Finals Preview

Disney will reveal its newest princess to the world this November (I don’t find news, news finds me, alright), but you don’t have to travel very far – 8000 boulevard Leduc in Brossard, to be exact – to see the FPF version of Cinderella striving to get their storybook ending this Sunday night.

That team is Frosty Bronsons, and the Wicked Stepmother aiming to keep that from happening are a group of guys who go by the name The Alpha-Ts.

Okay, so that sounded a lot less cheesy in my head. I’ll spare you the trouble of making it any worse. Let’s just jump right into a quick look back at the week that got us here before taking a look at what to expect in the final game of this insane Division D spring season.

Recaps

Quarter-Finals:

Backyard Bullies 25, Friends in Low Places 8: After such an intense first two rounds of playoff games, the Quarter-Finals kicked off with a dud. On one side you had some good defensive play. Well, good rushing to be precise, as FilP’s Justin Matteo sacked Brennan Burke a total of five times on a night that saw the ByB signal caller held to three total TDs. On the other side, you simply had an atrocious night from the FiLP offense. QBs Jordan Bellemare and Alex Grey finished a combined 8 for 27 for 110 yards and a lone second-half TD while tossing four picks.

Frosty Bronsons 31, Justice League 28: Despite the score, not even this game was as close as one might think, with Justice League scoring a garbage time TD to close out an otherwise tough outing. It wasn’t so much that Frosty kept JL from marching the field; they just kept them from punching it in once they did so. As expected, JL’s workhorses Mendy Cardichon and Petru Andreescu came out to play, but alas the pair alone weren’t enough to overcome the strong team effort from Frosty.

Gators 32, Les Affreux 12: And here I was with such high hopes of a good game from these two teams. There’s no other way to put it, though: Gators simply torched Les Affreux, from start to finish, on both sides of the ball. A surprising result for me given Les Affreux’s skills on the field and their FPF playoff experience, but I guess it showed just how important Jon Lemieux and Mat Dubois are to this team, both of whom were absent for the game. The result was a sluggish offense and a defense which, judging by the big gains they allowed to Kevin St-Pierre and Eddy Martinez play after play, was sorely lacking in the athletic department.

The Alpha-Ts 48, Ghosts 24: You gotta give it to Ghosts, it’s been one hell of a run. Unfortunately for them it came to a brutal end when they ran into a brick wall named The Alpha-Ts. There’s no real way around saying it: Ghosts simply were no match for the Alpha-Ts on Tuesday night. The Ts completely shutdown top Ghosts target Gab Wiseman which, yes, allowed fellow stud Alexis Gaumont to pop off for six catches for nearly 90 yards and two TDs. But if there was one Alexis Gaumont on the Ghosts’ side, there were about five of him dressed in orange on the field.

 

Semi-Finals: 

The Alpha-Ts 39, Gators 19: The blowouts didn’t stop in the quarter-final round. Blowout number one wasn’t actually a blowout until the second half. The first half saw Jesse Dupuis’ Alpha-Ts take the lead early and hold on for dear life as Gators essentially went score-for-score with them thanks to some big plays from, surprise surprise, Eddy Martinez. Then the second half came: two big runs from Jesse Dupuis the QB, two pick sixes from Jesse Dupuis the DB, and ultimately one big hole for Gators to try to climb out of – one that proved to big for them to succeed in doing so. 

Frosty Bronsons 31, Backyard Bullies 7: While the first blowout was actually close for a bit, you can’t really say the same about this one past the game’s opening minutes. While Frosty clearly made some adjustments from their first matchup versus ByB in Week 10, ByB made just about none. Drive after drive ByB QB Brennan Burke was turned away on 4th down, mostly turning to his go-to receiver Rich Humes only to find cornerback Josh Malyk Cenacle there to turn him away virtually every time. Combined with rusher Thomas Zorko already giving Burke so little time to get the ball out of his hands, there really was no hope for ByB past halftime.  

 

Finals Preview

Frosty Bronsons (12) vs. The Alpha Ts (3)

Previous Meeting: The Alpha Ts 36, Frosty Bronsons 26

 

The Story

I went back and looked to see what my initial thoughts were about each team back in preseason. I ranked Frosty Bronsons fifth overall in the division, and mentioned how I thought they should easily make the playoffs if QB James Nowakowski reduced his turnovers after throwing 22 interceptions the season prior. Meanwhile, I left the Alpha-Ts unranked.

Boy, did I get just about all of that wrong.

Frosty, of course, are this year’s poster boy for the role of David in “David and Goliath,” having miraculously made the playoffs as the 12th and final seed in their conference thanks to a gritty one-point win over Backyard Bullies in their regular season finale (and some late season screw ups by some other teams, cough). Then there’s the fact that Nowakowski actually threw 23 INTs this season, the most in the entire division. Yet here he is, days away from starting in the final, letting the haters know what’s up.    

