Div 5B: Groups C and D Mid-Season Report Card
Ignacio Valdes-Manzanedo
25-02-2023 03:51 PM
Because the article is so long, let’s keep the intro short and just introduce the grading scheme and get the reports in!
The Grading Scheme
Let’s break down how the grading scheme works since it might be a TAD different from your usual expectations of what you are used to when it comes to grades. First thing, the grades will be based off of pre-season expectations. If, for example, you are 5-0 and are expecting an automatic A, that’s not how to the grading scheme works. If I expected you to be 5-0 at this point you’ll likely get a C, maybe B-, but definitely not an A. Likewise, if I expected you to struggle and are 1-4 or 0-5, you won’t be getting an F. In fact, you might receive a B or C, depending on the second thing to look for: the quality of your opponents, and even, how you’ve held up in your games (Are you getting blown out or losing by 1 point?).
Each team will get a blurb on their season performance, their grade, the key players that have been involved so far, and a record prediction to close the year. Note: The key players are not the players I like best or who I believe are the best players on the team but rather it is based on their usage and how they are contributing this season. The letter grade reflects the following scoring system:
A – You’ve exceeded pre-season expectations. I never would have thought the team in question would have performed this well.
B – The team is surpassing the expectations that I placed on them ahead of the season, or perhaps you meeting expectations with your record, but have lost close matchups against tough opponents.
C – I was right, and the team is performing exactly as expected.
D – The team is underperforming, either in the division, or relative to expectations. Huddles are strained either because it’s been a season full of losses or things aren’t going according to plan. We’re a losing streak away from missing the playoffs or should be atop the standings and are middle-of-the-pack.
E – Evil, this team is full of people I consider evil. This is a socially constructed grade that no one gets and fills in the gap that the school system has failed to classify.
F – Your team is really underperforming. This is abject failure.
OK so let’s get started! Enjoy.
Division 5B
Killer Rays (6-0)
Alright, let’s get the 5B 2nd half midseason report started with the Rays. First, Tylar Bianchi with a 3:1 TD-to-INT ratio? Hmmm Div 5B is a bit of a step up, but her was trending at 4:1 in the Fall Cup and is where I expected him to be. Perhaps 2-3 “oopsy” mistakes, I get it, I’ve thrown those too… they happen 🤷‍♂️. While I always prefer a QB who throws for an average of 180 yards or more per game, Bianchi might be that QB that still rushes for a lot of yards as he moves up in FPF, like a Ben McMahon or Alex Fafard type of QB. Still, adding 40 rushing yards per game to his 115 passing yards puts an average output of 155 yards, which honestly, I expect this team to hit the 200 yard-mark every game.
While Curtis Ryan and Tyler Gurberg are still big parts of the offense, the return of Corey Bianchi since his rookie W20 season has seen him take over the WR1 role with his team-leading 20 receptions and 205 yards. Adding him, plus getting Donovan Hinds more involved has them with one of the deepest teams at receiver in 5B. When the attack can come from 4 angles, defenses, especially in 5B will struggle to handle it. Their 192 points scored in 6 games speak for themselves.
While we normally think of Tylar Bianchi the QB, we often don’t think of his defensive achievements. He is already at a personal season-high of 4 INTs with the Killer Rays and is a threat to give the ball back to himself so he can slice defenses apart. The one aspect he could work on though, are the converts and increasing the efficiency. He’s converted 7 of them on 29 TDs, which comes out to just under 25%. He has in fact reached out for redzone assistance, so it’s awesome to see that he himself sees the areas in which he needs to improve. Signs of an invested player who is striving to be better; awesome to see.
That said, I expected nothing less than for them to run the table. A 10-0 season for me is great, but exactly what I saw coming.
Grade: C
Key Players: Curtis Ryan, Tylar Bianchi, Corey Bianchi
Prediction Record: 10-0
Team Sexy (2-3)
Team Sexy need to be careful about their record at the end of the year as they go into the playoffs. Yes, this will be a playoff team, but they are playing very weak teams in 5B. They need performances like the one against the Brewers if I am going to be excited about this team.
