Peeze’s Playbook (Div D) – Week 2

 

Montreal’s water crisis has come to an end and we can all stop worrying that our players will suffer from severe dehydration.  Seriously, we had an action plan,  the details of which were affixed to my fridge on a post-it note.  It read: Step one-freak out

 

Step two-hope players bring bottled water and Gatorade.

 

Step three- remember that the games are in Brossard and not Montreal so players can feel free to fill up bottles at the complex.

 

 

 

In all seriousness, it’s been a great week of FPF action and hopefully no one got ill because of the contaminated water.  On a related note, imagine the public uproar if the city of Montreal had taken out an ad featuring the Dos Equis dude with a caption reading “Stay Thirsty My Friends”.  It would have been awesome! This is what happened on Thursday:

 

 

 

Thursday’s Recap

 

 

 

Ranaudo’s Swag

 

 

 

Gianfranco Ranaudo looks like a man on a mission. He has completed 86% of his passes, he has thrown 11 touchdowns and no interceptions and after Thursday’s games he turned out to be the weekly leader in passing yardage.  Amazingly, Ranaudo seems calm as ever; his air of confidence seems to indicate that he expects no less from himself.  In this game, there were big contributions from new additions Bryan Mongeau and JC Binette but it was a familiar face that did the most damage for the Lockdown offence: last season’s top receiver Geoffry Brown caught 3 touchdown passes on the way to a 39-31 win.

 

 

 

Pardon My Swag now falls to 0-2 but having competed the entire game, they’ve shown the ability to run with the big boys.  After an ugly week 1 loss to Centurions, it was important for PMS to begin to build on something.  One thing has become clear after this matchup, Karl Lavallée is a bad man.  Lockdown did not really have an answer for him all game. If he continues to produce at this level, Pardon My Swag will start winning games.

 

 

 

In the Limelight

 

 

 

In week one’s edition of Calling the Audible, host Terry Tam and I discussed whether or not Patrick Manning was one of the top 5 quarterbacks in Division D.  After completing 81% of his passes against the Warriors, Manning seems to want to prove that he does belong amongst the elite. David Daoust caught 112 yards worth of passes on his way to amassing 3 touchdowns. Daoust accounted for nearly 55% of his team’s production.  On the defensive side of the ball, Joseph Cecere seemed to be in the quarterback’s mind all game as he ended the game with 4 interceptions.

 

 

 

The Warriors have had a tough start to this season.  Desperate for answers, they subbed quarterback Paul Lalonde for original franchise quarterback Cedric Sambour.  Neither did well in this game, as they combined to throw 1 touchdown and 6 interceptions. The Warriors lost 45-6 in this one and slip to 0-2.

 

 

 

Playtime’s Over

 

 

 

In a game where Checkmate was forced to take the field with Alex David at quarterback (actual quarterback Frédérick Morissette arrived late due to a geographical discrepancy), one would expect calamity for the navy blue bombers. David filled in at quarterback and did so quite admirably, going 5-7 and connecting with Mike Addona for his first career touchdown reception.  Once Morissette arrived, the Checkmate offence was back to doing what it does best, scoring quickly and often.  However, the defensive side of the ball seemed to be a concern as the game wore on.

 

 

 

Playground QB Gabriel Côté looked as though he came ready to play in this one. Regrouping from an early interception, Côté marched Playground up and down the field.  Timing his aggression well he was able to hit Laurent Foucault and Alex Champagne down the sidelines for big plays when he seemingly had lulled the Checkmate defense to sleep.  Trailing by one with an opportunity to go ahead with 5 plays left, Côté threw up a prayer on 4^th and long.  James Floreani tracked it down, snatched it away and Checkmate held on to win it 32-31. 

 

 

 

5 Plays ‘till Halftime

 

 

 

Every week, my point of statistical reference and keeper of my EQ settings (on Calling the Audible), the Eagle at Master Control, prepares 5 quick-fire questions that I will attempt to answer as honestly and succinctly as possible.  I’ll probably fail on both accounts but here are my answers anyway:

 

  1. Q: Of the teams you picked against, which one do you hope proves you wrong?

 

 

 

A: The Speed Demons.  Over the past few seasons I’ve built a rivalry/friendship with these guys. They are good people, they play really well together and they’ve built a ‘homegrown’ type of team that I love to see succeed.  They go against another one of my favorite teams in Jaggerbomb.  I felt so emotionally attached to both of these teams that picking a winner proved to be difficult. I ended up giving the edge to Jaggerbomb but I would not be surprised to see this game go either way.

 

 

 

2.    Q: Over/Under: The best offensive team will put up 360 points?

 

 

 

A: Over.  The amount of higher division talent in Division D this season seems to have had its greatest impact on the offensive side of the ball.  A lot of time a teams’ offensive production is related to the strength of schedule.  Lockdown strikes me as a very powerful offensive unit that play against one of the softer schedules this season.  Limetime seem to be in a similar situation but I don’t think they are quite as explosive (despite scoring an average of 40.2 points per game after two weeks).  The Shamrocks put up 385 points as the Aces this past winter; I can see them scoring roughly that many this season.  Aside from that, Checkmate’s Frédéric Morissette is averaging a whopping 17.5 yards per completion.  Any time a quarterback can score quickly, we can expect to see a team put up huge numbers in the PF column.  Personally, I hope the latter proves to be the case.  

