Carmine’s Coffin Corner – Week 3 recap and look ahead

Carmine’s Coffin Corner

Week 3 recap & a look ahead

Welcome back for another look at the Old Man Division as well as some other musings and ramblings.

This past week in the NFL really makes me shake my head. At what point in enough money enough money? I can appreciate guys wanting to get paid, but not leaving money for the team to pay others does not get you a Championship.

A couple of quick thoughts from this past Wednesday evening:

Looking to Field 1 a few times during our game and things looked like a blow out for Monster against the Shenanigans. I was shocked when I saw the final score.
Eugene McLaren is definitely playing the lead role in the Jekyll & Hyde Show this season.
Jason Rossie likes it when I choose against his team…gives him the proper motivation.
Chris Olsen continues to give Rushers fits.
It was great to see Danny Hilton take the field after a multiple season absence. Great Rusher and even better person.
Not sure what Scott Binns had for dinner but it should become his regular Wednesday night fare.
Darren Costello (Shenanigans) with the oddest stat line for the night. Check it out for yourself.
A couple of starting QBs were absent and it slightly skewed how I thought that things would play out.
We had our highest scoring week of the season, aided by some shoddy tackling at times.

Random thoughts from around the league:

Tam Vilaydeth went off with a ho-hum 7 TD night. Gives him 19 in 3 games.
Not to be outdone, the Terror Squad defence had 6 PDs against Stephen Harripersaud
Jon Maheu from the Braves continued his stellar start, adding 7 more TDs to his stat page.
Mike Pierrecin, who is hugely under-rated, had a huge night for the Braves. 8 receptions, on 8 targets, for 126 yards and 3 TDs!
Marilou Beland finished her D1 MENs game as the leading receiver for FMS with 4 receptions for 90 yards and a long TD.
Emile Taillefer with a huge effort in a losing cause. 6-87-3 tds on offence and 4 tackles and an INT on defence.

WEEK IN REVIEW

For those of you not familiar with my way of doing the review, I will include what I wrote the week prior and this way everyone can see if I was out to lunch or not.

Shenanigans vs. Monster (Monster wins 31-25)

What I wrote: The first meeting of the season between the two clubs should definitely provide us with some entertainment. Monster has started off 2-0 but the OAO defence is not quite the Shenanigans defence. It will be interesting to see if the Shenanigans attempt to play a press style defence as they did in their earlier games against the Spitfire. I can promise you this, if they rush Tony Khoury again this week it will be a long night for the Shenanigans defence. Andy will definitely use his legs to buy enough time to find the open receiver. For the Shenanigans offence I think that they need to figure out their identity. They definitely tried to be an old-fashioned running team in week 2 by using as much time on the clock as possible to slow the game down, but then threw up a tremendous number of deep shots. Really did not go hand in hand and did not give them great results. If Darren Costello is there, and he is able to keep Andy contained, then I am going with the Shenanigans for the narrow upset. If Darren is absent, then I think Andy will have too much time and Monster wins this one.

What actually happened: You know that is going to be a strange game when Wade Williams comes up just prior to game time to borrow a football. The Shenanigans QB was absent for this one, throwing Brian Tock into the role, and they did not have a decent throwing ball. Thankfully I do keep a spare pump in my bag. In my head I was like “oh boy…going to be a blow out.” Looking and listening to things in the first half it certainly seemed that way. Monster’s first drive actually had a sack, welcome back Dan Hilton, and was ended by a Shane Williams INT. Unfortunately that was the end of the first half bright spots for the Shenanigans. Brian Tock did an admirable job, every time I looked over he was buying a huge amount of time with his legs. Monster likes to use the halfback play and I guess temptation got the better of the Shenanigans as they tried to get fancy as well. Unfortunately it resulted in 2 first half INTs. They did turn things around with a 4 TD second half but it was a bit late by then. Andrew Blevings and Paul Lapierre led the way with 2 TDs each for Monster. Some uncharacteristic bad snaps in this game from Monster led to some of their offensive challenges. I said Shenanigans in this one if Darren was there to rush. He was there but did not rush. Not sure how to score myself on this one.

