Ottawa Week 10 Recap / Playoff Preview (D2)

 

Hey what’s up everybody? I am Brent ‘Bad News’ Bodkin, and I’m back once again to give you the 411 on FlagPlus Football in the nation’s capital.

Before I start my article, I would like to send my condolences to the family and friends of Adriano Tassone, captain of the Division 1 Rainmakers in Montreal, who passed away in a car accident this week. I never had the chance to meet Adriano, but from everything I’ve been hearing and reading about him, he sounded like a class act and a great man that will be sorely missed. R.I.P Adriano #32.

            After a long and grueling 10-week marathon, the regular season is finally over, and the real season is about to begin. For those of you that are living under a rock, that means that playoff time is here.

            With the dust now being settled, the Tailgators in Division 1 and the Wise Guys in Division 2 are your favorites heading into the dance.

            The Gators, who just in case you forgot, are still the undisputed, undefeated defending champs, completed the first half of their path to perfection by taking care of The Entourage 27-12. The question now remains; will the champs complete the second half of their journey? Or will they fall short like the 07’-08’ New England Patriots?

The first road block for the champs will come this week-end when they take on the Sharks in a re-match of last year’s championship game. How sweet would it be for the Sharks if they can end the Gators quest for perfection and a second straight championship?

Despite the fact that they qualified for the playoffs on the last day of the season by beating the Heavy Hitters 24-19, and getting a little help from the Barracudas who beat the Rugged Riders 24-12, the Sharks have been arguably the hottest team in D1 the last three weeks winning two out of their last three games and their only loss came in week 8 to the Tailgators in a 21-20 thriller.

Although this should be a close game, I just can’t see the Sharks pulling off the colossal upset. I’m going with the Gators 31-20.

 The other D1 playoff game will see the Barracudas take on the Heavy Hitters. The Cudas who swept the season series two games to none from the Hitters are the favorites once again heading into this one.

The Cudas, who play second fiddle to the Gators, will be looking to not only shut-up their newfound critics, but prove that the 33-26 win they got over the Hitters in week 6 was just a case of them over looking their opponent.

The Hitters, who come in to the dance losers of two out of their last three games, will be looking to rebound after losing their season finale to the aforementioned Sharks.

I really want to call the upset in this one. The ‘Cudas have struggled when the pressure has been on. Case in point their week 9 loss to the Gators (by an eye-popping of score 37-0) Besides that, the Hitters have the arguably the best receiving corps in D1 with the Belony and Watts brothers, Dustin Seymore, and the unstoppable Curtis Cates. Despite all that firepower, they flat-out have looked barely above average the last couple of weeks. Although they’ll have no choice but to look better in this win-or-go-home affair, I just don’t see them putting it all together and pulling off the upset.. That being said, I wouldn’t be shocked if they do pull it off. I’m still calling the Cudas to prevail, 28-26.

In Division 2, after finishing first, the Wise Guys have the first round bye, which means the lone D2 playoff game will between the Browns and the Federal Express. The Brownies swept the regular season series three games to none, by a combined score of 73-46.

The Express are a deep and talented team with the likes of John Haig, Mike Velho, and Clayton Smith leading the charge on offense, and ball-hawk Martin Muldoon setting the tone on the back-end, but I just can’t see how they’d be able to stop the Brownies dynamic duo of Steve Blimkie and MJ Mancini. Muldoon can’t cover both of them, and even if he could I don’t think it would be enough. Add in receiver Dugald Topshee who is their Steve Breaston to Blimkie and Mancini’s Boldin and Fitzgerald, and you can hopefully understand why I am going with the dog pound in this one. Final score Browns, 27-20.

Before I go, for those that aren’t aware, the league is about ready to announce their awards for players of the year. Since I gave you my mid-season awards, I will give you my picks for players of the year at each position. These picks will not reflect those of FPF.

For D1 at quarterback, I’m going with Craig Matthews. Yes he missed the last three games, but his 33 touchdown passes and only seven interceptions and impeccable QB rating really stand out. For people saying, “wait a second, Barracudas pivot Tom Patrick has 37.” I say to you, the QB rating tells much of the story, and Matthews in a league of his own.

At receiver I’m going with The Entourage’s Justin Nolan 28 catches for 573 yards and nine majors. Some people will vote for the Barracudas Mazen Dikah or the Sharks’ James Beatty who both have more touchdown grabs than Nolan, but Nolan has nearly a 110 more yards than both receivers, on less receptions (28) (Dikah 37 and Beatty 42).

Best rusher goes to the Barracudas Tom Patrick. His 190 yards on  24 rushes lead the league. I gave a lot of though love to the Sharks’ Sean Carmody, whose total numbers are definitely impressive, but Patrick’s athleticism in the pocket was second to none.

Defender of the year was the toughest call to make. The Gators’ Paul Seguin’s 13 picks are incredible and his teammate Matt Burton’s 19 sacks are amazing. One can make the argument that Seguin’s coverage led to a lot of those sacks, and Burton’s pressure lead to a lot of Seugin’s picks. This one is too hard to decide, so I’m naming both players as my co-defensive players of the year.

In D2 at the pivot position I am going with the Wise Guys’ Tommy Solarik. Although he finished with the second most interceptions in the league, his 37 touchdown passes are 13 more then the Federal Express’ Francois Bordeleau who came in second with 24.

For best receiver I’m going with the Browns’ Steve Blimkie. Yes MJ Mancini has more yards 410 to 369, and just as many touchdowns (8) but, he has done it with four more catches. The deciding factor for me was Blimkie’s yards per catch average is better than Mancini’s 17.6 to 16.4

The top rusher in D2, hands down, goes to the Rugged Riders’ Michael Panetta. Seven rushes for 122 yards and three scores, in only four games. Need I say more?

Choosing a defensive player of the year in D2 was a little tougher than in D1. In D1 there were a couple of performers who stood out. In D2, the stats didn’t jump out as much. In this pass happy brand of football, getting sacks especially when the game is on the line is huge. That is why I’m going with the Wise Guys’ Matthew Volpi and his league leading nine sacks as my pick for defender of the year. For all the defensive backs who are upset that I based my pick on sacks, the one interception that Volpi did collect, he ran back to the house for a touchdown, not too shabby!

That’s it for my playoff preview. I’ll catch you guys next week.

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PEACE!!!