Flagrant Fouls survive shots to the throne

Week 8 is here and the action is picking up as we close in on the beginning of the real season.  At this point of the year, chemistry and execution shouldn’t be a problem (tell that to my D2 team) Teams should be playing their best ball right now. While there are some teams are operating at full throttle, we are unfortunately seeing some teams who are falling off, or in some cases never had it to begin with.

That’s the beauty of this time of the season; the line between contenders and pretenders gets even smaller. It should go without saying that these last two weeks of the regular season will be must watch football.  Fasten your seatbelts.

As always, here are a couple of things that stood out from the week that was…

After I called out the N.W.O in last week’s article due their three game losing streak, and their overall play during the slide, the black and white came out Wednesday night and put on an impressive performance against the Pocketwatch.

From a pick six by Stephen Tirelli on The Pocketwatch’s first offensive series of the game, the N.W.O let it be known that this was a statement game that would quiet all the critics. Standing on the sidelines watching this game, you could tell that the N.W.O had their swagger back as they dominated The Pocketwatch on both sides of the ball. Nice to see you guys again, it’s been a while boys.

If the black and white can bring the same attitude and efficient play tonight in their matchup against Flagrant Fouls, the will definitely give Double F and run for their money.

As some of you guys know by now, an incident occurred last Saturday night in The Minge-Tigerz game. Unfortunately for both teams, the game was ended early due to an offend-able action, and a victory was awarded to the Minge. The incident put both teams and the league in a tough spot.

At the end of the day, we are all playing in FPF because we love football. While trash talking and flared tempers are sometimes part of the game, there is no excuse for throwing a punch at another player.  Not only do you hurt yourself by getting ejected from the game and earning a suspension, you also hurt your team by taking a penalty, but you also leave them short-handed for the rest of the game.

Although it’s not always easy to turn the other cheek, letting cooler heads prevail is always the best way to go.

With all the negativity out of the way, let me get into the High Five.

High Five

The heavy-weight tilt between Obamacare and Flagrant Fouls. This game featured tons of action and big plays on both sides of the ball. As expected both QBs brought their A game last Saturday night. Jordan McInnis and Ross Oshansky went toe to toe and throw to throw in what was arguably the best QB battle of the year. Although he didn’t get the victory, McInnis got the slight edge in their matchup as he bested  Oshansky in rushing yards, completion percentage, yards per attempt, QB rating. He even managed pick off his counterpart as well.

 This game came down to extra point conversions. Flagrant Fouls were able to get more than Obamacare did. At the end of the day Oshansky got the stat that mattered most, the win. This game more than lived up to my pick as game of the week. Here’s to hoping these two teams meet up again come playoff time.

Andrew Hopkins. Somebody had to catch those McInnis passes, and Hopkins definitely caught his fair share as he had a monster game with 5 catches for 129 yards and 3 touchdowns, and a pick on the other side of the ball. Although it came in a losing effort, the Obamacare two-way threat appears to be hitting his stride at the ride time.

L.A’s Finest’s Defense. 24 POINTS!!!! If you missed last week’s article, SHAME ON YOU. Go ahead read it quickly and come back…waiting…waiting…waiting. Ok welcome back. After me gushing about the hands down best defense in D6, and quite possibly all of FPF (if you think that statement is crazy, find me another team that is doing what they’ve been doing all season on that side of the ball), L.A.F put up a second consecutive shutout as they beat the Smokin’ Axolotls 21-0. What makes their win even more impressive is that they were able to force 5 INTs off of S.A pivot David Gagne (more on that later)

Yes the argument can be made that this is Division 6, but, FPF is an offensive driven league. If you can keep teams off the scoreboard as in consecutive games, it doesn’t really matter who you’re playing. In 8 games so far this season, the most points L.A’s Finest has given up is an astounding 12 points. Not in a half, but in an entire game. These guys deserve all the respect they’ve been getting.

Terry Tam and Yacoub Telemaque. The Woofpack dynamic duo put on a clinic vs Jean Guy. Tam went 18 of 30 for 211 yards and 4 TDs, while Telemaque caught 8 balls for 99 yards and 2 TDs. Telemaque even showed off his arm as he threw for a 34 yard TD as well.

Going into this game, I really thought this would be a much tighter game that would come down to a few big plays at the end. In the first half it looked like that was going to be the case as the Woofpack held a slim 12-6 lead. In the second half however, Tam and Telemaque made sure all the big plays came from their side, as they went on to the 39-13 win.