While Ben Berbrier‘s 130 passing yards per game is alright for an offense, the 13 TDs in 5 games certainly isn’t. The 6 INTs I can live with since it’s about a pick a game, but 2.5 TDs? I maybe have to scale back my expectations of a 2nd season quarterback, but if that trend continues, I know that’s enough to get it done in the playoffs. Luckily, he will have 5 games in the back half of the season to strive for 4 TDs a game. He’s done it twice, so he’s capable of it, but one came against the porous Brewers defense. Against a good Killer Rays defense, he was completing 29% of his passes for 75 yards and 0 TDs. That’s what I am worried about, but again, that’s what the regular season is for. Build chemistry with receivers and run the same 5-6 plays over and over to get used to the reads and against the different defensive coverages.
Sam Anastasopoulos is a STUD receiver, even in Division 5 and can single-handedly take over a play, drive or game in a timely manner. It helps when you have an equally productive threat receiver in Andrew Steinberg, with 2 more yards than Sam but 1 less TD. Then you compliment these 2 with Vaughn Vanslet and Mathieu Lafortune and you’ve got weapons. Lafortune himself has been more a defensive turnover machine, tied for 3rd best in the division with 5 INTs and could have had a few more with his 4 recorded PDs. Him and Brody Rappaport have combined to create 8 turnovers and the defense has been air tight, only allowing 17 points against.
Offense has got to pick it up, defense needs to continue balling out while the offense figures it out, and I’ll be watching how they fare in their final 3 games closely.
Grade: B
Key Players: Sam Anastasopoulos, Andrew Steinberg, Mathieu Lafortune
Prediction Record: 5-5
Pocket Rockets (2-4)
PO Tremblay-Agelakos has struggled, to say the least in his FPF rookie season. While he is moving the ball an average of 3 full fields each game, he’s finishing those 2 of those 3 drives with TDs. By the way, that’s not good, being brutally honest and neither is the 1:1 TD-to-INT ratio. The lone bright spot on from the stats-perspective, has been the play of Jacob Salvail. He is tough to defend and has the ability to get YAC yards once the ball is in his hands. But if I’m a team going up against Pocket Rockets, I see 32 targets to Salvail and then 12 to both Pierre Ambroise and Ali Issa. Quite easy to know where I need to line up my best defender. The other thing I see from this roster? 15 different players have caught a pass from the QBs, which is a clear indication of roster inconsistency. I believe Philip Charpentier has gone down to injury, but would have been a nice complementary piece to Salvail. Even without him though, Craig O’Brien, Avery Klimas and Mike Jazz are capable of being those complimentary pieces, but you need the ball in your hands to do that.
While Games 2-4 on their schedule were close, they’ve now faced 2 legitimate teams in 5B in Killer Rays and Vick in a Box, and they got exposed. With their upcoming schedule, they need Craig to coach up PO on the QB front to keep them more competitive in their final 4 games which are all winnable. While the team has flag experience from MFL, FPF is a deeper league in talent and is slightly different in terms of some of the rules, field size and game management portions that make it different enough to see a decent MFL team struggle in FPF. I think the struggles will continue, just stop having Craig completing a pass, or you will be forfeiting your games and potential wins.
Grade: C
Key Players: Jacob Salvail, Seb Morin
Prediction Record: 2-8
HimU (2-5)
After starting the season 2-1, HimU may have thought they were going to cruise in 5B. Since Week 3 though, they’ve lost 4 in a row, but have the chance to get to 3 wins when they face Brewers on Saturday March 25th.
I’ve mentioned it before, but Pranav Sharma needs to complete more easy passes and get into a rhythm in games. He tends to really get trigger happy with the deep ball and drives are not sustained. Nowhere is that more apparent than his 37% completion percentage. Then add 17 sacks he’s taken and just 113 total yards of offense per game (passing and running) is enough to JUST squeak you into the playoffs. I want to see more throwing from Sharma, more completions, more drives, more TDs, more extra point converts, a lot of more’s. He only has 3 games left to do it, and while he can against Brewers, I can already see them struggling against Les Bleue Dry. In seeing the discrepancy between them and Les Bleue Dry, I was curious to see if they would have fit in Division 6, and my god, they do. Fine, Sharma‘s QB rating is over by 0.3. That could have easily been lowered so he can throw in 6, because this is where he would have been able to develop his QB skills. This would have been the division to be playing in, and even then, they would be a 5-5, 6-4 team, but more importantly, Pranav‘s game could have taken the next step in a bit of a slower division. Perhaps they thought that by adding El-Andre Abbey, they would be more competitive in Div 5, but that hasn’t been the case. Abbey though, has had a great season so far, although catching 27 of 47 targets is not great, although I have a feeling I know where most of those missed receptions come from. Still, 264 yards and 6 TDs is good, but to do it in 7 games is less impressive. Joshua Ricciardi is the WR2 on the team, matching Abbey‘s TDs, and a yard shy of 200, which is already a season-high in his 3 season career in FPF.
