CO-ED 2! SCHOOL IS IN SESSION

Hello friends, and welcome to another week of FPF action! We had a Super Bowl bye week and jumped right back into it last week. Seeing as most teams have now hit the 5-6 Games Played range instead of the 3-5 game range, I feel more confident giving a Report card that actually reflects the Mid-Season. That being said, it turns out Report Cards are lengthy A.F. and definitely took me longer than expected! Sorry about that!

No need for a long introduction, but before we get going, let me break down my super complex arbitrary and terrible rating system. 🙂 I like super heroes. And I really don’t like letter grades…. especially F’s, but alas, if I have to give them out, I might as well try to make it fun! So here it is:

There are 3 Tiers that I’ll be using to rank your team: Cosmic Threat > Planet Buster > Street Tier. The Tier is a combination of how many playmakers you have, stats as a team, length of time you’ve been playing as a team, and what level of team I expected you to be. I also assign marvel characters to each team to show how I envision them.

Your letter grade is given per Tier. You can be a Cosmic Threat with an A rank, and you can also be a Street Tier and be an A rank. The letter grade establishes how I think your team is actually doing compared to expectations, the caliber of teams you’ve played against, and your record so far.

Last but not least, I name 2 key players per team that I believe other teams should watch out for and to highlight their efforts. QB’s are not named because QB’s get enough attention in the league and OBVIOUSLY you have to look out for the QB…

S – Seriously Scary

A – Amazingly Awesome

B – Bold and Beautiful

C – Crazy Competitive

D – Dangerously Distracting

F – Furiously Fighting for Fame

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FITSQUAD

When I first wrote about this team, they were coming up against THE IG TEAM, and I was wondering if FITSQUAD would be able to stay undefeated to play a game against BENCHWARMERS. FYI – that game didn’t exist. Chalk that up to a 2am mistake, but I somehow imagined this amazing Game happening. Regardless of why they should remain undefeated, they have done just that… and without William Brouard at QB! Sitting at 5-0, I predicted that they would finish 7-3 by the end of the season, but I think they might make me eat my words. FITSQUAD have been able to score a large amount of points against their opponents (26-37-38-40-22), but have also allowed other teams that I wouldn’t expect, to score numerous times against them. 

Having VILLAINS and HUNGRY HIPPOS score 31 points against the best team in the division while they also are able to hold THE IG TEAM to 14 and FIREBALL to 19 is a very strange occurrence for me. Thankfully, David Michaud has been able to step up as backup QB when William is not there, and also as a strong defensive player. David’s 12 Tackles / 4 INT’s / and 6 PD’s is a chin hairs better than Boudjeema Saada who has: 13 Tackles / 3 INT’s/ and 2 PD’s. With Alexandra Falcon-Korb and Hugo Lepine adding 3 sacks each to Williams 4 – this team has 10 sacks in 5 games!  

Looking at this team from the beginning of the year, they have not slowed down. With most of their remaining schedule focused on teams in the CURRENT lower half of the division, FITSQUAD very easily finds itself in the playoffs. But how far will they get without having played stronger teams such as: BENCHWARMERS, FLASHBANG TEAM, KISS MY ENDZONE? They doused the FIREBALL team in week 1, but was that first week jitters? This week’s game against KISS MY END ZONE will show the division who deserves to be on top! 

2 Key Players: David Michaud / Laurence Pontbriand

Report Card: A

COSMIC THREAT – Galactus   

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BENCHWARMERS

How much can change in 2 games!? Our undefeated BENCHWARMERS were defeated by a surprising FLASHBANG TEAM after completely shutting down THE VILLAINS! What I thought was an impenetrable team, maybe has a hole or two I failed to see? With an extra game played on the rest of the teams in the division, Gabriel Wiseman still sits on top of the rest of the QB’s with the most TD’s, yards thrown, and the lowest number of sacks. Defenses will need strong pressure on Gabe if they are going to want to get him off his game. He has shown that he can place the ball almost anywhere on the field, and makes up what he misses with his legs. Teams will need to send a solid rusher after him and adjust quickly to their offense since most players will be outmatched by their speed.

