Division 6 Recap – FlagPlus Football League

Week 2 is in the books, and what a week it was. We witnessed a boost in offensive production from some teams, while we saw a struggle to produce anything resembling an offense from some others.

As was the case last week as well, we also saw a number defenses rise to the occasion in a bunch of tightly contested games.

Under Review

As mentioned above, for the second consecutive week in a row, we saw a number of teams continue to have a hard time putting points on the board. While it wasn’t as bad as Week 1’s six point-fest, only two squads were able to score more than twenty points this past weekend.

Is this simply a product of bad offenses, or is D6 really a black and blue division where defenses come to play and points will be at a premium? Only time will tell.

Congratulations are in order for the N.W.O who notched their first ever win in FPF, with an 18-13 victory over Orange Crush. After taking their lumps and going winless in the Spring Season, this win must feel just too sweet…Congrats boys!

On the flip side, going into the season, one would think that a team who has been in FPF since the 2011 Winter Season, and is loaded with veterans would be the team to beat, or at least be in the conversation in our newly formed division.

Obviously that hasn’t been the case for Venom. Simply put, they have looked dreadful so far on both sides of the ball. While the season is still young, they will need to get their act together soon.

Luckily for them, their next three games are against the division’s less experienced teams in The Minge, the N.W.O, and the Orange Crush in that order.

After their game against the Orange Crush, Venom’s schedule sees them play two extremely tough games in Week 6 and 7 against the Golden Girls and JeanGuy respectively.

Best of luck Venom.

Players of the Week

My choice for QB of the week was close one as we saw many signal callers put up strong numbers this week. However, I have to give the call to Run Levy Run’s Jeff Rosenblatt.

In his team’s 39-13 blowout victory over Maccabi, Rosenblatt threw for 162 yards on 11-16 passing for 5 TDs. Yes you read that correctly, he had as many touchdown passes as incompletions.

This one really came down to two players, the N.W.O’s Anthony Di Staulo, and The ‘Pack’s Andrew April.

April had a big day against Venom, as he made it rain (did you see what I did there?) catching 5 passes for 79 yards and 2 TDs. Di Staulo was also no slouch either, with 2 catches for 71 yards, and two touchdowns versus the Orange Crush.

I’m going to give the edge to Di Staulo on this on. Some people might disagree, but let me explain.

First off, no my April rain/showers joke didn’t factor into the equation. More importantly, what did sway my vote was mostly the quality of competition, and the numbers themselves.

While April had an impressive showing, he did so against the worst defense in all of Division 6 that has given up an astonishing 88 points in just two games.

There’s no disputing that so far in the infancy stages of the season, that Orange Crush’s defense hasn’t proven themselves elite either. They are however, still better statistically and on paper than Venom’s. D.

If you want to look pass those basic numbers, then look at these. Di Staulo had 8 less yards (71 to 79) than April, on 3 less catches (2 to 5). Imagine the numbers Di Staulo could have put up if he caught 5 balls.

Oh yeah…Di Staulo’s scores also proved to be the difference in his team’s 6 point win in what proved to be a pretty good defensive matchup.

Defensive

This race was just as close. To make matters worse, it came down to two teammates. JeanGuy’s Fabien Moineau-Pilon and Simon Laporte.

Both players made an impact for their team in a heartbreaking 13-6 loss to an extremely tough Golden Girls squad.

Laporte finished the contest with one tackle, a pass defended and 2 sacks.

Moineau-Pilon also registered 2 QB sacks, but he also added an interception.

Because of the pick, Moineau-Pilon gets the slight edge and the award this week.

What makes both defensive performances really stand out is the fact that they received virtually no help from their offense. JeanGuy’s QB Christophe Chartrand managed to only complete 3 of 14 passes for 26 yards. In a predominately offensive driven league, how exactly does that happen?

I promised young David Della Rocca that I would plug the D6 podcast in my article, so here we go:

The gloves are off as Deeze defeats Moe in their weekly selections. The crew discusses key victories, the resurgence of NWO and The rocky road Heismans. Deeze and Moe will also be delving deeper into FPF strategy: Limiting Interceptions, QB rotation, Receiver development, probably some defensive advice too. Hot topics are also on the menu as we discuss the possibility of undefeated teams and impact players through the first few weeks of the season. You can’t afford to miss this segment, and if you do we may never forgive you… and our forgiveness is as sweet as a basket of nectarines. Podcast will be live this Wednesday at 6:30-7 (Podcast recordings also available) @ www.theunclehood.com

Now on to the picks….

Week 3 Picks

The Heismans VS JeanGuy > JeanGuy

I think JeanGuy’s play makers on the defensive side of the ball, will be too much for The Heismans to overcome. I also expect JG’s offense to respond after last week’s brutal showing.