Montreal Spitfire vs. Old Age Outlaws (Montreal Spitfire win 34-27)

What I wrote: The last time these two teams squared off, in 2020, Stephen Harripersaud went off for 262 yards and 6 TDs. The Spitfire QB was hobbled with an MCL tear and barely mobile. From what we have seen thus far in 2022 it does not seem likely that a repeat performance is in the cards. Having said that, Harripersaud is the master of the dink n dunk offence, but he needs players who will reliably catch the ball for him. We shall see. The Spitfire defence has given up the fewest number of points in the Tier thus far, which does not bode well for OAO. For the Spitfire offence, they are also tops in the Tier, albeit after all of two games. As usual, give me the Spitfire for the victory.

What actually happened: Yet another game with a missing QB. It would appear that Stephen Harripersaud was injured in his D2 game so out came Benoit Lawlor to fill the spot. Ben is a long time FPF vet, as well as grizzled vet on the Quebec Touch Football scene, so no drop off in terms of experience. I can relate to the Harripersaud injury as I also got dinged up in my Division game and am thankfully still able to throw, if not really move. Some shoddy tackling by both teams in this game as there were some seriously undeserving YAC yards in this one. Dave Mallais pressed into service at the Center position, something that he has done a few times in his career, and he came through with 5 receptions and 2 TDs. The Old Age Outlaws offence moved the ball efficiently at times but, if you have ever seen both of them throw, there is a world of difference between Harripersaud and Lawlor in terms of velocity. Ben’s ball also is also inflated to the point that it is like catching a brick.

FPF vs JMJ (JMJ wins 50-37)

What I wrote: JMJ, with Chris Olson, have 2 close losses. FPF, with 2 different QBs thus far, have had Jekyll and Hyde games. One really good and one ugly “monster.” Not to be confused with Monster, from Tier 1. I was quite surprised / disappointed / stunned to see the stat line put up by Rosenblatt from the last game. He is usually a very consistent QB, who does hold onto the ball until the literal last second on way too many occasions. It works for him, somewhat like it did for Ben Roethlisberger. If FPF is going to take this one it will because Vince Mancini made the difference. For JMJ I really think that Chris Rosen needs to get more involved. 7 catches in 2 games from, IMO, your big play guy is not enough. GM is going to have to get his hands up high if he wants any hope of disrupting Jeff’s vision next week. Jeff, don’t let me down but I am going for FPF again this week. They cannot screw me forever.

What actually happened: FPF continues to f### up my prognostications. I also think that Chris Olsen read the article. Leading receiver for JMJ? Chris Rosen. Leading defender for JMJ? Chris Rosen. (Yes I know that his defence has nothing to do with Olson but it still looks good! Rosen also chipped in a 2 point convert for good measure. Olson threw for 242 yards and rushed for54 more. He was whirling and twirling all night. If teams do not come up with a plan to stop him from using his legs, JMJ is going to be a tough out. Nice to see Yoni Lehrer back out with the Old Men. He seemed to be just what the doctor ordered for Jeff Rosenblatt, who put up his more usual stat line. Killer start to the second half for the FPF offence and the wheels fell off. A first drive INT followed by a disaster. Big play to Yoni puts them in the Red Zone followed by 3 incompletions and then a sack on 4^th down. Momentum shift done.

Pacemakers vs. Broady Windsor (Pacemakers win 40-13)

What I wrote: Mobile QB Eugene McLaren meet Mobile QB Jason Rossie. Oh, by the way, Mobile QB who plays great D Eugene McLaren meet Mobile QB, who plays great D, Jason Rossie. Going to be a bit of a chess match here as we have similar style QBs who also both have a BIG PLAY receiver in Brian Martin and Chris Brockwell. Whoever gets stuck rushing for either team…sucks to be you. Jason does use his legs a bit more often than Eugene does, in order to gain yardage, but both will move around to buy time. If Brian Eudoxie is there, anywhere near game time LOL, then I have to give this one to Broady Windsor. I can already hear Jason now….What? 2 weeks in a row? LMFAO!!!!

