Conference Finals Preview

The final four is set. This Sunday night 6:00 at the Soccerplex will see the Looney Goons take on One Man Show in Conference A, while the Smash Bros will play the Bloodmachines for the Conference B title. On a serious note, after being thoroughly impressed with the schedule makers all season long, I’m sure I am not the only person that is wondering why both games are being played at the same time especially on fields that are at the complete opposite end of the complex. 

Before I get into the Conference Finals previews, let’s get into a quick recap of the Divisional Round.

One Man Show led once again by an impressive performance by Dangerous Danny D’Amour, easily beat the Tigers 24-12. The game stared out sloppy for both teams, as turnovers and missed opportunities led to a 6-6 halftime score.

The team formerly known as Wax On Wax Off shook off the shaky start and came alive in the second half, as D’Amour recorded a quick touchdown reception and an interception that helped set up a 14-yd TD scramble by QB Jordan Bellemare less than 5 minutes after the stoppage to give his team a 18-6 lead.

With the Tigers getting virtually nothing from QB Rahul Mohav, they put in Jameel Greenidge behind Center. He threw a TD to WR Akeem Gordon to narrow the lead to 18-12, but that was as close would get.

The Looney Goons took on the Redmen in the other Conference A Divisional matchup.

The Redmen were at a disadvantage from the get-go as they only had 5 plays suit up for the game due to injury. The player shortage really burnt the Redmen in the first half, as the Looney Goons offense led by QB Matt Bytalan kept throwing the ball to the short middle of the field where the absent defender would have been.

To their credit, the Redmen kept on fighting. When the Looney Goons would score their opponents would answer right back. With two plays left to go in the 1st half, Bytalan hit WR Matthew Da Silva for a TD pass near the sideline. Although the refs ruled it a TD, it appeared as though the veteran receiver only had one foot in bounce when he gained possession of the ball. Either way the touchdown counted, and LG went in the break with a 19-12 lead.

The men in red started the 2nd half with the ball, and as you might expect they scored curtesy of John Papadimitriou TD run.

After a Papadimitriou INT the Looney Goons drove the ball down to near the Redmen redzone, but they couldn’t punch it in. The Redmen made them pay as stud WR Zach Zwirn caught a TD pass that was set up by a nice one handed behind the back grab by Snapper Angelo Marrota.

It looked like this game was headed to Overtime, but with less than 5 plays left Bytalan heaved up a pass that was deflected in the end-zone by Redmen defender James Alexander Oliveira into the waiting hands of Looney Goons Da Silva. Game, set, match. Looney Goons win 32-25.

It‘s a tough break for a good Redmen team.  Despite the fact that they were short-handed, that still didn’t stop from giving the Looney Goons all they could handle.

The Bloodmachines came into their contest with Flight of the Conchords as clear underdogs.

FOTC who were the best team in the regular season were taking on a team who despite two playoff opening round victories, had been playing bad football for almost two months. As the old ssaying goes, that’s why we play the games.

Although starting off shaky with two early INTs, Bloodmachines’ QB Nicolas Blais and his entire team settled down and took it to FOTC. Blais hit 4 different WRs for TDs, and even added another on the ground. When they were on defense, the Bloodmachines really got physical with the FOTC WRs and threw off their timing. They exhibited the swagger that became their early in the season for the second week in a row.

Although the Bloodmachines looked impressive, it needs to be said that FOTC was considerably at a defecit without the services for the majority of the game of Jonathan Lemieux. (he entered the game for two series, and caught a TD on the 2nd one).His absence really affected not only the play calling, but the overall productivity of his team’s offense.

The last game of the night saw the Smash Bros take on Los Guapops. On paper, and in my article earlier this week, I picked this to be the game of the week. Just like with my FOTC pick, I was wrong about this one too.

The Smash Bros destroyed Los Guapos. QB Dilan Daoust had with a shadow of a doubt the worst game of his long FPF career going 1 for 14 with 2 INTs. While having more picks than completions will always land you a spot on the Step It Up list, that performance would have earned him spots 1, 2, and possibly even 3.

I won’t bore you with all the details on this one. Simply put, the Smash Bros used aggressive D to demolish Los Guapos’ offense, and great execution plus a gigantic lead in tie of possession on Offense to score at will on the LG defense…in the first half.

In the second half, the Smash Bros actually punted a few times, and LG got a TD throw from Anton Sakiz who was a huge upgrade at QB, but he was ineligible to throw because he plays the position in a higher division. Final score 35-6.

Now on to the preview

 

Conference A: Looney Goons vs One Man Show

The One MAN Show dominated Looney Goons 37-12 in their Week 4 meeting. LG was a completely different team in that game as they were led by Brian Zenobi who went 12 of 24 for 93 yards 2 TDs and 1 INT. Jordan Bellemare on the other hand had his best game of the season throwing for 151 yards, 6 TDs, only 5 incompletions, and a superb QB Rating of 136.2

Stepping in at QB for the Looney Goons is the aforementioned Matt Bytalan since take over the position for good a week later has led his team to a 4-2 record and has thrown an impressive 25 TDs to only 4 INTs.

There are some of big names in this game, but none will be better than Danny D’Amour and Matthew Da Silva. They are their team’s best playmakers on both sides of the ball. Whoever wins this battle will carry their team to a victory as well.

Turnover will be key in this game as well. As I’ve said throughout my time in covering Jordan Bellemare and his team, if he is able to take what the defense gives him, not force deep throws, and protect the ball, his team will have a good chance of winning.

Bytalan who has yet to throw an INT in the post-season, will need to be on the lookout for D’Amour. He is a ball-hawk who has a habit for making momentum changing interceptions at the exact time his team needs it.

Prediction:

While the Looney Goons have looked good so far this post-season, they have also knocked off teams who have been short-handed. No name played the majority of the 1st half of their first round game without Chris Fields, while as I mentioned earlier, the Redmen only played with 5 players on Tuesday night. Besides the point that One Man Show will have a full squad, I like their playoff experience in this one as they came within a few plays of winning the Division 6 championship last winter.

Final Score: One Man Show 24-22.

 

Conference B:  Bloodmachines vs Smash Bros

The Smash Bros won their Wek 9 meeting 40-31.

Smash Bros QB Jonah Cohen threw for 5 TDs in that outing. Just like the Looney Goons however, things have changed under Center for SB as well, as Cohen due to a job opportunity in London, England is gone, and the reins have been turned over to WR Eddy Rousseau. The second year player has looked impressive in the role however going 20 of 43 for 181 yards with 8 TDs and only 1 INT in two playoff games.

The big play WRs on both squads came to play in the contest as well. Cesar Martinez and Patrice Lindor both combined for 9 catches and 4 TDS, while Paul Santache and Vincent Bastrash combined for 3 scores (Rousseau had 2 receiving TDs).

 

Prediction:

The game will come down to mistkaes as well. In their game vs FOTC Nicolas Blais threw 2 early INTs. In their earlier game against the Smash Bros he did the same. Iin his last 4 games, he has thrown 6 picks. Those are mistakes that can’t happen against a team as good as the Smash Bros again if you want to have any hope of getting by. I just don’t see Blais being perfect.

Final Score: 28-26 Smash Bros

 

That’s it for this week. I will be back next week with my Divisional Round review and my preview for the Quarter Finals.

Once again, if you loved the article, hated it, or simply felt I left something out, don’t be shy. You can shoot me a tweet at @BADNEWS51, or do it the semi-old fashioned way and e-mail me at [email protected]