Run Levy Run VS Orange Crush > Run Levy Run

R.L.R has too much talent to slip up in this one, while the OC haven’t shown me enough on offense so far to pull off this upset.

Venom VS The Minge > The Minge

The Minge are off to the better start. I expect veteran Minge’s QB Matthew Young to pick apart Venom’s struggling defense.

Golden Girls VS N.W.O. > Golden Girls

Despite my affection for the N.W.O, they just don’t have enough offensively to hang with the Golden Girls. Sorry, but this one won’t be just too sweet for the N.W.O.

Maccabi VS The ‘Pack > The ‘Pack

While Maccabi has shown that they can compete after finally playing in the right Division, The ‘Pack have too much of an advantage on both sides of the ball for Maccabi to contend with. I don’t expect this one to be close.

Power Rankings

Where was this last week you ask? I think that Week 1 and 2 are too early to judge, especially in a brand new Division. By Week 3, the rust should be gone, and chemistry should more or less be taken care of. So, here we are:

Golden Girls
The ‘Pack

One could argue that the two top teams could be 1A and 1B. Despite their identical records, I give the edge to GG because of who they’ve beaten. While The ‘Pack have beat a good Run Levy Run team in Week 1, they got served a softball this past week. Golden Girls beat a top 5 Heismans team in Week 1, and just came out on the winning end of a tough defensive battle with JeanGuy. That in my opinion holds more weight. Needless to say, all eyes will be on the Week 5 potential early championship preview tilt between Golden Girls and The ‘Pack.

JeanGuy-Despite their tough loss to the Golden Girls, this team is a force to be reckoned with. If they take care of business, their Week 8 encounter with The ‘Pack would definitely change the power rankings, and more importantly, send a message to the rest of the division.

Run Levy Run- had a strong second half showing against The ‘Pack in Week 1, and they carried that into their Week 2 victory over Maccabi. If RLR and QB of the week Jeff Rosenblatt can continue his improved play as well, a Week 5 meeting with JeanGuy could lead to a huge shift in the rankings.

The Heismans-They are here courtesy of their one point win over The Minge last week. Three of their next four games will be tough however, as they take on JeanGuy, The ‘Pack, the N.W.O, and Run Levy Run respectively. If they can at least finish .500 after that stretch, they have three potentially easier contests before finishing off the regular season with the Golden Girls.

The Minge-The only reason why they are here is because of the aforementioned loss to The Heismans last week. The head to head matchup just can’t be ignored. On a positive note, Their D appears to be legit so far. If their offense can match their defensive contemporaries, they will shoot up a few spots.

Maccabi- A young team who is finding their way. Their schedule however does them no favours over the next three weeks, as they take on The ‘Pack, The Minge, and JeanGuy. Winning one of those contests will go a long way towards establishing themselves, and building their confidence.

N.W.O-A scrappy team who just experienced the taste of success for the first time. How they build on it will be huge, as two of their next three games are definitely winnable.

Orange Crush-Their D has been more than decent so far. Their offense needs to catch up if they hope to stay out of the basement.

Venom- So far they’ve struggled on both sides of the ball. Hopefully the nine day layoff they have between this Wednesday’s game against The Minge and their February 3^rd tilt against N.W.O will give them enough time to sort things out.

There are few questions that are still unanswered as we head into the quarter point of the season. Namely:

Will anybody catch The Heisman’s Kevin Boustany as the leading candidate for Two-Way Player of the Year?

Will The ‘Pack run away from Run Levy Run (I’m trying!) and the rest of Conference A?

Speaking of The ‘Pack, their offense has been impressive in its first two games. Can they keep it up, or is their production just a product of early competition being more inexperienced?

Will this be the week that D6’s two remaining winless teams (Venom and the Orange Crush) get into the win column?

Not to pick on Venom, but will they be able to crack double digits in points for this week?

And finally, who are you guys picking for the Super Bowl? Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a die-hard 9ers fan, so I’d rather never watch or play football again than cheer for Seattle.

Even if I weren’t a San Fran fan, I’d still be picking the Broncos. I think Peyton will silence the critics. The PED-Hawks (as I so affectionately refer to them as) were a dumb Colin Kaepernick pass away from watching the game on TV. I’m going to stop now before I get mad all over again…Happy watching. Go Broncos!!!!

That’s it for this week. Sadly, I won’t be back writing for you guys next week, as Roger Emeka returns to take over the Division 6 article. It was brief, but I had a blast writing for you guys. I really like what I’ve seen and heard out of this division so far. I honestly think D6 is underrated, entertaining, and as we’ve seen so far, more than capable of delivering some good football. You guys will definitely hear and see me on the sidelines this season, and on the podcast. Thanks for taking the time to read my articles and good luck this season to all the teams.

Cheers.