Inside the Redzone (Div C) – Week 5

Remember the old days when players used to guarantee wins? I can remember on multiple occasions when players came to me and guaranteed a win, but it usually never worked out for them. A classic example was Gianno Settino, who a few seasons ago made a guarantee for his CCI Eagles team (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43l-00xEK3g) but the result did not go in his favor. Of course, you have to give him credit for putting it all on the line and another player from Division C made the same guarantee last week.

Chris St-Francois told me last week that his BOOM! Goes The Dynamite team was going to win against Lobster Dinner, “sans question”. He felt his team needed to get some respect. Alas, BOOM did win the game but it was a bitter-sweet victory as they lost David Faucher to injury. It is very unfortunate and we at FPF wish him all the best and the speediest recovery. Furthermore, BOOM handled the injury with class and that says a lot about their character. Keeping on the injury front, Johnny Wilson, from Primetime, was also on the unfortunate end last weekend by also suffering an injury. Once again, we do wish him the best and definitely hope to see him out on the field as soon as possible.

Instead of writing my usual column this week, I’ll be doing a mid-season report. I’ll briefly look at all the teams to this point and what we can expect from them in the second half of the season. After five weeks, only one team is perfect and another is undefeated (with ties); on the other side of the spectrum two teams are winless, but everyone else in between has their share of wins and losses.

 

Before I can get to it, here are last week’s poll results:

 

Question: In the regular season, if the score is tied at the end of regulation, the game ends in a tie. Should FlagPlus Football: keep it as is, use playoff overtime format or other?

 

Answer: The majority of the people said use playoff overtime format which means a shootout until someone wins.

 

 

Mid Season Report

I am doing a brief look at every team’s accomplishments until now and they ranked from top to bottom in terms of talent, similar to Sarwar’s Standings

 

Fools Of The Country (5-0) – Just a great team with so many weapons. They have the number one ranked defense in the league and their offense is very potent too. The depth is definitely there because whether it is Martin Tougas or Jonathan Lemieux throwing the ball, they’re getting it done.

Expectation: 10-0

Successful season if: win championship

 

Lobster Dinner (4-1) – So far, so good, even though they lost this past weekend (no QB). The chemistry has developed rapidly for this team who has brought in a few DIP players from past seasons. Their key to success will be stifling teams defensively and Jonathan Brown playing consistently at QB.

Expectation: 8-2

Successful season if: win championship

 

Trojans (3-1-1) – They haven’t lost after week one, which means they’re starting to gather some momentum and will be a tough team to beat down the stretch. Sean Avraam is finding his groove nicely but their strength is experience on defense. If they can stay consistent, there is no doubt they have the ability to go really far despite the loss of Adam Ciampini.

Expectation: 7-2-1

Successful season if: win championship

 

Cobras (3-0-2) – The classic tale of the veteran FPF team who thrives on chemistry. They have been getting a lot of bad press lately but they’ve proven themselves to be top dogs in the Div C. Do they have what it takes to win it all? It will be tough, but I wouldn’t count them out. They have learned from past seasons with Alex Lever at the helm and are now using it to their advantage.

Expectation: 5-2-3

Successful season if: reach finals

 

KGP Champs (3-1-1) – Had a rough start to the season but are starting to regain their old form. They still have ways to go in becoming a dominant team, but it seems like everyone is stepping up. They reached the conference finals last year but had Phil Clark, who isn’t with the team this season, so they will need other guys to step forward and make big plays.

Expectation: 5-3-2

Successful season if: reach conference finals

 

Those Guys (3-2) – I would like to see a little more consistency from them, however, they are on a two game winning streak and with the Vikings on the horizon, that number will go to three. Cody Hemsley is slowly becoming a good leader for this team and combined with Ryan Perry’s dominant play and Huey Issacs` great ability on both sides of the ball, Those Guys are definitely a contender.

Expectation: 7-3

Successful season if: reach finals

 

Broccasion (3–2) – Averaging 36.4 points for per game is very impressive. The talk of the town is The “Big Lebofsky” however, let’s not undermine the QB play of the Cerantolas, especially Kristian and Justin. As long as they’ll get secondary help from other players, they will be a force but they’ll need to work on their defense because a bad offensive game could be troublesome.

Expectation: 7-3

Successful season if: reach finals

 

BOOM! Goes The Dynamite (3-2) – The loss of David Faucher will definitely hurt but I like their heart and character. They are dedicating the remainder of the season to David Faucher which will definitely help their intensity level. There is still a lot of talent on this team to go all the way, all depending on the QB play of Edward Shoshan.

Expectation: 7-2-1

Successful season if: win championship

 

Chaos (3-2) – A strong team who seemed like they had it going but will be without the services of Jason Edwards for the remainder of the season and that hurts their depth. He brought a two-way playmaking ability but I still believe they have the right cast to return to the finals if they retool and play focused. Eugene McLaren will need to once again step up his game to another level.

Expectation: 6-4

Successful season if: reach finals

 

Mysterious & Magical Men of Terror (3-2) – Just when I was ready to put all my eggs in their basket, they were brought back down to earth last Sunday. It is a new experiment for Matthew Bishara to play QB however he has done a decent job thus far. I would like to see players other than Eric Bishara and Jonah Still to step up on offense. The core of the Dirty Birds is intact for this team and that will be their key to success down the road.

