Inside the Red Zone (Div 3) – Week 8

And then there were two! The pressure is mounting for all teams who still haven’t clinched a playoff spot. Just a bit later, I’ll look at the updated playoff picture that shows who’s in, who’s out and who has only two games left to qualify for the post-season.

 

There are still three undefeated teams left in Division 3 and that might change this week depending on which Prestige World Wide team shows up. Alex Lever might have an advantage given he has played with core of the Dirty Birds players in past seasons, however the Prestige World Wide roster isn’t as deep and that’s where they might run into trouble. Nonetheless, it will be an exciting game.

 

I have a lot to get to so without any further delay, it’s time to dive into this week’s edition of Inside The Red Zone.

 

Headlines

G-MEN Keep Playoffs Hope Alive

With only three games remaining, G-Men were in a must win situation to keep their playoffs hopes alive. They won last weekend against the Legends by a score of 40-34 and went to a record of 3-5. Corey Pecker (Legends) was as efficient as a QB could be and completed 16 of 17 passes while throwing for 182 yards and 5 TDs before being ejected after his second OC; he also had an interception on defense. Justin Somlar and Robbie Pecker caught two TDs each. Tony Tabet (G-Men) threw for 5 TDs of which Paul Kamel caught three and Nareg Yessayan caught two. The turning point was the interception thrown by Jeff Rosenblatt (Legends) who’s obviously not their QB of choice (1 of 6 in the game) and it was returned for six points by Paul Kamel (G-Men). In recent weeks, the bulk of the G-Men offense has come from receivers Paul Kamel, Nareg Yessayan and Farris Kamel, who were instrumental once again in this match up. As for the Legends, it’s good to see Justin Smolar catch some TDs since he’s dishing many of them out in Division 2.

 

Rude Bwoys Get Served

Served With Ice needed to make a statement to prove to Division 3 and most important, to themselves that they were a team that deserves to not only make the playoffs but can play with the best of them. They did exactly that by beating the Rude Bwoys with a score of 34-20. Served With Ice (4-3-1) did two things really well in this match up. One, they limited Domenic Tosi’s rushing to a measly 9 yards when in the past weeks he’s had great success in that category. And second, they held Domenic Tosi to only 3 passing TDs (only completed 13 passes of 35 attempts) which is his lowest of the season. Jordan Panetta, QB of Served With Ice, took care of the rest with 5 TDs, 4 passing and 1 rushing. A great all around effort for Served With Ice and it came at the right time.

 

One Night Stands: Up to their old tricks

If anyone has followed One Night Stands over the years, you would know they are up to their old tricks. They have slow starts to the season and then pick it up towards the end. They started the season 1-4 but have won two out of their last three games (sitting at 3-5) and the latest was a thrashing of the Jonesers by a final of 50-12. What is the key to their magical fun? Well it’s not what but rather who. Allow me to introduce Mr. Neil Robertson, who has only thrown in two games for One Night Stands recently and is 2-0 with following stat line: 23-49, 465 yards, 13 TDs and 2 INTs. Furthermore, he has beaten two reputable opponents in Served With Ice and the Jonesers. The biggest advantage of having Neil Robertson, an experienced Touch Football QB, at the pivot position is that Ryan Brewester and Andrew Blevings (who have shared QB duties for much of the season) can return to their natural positions as receivers.

 

Week 8: Close Calls

 B.D. Bandits just squeaked past Les Eudistes by a score of 28-27. Two bobbled balls by the snapper were the two interceptions thrown by Scott Kelly (B.D. Bandits) but for a second straight week, the B.D. Bandits’ defense played well enough to preserve the win. Four different players had one interception (Sanner, Naju, Cooke and the QB himself, Kelly). Les Eudistes have lost three in a row and what’s more heartbreaking is that all losses were by 7 points or less against opponents whose combined record is 23-1. As for the B.D. Bandits, they remained undefeated for yet another week.