3 of the top 5 Receivers in the Division currently belong to BENCHWARMERS and that’s without mentioning Constance Millaire, who has 201 Yards receiving – almost the most on the team! Despite all this, FLASHBANG TEAM managed to not only outscore them, but also keep them to 2 scores. Will this have shaken the BENCHWARMERS confidence? They will be looking to reassert dominance over the division but will have to go through FIREBALL first. BENCHWARMERS arguably should have had an undefeated season, but Pobody’s Nerfect. 

I’d love to critique and say something like, “spread the ball more” or whatever, but with 4 receivers that have multiple TD’s and over 150 Yards receiving each… It’s already being done. This team is doing as well as I expected them to, which means will most likely make it to FINALS.   

2 KEY PLAYERS: Nicholas Gomes-Risso / Constance Millaire

Report Card: S

COSMIC THREAT – Phoenix Force  

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FLASHBANG TEAM 

Our other team sitting at 5-1 is this FLASHBANG TEAM. I have previously talked about how Charles Verreault was the QB taking lead for this team, being helped by Jeremy Augustin, but lets look at some more concrete stats for these QB’s: 62 Attempts for 43 completions gives Charles a nice completion % of almost 70%, which I believe is one of the highest among top QB’s. 11 TD’s in 5 games is not going to be enough in my books to win playoff games or the Championship, but it seems to be enough right now, to get through the season. Their 1 loss currently comes from a week 1 KISS MY END ZONE team where they scored the lowest they have all season. Jeremy Augustin was able to take the reins against FIGHTIN’ TIGERS and BENCHWARMERS and brought FLASHBANG TEAM the win. In just those 2 games, he has put up – 340 Yards and 6 TD’s, however, has thrown more picks and taken more sacks than Charles has so far. I want to see how this team adjusts in the future. Will they stick it out with Charles, who isn’t putting up the same stats, but is protecting the ball more? Or will Jeremy slowly creep his way into the QB spot for the playoffs? Having led the team when they beat BENCHWARMERS, it could be interesting to see how this team progresses. 

In my last article, we touched slightly on Jean-Nicholas Brenko and his contributions to the offense and his race for #1 WR of the year. Now I’d like to explore their other players that make this team work, starting with: Charles Davidson-Parent. A recent addition to the team, Charles has shown that he can carry an almost perfect catch rate (11 targets / 10 catches), can keep up with other receivers on the team (3 TD’s) and have over 100 yards receiving. He is arguably their most important defensive player besides Sarah Berube. 

That being said, I don’t think this team wins, or works as well as it does, without the help and pressure caused by its female players. Usually Co-Ed teams live and die by their female players and should not be underestimated; FLASHBANG TEAM is no exception. Despite some great defensive stats, and a good offensive performance from Sarah Berube, I feel as though FLASHBANG TEAM are underutilizing these players. And could it be the case that some of these players are siblings?! Jean-Nicolas Brenko and Ariane Brenko? Sarah Berube and Emile Berube? Anyway, interesting things from this team who I think have a chance to win out the rest of their schedule, but will need to start using their female players more, if they expect to make it far in the playoffs. 

2 KEY PLAYERS: Jean-Nicolas Brenko / Sarah Berube

REPORT CARD: A  

COSMIC THREAT – Annihilus

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FIREBALL

This is an explosive team that will play most of the best teams in the division throughout the regular season. Having already beaten KISS MY END ZONE, they will be facing BENCHWARMERS, FLASHBANG TEAM, and THE IG TEAM in the coming 5 weeks. Having lost only to FITSQUAD in the first week, if this team can beat BENCHWARMERS in week 8, I don’t know who will be able to stop them. Micheal Arseneau has been incredibly consistent at not turning over the ball, but I think I need him to widen the gap in his games a bit more before playoff time comes. Beating Flamingos 44-13 is amazing, but they have not been able to beat stronger teams by more than 7 points. A potential reason for this may be that their other players: Rosalie Stevanovic and Chloe Corbeil have only received 1 target per game. Emmanuelle Flynn and Oumar Toure have been targeted a bit more (about 3 targets per game), but with the reliance on Kevin Malonga and Dimitri Melsbach, if defenses are able to slow them down (which they haven’t yet), FIREBALL may find themselves struggling. 

