first half of the season.
Cover 3 should be playing Cover 2 most of the time and stop giving up 3-4 yards of wide open space on each play. I’m more worried about their offense though. Seeing them in Week 1 showed me they would struggle, but 28 points in 3 games… a shade under 10 pts per game… rough. Luca Della Sala hit me up if you need some help. FPF is HARD and starting in 5B is EVEN HARDER. I hope this team couldn’t fit in Div 6 and that’s why they are playing in 5B, because you be, in 97% of cases, always be starting in Div 6 if you’ve never played flag before.
While No Punt Intended is struggling offensively, Carter Soles is doing the best he can to put the team on his back defensively, as after just 1 game, he is now tied for the division lead in INTS with Max Burah, Jonathan McCall and Jonah Burgess, all with 5, one of which he ran back for 6.
If the season ended today, Antoine Chabot would win Receiver of the Year.
Warriors have been playing FPF since Winter 2018 as Sick_bick, one season after I started in Fall 2017. HOW have the moved up only half a division in 5 years?!?

Prediction for the Wednesday games (winners are in bold):

Vick in a Box vs. Wolf Baie
HimU vs. Primetime
Primal vs. No Punt Intended
Cover 3 vs Warriors

Game Preview

HimU vs. Primetime

HimU have steadily shown signs of improvement, and while Pranav Sharma‘s deep ball is not bad, he is too often going deep, even when the coverage is there. If he were to look at one of his check downs, he would see that at least one of them is wide open. FPF is a game of methodically driving down the field, unless you have unbelievable accuracy and strength, like what is seen in Division 3 and above. Near the tail end of the The Step Bros season in the Fall Cup, Sharma was throwing nearly 4 TDs for every 1 INT, which was above his average of nearly 1 TD:1 INT. Now he’s regressed slightly again, throwing a 2:1 ratio. Now, granted, he is throwing in a higher division with more competent and athletic defenses like Vick in a Box. He is only on his 3rd FPF season, but this one is where most quarterbacks either make it or break it, so I’ll be interested in seeing how his progression and development continues. While El-Andre Abbey is a crazy athlete, and the type of guy that you want to have the ball in his hands, he is being targeted WAY too much. Good defenses like Vick will take him away and let you beat them with your other receivers. That’s where the team needs depth at receiver. In the past, Anthony McCall was that guy who would have slotted into the WR2 position, but he’s only played 1 game and looking more like a sub this Winter season.

As for Primetime this season, they are coming off their first win of the season after being matched up with 2 of the Top 5 teams in the entire division. That said, I’m not surprised that Daniel Spina has pretty pedestrian numbers to start the season. I can see him ripping it up in 2 of the next 3 games, he just needs the execution to be on point. Hopefully after putting up 33 points on the Bulldogs, he’s ready to make the scorekeeper work by flipping those plastic numbers on Wednesday night. As I mentioned in the division talking points, Willie Habimana helped the team with his pick 6, but is also the offensive leader so far after 3 games with 109 yards and 3 TDs. He needs to continue that pace, while Ethan Adrian and Zac Lyman are the 2nd and 3rd highest receiver count in yards, Spina needs more ball distribution to get George Zergiotis, Alessio Muro and Greg Saint-Fleur involved in the offense. That’s obviously harder to do against good defenses, but now is the time to get that done.

Okay, so now that we’ve introduced both teams, let’s break this one down.

Like I mentioned in the HimU opening, Primetime need to put their best defender on El-Andre Abbey‘s side and play as close to him as possible. Make Sharma throw DIMES out there in small windows if he wants to complete passes to El-Andre. Then, they have the rusher in Ethan Adrian to contain the running threat that Sharma possess, although Sharma has made a more concentrated effort on running less and throwing more, and it’s refreshing to see! The only way you get better at throwing the ball and reading defenses is by doing it more and more often. Normally I would say that the Primetime defense needs to be more disciplined in the flats, but HimU likes to attack the intermediate and the deeps, which plays into the strength of the Primetime defense.

The other way around, I believe the HimU defense will struggle to contain the Primetime offense. I think Primetime can put up 25, and if Spina is careful with the ball and avoids the ballhawk Jonathan McCall, they can put up 31. If HimU want to come out with the victory, they will need at least 3 INTs combined from Jonathan McCall and Tyler Laroche who has surprisingly, 0 picks so far this season. Laroche is a guy that made the all-star team in Fall 2022, notably as a defensive player, so he needs to begin his contributions on defense as of Wednesday night. The other thing that HimU lack is a great rusher. Aaron Ansah-Dei only has 1 sack on the season and Primetime QB Daniel Spina can break free for big runs. That will force the HimU defense to step up, which can expose the intermediate level of the field open for Spina if he begins to rollout.

Prediction: HimU: 18 – 31 Primetime

Week 2 Players of the Week

QBs of the Week (2)

QB1 – Guillaume Boulanger (Red Dragons): 18/29 (62.1%), 182 Passing Yards, 7 TDs, 0 INTs **Back-to-back Weeks as QB1**

QB2 – Frederic Juneau (Les Bleues Dry): 15/27 (55.6%), 160 Passing Yards, 5 TDs, 0 INTs, 1 Rushing Attempt, 6 Rushing Yards

Receivers of the Week (4)

WR1 – Andrew Steinberg (Team Sexy): 5 receptions, 6 targets, 104 yards, 2 TDs

WR2 – Antoine Chabot (Primal): 4 receptions, 6 targets, 80 yards, 3 TDs **Back-to-back weeks as WR2**

WR3 – Eric Namts (Les Bleues Dry): 4 receptions, 5 targets, 76 yards, 2 TDs

WR4 – Max Burah (Vick in a Box): 8 receptions, 8 targets, 101 yards, 1 TD

Defensive Players of the Week (4) + 1 Rusher

DB1 – Carter Soles (No Punt Intended): 1 tackle, 5 INTs, 1 PD, 1 Def TD

DB2 – Brody Rappaport (Team Sexy): 3 tackles, 2 INTs, 1PD, 1 Def TD

DB3 – Shawn Beaudin Rondeau (Stormers): 5 tackles, 1 INT, 1 Def TD

DB4 – Émile Bolullo (Red Dragons): 2 tackles, 2 INTs

Rusher – Vincent Bolullo (Red Dragons): 1 tackle, 3 sacks

Epilogue

Alright Div 5, that does it to recap Week 4 (and talk a bit about Week 5’s games, be sure to come back for Week 5 and see what’s happening in the division. If you want more content, there’s always more! Here’s our podcast, Calling The Audible from this past Friday, as I was hosting alongside first time Will Power, starting here for Division 5: