Carmine’s Coffin Corner | Week 4

Week #4 is now in the books…sort of.  If you have taken a look at the website recently you will notice all sorts of fun stuff, including many games from last Thursday that are not completely up to date.  More comments on that to follow.

Super Bowl Sunday is here and will be gone by the time you read this.  Like him or not, and I don’t, you have to give credit to Tom Brady for the consistency of the Patriots over the last 16 seasons.  One of the more remarkable runs with a revolving door of offensive players.  Hopefully he finds himself flat on his back on multiple occasions during the game or the Patriots will add another trophy to their tainted collection.

What did we learn in Week 4?

• – Andy Peterkin can still move. I commented last week that I did not think that O.A.S. had anyone that could stay with him and I was right.  Sort of.  Kevin Wyeth did a good job early, and even got a GREAT diving sack with a roll into those damn hockey boards, but from then on in Andy continually bought time, made people miss, and turned back the clock.
• – One man cannot win a game by himself, but Yoni Lehrer from the Relics came close. 7 receptions for 6TDs (yup 6) and a PICK 6 on Defence.  Keep an eye on this name.
• – Ties suck. I get the time constraints, but they still suck.
• – Kevin Kousaie seems to be aiming for the all-star nod at the Rush position. Doing a great job week in and week out.
• – It appears that Jordan Rossie is NOT the missing link after all. More on that in the recap

What did we not learn?

• – Will the Oldpack have a full squad at some point this year? They are truly a talented team when everyone is there.  JM Alerte, Patrice Bernard, Alain Rousseau, and Remy Pare give QB Pascal Murray some MASSIVE targets and they have the ability to CLOG the red zone.  Too many players missing each week has exposed them thus far.

Random league thoughts

• – 9-7 final between Air Force 1 and Les Montagnards in Div 4B. 50 yards passing will not win you many games
• – Les Studs take down the Cougars 52-47 in the exact opposite type of game in D3. Erminio Iadeluca, who has come a LONG way since FPF first began, finished 25-31 for 293 yards and 7 TDs.  Considering that he also THREW 4 INTs and this game was literally a ping pong match going back and forth.
• – I have been playing a long time and I truly cannot recall a MTL Finest game which saw Kevin Wyeth throw 3 INTs. Kudos to the Braves defence
• – Sticking with D1, Got Fat with a surprising win over DK. Nic Centomo putting on a show with David Polynice in this one.  David has played sparingly in recent years but if he is back full time he is a big-time playmaker.
• – D2 should see some additional parity as two struggling clubs signed new QBs.
• – Hall of Fame voting began with some controversy. One of my picks, Dan Lazarra, was MISTAKENLY left off the original ballot.  Things happen.  All of the Controversy Pundits need to get a grip, and a life, and let Rob Campana run his league.  He fixed it, people were allowed to revote, and life goes on.  If you are not happy then feel free to start your own league and deal with the Weekend Warriors who have nothing better to do than complain about everything!

 

Week 4 Recap

Let’s take a look at what happened.  Stats are still off in some games, so I will take liberties with some of my reporting.

 

O.A.S. 46 over Monster Jim 39

I thought that Andy Peterkin’s legs would give them an advantage in this one and they did.  Unfortunately, it was only after his arm got him in trouble.  O.A.S. opened the game with a nice TD drive and the subsequent MJ drive ended abruptly when Andrew Blevings came downhill on a ball and momentum brought him, at speed, into the endzone.  I do believe that it was JF LeClair who was the intended target and, luckily for him, he did not turn into Andrew as he flew by or he would have ended up as the proverbial fly on the windshield.  Anyone who has played against Blevings knows exactly what I mean!  Not to stop there but Andrew also took a short pass from Cory Pecker and showed his wheels outrunning the entire defence for a long TD.  Big man can still motor.  MJ reacted well and actually came all the way back to take a late game lead.  Unfortunately, they left a few too many plays on the clock when they scored their final TD leaving Cory time to march down and score with 2 plays left…Mr. Blevings with yet another TD that does not appear on the official stat sheet.

 

Spitfire 51 over the Oldpack 12

I mentioned in the article last week that the Spitfire defence was frustrated and would look to right the ship.  They did.  An opening drive stop by the defence allowed the ‘Fire to jump out 14-0.  While the Oldpack were missing key players to begin, trickling in during the first half, I am not sure that it would have made a huge difference.  After exchanging a couple of TDs, the Oldpack had 4 plays left and were down by two scores in the first half.  They also would start the second half with the ball so if they could capitalize the game could completely switch.  The Spitfire D shut that idea down quickly with a stop to end the half and a stop to begin the half and the rout was on.  Forced to try and play catch up Pascal Murray begin to hold the ball allowing the Spitfire Rush, Jimmy Coupethwaite, to get to him for a couple of sacks.  Offensively the Spitfire were led by Andrew Carruthers who finished with 114 yards and 4 TDs.  Jeff Brown caused mayhem on D with 6 tackles, 2 PD, and an INT.

 

Relics 59 over the Pacemakers 40

Yoni Lehrer.  Yoni Lehrer.  More Yoni Lehrer.  Watching the first 10 minutes of this game was somewhat surreal.  Relics QB, Jeff Rosenblatt, had himself a great night thanks to Yoni who finished with 6 TD receptions and a PICK SIX on D to boot.  His 42 solo points were enough to top the Pacemakers on this night.  Should teach people not to judge a book by it’s cover.  Nice to see Jeff actually spread the ball around otherwise and 7 players did finish with receptions but no one else was involved at the goal line.  Funny line from one of my team-mates during the early parts of this game “Does Jason (Pacemakers QB) ever throw to anyone besides his brother?”  It did not appear that way early on in this one.  While brother Jordan did have an impact, and they did have a very solid second half, the final outcome of this one was not really in doubt after the Yoni show in the first 10 odd minutes.

 

Polvige 40 ties FPF 40

I hate ties.  I think that I already mentioned that.  I think that El Presidente Campana needs to figure something out.  Both QBs had good games in this one as they each finished with 6 TD passes.  Lonnie Johnson (FPF) seems to have found his new “toy” as Tim O’Hara went off again for 110 yards with a TD.  Not to outdone, brother Cory Johnson finished with 3 tackles and 3 PDs.  Nice job big man!!  Domenic Tosi also played a big role with a long TD to add to his 5 tackles and 1 PD on defence.  Jon Moodie chipped in on the defence for Polvige finishing with a game high 5 tackles and an INT. 

 

JMJ 33 over Paramount 20

The JMJ express continues to roll as they joined O.A.S. as the only 4-0 teams in the Division as they come back to defeat Paramount.  Stephen Harripersaud continues to impress with his efficiency finishing the night 18-26 with 5 TDs.  Short fields do help!  Derrick Lavoie made the most of his 3 receptions as he found the end zone twice.  If you read my previous article, then you are aware that I literally copy/pasted the previous paragraph from it.  Talk about an easy game to recap!!!!  As mentioned earlier, Kevin Kousaie is setting the tone for the Rusher position.  Holding Eugene McLaren in check is never easy.  While Eugene did finish with 37 rushing yards he also threw 3 INTS, which is VERY uncharacteristic for him.  If I am Kevin I would take that trade any day.

 

Now that we are up to date…let’s take a quick look at this Thursday’s action.  A 2-2-1 week evens me at 8-8-1 for the season thus far.  In other words, I still have no real clue as to what will happen.

 

Polvige vs. Paramount

A rematch from the opening week of the season that Paramount took home easily 32-6.  Of course, that was the debut of Jon Moodie’s yellow gloves and people seem to be getting used to them.  Eugene McLaren was held in check last week and I am sure that Jon Moodie was taking notes on how it was accomplished.  This should be a fun game to watch and I think that Paramount will right the ship after two straight losses.

 

FPF vs. JMJ

Yet another rematch.  JMJ won the highly contested first game 29-26.  Lonnie Johnson looks really good as of late and Tim O’Hara seems to be taking advantage.  Tim please meet Rob “I can do everything” Allen.  I have a feeling that Rob will pay a tad more attention to Tim which will cause Lonnie to have to adjust.  This should buy time for Kevin Kousaie to make his life miserable.  The JMJ express continues in this one.

 

GOXM vs. The Spitfire

Fresh off a bye week the GOXM get challenged with a Spitfire team coming off their best game of the season thus far.  Normally this would not be a close game, but we need to remember that the GOXM can “borrow” players for this one and boost their CAP up to 500.  Since they cannot borrow anyone currently playing in the 35+ Division I am not sure how much of a factor that this will have.  The Spitfire will be missing the heart of their defense on this one and have lost their rusher Andrew Adams to injury for a few weeks, so they will have adjustments to make as well.  I always pick my team to win…

 

The Relics host the Oldpack

After a truly tough start to the season you would think that the Oldpack would be loving this match up.  A couple of factors to take into consideration.

• – The Relics can “borrow” players to boost their cap to 500
• – They have looked really good thus far and much of this team was on the original roster that would have played in the TEAMs Division of 2017
• – Jeff Rosenblatt looks right at home in the pocket and his style does not seem bothered by any of the rushers that he has faced
• – The Oldpack have had such an inconsistent roster…which team will show up?

With all of that in mind I am going for the UPSET.  Relics take this one.

 

MJ take on the Pacemakers

Part of me says that this will be a complete blow out.  A small part of me then says that the Pacemakers have the athletes to make this interesting.  However, I have to go with my first statement.  Jason Rossie has shown no ability to move the ball from the pocket thus far and has to use his legs.  Jason please allow me to introduce Danny Hilton, Brian Eudoxie, and Kevin Wilson.  A three-headed MONSTER (could not resist) at the Rush if ever there was one.  On the opposite side, I think that Andy will have a field day.  Chris Brockwell is a good rusher, as is Jason, but Andy seems to be in his groove.  Of course, this game will be WAY past his bedtime, so we shall see what happens.  Either way, Monster Jim takes this game.

 

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the field…and the pub afterwards!