A Division 3 Classic That Will Go Down To The Wire

Well, well, this damn long Winter season is finally coming to a close this weekend, but damnit, was it a thrilling season of FPF action or what. Now, all eyes are fixed on the highly anticipated championship finals in Division 3 between EZW and the Bruins. After months of fierce competition, only two teams remain standing, poised to battle it out at Marie-Vic in pursuit of glory and the coveted championship title.

In one corner, we have the powerhouse offense of Jeremy White and EZW, a team known for their explosive offense and tricky defense. Led by their dynamic quarterback and bolstered by a roster stacked with talent and athleticism, EZW have steamrolled through the competition this playoffs, scoring 40 or more and totaling 82 points in 2 playoff games. With their sights set firmly on the championship, they enter the finals as the team to beat, determined to showcase their dominance once again.

Standing in their way is another team loaded with FPF talent, the Bruins, whose journey to the finals this playoff has been quite light, taking care of their 3 opponents in rather easy fashion. Kris Verreault has returned to his early season form, throwing for 5 TDs in each of his teams 3 playoffs wins, completing 71% or better of his passes in each game. What am I referring to in Verreault‘s case? Having played 8 games, he had 24 Touchdowns in the front half of his season whereas in his last 4 regular season games, he totaled 10. Safe to say he’s looking back in control of his game.

With these 2 teams left to play, they are surely the only one’s reading this article, so the article is dedicated to them. Enjoy!

Div 3 Finals Preview

EZW

vs.

Bruins

Matchup Breakdown

Position	EZW	Bruins
QB	✅✅	✅
Receivers	✅	✅
DBs	✅	✅✅
Rusher	✅	✅✅
Chemistry	✅
Finals Experience	✅	✅
Championship Pedigree		✅

These 2 teams have been anxiously waiting to meet as both teams haven’t faced as tough competition as they will on Sunday at 1pm when they face off against each other, after the Week 2 matchup was not the best team No Friend Zone could field that night. One thing you can expect will be a bunch of points, so I can’t wait to be calling this one live.

Road To The Finals

EZW started their playoffs with a let down. Probably hyped up the days leading to a matchup vs. the Dirty Birds, they were notified that the game would be forfeit victory. Looking back, they may be happy they got the rest, the free pass to the Quarterfinals, and most importantly, made it a round further with no risk of injury, as the team is already without Nicolas Blais, placed on IR with EZFun. Next, they took on Mongoose and that notoriously efficient offense went to work. White completed 84% of his passes, going 16 of 19 passes for 159 yards with 5 TDs with no picks and added another 33 yards on the ground, escaping from rusher Kevin Marcil 3 times, including a 20-yard scamper downfield. While it was Receiver of Year, Alex Barros that found the endzone the most (2), JC Ferland lead the crew with 6 receptions and 64 yards, both team highs. Defensively is where they spread the margin of victory, as perhaps one of the best free agent acquisitions to any franchise in recent memory, Nathan Desjardins had a pick 6 and 2-way Player of the Year Jey White had a one-handed smiling INT caught on camera. Maxime Boucher-Cyr would collect 2 sacks, one right before the pick 6 from Desjardins on the 2nd Mongoose drive of the game. Then against The Infantry, they found themselves in more of a shootout, but eventually in good position due to their convert game, going up 40-25 late in the game. Even though the Stacey would cut the lead to 9 with a touchdown, the missed convert would prove to be costly. Because EZW had outperformed The Infantry 4 convert points to 1, when Ethan Adrian sacked Jeremy White on 3rd down back to their own 10-yard line, punting was an option for EZW on 4th, since allowing a TD would mean The Infantry would be down 3 and forced to go for the onside with only a few plays remaining. Indeed, Stacey would find Di Maulo in the endzone for 6, but once again, Desjardins would come up huge with the tackle on Rory Semerjian and sending his team to the Div 3 finals.