The defense on the team has improved. They’ve only given up 30 points twice, and held the strong Killer Rays team to just 26 points. While they have 0 pressure coming from the rusher, they have produced 12 interceptions which has helped set up the offense in better positions, unfortunately, they haven’t been able to capitalize on the extra possessions. No surprise that Jonathan McCall is leading the team in INTs, he’s usually atop the team leaderboard, but he’s tied for the 3rd most in 5b right now.
I thought the team would struggle in 5B and I would say it’s been “okay” so far, but I do congratulate them for challenging themselves and “okay” is not bad when I expected deep struggles.
Grade: B-
Key Players: Jonathan McCall, El-Andre Abbey
Prediction Record: 3-7
Blues (2-3)
Are Blues good? A 1-point victory over HimU, a 7 point victory over the struggling Stormers don’t seem to suggest so, while big time losses to Killer Rays and Warriors are not shocking to me either. The last 2 teams I mentioned are very good, so it leaves me somewhere in the middle, where they also took an 8 point loss to a Team Sexy team that is still very green.
It’s clear the offense has struggled, after posting only 64 points in 5 games. Whether it’s Johnny Paradis-Wilson or Cam Chaput, Division 5 is NOT the division to start testing out at QB, that’s what what Div 6 is for. Both have struggled, and I don’t blame them. Quarterbacking is bleepin’ HARD. Philippe Nicolas would know. I played with him in Fall Cup 2022 with me on my 2nd season as quarterback anddddd it didn’t go so well. But after taking the licks and getting more and more reps in the lower divisions, it is possible to get better. Given the QB struggles, it’s impressive that they (almost) have 2 receivers with 200 yards. The trouble is, after RĂ©my ParĂ©‘s 23 receptions for 211 yards, and Kendell Copeland‘s 14 receptions for 190 yards, the next best production goes down to 74 yards from Nicolas.
While the offense needs improvement, the defense has kept the team in most of their games. Tevyn Nicholls leads the team with 3 INTs and the consistent pressure that Keenan Alleyne is putting on QBs and opposing offenses is forcing them into 3rd and 4th-and-long situations that is resulting in defensive stops or INTs on deep shots. Alleyne is 3rd in sacks with 10 and has helped the team more than he knows. 7 INTs from the defense though, isn’t enough given the struggles the offense has had.
So are Blues good? On offense, no. On defense, yes. They get beat by teams that are better than them and beat teams (just just) that they are better than.
Grade: C
Key Players: Keenan Alleyne, Tevyn Nicholls, Rémy Paré
Prediction Record: 4-6
Les Bleue Dry (5-1)
It’s nice to know that when your QB is missing that you can put in one of your receivers and still not miss a beat. That’s what has happened with Bleue Dry as Philippe Lefebvre went in for Fred Juneau and came out with 9 TDs and 1 INT. Great numbers, except he did it against 2 pretty bad defenses. Still, you gotta produce, and Lefebvre did exactly that. The question will now be, will Juneau be back? Has he left for the season or was he perhaps on vacation, away from Montreal? He is what makes them a contender in 5B, so hopefully for them he can be there the rest of the season.
In his FPF rookie season, Eric Namts has been the WR1 for Les Bleues Dry, already with 345 yards, which is good for 4th best in the division. I caught one of their games and he is shifty, fast, as he can take a 7 yard sideline hook for 30 yards as he scampers to the middle of the field. He’s explosive and a dangerous weapon for this offense. Then you have the reliable hands of Samuel Sicard who has hauled in 7 touchdowns on 10 of his catches on the season. Half the time he is TARGETED, he’s putting up 6 points on the board. What is impressive is that it doesn’t end with these 2 guys. The ENTIRE receiving cast has caught at least 1 TD, which speaks to the depth of the receiving core, which is one of the team’s assets and what makes them hard to defend.