 

GPK won a close one against the Dirty Dawgers; final score was 26-24. GPK weren’t counting on seeing Jamil Springer as the QB for Dirty Dawgers. Regardless, GPK’s defense did a good job limiting his mobility and forcing him to throw. As a result, they had 3 INTs (two by Matthew Smith and one by Ryan Phillips). In games like this, offseason acquisitions Tam Vilaydeth, Justin Blanchard and Corey Greenway paid huge dividends. Tam Vilaydeth and Justin Blanchard (both speedy and agile) did a great job rushing Jamil Springer while Corey Greenway was just a great presence on both sides of the ball. For the Dirty Dawgers (now 4-4), Ryan Eveleigh (QB) hasn’t played since Feb 24 and they need him back for the last two games to try to clinch a spot in the playoffs.

 

STARWARS OF THE WEEK

QB: Neil Robertson (ONS) 15-19 for 239 yards and 7 TDs.

Receiver: Jacques Void (Pap N’ Co) 7 catches for 189 yards and 5 TDs.

DB: Robbie Robinson (VPC) 2 INTs and 3 PDs.

Rusher: Hinsley Adams (ONS) 5 sacks for a second straight week.

Team Defense: One Night Stands – 3 INTs, 5 Sacks and 1 PD.

 

Playoffs Race

The race to clinch a post-season berth is intense and full of suspense. Besides the top and bottom few teams in each conference, it’s all up for grabs. Here are the updated standings with only two weeks remaining.

 

Conference A

Team	W	L	T	PTS	+/-	DIV	Remaining Opponents
1.Dirty Birds	8	0	0	16	160	2-0-0	PWW, Dirty Dawgers
2. D-Boys	8	0	0	16	149	2-0-0	Pap N’ Co, Raw Dawgs
3. DK	7	1	0	14	183	2-0-0	KGP Champs, Les Eudistes
4.PWW	4	4	0	8	9	2-0-0	Dirty Birds, Picksquad
5.Dirty Dawgers	4	4	0	8	44	1-1-0	Eagles, Dirty Birds
6.Les Eudistes	4	4	0	8	43	1-1-0	CF, DK
7.Le Loft	4	4	0	8	25	1-2-0	Legends, Pap N’ Co
8.KGP Champs	3	4	1	7	-40	1-0-1	DK, Lazy But Talented
9.Raw Dawgs	3	5	0	6	11	2-0-0	Mongoose, D-Boys
10.Pap N’ Co	3	5	0	6	3	1-1-0	D-Boys, Le Loft
11.CF	2	5	1	5	-96	0-2-1	Les Eudistes, Fighting Irish
12.Lazy But Talented	1	7	0	2	-138	1-2-0	High Rollers, KGP Champs
13.Picksquad	1	7	0	2	-216	1-2-0	Ball So Hard University, PWW
14.Mongoose	1	7	0	2	-85	0-3-0	Raw Dawgs, Jonesers
15.Eagles	1	7	0	2	-90	0-3-0	Dirty Dawgers, Rude Bwoys

 

*teams in bold have clinched playoffs

*teams in Italic are eliminated

 

There are seven teams fighting for four playoff spots. There are KGP Champs are hanging on to the last spot but they play DK in week 9 and that could provide opportunities for Raw Dawgs, Pap N’ Co and even CF (all three teams have tough match ups) to narrow the gap. Also, the Dirty Birds are at the top due to point differential however that could change in their tough match up against Prestige World Wide.