For the Bruins, their defense did the job against Friends with Danny, limiting them to just 14 points and no one had to shine on offense, as the offense took advantage of field position and punched it in 5 times with a couple of XP2 converts. Then against Lightweight, a potential finals preview, Lightweight had no answer for Gab Dabe Champagne, as he caught all 5 of his targets for a team-high 77 yards, caught two 2-point converts and had an INT to create havoc for Lightweight. Kris Verreault was brilliant against the Lightweight defense, completing 79% of his passes, going 22 for 28, with 5 TDs for 201 yards, no INTs, no sacks given up. He didn’t even let anyone on D get a single hand on his throws as Lightweight finished with 0 PDs as well. With speed demon guys like Juwan and Jaeden Edghill, Justin Blanchard and Trey Bentley on the field, that is an impressive feat. He also ran 5 times on Franky Hogue for 27 yards and a rushing TD. And finally, 8 points off of converts… Simon Dagenais was never going to catch up, as he was down an entire touchdown in the convert game. If ever it was closer in the TD count, Lightweight would have never had enough 1-point attempts to match the Bruins 8 points from converts.

Breakdown by Position

Quarterback

Both Quarterbacks will need to stay calm, cool and collected and run their offense. It’s brought them this far, so the jitters and throwing the ball against the ballhawks on D on both teams means they will both need to be precise with their passes and decisive in their reads. A big part of this game will be which quarterback can better execute the converts. Once again, Kris a definitely more comfortable with 2 pointers than Jeremy, coming from the Braves game style, so I say that plays an important role in the game and also how well Jeremy can execute on XP2’s and just how many times he will need to match Kris and the Bruins. Another dimension that both Quarterbacks bring to the table is the run game. Both QBs are ELUSIVE, both laterally and downfield. One second you are ready to deflag these guys, and next thing you know you are whiffing around their shifty waists and find them dipping lower than chips dipped in guac. Jeremy has played with his guys since Spring 2018, we’re talking almost 6 years! That kind of experience playing together cannot be bought, and that may just give him the edge over Kris Verreault, throwing to most of his talented receivers for the first season together.

Receivers

Both teams have absolute stud receivers. In his first season with Jeremy White as QB, Alex Barros put up career numbers and won ROY with 634 yards on 50 receptions (on 58 targets; 86% catch rate) and a whopping 23 TDs! Then you have the versatile JC Ferland who can snap and play receiver at extremely high levels. His pass-catching ability, especially when fighting off tight coverage is second-to-none, and then once he’s got turf ahead, he’s one of the harder ball carries to deflag. Add the complimentary height and deceptive speed of Nathan Desjardins and the receiving core starts looking dangerous. His ability to run the Go route and simply high point the ball is a luxury for any QB, and he often comes up clutch with a much needed first-down or touchdown catch in a crucial point of any game. Then you have CO-Lavigne who can single-handedly take over a game himself, and may just be the best player on the team, and I’m only mentioning him as the 4th receiver on the team. Maxime Boucher-Cyr and Etienne Laurence-Gervais round out the 5th and 6th receivers, but don’t take their low stat output as ineffective receivers. These guys have great hands and can, like any other on the team, come up with a big catch that can go for 6. If defenses are forgetting about these guys, they can absolutely make you pay.

While the top 3 receivers on EZW put up the stats during the regular season, the Bruins had a more balanced approach, due to their highly talented depth at receiver. No receiver had more than 400 yards, but 7 of them were targeted at least 20 times. They also had both Zwirn and Paquette only play 5 games, just enough to be playoff eligible, but with pro-rate their seasons and you would have had 5 receivers with over 40 targets each. When you talk about a well-rounded receiver core, look no further than the Bruins. You have height and strength in Gab Dabe Champagne and Jocelyn Calixte, smarts, speed and shiftiness in Rocco Christiano and Gab Wiseman and then the ultra reliable hands and boxing out ability of Zach Zwirn and the ability to find the soft spot in zones and route running of Isaac Paquette and you have 6 receivers that could all be in the starting 5. Oh and if you needed depth, Siriman Bagayogo and Nic Fon can come and provide a spark for your offense.