Jonathan Vreugdenhil. The Mountain Goats WR had the best day amongst all receivers as he put up 10 catches for 150 yards and 4 TDs. Those were all season highs for the rookie FPF receiver. More importantly, he gave his team a much needed win over an improving TMNB squad, to keep the Mountain Goats 3 points up on 8^th place Smokin’ Axolotls in the tough Conference A playoff race.

*Honorable mention to Wax On Wax Off rusher Justin Matteo (3 sacks) and WR Dangerous Danny D’Armour (10 catches for 97 yards and 4 TDs) as well as Orange Crush two-way weapon Andrew Denis Lynch (3 grabs for 51 yards, and a TD to go along with a pick 6, and 1 tackle on D)

Step It Up

David Gagne. The aforementioned Smokin’ Axolotls QB (not their regular starter) had an extremely rough outing going 6 of 24 for 39 yards and 5 interceptions. In his defense, like I said he’s not the team’s regular pivot, but that’s not enough to ignore those stats. Sorry, but as I’ve said here repeatedly, when half or more than half your passes end up in the other teams hands, you earn yourself a spot on the list.

Christophe Chartrand. Going from a QB with no experience to one who has a lot, Chartrand looked like a rookie Tuesday night in his game against the Woofpack. He appeared out of sync all game as he struggled to complete half of his passes going 8 of 14 for 100 yards 1TD and 4 INTs.

Chartrand and his Jean Guy team have a HUGE game Monday night against the Mountain Goats who are hot on their trail, and currently sit 1 point behind them for 6^th place in Conference A.  Step it up Chartrand.

The Tigerz discipline. I’m not going to talk about what I already mentioned above. In the bigger picture of things however, the Tigerz’s loss dropped them to 9^th place behind Team Fourth and Twenty in the Conference B standings. While the Tigerz do hold the head to head tiebreaker over them, those two points could still come back to bite them.

Elite 8

1. Flagrant Fouls – The class of the Division still reigns supreme. (Last Week 1)

2. L.A’s Finest – Can they extend their shutout streak Monday night against The Minge. I certainly wouldn’t bet against them… (Last Week 2)

3. Obamacare – Yes they lost, but they gave Flagrant Fouls their toughest game to date. A few bounces here or there, and they’d be in the number one spot. Expect Obamacare to take out their frustrations on Team Fourth and Twenty tonight. (Last Week 3)

4. Woofpack – A dominating win over Jean Guy sees them move one a spot in the rankings. They finish the season with Smokin’ Axolotls and The Minge. We’ll see how far Terry Tam’s crew can go. (Last Week 5)

5. Pardon My Swag– Yes they were victorious last week, but it was a real struggle against Orange Crush who came into the games as huge underdogs. After barely escaping with victories the last two weeks, what Pardon My Swag team will show up tonight against the Goon Squad? (Last Week 4)

6. The Sun Bros – For the second week in a row they laid a beat down on a team most people expected them to do it against (take notes Pardon My Swag) Because of their win and the Wax On Wax Off tie vs Beast Mode, they move up a spot in the rankings. (Last Week 7)

7. Wax On Wax Off – Speaking of The Sun Bros, guess who Wax faces this Tuesday at Stade Hebert? You guessed it…I shouldn’t have to tell you that this matchup will have an impact on the rankings. Do I? (Last Week 6)

8. Diablos – Francois Martin has been playing some excellent football as of late, and it should come as no surprise that his team has been playing better because of it too. Will they be able to keep their success going against a struggling Balls Deep squad? We’ll find out tonight. (Last Week 8)

 

Picks

Team Fourth and Twenty – Obamacare 

Diablos – Balls Deep 

The Mean Machine – Beast Mode 

Tigerz – Orange Crush – Orange Crush 

Pardon My Swag – Goon Squad – Pardon My Swag

Jean Guy – Mountain Goats – Mountain Goats

The Pocketwatch – TMNB – The Pocketwatch

The Minge – L.A’s Finest – L.A’s Finest

The Sun Bros – Wax On Wax Off – (My choice for game of the week – Wax On Wax Off)

Flagrant Fouls – n.W.o.  – Flagrant Fouls

Smokin’ Axolotls – Woofpack – Woofpack

Last Week: 8-2 * I am not counting the Tigerz-Minge game as the aforementioned incident affected the outcome of the match. I am however going to count the Wax On Wax Off /Beast Mode game. I picked Wax, and although they didn’t lose (25-25 tie) they didn’t exactly win either.

Season: 57-19

That’s it for Week 8. I’ll be back next week with my Week 9 recap. Enjoy the games everybody!

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]