 

Conference B

Team	W	L	T	PTS	+/-	DIV	Remaining Opponents
1.B.D. Bandits	8	0	0	16	121	2-0-0	Fighting Irish, VPC
2.Sandlot Saints	7	1	0	14	109	2-0-0	Jonesers, G-Men
3.Rude Bwoys	6	2	0	12	93	1-2-0	GPK, Eagles
4.Trojans	7	1	0	14	46	1-1-0	VPC, High Rollers
5.Served With Ice	4	3	1	9	46	1-0-1	Afternoon Delight, Ball So Hard Uni.
6.GPK	4	3	1	9	13	1-0-1	Rude Bwoys, Afternoon Delight
7.Afternoon Delight	4	4	0	8	21	2-0-0	Served With Ice, GPK
8.VPC	4	4	0	8	-24	2-0-0	Trojans, B.D. Bandits
9.Fighting Irish	4	4	0	8	13	1-2-0	B.D. Bandits, CF
10.Jonesers	4	4	0	8	-56	1-2-0	Sandlot Saints, Mongoose
11.Legends	4	4	0	8	-9	0-3-0	Le Loft, One Night Stands
12.G-Men	3	5	0	6	-5	2-0-0	One Night Stands, Sandlot Saints
13.One Night Stands	3	5	0	6	-42	1-0-0	G-Men, Legends
14.High Rollers	1	7	0	2	-90	0-3-0	Lazy But Talent, Trojans
15.Ball So Hard Uni.	1	7	0	2	-198	0-3-0	Picksquad, Served With Ice

 

*teams in bold have clinched playoffs

*teams in Italic are eliminated

 

There are nine teams fighting for four spots and seven teams are either tied or within a point of each other. It goes without saying that every game is a must win in the last two weeks but point differential will be a key factor. VPC has the hardest path to the playoffs because they face two teams with a combined record of 15-1.

 

AWARDS

The season will soon come to an end; hence the awards must be handed out to the top players in four categories: QB, Receiver, DB and Two-way player. For those who are not aware, if you qualify for an award in a higher division, you can’t win it in a lower division. Here is a list of the candidates in each category:

 

Quarterback

Player	Yards	Comp %	TDs	INTs	Sacks	QB Rating
Rochdi Benabdelkader* (DK)	1573	64.3	43	5	2	121.9
Marco Masciotra (D-Boys)	1670	71.5	41	8	0	118.8
Nathan Thompson (Trojans)	1748	67.3	44	11	3	108.8

*Played one less game (forfeit win)

Receiver

Player	Rec	Yards	TDs
Liam Mahoney (Afternoon Delight)	36	676	16
Louis Lafreniere-Dupont (Sandlot Saints)	34	567	17
Nareg Yessayan (G-Men)	45	515	16

 

Defensive Back

Player	Tackles	INTs	Sacks	PDs	TDs
Steve Sanner (B.D. Bandits)	42	6	0	16	1
Serge Pilon Jr. (DK)	31	8	0	3	3
Matt Kirouac (D-Boys)	4	1	23	2	0

 

Two-Way Player                                  

	Offense			Defense
Player	Rec	Yards	TDs	TKL	INTs	Sacks	PDs	TDs
Eric Bishara (Dirty Birds)	30	452	13	19	2	10	5	0
Paul Kamel (G-Men)	29	349	10	17	5	1	3	2

 

Now that I have covered the possible winners for the end of season awards handed out by FlagPlus Football, it’s time to briefly glance at the real awards. In other words, I am referring to rewarding and covering all the many aspects of our league that are overlooked; they are known as STAR-AWARDS. These awards are judged by yours truly and in doing so I take a lot of factors into consideration. Therefore to win a STAR-AWARD, it’s well deserved and you are worthy. I’ll name just a few categories (Best Referee, Best Gear, Best Hands, Fastest Man and many others including the Moe Khan award) for now but will go into details next week.

 

Meet the Competition: Lazy But Talented

by: Justin Blanchard

 

In football, like in any sport, you have your ups and downs.

 

Unfortunately for Lazy But Talented, they’ve experienced many more downs than they would’ve liked this season, all but eliminated from playoff contention with a 1-7 record and left to ponder what could’ve been.

 

“We have a good team,” said team captain and receiver Anh-Tuan St-Pierre. “Our team’s problem is that we had too many of our guys that were always working, that couldn’t come on a consistent basis.

 

“So we always had to bring in new guys week-in and week-out—guys that never played flag football or even football at all before.”

