It’s that time of the year already: It’s Playoffs baby!

After an eventful, palpitating and absolute gauntlet of a season in Div C, the teams moving on to the post-season have been determined. Congrats on making it through the grueling season where there was no easy matchups. That means of course, that we must bid adieu to the eliminated teams. Thanks for playing and see you next season: Les Montagnards, Tough Lungs, ESU Timberwolves, One Step Closer and Two Inch’s Gang.

The team that squeaked in at literally the concluding seconds of the FPF Spring season… none other than The Commission. What an incredible uphill battle they fought to make it in. They needed the 2 victories on Thursday night in Brossard and needed help along the way in the other matchups, and that’s exactly what they got. They took care of Los Penetradores led by Mike Pierrecin and his 158 yards and 3 TDs and then came out victorious in a tough battle against Hot Sauce Sports with a hat-trick of TD’s from snapper Alex Blais, including a clutch 4th down score to seal the victory. The 2 wins, combined with Les Montagnards beating Tough Lungs was enough to edge The Commission into the playoffs. They now have a date against Ravens on Sunday night at 8pm in Laval’s great outdoors.

So let’s break this article down with a few points to wrap up the season (a quick one already done for The Commission) and then go ahead and preview the first round matchups on Sunday night. The divisional round includes 8 teams battling it out. On the docket, we’ve got:

6pm: Vultures vs. Air Force 1 will go down in Lachine
7pm: The Stoics vs. Los Penetradores in Laval
8pm: Ravens vs. The Commission (Laval)
8pm: Blitzed Budds vs. Beer Belly Brigade (Laval)

Andddd because it’s playoffs, I just can’t help myself. Gotta do it once per season, and so here it is:

Division C – Wrap up the Regular Season

The top 4 teams with 1st round byes are EZW, TOPSZN, The Infantry and Hot Sauce Sports! Congrats, you survive 1 day of the FPF playoffs but do make it to the 2nd round wit 0% chance of being eliminated.
It’s crazy that the teams playing in Round 1 all either have 6-4 or 4-6 records. It means that if the close games they probably had swung the other way, all the teams seeded 6-12 would be 5-5. That’s how incredibly tight Div C is. Even eliminated teams, Les Montagnards and Tough Lungs ended the season 4-6 but ended up giving up way too many points against. Remember those games where you’re up by 2 scores and you aren’t playing your strongest defense in the last 5 plays but end up giving up a score? Yeah… can’t let that happen.
Had you told me at the half way point of the season that the Vultures would be playing in Round 1 of the playoffs and not have a 1st round bye, I wouldn’t have believed you. Instead, they are playing in probably the best/most exciting matchup in Round 1 vs. Air Force 1.
Last week I wrote that TOPSZN had 1 game to get back in their groove after losing 2 in a row and that they needed to be ready to face off against Blitzed Budds. They damn sure were ready and beat up Blitzed Budds 40-18. Felix Goulet-Tinawi had a first happen to him… the guy is freakin tall and is not used to a rusher being taller than him, as I’m pretty sure Hasani Worrell is the first rusher to bat down a Goulet-Tinawi pass as a rusher. Not only did Worrell make an impact on D with 1 PD and 2 sacks, he had a monster game on offense, going for 7 receptions on 8 targets, 90 yards and a trio of TD’s. They are definitely ready for the playoffs now.
Beer Belly Brigade are also going into the playoffs on a high. They exacted revenge on the Vultures for their semi-final defeat in the Winter ’22 playoffs by beating them 39-36 last Sunday in both teams last regular season game of the Spring season.
ESU Timberwolves’s run ended with a loss to The Infantry. With the score 20-18 with ESU having last possession of the 1st half, Rossie was unable to get the critical late 1st half score. After stopping The Infantry on the opening 2nd half drive, and ESU putting up a 4th down TD to go up 24-20, Rossie made a mistake for going for 1. Your season is on the line. Whether you are up 4 or 5 makes no difference. They should have gone for 2. In the end, that was not the difference, as a few sacks and 1-yard run tackles by Armand Balla were critical in The Infantry stopping the ESU Timberwolves from gaining a first down and turning the ball over on downs.
After starting 0-4 on the season, Los Penetradores went 4-2 down the stretch to clinch themselves a playoff spot. Included in those 4 wins is one against The Stoics, their 1st round opponent on Sunday.
Disappointed in One Step Closer… forfeiting their last game of the season. They at least reached out on the FB group to find guys… $100 going towards The Stoics beer money.
With his 28 receiving touchdowns on the season, James Drysdale entered the FPF record books. He is now tied for the 2nd most all time TD’s in a single season. Adam Crystal is both first with 35 TDs and now T-2nd with James with 28 TDs. Congrats dude! What a baller season he produced and the guy’s FPF career just started in 2020 and cracked the 100 TD mark in 88 games played in his career. There’s more to come from James Drysdale. Hardware, records, you name it. Let’s follow this guys career with a close eye.
Etienne Laurence-Gervais balled out against The Stoics in EZW’s last game of the season. Chris Rivest might be having nightmares of ELG, as he picked off Rivest 4 times, bringing one of those back for 6.