Their defense is coming together well, only letting up an average of 21.6 points per game and scoring about 32 points a game, opposing defenses will need to start forcing this team into turnovers, if they want a chance to compete. I’d need to see a few more things from this team to push them into the COSMIC THREAT tier: keeping teams like BLOCK PARTY and TEAM ROCKET to less than 20 points. Beating BENCHWARMERS and/or FLASHBANG TEAM, and getting their female players more involved!   

2 KEY PLAYERS: Kevin Malonga / Emmanuelle Flynn

Report Card: A 

PLANET BUSTERS – Thor

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KISS MY END ZONE

KISS MY END ZONE is another team that is having a trial by fire. Their schedule is tough due to having to play against most top teams, but going into the 2nd half of their schedule should give them some slack. Having beaten FLASHBANG TEAM in week 1, KMEZ ended up losing to BENCHWARMERS, and then to FIREBALL last week. Given that both of these losses were less than 3 points difference, means that it was an intense well fought game, but I expected more from my fellow ball hawks and will be looking to go 5-0 in the 2nd half of the season. Sitting precariously atop the teams with 3 wins, i’ve had to re-evaluate the competition in this division and what KMEZ will need to do to get their hot streak back.

Usually, teams have struggled to spread the ball to various receivers, but with 7 receivers with over 10 Targets, it’s clear that Iggy has all the targets he needs. So where is this team failing? How can they turn their luck around and ensure they come out on top? Abigail Cockerton will need to continue to be the main threat on offense, giving Iggy options besides Luis Begin and Alexandre Noel. 

On defense, they will need to start coming together to make bigger stops. Beating other teams because your offense can put up 30 points a game is great, but when those teams can also put up 25-33 points against you, every game can be a struggle! Not many players have a high amount of tackles on defense, and despite Alexandre Noel having a defensive TD, so far, KMEZ is relying on Kelly Lalonde, Brianna Keeley, and Alexis Labonte for PD’s and stopping the defense. I will also need to do better than 3 sacks in 4 games to put more pressure on opposing QB’s. Overall, I’m going to have to give my own team a lower grade than I would have liked, but they still have the opportunity to turn it around and be the team I know we can be! 

2 KEY PLAYERS: Abigail Cockerton / Luis Begin

Report Card : C 

COSMIC THREAT  – Kang the Conqueror

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THE IG TEAM

I think the IG TEAM is currently having a rough time of things. I predicted last week that they would win against THE VILLAINS, but we actually saw them lose in a game that came down to converts. They are slowly losing steam in the race to the top, but shouldn’t be worried about finding themselves in the bottom. Unfortunately, Jeanslee Alexis was only able to put up 2 TD’s this game ( 1 thrown and 1 rushing). However, he was also able to give Clifdji Solon a chance at QB that game and with Clifdji’s 2 TD’s, the IG TEAM almost took the win. They may be able to get an easier win over BLOCK PARTY, but the other 3 games will not be so easy. Seeing their almost identical points for and points against, and their current record and good 5-5 finish for the season should be well within their reach. Unfortunately, their performance so far will not be able to win them those games. Jeanslee Alexis is doing a great job of moving the ball with his legs, but will need to start finding ways to complete passes. 

I believe I mentioned in my last article that it’s truly the IG TEAM defense that is able to keep them in games and where this team shines. They are still getting 2 INT’s per game on avg. and are creating a No-Fly zone, as their defense swats balls out of their left and right. Each player having 2-3 PD’s is pretty good in my opinion. I’m not sure how this team will fare in the playoffs, but they should be able to weather this second half of the season

2 KEY PLAYERS: Gabrielle Poissant / Jordanson Alexis

Report Card: B

PLANET BUSTERS – Apocalypse

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BADGERS

A tough break recently for BADGERS. I’ll be giving a review of them shortly, but I would have initially thought they may get 5 wins over the season. Now I wonder if they will get more than the 2 they already have. Chris Rivest is throwing it up with 19 TD’s but 14 sacks means that Chris is vulnerable to a good rusher and if he doesn’t start bringing those down he may end the season with 25+ sacks.