 

 

 

3.    Q: Of the returning teams that went under .500 last season (or last spring), which will be the most improved?

 

 

 

A: The teams that I’ve focused on for this question are Mongoose (having gone 2-8 in Div.3 last season), Big Blue Wrecking Crew (4-6 last season), Bearskins (3-7 last season), Warriors (4-6 last season), Ballz Deep (4-6 last season) and the Vikings (1-9 last spring).  The Mongoose will probably end up with the most wins out of this group but I’ve decided that it doesn’t count.  They played in Division 3 last season and I would expect their record to improve drastically. Big Blue Wrecking Crew are a very solid team but are faced with a very tough schedule so I don’t imagine that they will see much improvement.  The Warriors made enormous strides last season and seemed to be heading into a positive direction.  However, they have essentially the same team while practically the entire division got stronger.  The Vikings had a rough season last spring and I expect this season to yield very similar results.  The rest of the league keeps getting stronger and the teams that either play solely in the winter or solely in the summer cannot expect to be as competitive.  This brings me to the Bearskins and Ballz Deep.  Both teams have added huge free agent pick-ups and they are much stronger than the winter version of themselves. I’m going to go with: Bearskins

 

 

 

And that was an incredibly long-winded answer to a very simple question.

 

 

 

4.    Q: Over/Under: The best defensive team will allow 180 points against this season?

 

 

 

A : Over.  There is a lot of parity in division d this season.  There are also many strong teams not many very weak ones.  As this is an offensively driven league this means increased scoring.  There are some pretty impressive defenses, they will however, be facing some very high powered offences.

 

 

 

5.    Q: If you were assigned to take team pictures, how would you have them pose?

 

 

 

A: I would want them to mimic their team name.  I would want the Speed Demons to look fast and demonic, the Ghosts to wear a sheet over their heads and Jaggerbomb to be 3:00 AM sloppy drunk.  The way to get teams to do this would be to offer a prize to the team who put together the best presentation.  Extra points would go to the team of acrobatic souls who managed to contort their bodies to spell PEEZE.

 

 

 

Another option would be to insist that players tucked in their guts just as they did when Cristina took the team pictures.  Ryan Aridi, you just haven’t had that effect on FPF players thus far.

 

 

 

Tuesday’s Headlines Today

 

 

 

• Mongoose Devour Shamrocks

 

 

 

Ok, so I don’t think they will devour the Shamrocks per say, and I’m fairly certain that Mongoose are carnivorous and would have no interest in eating anything quite so leafy.  I think this one will be close.  Shamrocks are coming off an emotional high after beating Checkmate in week 1.  Mongoose are angry about their week 1 loss and I don’t expect them to lose many this season. Alexandre Gaudet is a very good quarterback and I think he will avoid the costly mistake that will decide the outcome of this game.

 

 

 

• Speed Demons Overrun by Jaggerbombs

 

 

 

The Speed Demons are a very solid team and I really like their defense.  I think they lack the offensive firepower to keep up in this one.  Bryan Nguyen and Alex Lewis are playing on the offensive side of the ball again and are two very solid receivers.  I still think they are missing a third threat that will make them truly impressive.  Jaggerbomb’s new offensive system is high flying and I think that they have the athletes to make that work. Gabriel Moreau-Paquette was more of a defensive presence last year but he left his mark on the offensive score sheet last week.  I wonder if he settling into a new role or whether a new hero will emerge this week.

 

 

 

• X-Men Go Street Sweeping 

 

 

 

I got a Facebook message from X-Men’s Kevin Boustany the other day.  He took issue with the fact that I did not give the X-Men any love.  This week I think I may actually be starting to buy in. Suhael Brohi is an exciting receiver and may prove difficult for the Park-X Streets to stop.  Beyond that I’m not crazy about this new version of Park-X Streets.  I understand that Billy Seretis is playing quarterback in Division C with Special Delivery, which makes him ineligible to play quarterback in Division D.  I still think that their best chance at success is with Drew Saitanis behind the snapper.  With uncertainty at quarterback and a few new players trying to find their place I think Park-X Streets will struggle.   

 

 

 

 

 

Going for 1/Going for 2

 

 

 

For those who listened to Calling the Audible last season, this segment is where I took the time to sound off on an item or two that bothered, befuddled or intrigued me.  There we go Daron Basmadjian, I can use befuddled without it sounding dirty.  I feel aggressive this week; I’ll go for two.

 

 

 

Last season, I went off on a rant about how players should not be allowed to play in their undergarments.  On week one I saw a player in Division E playing in his undershorts after his actual shorts got torn by a defender.  Nobody wants to reach for the flag and end up with a hand full of nuts. 

 

 

 

I understand the player’s quandary.  You want to play, and your shorts got torn.  That’s where I blame the captain.  Be smart, carry extra shorts and flags for your teammates.  I will be on the campaign trail to ensure that a rule will be implemented to prevent this from occurring in the future. 

 

 

 

The second issue that I wanted to bring up is a level of meatheadedness (it’s not a real word but nothing else can truly describe my feelings on this issue) that I thought our players would never stoop to.  I am not going to name any team or players by name, but I will not allow this to happen without having my voice heard on this issue. 

 

 

 

From my first season to now I have seen verbal disputes become more and more commonplace.  I love a little trash talk but unfortunately some players in our league are men with the mentality of pubescent teens that just don’t know where to stop.  You’re grown ass men, time to start acting like it.  If you want to be fantasy land tough guys and wannabe thugs, I’m sure there are leagues that are far more tolerant to this level of stupidity.  There is no place for it in FPF. 

 

 

 

Weekend Wrap-up

 

 

 

I’ve already started hearing from many of you.  For those who haven’t, know that you can reach me at: [email protected] or on twitter @PeezeFPF.  Remember that Terry Tam can always be reached @TerryTamFPF.

 

 

 

For extended coverage on the division, your one stop shop should be Calling the Audible. Please tune into and subscribe to via iTunes or at http://fpf.podomatic.com