Playoff Game Previews

**Vultures (6-4)**

vs.

**Air Force 1 (4-5-1)**

Alright, our first playoff matchup of the night will see one very good team get eliminated from a Division C title.

Previous Matchup: None

No offense was better than the Vulture’s this past season, but then again, no defense, amongst the playoff teams had a worse defense. This has always been the calling card of the Vultures since their inception into FPF, but this year, both took it to another level. The offense was prolific especially in the first half of the season, with Ben McMahon and James Drysdale posting ridiculous numbers that had defenses on their heels. That said, the defense was, as Shaq put it, horrawful. The D is putting an incredible amount of pressure on McMahon to score on every single drive to rely on the dub. In speaking with McMahon this past Tuesday night, he said he will crank his offensive play to the next level, but will also take on a greater leadership role on the defensive side of the ball. So let’s see how that plays out against Air Force 1.

From their offensive standpoint, I’m not too worried for the Vultures against AF1. McMahon will have to watch out where Xavier Collette is on the field, and needs to make sure that if he’s taking a deep shot, that he either moves Collette away from the deep ball with his eyes if he’s playing safety, or throw the deep ball on the opposite side if Collette is playing in either the 1 or the 5. As for the short and run game, there’s no one in AF1 (and very, very few players in the division) that can stop McMahon when he’s in a rhythm. It will be interesting to see who they rush McMahon with. While Manu Allard-Roy is a good rusher, I’m not sure going with him full time against McMahon is the best decision. They may need a smaller, speedier guy to rush him with players like Nicolas Dumitru and Chris Van Oordt (not Justin Beauséjour – I see you AF1….) that come to mind. Whoever ends up rushing for AF1, they have a tall task ahead of them.

As for the Vultures on D, they need to provide their Quarterback a stop or 2 on defense. With safeties like Donnet and Drysdale (both James and Anthony), the deep ball should be decently covered, however, Simon Blais is generally very accurate with his deep ball, so if the deep coverage isn’t played well, Blais can burn teams that are athletic, but not disciplined in covering their zones. The potential loss of Phil Roberts is also a blow to the Vultures D, especially since he was a big piece of their playoff run last Winter on the defensive side of the ball. He came up with game-changing INT’s that sealed victories for the Vultures. The staple short defenders, names like Stefano Spagnuolo and Gary McMahon need to come up with key tackles and play a bit more aggressive (depending on the game situation) and get in front of the short hooks and slants and take those reads away from Blais to give enough time for Ryan Dobbs-Garnett to get to the quarterback and sack him for loss of yards. This is obvious, but the #1 short target they should be taking away is Manu Allard-Roy, the team’s triple crown receiver with 56 receptions, 537 yards and 18 TDs. He’s especially dangerous in the redzone, so that should be the #1 read taken away by the Vultures. All of this is obviously easier said than done, but that should be the Vultures general gameplan on defense.

From AF1’s perspective, if the defense can generate a stop or 2 on defense, they absolutely have a chance at winning this game. That too is easier said than done, but the Simon Blais is a nice one. He will drive the field and take what the defense gives him and is generally careful and precise with his deep shots. He will body punch you and then go for the knockout strike when you’ve gotten used to covering the shorts. It’s a generally balanced attack with a clear #1 target in his snapper Allard-Roy, and his WR2 is the talented receiver Xavier Collette that gets separation with his route running and gains yards after the catch with his speed. The rest are absolutely no slouches. Simon Blais trusts them as much as anyone else on the team and are very dependable receivers in 3rd and 4th down situations, as well as in the redzone. These are the Dumitru‘s, Caron‘s, Leblanc‘s, Fraticelli‘s and Van Oordt‘s of the team. I’m sure that they would agree that you can shut down Manu and Xavier with your best defenders and Blais would have no issue beating you with his other 5 guys (mmmm.. 5 guys burgers… writing this at lunch time isn’t a good idea…I just lost 15 minutes scrolling through Uber Eats). Turnovers will be key in this game, so Blais will need to protect that football at all costs on offense.