In my opinion, Cesar Garcia-Diaz is the playmaker on this defense, but he is helped by Marisol Pelcastre and Roxane Rashidian who are the only other 2 individuals to have INT’s on the team. Without many turnovers, and Jonothan Shea having only 2 sacks, this team has not been able to stop many offenses from putting up points and will continue to struggle against bigger threats: KMEZ, FITSQUAD, VILLAINS and IG TEAM. They may have to rethink how they approach their current defense and start playing more aggressively… However, I haven’t had the chance to watch them play yet, so I will try to catch them this weekend.

If they aren’t careful, they could find themselves fighting out of the bottom of the division. Despite having a QB with the 3rd most number of TD’s. It’s time to get down and dirty and start winning if this team wants a chance in the playoffs!

2 KEY PLAYERS: Cesar Garcia-Diaz / Marisol Pelcastre

Report Card: D

STREET TIER – Wolverine

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FIGHTIN’ TIGERS

These ferocious felines are doing the best they can against a strong Co-Ed 2. They have always been a consistent team with Seth Galina at QB, however, Maude Lacasse is throwing as starting QB! I wonder what her stats would have been like if she didn’t miss 2 games… 752 Yards and 18 TD’s in 4 games because she was very impressive during our game! That’s in part due to every receiver being a threat. Having played this team in week 3, I think this team has been a victim of not being able to close out games. They have kept it close in big games, often losing by less than a TD!: losing by 2 points against FIREBALL and FLASHBANG TEAM, and losing by 5 against KMEZ. I’m hoping that these games being close means that come playoff time, FIGHTIN’ TIGERS will be able to upset a few teams. 

Defensively, Julian Mclaren-Thompson is blowing everybody away, with 14 sacks in 6 games!!! But he isn’t the only strong defensive player! My 2 other favorite defensive players are most likely: Seth Galina and Rebecca Decary-Corbeil! Not only are these players doing great on defense, they are also killing it on offense….this team is stacked with 2 way players. And that’s why I have to rank this team a bit lower than I initially would have liked; I predict they will close out the season with Max 4 wins. I also hope they prove me wrong, but going against FITSQUAD and BENCHWARMERS won’t be easy!  

2 KEY PLAYERS: Julian McLaren-Thompson / Rebecca Decary-Corbeil

Report Card: B

STREET TIER – Heroes for Hire ( Iron Fist and Power Man) 

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THE VILLAINS

Mehdi Chabchoub is killing it this season! 22 TD’s, and almost a 2:1 TD to INT ratio. He would probably be happy if they could lower those, but sitting at 3-3 is not bad at all! With a recent win over THE IG TEAM is exactly what they needed to stay relevant! They may have lost against teams in the TOP 4, but they have beaten everyone else. If this trend stays the same, there is a real possibility that they could win out the rest of their season; or at least get 3 more wins. I’d have to say that THE VILLAINS only seem to be throwing it to their female players once or twice a game, and that is not the recipe for success. Despite all that, fighting for 1st place receiver are Xavier Sauve and Jeremi Thompson O’Reilly. Both of them have 6 TD’s and more than 250 Yards. And then if you focus on those 2, there is a plethora of other receivers who are hungry for a score: Ricardo Orsini, Vincent Lemieux, and Gabrielle Mongrain. 

Coming off this big win, will they be able to keep it going and defeat BADGERS and DEEP BALLZ? And how will they stack up to KMEZ? What this team needs to do to win key games, is to create more INT’s and turnovers. They have a lot of PD’s (and I definitely hope they continue getting them) but I want them to turn those PD’s into INT’s. Giving Mehdi the ball more is a must for this team! I’m ready to be surprised again, because this team is doing better and more than I thought they would be able to! 

2 KEY PLAYERS: Jeremi Thompson OReilly / Gabrielle Mongrain

Report Card: C

PLANET BUSTERS – The Incredible Hulk

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DEEP BALLZ

DEEP BALLZ have had a slow and tough start to their schedule. Losing their first 3 games, I wasn’t sure if this team would be able to bounce back and get some much needed wins… and they did! DEEP BALLZ were able to beat FLAMINGOS and then cause, what I would call, an upset against FIGHTIN’ TIGERS winning 39-28. Looking at their team, most of their players are fairly new to FPF, having only started this season or being around for just a few seasons. Bruno Provencher has stepped into the role of QB and has done an excellent job at keeping turnovers low (1 sack / 1 INT). He kept them close in a game against BENCHWARMERS, and was the QB to win the other 2 games. It is a shame Bruno missed 2 out of 5 games played so far, but will definitely need to show up next games if DEEP BALLZ is to have a chance against FLASHBANG TEAM. 