On the other side you have the Alpha-Ts, who enter the finals as the no. 3 seed in their conference and boast the top scoring offense in all of the division, as well as owning the second-best defense in terms of points against (but they really have a legitimate claim to the top spot with 28 INTs recorded. 28!!!). And somehow, despite all of that, they’ve flown under the radar just about all season long. Well, not their own of course. These boys have that Kanye West next-level confidence etched in their souls. But when you’ve pretty much annihilated every single team you’ve faced all year long, wouldn’t you?

 

The Matchups 

James Nowakowski vs. Marc-Antoine Vallée

Truth be told, this is where Frosty’s chances of winning start and end. Frosty’s defense will make stops, of that I’m certain. But when it comes time to score, will they? Nowakowski’s excellent postseason passing numbers (16 passing TDs to 4 INTs versus three insanely good defenses) certainly helps ease doubts about his ability to move the ball through the air and punch it in once in the redzone. And that’s before mentioning that he’s averaged just over 3 rushing attempts per playoff game after running it nearly twice that often during the regular season. 

But to go from that to saying he’s a pocket QB is a big stretch; the man remains very much a dual threat QB, and makes use of his mobility quite a bit. Containing him will make for a tough, tough task for rusher Marc-Antoine Vallée, especially considering Nowakowski took off five times for over 60 yards and a score the last time he took on The Alpha-Ts. At this point Vallée should know full well what to expect. The question is, do you let the guy who torched you once already run crazy, or do you hope the guy coming off a 180-yard, 5 TD-passing performance less than a week ago just had a lucky night? 

 

Thomas Zorko vs. Jesse Dupuis

Now this right here is going to be a sick battle. Featuring the grossly underrated (seriously, get out of here with that 67.4 rating) rusher Thomas Zorko on one side, and the shifty Jesse Dupuis on the other, one wrong move from either player could be the difference between a big sack and an easy touchdown pass.

For all of his achievements this season, we can’t forget that this remains Jesse’s first season in FPF as a full-time QB. It’s largely been an easy ride for him in the pocket from the game’s first snap right through to its last just about all summer long. Getting him flustered early figures among Frosty’s keys to success in this game, especially considering how they’re built to take a lead and never look back much moreso than as a comeback team.  

 

Mathieu Houle vs. the Frosty Bronsons secondary

There’s no question the Alpha receiving corps as a whole is simply monstrous, but one monster stands out in particular and that’s the big boy Mathieu Houle. Basically FPF’s version of the perfect NFL tight end, Houle has the speed to burn you down the sideline, the size to simply box you out on redzone jump balls, and the overall playmaking ability to bail out you with a big play when you need one.

The last time these teams faced off, Frosty struggled to keep Houle in check, allowing him to catch five passes for 66 yards and two scores. Alex Holowach aside, the Bronsons don’t exactly have the sort of big-bodied defender to be able to take Houle one on one. I’m curious as to the defensive game plan Frosty will enter this game with, particularly because I have a tough time seeing them come up with one that both keeps Houle quiet while not leaving hugely unfavorable matchups (34 TDs between Bryan Mongeau, Alex David and Marc-Antoine Vallée this season) elsewhere on the field.  

 

The Prediction

In what’s essentially a battle between the 2000 Baltimore Ravens (Yes, I guess that makes James Nowakowski Trent Dilfer) meets the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers (out of the playoff picture in Week 13 before winning four straight to make the postseason, then another three in a row to make Super Bowl XL –Frosty Bronsons style) and beat the 2015 Cincinnati Bengals, Wild Card round edition (that was a reference to The Goats), facing off versus the Cleveland Browns (bright brownish orange jerseys FTW), I’m going with… the Browns?

The way I see it, it’s going to take a damn near flat out perfect performance from Nowakowski and company if they hope to be the ones hoisting the trophy come the final whistle. It’s not that I don’t think they can’t do it. Just that it’s, well, rather unlikely.

 

Prediction: The Alpha-Ts 32, Frosty Bronsons 24

 

***

Be sure to check out this week’s Division D podcast with Simon Dagenais and and Terry Tam Peeze Della Reeze (well, Terry was there too) as they interview members from both The Alpha-Ts and Frosty Bronsons in this year’s Division D press conference. You can find it at at www.youtube.com/flagplus, recorded live on Thursday night. Until next week– oh. There is no next week. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read me this season, and for having made FPF fun as always. Best of luck to both teams in this year’s finals! Until next time, Blanchard out.