For their defense playing against the high-flying Vultures… do I need to spell it out? Put your best defender on James Drysdale.. and even then, that might not be enough. The path to stopping Vultures is more about getting McMahon off his groove. If he gets a rhythm going, there’s no stopping him. That’s why the rush and the flat defenders will play a huge role in the outcome of this game for AF1’s defense.

Overall, I can see Simon Blais putting up a minimum of 5 scores, so we’re looking at a pretty high-scoring game. Other than points on the board, expect high-energy from both sides, incredible offensive displays with incredible catches and a back-and-forth game. For my prediction… I’m going with a 41-39 score line in favor of… The Vultures.

The Stoics vs. Los Penetradores

Previous Matchup: Los Penetradores 33-26 The Stoics

This one in an interesting matchup because the 2 offenses are somewhat similar. Both are balanced attacks in slightly different ways. While Los Penetradores are the true definition of a balanced attack, with no receivers over 300 yards or 8 TDs, their top 7 have 183 yards or more and the TDs are distributed evenly over 9 guys; min 3 TDs and max 7. As for The Stoics, they are the more FPF kind of balanced attack, where you still have your clear cut #1 and #2 receivers (in this case Cesar Garcia-Diaz and Vincent Cheung) and then have your depth receivers (Kevin Boustany, Micky Mensah, Omar Chavez, Jeffrey Lefebvre, Seth Galina and now mid-season acquisition, Justin Blackie). All of these guys, Chris Rivest trusts in all areas of the field to come up with a big catch, whether it’s a first down or a touchdown.

I think both defenses will actually have a tough time defending the offenses, and that it will be on the offense that executes less often that will lose the edge in this game. For The Stoics D, they need to be aware of the Christiano running game and make sure to gang tackle him, because he might be the most sauve player, dancing around and past players when he gets into the open field. That was the case in their previous matchup, where Los Penetradores came out with a win over The Stoics. Rocco that night had 63 yards and 1 rushing TD, which was more yards than any of his receivers. So this time around, Giordano Proulx should learn from his regular season mistakes against him and rush Rocco at 70-80% speed. The Stoics defensively though, did do a good job defending the receivers, as Christiano only had 103 passing yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT thrown to Cheung. As for Rivest, he had a decent night at the office in their regular season matchup, but the difference was the 1 INT he threw that went back for 6 by Joey Corcoran.

If Los Penetradores want to come away with the playoff victory, they will need to execute a very similar game to their regular season victory over The Stoics. A strong run game a turnover that goes for 6, with perhaps some more yardage in the passing game. If one turnover doesn’t go for 6, they may need a 2nd INT to win the game.

If The Stoics want to win, Rivest will need to remain patient and only take his deep shot when it’s there, or he risks getting picked off if balls are forced. Los Penetradores defensive players are capable of making plays and creating turnovers. That’s guys like Nicholas Fon and Justin Goodman. The Stoics D will need to clearly communicate assignments and what to do when Rocco rolls outside of the pocket. When a short defender needs to move up on a running Rocco, when to pull back, how the entire defense should shift, etc.

All that said, I’m going with the FPF veterans in this one. The Penetrators will have their deeper playoff run in Division E.

Prediction: The Stoics 34 – 26 Los Penetradores

Ravens vs. The Commission

Previous matchup: None

As mentioned at the top of the article, The Commission are coming in guns blazing after their 2 wins and narrowly squeaking into the playoff race. The Ravens on the other hand are coming in on with a 2-2 record in their last 4 games, but more importantly are coming with an absolutely ice cold offense. In those 4 games, they’ve combined for 59 points, an average of 14.75 points per game… 2 scores and 2 one-point converts… that will absolutely not win you playoff games. While they did win 2 of those games, one of those was on the back of their defense, and the other, they just managed to squeak by a 5-man TOPSZN roster.