Defensively, their all-around star is Frédéric Olivier-Gauvin, who has 11 tackles, 4 INTs, 3 sacks, 1 PD, and a pick 6 amongst his 4 interceptions. He is a one-man wrecking crew on the defensive side of the ball, but even overall, they are a solid squad that are not passive. They jump routes, communicate well and read the plays as they develop, which is not always the case in 5B and more commonly seen in Divs 4 and above.
They have some NICE potential playoff matchups in their games versus The Penetrators and Primal, so they get to practice against the best the division has to offer. This is great for them as they serve as measuring stick games for where they stack in the division.
Grade: B+
Key Players: Frédéric Olivier-Gauvin, Fred Juneau, Eric Namts
Prediction Record: 8-2
Red Dragons (4-0-2)
Ohhhhh Red Dragons! One of my favorite teams now in the lower divisions. This team improved so much seemingly overnight. Guillaume Boulanger was an average quarterback just last season in the Fall Cup and has completely transformed his game to be now the leading passer in 5B with over 1,000 yards and 31 TDs. Not only is he scoring at a 5 TD rate, he’s also protecting the ball incredibly well, only having thrown 4 interceptions so far. Whether it’s discussing the game with veteran FPF Jeremy White or his coaching of the FPF Jr game, he’s become an incredibly solid quarterback that is quickly rising the ranks.
As an offense, they’ve punched in 40+ points twice and have an additional 3 games with at least 30 points. Their lowest output this season was 26 in a 26-26 tie back in Week 2 against Vick in a Box. They’ve been putting up video game numbers, with Émile Bolullo and TimotĂ© Nehma-Lacasse leading the way. Both have over 300 yards and an equal number of touchdowns (11), which so far, is the only team with two 300-yard receivers. But the offense doesn’t stop there. Charles Beauchemin, Lucian Leontiev and Tommy Caetano all have eclipsed the 100 yard mark and have caught at least 2 TDs. As much praise as I’ve given Boulanger for his improvement, the same can be said about Émile Bolullo. He’s 6 games into his season and already has more yards and the same number of TD’s that he did in 8 Fall Cup games last season. Incredible! And it’s not just on the offensive side, defensively, he already has 5 INTs, tying him for 3rd best in the division. He’s quickly become one of the best dual-threat players in the lower divisions of FPF.
Speaking of defense and improvements in people’s game, can we talk about the Vincent Bolullo‘s division-leading 17 sacks in 6 games??? In 10 games last Fall Cup he had 19 sacks, so he’s definitely going over that number this year. Here’s another player that was good, and things suddenly clicked and he became great in such a short amount of time.
In their schedule so far, they’ve faced 3 tough opponents, Vick in a Box, Bleue Dry and What Could Have Beens and have come away with 0 losses. If there’s 1 thing that could use some improvement (we all need things to work on), it’s the extra points. They’ve converted 10 of them on 32 touchdowns they’ve scored, so about one-third of them. To be even better, getting that number to 50-60% would make them even that much better and a favorite to go to the Finals.
Grade: A
Key Players: Vincent Bolullo, Émile Bolullo, Timoté Nehma-Lacasse, Guillaume Boulanger
Prediction Record: 7-1-2
The Penetrators (4-1)
If it weren’t for Benji Ziegler subbing in for the Warriors and perhaps some Week 1 rust, The Penetrators could be 5-0. They’ve quietly rattled off 4 wins in a row and in some ways, the Week 1 loss may have reduced the pressure as perhaps they would have “all eyes on them” and a target on their back as the team everyone would want to break their undefeated season.
Woah. Justin Goodman throwing at an 11:1 TD-to-INT Ratio?? Holy bleep!! Dude, that is amazing, all while hitting receivers at 62% and sporting a 117.9 QBR. Damn man, this guy has continuously raised his game, and while there were IG clips of his players calling him the GOAT, lol, let’s calm down. I will praise the guy’s evolution in FPF, but it’s 5B now! Let the team move up into Div 4 and 3 in the following seasons where defenses become much more aggressive and competent before claiming any GOAT status. As a QB myself, I’m sure Goodman knows that every pass, every drive, every game is a learning experience, and it’s a position that you continuously learn and there’s always room for improvement.