With most receivers (except Francois Rocheleau and Rory Kelly) having between a 50-60% catch rate, Bruno will need his receivers to step up and bring in some of those passes. Defensively, with 13 PD’s and 4 INTS, I don’t have much to gripe about this defense for. I usually like to see a designated rusher pick up a lot of sacks, but with 4 players totalling 7 sacks overall in 6 games, is consistent enough for me. I would suggest finding a key player that you can trust at rush and let them get their pacing for the rest of the year, however, I’m not mad at the sacks they currently have (Thomas Trepanier leads the team with 3 sacks). 

This team is showing me that they want to compete at that higher level, but are missing a few key components for getting those wins. I wasn’t expecting a stellar performance from DEEP BALLZ (8-2 or 7-3), but I wasn’t expecting them to beat FIGHTIN’ TIGERS either! Can they continue to pull the upsets against teams like THE VILLAINS or HUNGRY HIPPOS and finish the season at 4-5 wins? This team is doing better than I expected and as such, gets bumped out of the STREET TIER.

2 KEY PLAYERS: Rory Kelly / Eve Charbonneau

Report Card: D

PLANET BUSTER – Sentry/Void 

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HUNGRY HIPPOS

These hungry hungry hippos are being fed a bit more than they can chew from some ‘A’ class competition. Staying alive through the first half of the season, Pierre-Alexandre Cordero is leading this first year team through the gauntlet that is Co-Ed 2. HUNGRY HIPPOS have recently overcome the BADGERS, which would have put them higher up in my own subjective rankings, however, with games coming up against KISS MY END ZONE, BENCHWARMERS, and finishing with VILLAINS… they may be in for a bumpy second half of the season! Looking at this team, I really like seeing that so many of their receivers have missed so few passes! It’s a shame that HUNGRY HIPPOS have not been able to create more turnovers for their team, but ANGELIE MARTIN and OLIVER LABERGE have been doing their best to shut down as many plays as possible with 13 and 12 tackles respectively. 

This team can only work at becoming more stable and efficient with what they have. Mathilde Lavigne is coming from the Women’s 1 division, and with 4 TD’s (same as Olivier Laberge), she definitely has the hands to perform in Co-Ed! Feed this girl the ball! Along for the ride on this large mammalian adventure are Marie-Lune Foczeny and Mathis Foczeny, who I can only imagine are siblings. Coming in with 3 TD’s each, these wonder twins (OK…. they aren’t twins, but close enough) have rounded out this offense and defense and made themselves valuable members, despite their youth in the league. Overall, a team that is doing the best they can. They will need a stronger defense to be able to close out games and stay alive until playoffs, but until then, I think the hungry HUNGRY HIPPOS may have bit off more than they can chew in Co-Ed 2 and will settle at near the bottom of the Division

2 KEY PLAYERS: Mathis Foczeny / Mathilde Lavigne

Report Card: C

STREET TIER – Jessica Jones

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TEAM ROCKET

First off, this team gets bonus points for their great jerseys! I kinda wanna play on the team just for a jersey at this point. That being said, this team has struggled to win many of their games; with their only win coming last week against BLOCK PARTY, another WINLESS team. Some of TEAM ROCKET’s games have been close: 12-14 against FLASHBANG TEAM and 18-14 against HUNGRY HIPPOS. However, on the flip side of the coin, they have also lost some games by double their score. Thomas-Charles Paradis is currently taking charge of this team and doing what he can to keep his team competitive in games. Looking at TEAM ROCKET’s offense: all of their receivers have around a 50% catch rate, which is itself impressive when you realize Thomas-Charles only has about a 40% completion rate. 