The Ravens defense will once again have to come up big, especially when it comes to limiting the damage that Mike Pierrecin will do to them. A 2-yard hook pass cannot gain more than 4-5 yards. If the containment is not on point, he will make the Ravens pay. While Gino is a classic pocket passer, if the Ravens can take away the first 2 reads from him, Karl Pelletier MUST come up with the big sacks to create 3rd and 4th and long situations for his defense. When Gino is forcing the ball to his intermediate/deeps is usually when he’s in trouble, so that should be the Ravens gameplan. Of course, as mentioned, Pierrecin usually disrupts that plan for opposing defenses. What will be interesting is whether Kamba Katchelewa will be available for the Ravens. He, along with the Houle brothers and Félix Gagné are some big bodies that cover a lot of space, so Gino Di Fazio will need to be precise with his passes.

On the flip side of the coin, the Ravens offense, as discussed, has been struggling to move the ball and put up points. The Commission’s defense has been up and down all season, but lately they are on the strong side, holding the Vultures, Los Penetradores and Hot Sauce Sports all to under 26 points. This might be the matchup that determines the outcome of the game. Which Commission defense will show up and will the Ravens offense gain traction in time? These are important questions that need answering as The Commission appear they will be without some strong defenders on the pitch, while if Joel Houle gets hot, he is a streaky quarterback that can make you pay with his accurate, but bullet passes. His receivers will need their sticky hands tonight, as dropped passes have been their Achilles heel in the past. If Joel Houle can put up 5 scores, I can see Ravens winning this matchup.

Prediction: You know what, with so much uncertainty of how both teams will actually end up playing, and the rosters fielded, I believe this is a VERY close matchup. So close, in fact, that I’m predicting it will be decided in OVERTIME. Give me The Commission to squeak by with a 1 point overtime victory, 28-27. Regulation score will end 26-26 and The Commission will win the OT period 2-1.

Blitzed Budds vs. Beer Belly Brigade

Previous matchup: None

First things first, hopefully Felix Goulet-Tinawi had his awful performance in the last week of the season and doesn’t have a repeat outing. That said, Beer Belly Brigade doesn’t have a giant like Hasani Worrell rushing Goulet-Tinawi, instead they have the speedy Xavier Tran-Khanh. If Tran-Khanh is able to disrupt the Blitzed Budds QB in a similar manner, but with sacks on every drive, then this is definitely a key to victory for BBBs. That, and the deep corner/safeties like Jonathan Benoit need to be EXTRA deep, as the Felix to AJ connection is a monster one that Felix can hit late into his progressions. For most QBs, the deep routes often have to be the first reads, but when you have the rocket arm of Goulet-Tinawi, he can get away with either Nic Groppini or AJ Gomes being his 3rd read. The ball will end up reaching the endzone and either of those guys can highpoint a ball better than anyone in FPF. What’s so difficult to defend with Blitzed Budds is that they can attack all levels of the field. So if you are TOO deep, worried about Gomes and Groppini, they can attack the middle of the field with Ronald Augustin, Dernst DuBuisson-Desmornes and Jules Fortin, and if you take those 2 things away, they will punish you with the short game, where whether it’s Nic Gomes-Risso or Ale Barazzoni snapping, either can quick to gain extra yards after the 3-yard reception. So again, the only way BBB has a chance is if Tran-Khanh is super effective in his rushing and the first 2 reads are immediately taken away from Goulet-Tinawi.

The other matchup will be where the game is won and lost for BBB. Their offense is difficult to stop when it’s churning, but once it’s figured out, it has been proven that it can be halted. One of the keys in stopping the BBB offense is by having a quick, agile rusher that can cut just as fast as a quarterback. Blitzed Budds have that in both Dernst DuBuisson-Desmornes and Nic Gomes-Risso. While Alex Fafard has the moves and the wheels, either rusher for Blitzed Budds are excellent at containing a mobile QB and get fired up when they disrupt a QB from executing their gameplan. Fafard will need to be ready to see that his plays work on the first and maybe even second drive, but if he sees the defense taking away his reads, he needs to be ready to have another set of plays that attack different areas of the field, as AJ Gomes, who is known for his offensive flash and skill set, needs to start being recognized as one of the best defensive playmakers and coordinator on the flag field. He will adapt his players D tendencies to take away what you are attacking. That said, expect Jonathan Benoit and Nicolas Curotte to have a big first and second drive, but as the game goes along, Matthieu Pilotte, David Enault, and Raphael Gentile will need to play a bigger and bigger role.

All that said, I see too many game scenarios that favor Blitzed Budds. They will win this one, but don’t be surprised if BBB make a game out of it.

Prediction: Blitzed Budds 36- 26 Beer Belly Brigade

Epilogue

Well, that does it for this weeks playoff preview article. Goodluck to all of you in your games and I will be writing about Round 3 when next week comes around!

Cheers!