What actually happened: So Eudoxie was not there. Jason Rossie was never really pressured in the pocket and spread the ball around as all 5 receivers had at least 2 receptions. The big weapon for the Pacemakers was James Acker with half of his 6 receptions going for TDs. It was puzzling to watch the BW offence. Eugen McLaren continues to make my head spin. He dazzled his way for a beautiful rushing TD, showing off a ton of athletic talent, but also threw 4 INTs, should have been 5 but Scott Binns dropped his potential 3^rd INT. Also hard to fathom Brian Martin finishing with no receptions and only 2 targets. Thankfully the next game comes quick enough to put the memories away fairly quickly.

Players of the Week (according to me & the stats)

Jason Rossie (Pacemakers) – 18-22 for 203 yards and 6 TDs on offence and 1 tackle and 1 sack on defence

James Acker (Pacemakers) – 6-40-3 TDs and 1 tackle / 1 INT / 1 PD on defence

Scott Binns (Pacemakers) – 2 INTs on D

Dave Mallais (MTL Spitfire) 6-74-2 TDs

Jimmy Coupethwaite (MTL Spitfire) 7-50-1 TD on offence and 4 Tackles on defence

Chris Olson (JMJ) – 24-31 for 242 yards and 6 TDs. Also added 6-54-1 TD rushing

Chris Rosen (JMJ) 7-120-2 TDs & 2 XPTs on offence and 4 Tackles / 1 PD on defence

Yoni Lehrer (FPF) 6-96-1 TD on offence and 1 Tackle / 1 INT / defensive 2 XPT return on defence

Darren Costello (Shenanigans) – 2-22- 2 TDs on offence and 3 Tackles / 4 PDs on defence

TWIN TOWERS (Paul Lapierre & Andrew Blevings (Monster) – 11-116-4 TDs

The Week Ahead

One of the challenges that come along with 2 Tiers of 4 teams is the rematches. The 2 Tier 1 games will have squads face each other for the 3^rd time in 4 weeks, while the Tier 2 games are a rematch of last week’s action.

Old Age Outlaws vs. Monster

The big question will be who is the QB for the OAO? Not quite sure how long that Harripersaud will be out for but this team is built around his unique skill set. Benoit Lawlor did an admirable job in relief but his fastball definitely caused some issues. Monster won both of the meetings thus far this season but not convincingly. The first game was a comeback effort from Monster, led by back up Craig O’Brien. Similar question could be asked of the Monster squad. If Andy is fine to go then they are going to sweep the season series, regardless of who suits up for OAO. The TWIN TOWERS of Paul Lapierre and Andrew Blevings present too much of a size mismatch in close to the goal line.

Shenanigans vs. Montreal Spitfire

We also have a team in this match up looking for the 3 game season sweep. The Montreal Spitfire won both games thus far this season and have the league’s top offence thus far. Hard to beat a team 3 in a row. The return of Danny Hilton should boost the Shenanigans defence as it allows Darren Costello to play a DB role. Personally I think that this game will come down to the Spitfire defence shutting down Shane Williams. As usual, I always choose my team.

Pacemakers vs. Broady Windsor

After the last game it would be hard to pick Broady Windsor to shake things up and challenge the Pacemakers. No one seemed to be able to shake up Jason Rossie and he looked comfortable all evening. Not sure anything there will change. Brian Martin will not be held without a catch in this one but I do not think that it will be enough. Pacemakers for the win. Jason is now smiling….”About Time Carm!!”

JMJ vs FPF

Not sure that Chris Olson is going to be able to top his performance from this past Wednesday. I think that Karl De Nie might get a call to come out and spare in this one. That would be my strategy as I do not see anyone else on the FPF roster able to stay with Olson. Rosenblatt did better last week but it was nowhere near enough with the way that JMJ lit things up. JMJ also rang up 8 XPTs which is HUGE! I am on the Chris Olson bandwagon…2 very good games in a row.

That’s all for today! Thanks for taking the time to read along.