Defense

Both defenses play smart and have guys that you want to simply not throw towards. Starting with Bruins this time… don’t… throw… Rocco‘s way. This guy’s ability to cover 2 routes with his quickness and insane agility to burst either over or under a route has always impressed me. He’s one of the guys that I’ve personally thrown interceptions against where I’m left baffled and just telling myself “damn, he just made a crazy pick, not much I can do there”. The rest of the D is also smart, quick and are a size problem if you want to throw a jumpball. They have, like on the receiving side of the ball, speed, strength and smarts to make plays on the ball, oh, and did I mention there’s a CFL DB on the defense in Bagayogo ?? Can’t wait to see this defense live in action on Sunday.

As for EZW, they did the right way. The franchise was always known for having a potent offense, but a defense that was like Swiss cheese, winning games 52-51. But playing more and more often with each other, and adding pieces along the way, the defense has improved tremendously and cover so much ground, starting with Defensive Player of the Year and safety Etienne Laurence-Gervais. It’s truly impressive to see him cover sideline to sideline the way he does, either impossibly getting enough of a ball to deflect it from what would have been an easy touchdown, or getting his team timely turnovers. Either way, he’s one of the best safeties in Div 3 and everyone will be waiting for his INT on Sunday to break the playoff goose-egg. The other clutch defender on the team is Nathan Desjardins. This is another guy that has performed well against me when I’m throwing and impressed how much ground he can cover. His long strides and insane wingspan makes throwing around and over him truly difficult. He’s come up with a pick in each of the 2 playoff games and will be looking to create a key turnover for EZW against the Bruins.

Rusher

This may be the most important battle of the night. Gab Wiseman for the Bruins, with his own long-arm extension and unwillingness to give up on plays where he’s missed the Quarterback at first, will play perhaps the largest role for the Bruins defense. Jeremy White is so elusive in the pocket and can extend plays and is so dangerous because he makes throwing on the run look so easy when it is not. This is often where the big plays occur from EZW, so Wiseman will need to limit those big play opportunities and if he can turn them into 3rd and 4th-and-long, this is where the EZW offense can be had: turning the ball over on 4th and 16 against a tough defense that will be 10 yards back already.

On the other side, Maxime Boucher-Cyr has an equally important task since Kris Verreault is known to move laterally in quick bursts and can take off down field. Whereas White has lost a step in his speed downfield and is more dangerous throwing on the run, Verreault is more dangerous when running downfield, often gaining 10+ yards with his deceiving low dip move where he barely loses any speed in his stride. The same applies here for Boucher-Cyr. If he can turn 3rd and 8 into 4th and 15 instead of 1st and 10, the Bruins, like any offense, can be stopped.

Prediction Time 🔮

Alright, here it is, the final prediction of the year… I think at the end of regulation.. we have a 40-40 game that goes into overtime and goes like this:

Bruins 1st Attempt: Bruins miss going for 2
EZW 1st Attempt: EZW hits for 1 (1-0)
EZW 2nd Attempt: EZW once again goes for 1 and hits it again (2-0)
Bruins 2nd Attempt: They go for 2 and miss (0-2)
Bruins 3rd Attempt: They go for the tie and hit it after seeing how EZW defends the 2 pointers (2-2)
EZW 3rd Attempt: EZW goes for 1 and the Div 3 Championship… and hit it…

EZW wins the Overtime period 3-2 and the game 43-42. Jeremy White and his friends get their first championship together is my prediction!

Epilogue

Alright Division 3, that does for the best of the best seasons FPF has to offer! It was a pleasure to write articles all season, and thanks for keeping up week in and week out, joining me on the wild ride that is the FPF season. Congrats to the two finalists for making it this far, but there can only be 1 winner! Goodluck to you both and we’ll see you in the Spring season! One last time, here’s CTA previewing the Finals in podcast format!