Jared Boidman has been a later addition to The Penetrators squad, since Spring 2022 and he’s become the teams best player on both sides of the ball. He’s the leading receiver with his 190 yards and T-1st with 6 TDs (tied with Jake Halpern) and leads the team with 4 INTs, two of which he’s taken back to the house for 6. He is one the divisions best jumpball threats, making him a mismatch nightmare against many teams. All that said, the receiving core is more than Boidman as Goodman does a great job distributing the rock to a great receiving cast. The depth includes the aforementioned Jake Halpern, the reliable and difference-maker Nicholas Fon, and the speedster Matthew Caponi. All 4 of the listed receivers have caught at least 10 balls and are all averaging more than a first down per reception.
The defense has been stronger as they’ve played more games in FPF, and averaging just 3 TDs against, with 1 extra point, you know that Goodman has reached the level where he can easily put up a minimum of 4 TDs on any given night, meaning that it’s more likely that they come away the W on most nights.
Their schedule so far has been an equal mix of BAD teams and good teams. They’ve obviously beaten up on the bad teams, going 3-0 and have split against the good teams, losing by 1 and winning by 1. So they definitely have competition in this season’s version of 5B so they need to play their best against the good teams they have coming up on their schedule: Les Bleue Dry, What Could Have Beens and Red Dragons. While they have had the Red Dragons number in the past, they have rapdily improved and that last game of the season could be a playoff preview down the line in April.
Grade: C+
Key Players: Justin Goodman, Jared Boidman, Jake Halpern
Prediction Record: 8-2
Primetime (2-2)
Daniel Spina is having an “okay” season so far. The 3.5 TD’s per game (passing and rushing included) are alright, but the 9 turnovers in 4 games is simply too high. Throwing 2-3 INTs per game with a 40-50% completion percentage means he’s forcing balls into too tight of windows when he should be hitting wide open guys instead. This is the hard part of quarterbacking; coming off reads that aren’t there, but he needs to evolve in that regard. He is moving the ball well, averaging 171 yards of offense per game (135 passing and 36 rushing yards), but protecting the ball is huge in FPF and needs to work on reducing the INTs. Most times, taking the sack is better than forcing balls.
Finally Willie Habimana is more involved in the offense! He’s a great talent that just needed more reps and understanding of the spacing in flag, but he was clearly going to become a threat on offense and it looks like that time has come. Of course, he’s not the only piece on attack, George Zergiotis and Ethan Adrian are 2 other pieces that compliment the offense with different skill sets, Zergiotis being the big box-out body and Adrian being the speedster. While I would like more receptions from the receivers in general, that one falls on Spina, as he’s completing only 12 passes (on average) per game.
On defense, we’ve spoken about the wrecking ball that is Ethan Adrian at rusher. Just try and run on him, please. He’s currently sitting with the 6th most sacks (7), but has played 1 or 2 less games than most, so watch out for him to end in the Top 4 in sacks. 6 interceptions as a team in 4 games isn’t bad, but when the offense is only scoring averaging 3 TDs per game, if the defense could produce 1 more turnover per game, that would be ideal, but man, playing D is hard!
So far in their schedule, they have been beating teams worse than them (although the game against HimU was too close for my liking, where HimU was 1 yard away from winning the game on 3 downs), and losing to teams who are better than them. The back half of their schedule is much of the same. Playing against really bad teams and then really good teams. What I want to see is to keep it competitive and within 1-score in games against WCHB, Killer Rays and The Penetrators and completely wiping out Cover 3 and BSHU. The game against No Punt Intended will actually be very tight, and will be a clash of friends as well, as they will be facing Jacob Soles and Carter Condon, their former Primetime QB and leader in receiving TDs and defensive INTs in W22, who were key pieces to their FPF Finals appearance.