 

Among those in his first season of flag football is rookie Collège Montmorency quarterback Nicolas Rosconi, who took up the same position for Lazy but Talented this season only to find the flag version of football isn’t quite the same as the 12-on-12 one. “He saw early on that it’s really different,” said St-Pierre. “For a while he wasn’t really moving around in the pocket a lot, which led to a lot of sacks, but we’ve been showing him more and more how to adapt and he’s gotten better with time.” 

 

Indeed, as their name suggests, a lack of talent was far from the issue for the team his season, with the core group of having played football together at Collège Notre-Dame a few years ago before some moved on to play for the likes of Montmorency, Cégep du Vieux-Montréal, Collège Andre-Grasset and Collège Ahuntsic. 

 

But as their name also suggests, perhaps some laziness played into the team’s struggles this year: The group had to make the jump to Division 3 this season after being too late to sign up for Division 4, where they managed just a 2-8 record in their inaugural year of FPF as Ninja Turtles in the 2012 spring season.

 

Much like last year, however, when the team won its last two games of the season, Anh-Tuan is hopeful this year’s squad can do the same. “Our past two games we were missing guys and even had to forfeit against DK, but we’re going to do our best to finish strong,” he said.

 

Predictions

Last week, I went 11-3 and that brings my total to 74-24. Kudos to One Night Stands and Served With Ice for proving me wrong last week. Essentially the majority of the games are important however here are this week’s predictions with extra emphasis on key match ups:

 

Picksquad vs. Ball So Hard University: Picksquad

Jonesers vs. Sandlot Saints: Sandlot Saints

GPK vs. Rude Bwoys: GPK

KGP Champs vs. DK: DK

B.D. Bandits vs. Fighting Irish: B.D. Bandits

Dirty Dawgers vs. Eagles: Dirty Dawgers

D-Boys vs. Pap n’ Co: D-Boys

Dirty Birds vs. Prestige World Wide: PWW

Trojans vs. VPC: Trojans

Lazy But Talented vs. High Rollers: High Rollers

Les Eudistes vs. CF: Les Eudistes

 

G-Men (3-5) vs. One Night Stands (3-5)

 

They are in the same division with the same record and fighting for a playoff spot. Does it get more intense than that? The key matchup is ONS QB Neil Robertson (should he play) against the G-Men defense and it will be up to Paul Kamel to devise a strong defensive scheme. The G-Men should roll and put up 30 odd points but will need key stops.

Winner: One Night Stands, if Neil Robertson starts.

 

Afternoon Delight (4-4) vs. Served With Ice (4-3-1)

 

After coming off a huge win against Rude Bwoys, Served With Ice will take on another strong opponent in Afternoon Delight who had a 50+ point performance themselves last week. The match up to watch will be Jordan Panetta vs. Afternoon Delight defense with the likes of Scott Mironowicz, Vince Nardone, Kyle Smith, Liam Mahoney and Terrance Morsink.

Winner: Aternoon Delight

 

 

Le Loft (4-4) vs. Legends (4-4)

 

Both teams are 4-4 but if the playoffs started today, Le Loft would make it as the 7^th seed and the Legends would be out. Corey Pecker and the Legends are going to need a nearly perfect game to win against Le Loft who have the advantage in every match up in the game. Corey Pecker had a great game against G-Men last week going 16 of 17 and may need a similar effort to give his team a chance. Rapha Beladjat is having a solid season with 34 TDs and 274 yards on the ground and he will need to continue his strong play this week.

Winner: Le Loft

 

Well that’s it for this week’s coverage of Division 3. DON’T FORGET TO FOLLOW OUR TWITTER SECTION ON THE HOMEPAGE! If you liked what I wrote or completely hated it, please share your feedback by sending me your thoughts/comments/suggestions. You can contact me at [email protected] or on Facebook, twitter or in person. I wish everyone luck in their upcoming games. Till next time, stay classy Division 3!