Defensively, they are doing better. They have racked up 7 sacks in 4 games, and also 3 INT’s. Nicolas Prince has been the PD magnet of the team – holding 5 PDs. Nassim Ouadhi, 14 tackles, 3 INT’s, 1 PD, seems to be their reliable defensive player, Thomas-Charles is not too far behind him. With the only, potentially, easy-ish, win in the second half of the season coming from FLAMINGOS, the fate of TEAM ROCKET is not their own. They will need to hope that the right teams win and lose so that they can be pushed up to the top of the elimination pod.   

A great first try into the foray of Co-Ed, but it might be prudent for the ROCKETS to try their hand in Co-Ed 3 first and get a rhythm going.

2 KEY PLAYERS: Nassim Ouadhi / Alexia Ribotti

Report Card: D

STREET TIER – Moon Knight

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BLOCK PARTY

This party has not been allowed to start yet, and at this point, i’m not sure if it will get the chance. I really thought they would be able to take the fight to TEAM ROCKET, but the upset 2 weeks ago made me start second guessing if they will be able to get their win this season. They have a game this week against IG TEAM, who are looking for a big win after 3 back to back losses. It will be a hard game that might outpace the BLOCK PARTY team, but good news: Week 9 is the matchup up that I’ve been looking forward to – BLOCK PARTY Vs. FLAMINGOS! Battle of the last winless teams! Marc Antoine Martin is clearly trying to pump up this BLOCK PARTY team – an average of about 100 yards a game and 2.5 TD’s would usually do that, but in this monster of a Co-Ed 2 division, it just isn’t enough to win games. He is also going to need to do what he can to reduce those INT’s though, no team can afford to have 15+ INT’s in a season. 

The offense seems to be relying on Max-Edouard Dadaille (3 TD’s) and Fabrice Robillard (Surprisingly only 1 TD) to make plays and carry them forward. Most other receivers have 1 or 2 TD’s, so players are definitely getting targets, but with less than 10 targets each in 5 games, they are few and far between. With only 2 sacks and 2 INT’s, the defense will need to find ways to give Marc Antoine more chances at QB. They do boast a decent 13 PD’s as a team and haven’t given up yet. They will need to take everything they have learned this season and give it everything they’ve got to come out on top. 

2 KEY PLAYERS: Fabrice Robillard / Reka Sivasubramaniyam

Report Card: F

STREET TIER – Nick Fury

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FLAMINGOS

Last, but definitely not least, the flock of FLAMINGOS! This team has a large roster! Big enough that they almost don’t all fit in their picture. Besides BLOCK PARTY, they are the only other winless team, having gone up against some of the better teams in the division like FIREBALL, IG TEAM, and BENCHWARMERS. As much as they try to keep the games close, FLAMINGOS usually find themselves losing by about double the points they score. With their season ending with another 3 good teams: KISS MY END ZONE, FITSQUAD, and FLASHBANG TEAM, the next 2 weeks against TEAM ROCKET and BLOCK PARTY might be the last chances to get a win for the season! William Ducas is struggling to complete passes (35.5%) and is unfortunately throwing more INT’s than TD’s. This will need to be addressed before next season so that William is ensuring he is giving his receivers the chance to catch a fair ball. 

On the defensive side, Catherine Denault-Cardinal is showing that even in her first year in the league, she’s here to compete. Tying for the most number of PD’s and Tackles on the team (11 Tackles and 3 PD’s), Catherine stands alongside Leanne Majeu and William Ducas as their defensive playmakers. 

If FLAMINGOS choose to join Co-Ed next season, just like I recommended to TEAM ROCKET and would to BLOCK PARTY: There is no shame or risk to trying your hand at Co-Ed 3. It’s a bunch of fun there, the competition is still good enough that everybody’s skill will improve, and a lot of chances for QB’s to get good reps in. Either way, we will see how FLAMINGOS end up closing out the year, but I’m excited to see how they build for next season! 

2 KEY PLAYERS: Sacha Thibault / Rosaline Majeau

Report Card: F

STREET TIER – Falcon  

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And that’s another article in the bag! If you didn’t like your rating, or you thought you deserved higher (or lower) let me know! I can’t do anything about it now, but ill come out a game and give you the chance to change my mind!