Expectation: 6-3-1

Success season if: reach conference finals

 

Terror Squad (3-2) – A new team in FPF with a couple of players who have played for a couple of seasons now. This team thrives on their athletic ability and enthusiasm. For most players in the team, it’s a transition from tackle to flag but they’re adjust rather fast and I am very confident by season’s end, they’ll cause an upset or two. Francis Vilaydeth has to keep these guys on their toes and fired up.

Expectation: 5-3-2

Successful season if: reach conference finals

 

Point Point (3-2) – Is their record indicative of their talent? Definitely not. Having Richard Shefteshy and Tony Tabet as your potential QBs is a plus for any team, no matter if they don’t believe they’re good QBs. Furthermore Ara “CHEF RAMSEY” Ekmekdjian, Chris Achkarian, Phil Ackaoui among others gives them an edge over probably all teams in Division C. Believe me, when the games start counting this team will bring their A game.

Expectation: 6-4

Successful season if: win championship

 

Primetime (2-2-1) – In all honesty, I can see this team winning the championship. They have a good QB, a solid receiving core and stifling defensive scheme. So who is stopping them from going all the way? The answer is they are stopping themselves. Every week, they just can’t seem to be on the same page which is very unfortunate but given all the commotion they’ve experience this season, their record is still at .500; so I hope they’ll wake up sooner rather than later.

Expectation: 5-3-2

Successful season if: reach finals

 

Briscoe High Hawks (2-3) – What can you say about this team? Well for one, the core consists of close friends and two, they’ve added Garrett Taylor, Oliver Phillip and lately Scott Kelly. Therefore hats off to Ben Joseph for putting this team together and I have said for a few weeks now that once Scott Kelly is fully comfortable with Garrett Taylor, Oliver Phillip and J.P. Mancini, this offense will be very tough to stop.

Expectation: 5-5

Successful season if: reach conference quarter finals

 

Jets (1-3-1) – The J E T S are finally on the board in the win column but they still have ways to go, especially their next two matches are FOTC and MMMT. I know many might think they should be doing better however they are simply not that good. In Spring 2009, they had an upset win over the Cobras but since then, they haven’t done much. Therefore they’re playing as expected and should be content if they make playoffs.

Expectation: 2-6-2

Successful season if: make playoffs

 

Vicious Canucks (1-4) – They should be doing better than they currently are however, it just seems something is missing. I can’t put a finger on it but it might be raw intensity and the battle-type attitude. They’re all great players however, they will turn it up for the second half of the season and find another gear. I would suggest a closed door meeting to address the weaknesses and take it one game at a time.

Expectation: 2-8

Successful season if: make playoffs

 

Kludgies (1-4) – I am not really impressed with this team, but Daron Basmadjian from the Weekly Extra Point Live has said he likes Kludgies chances to make a run at the playoffs. If Daron believes in them, then that means absolutely nothing for me! They haven’t won since their victory in week one so I doubt they’ll be a big turnaround in the next five games. Dylan Taylor will have to play MVP type football if they even have a chance at the post-season and captain Jeff Brown of the Alkaholiks will need to provide the veteran leadership.

Expectation: 3-7

 

Darkhorses (1-4) – They had a promising start to the season but have been a disappointment. They need to hope they can somehow sneak into playoffs and use some of the Love Cows charm from Winter 2010 season. However getting there will be tough because they only have two winnable games from hereon in. They are definitely underachieving because having Kenton Lowe, Andrew Carruthers, Matt Clow and John Roveto is nothing to sneeze at.

Expectation: 2-6-2

Successful season if: win first round of playoffs

 

Titans (0-5) – Rick Cummins and Andrija Zecevic should be enough to at least have a win in the first five games of the season but apparently the Titans need a bit more. They lost to the Cobras by 1 point so perhaps they’re getting closer to their first win and eventually clinching a playoff spot. One thing that favors them is an easier second half schedule and I can guarantee you that if they make the playoffs, they’ll be a sleeper pick.

Expectation: 2-8

Successful season if: make playoffs

 

Vikings (0-5) – Julian Ramsay has made it clear that Vikings will have a tough time all season because they are playing together for the first time therefore they do no expect to do well. In all honesty, I respect and admire that. They could have dropped down to Division D however they decided to go in a tough Div C and take their lumps. Furthermore the only way to get better is to play against good football teams and they’re doing exactly that. Keep your heads up boys!

Expectation: 0-10

Successful season if: make playoffs

 

There you have it, a brief look at every team in the first half of the season. What I have learned until now? First and foremost, no one team can have two or three stars and be a solid contender. I remember in the old days a team could grab a few superstars and do relatively well however, it is no longer the case nowadays. It has to be either a team effort with barely any weaknesses or a roster full of stars. The latter will still not guarantee anything as is the case with Point Point.

 

Therefore now teams must turn it up and take it to the next level. FYI, eight teams in each conference will make the playoffs so only two teams per conference will not make it. It should be exciting to see if any of the bottom-cellar teams will make a run.

 

That’s it for this week’s column. As usual if you have any comments/suggestions, email me at [email protected]. I leave you with the following quote:

 

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Rick Cummins quoting Michael Jordan (still not sure how this is related to football)