Grade: C+
Key Players: Willie Habimana, George Zergiotis, Ethan Adrian
Prediction Record: 5-5
No Punt Intended (2-3)
No Punt Intended are an interesting middle-of-the-pack team. They are truly a wild-card team that could be dangerous come playoff time. Their start to the season saw them playing against very good teams where they got smoked by both Les Bleue Dry, Red Dragons and Primal. They then whipped Cover 3 and convincingly defeated HimU. Both teams they beat though are not great teams, so it’s hard to evaluate them. On their own, they have very good individual players. Carter Condon had 13 INTs last Wintner season (in Div 6 mind you, but still) and Carter Soles has played and is playing in higher FPF divisions (Brand New, Div B in Spring 22 and this year with 4th and Shlong in Div 4) and has seen success there. I’ve also seen Jacob Soles play in the past, and sometimes I am super impressed and other times I’m left wondering why a certain throw or decision was made. I get the good, the bad and the ugly with J. Soles that leaves me asking if he can be consistently good. He’s averaging 3 TDs per game, which is really the bare minimum you can ask for in 5B, but what concerns me more are the 9 INTs in 5 games. Just under 2 INTs per game is tough, unless you are putting up 5-6 TDs per game, which as we just saw, he isn’t. This will put them in precarious game situations and would need their defense to create turnovers themselves.
While the numbers look good for those said defensive turnovers, 9 in 5 games, 5 of those came in 1 game. So in other words, they are creating 1 turnover per game, which is okay, but again, if the offense is scoring 3 TDs, the extra INT would put them in a better position to be more competitive against those upper echelon teams. Without that extra turnover, they have at least been very good on stopping teams on 3rd down, allowing teams to only convert 26% on 3rd down. While they’ve been good on 3rd down, they are allowing offenses to keep possession 50% of the time on 4th down attempts. These numbers would otherwise be great, if the offense could keep their drives alive. They’ve converted 35% of 3rd downs and 23% of 4th down situations. Those aren’t great numbers for a game that is tailored for the offenses.
Grade: C
Key Players: Carter Condon, Carter Soles
Prediction Record: 5-5
Cover 3 (0-5)
I had little pre-season expectations from this team since most of the players are playing in their first FPF season. While most notably James Vogas and Michael De Seta have played before, my god, this is the perfect example of why this team and new teams should start playing in Division 6. Those 2 probably thought that with their experience on the team that it would be enough to be competitive, but the answer is no. I calculated it and the team would 100% would have fit in Div 6 and that was their first mistake of the season. Even though Luca Della Sala is a tackle QB, according to Moe Khan, it doesn’t matter. The game of flag is VERY different than tackle, especially from a QB perspective. Della Sala has struggled mightily this season, but then had 1 great game that came out of nowhere against the Warriors, although I have a feeling having Jaeden Edghill on the roster that night had something to do with it (172 yards and 4 TDs). Other than that game though, where Della Sala had 5 TDs and 1 INT, his total are now 10/10… That means those 4 other games he’s gone 5 TDs and 9 INTS… that is…. not good (granted one of those games he went the opposite and went 1/5). Still, overall, he’s throwing 1 TD for every 1 INT and the offense just can’t win with those type of numbers.
James Vogas is a nice piece offensively, big body, good hands, and after Jaeden Edghill (who has now played 2 games and might be on the roster for the rest of the season), Vogas is the WR2 on the team with 157 yards and 3 TDs. While Michael De Seta has gotten targeted 19 times, which means he is meant to be involved in the offense, catching less than half of those (9 receptions) for 83 yards is not good enough. While the offense has been below average, the defense hasn’t done much to get the offense more cracks at it. With just 2 turnovers on the season, it makes them the team with the fewest interceptions and are allowing a whopping 36.6 points per game. I know defense is hard and the game is meant for the offenses to flourish, but if you are allowing that many points, you better be scoring at that same rate, and as I outlined earlier, that clearly hasn’t been the case. Eitan Assayag had a good start to the season as a rusher, getting 2 sacks on Sean Brown in their first game of the season, but has gone cold since, accumulating just 1 sack in the following 4 games. They need more production of him to back the offenses up, force them to throw deeper which can hopefully create more turnovers on defense.
The good thing is, that they faced some REALLY tough opponents in the first half of the schedule and the 2nd half is where I can potentially see them getting their first W of the season. It doesn’t start easy against Killer Rays, but if they can keep it close against Primetime, that would be a moral victory, maybe even squeak out a 1 point victory, but it is against Brewers where they have their best shot at their first win. Following that, if they can bundle a win streak when they face Bulldogs, maybe, just maybe they can slip through the cracks and make the playoffs. Highly doubtful it plays out that way, but the Primetime, Brewers and Bulldogs stretch is where their playoff hopes lie.
Grade: D
Key Players: Jaeden Edghill, James Vogas
Prediction Record: 1-9