Peeze’s Playbook (Div D) – Week 3 – FlagPlus Football League

I realize that pretty much all of my articles are late. I could make excuses and claim have other things on my plate, or I can blame my editor for taking too long to edit my article. I will not. The reality is that most of you don’t care about my dietary choices or that my editor is one of my many personalities. Instead I will point to physics as my answer.

The uncertainty principle states that you could not know the exact location and simultaneously know the momentum of a given light particle. This is true of my blog entries as well because I do not know where I will be and when I will have time to write my entries until I begin to put keystroke to paper. Need a more compelling argument? Einstein said time was relative. Therefore, my articles are always, relatively, on time. Welcome to Week 3.

Demons Caged

The Speed Demons are one of those teams whose record does not match their ability. While they did not go out and acquire any big names as many other division D franchises did this summer, they are a cohesive unit that should be performing better than they have. They lost by a score of 19-18 to Le Zoo. Quarterback Samuel Holden has been having a very frustrating season; this game was no different. In my opinion, William Phan has to be a bigger part of the offensive production. With only two catches on the season, it begs the question: what’s the point of having a weapon like Phan if you aren’t going to use him?

Le Zoo quarterback Frank Kaye did what he normally does. He marched the ball up and down the field and in the end, this game came down to the fact that Le Zoo converted one extra point whereas the Speed Demons could not be quite as effective on their conversion attempts. His new/old/returning BFF Patrick St-Amand had 8 catches and 2 touchdowns. That would prove to be enough to help Le Zoo get by the Speed Demons in this game.

Mutants go Deep

With Vinny Gualano having to miss the game, Ballz Deep called down Rich Humes as the team’s roster exemption. Rich had a very solid season at quarterback for the Backyard Bullies in division 4 this past winter. Unfortunately, Humes had somewhat of an off game as he matched his touchdown total with his interception total at 3. More than anything else, what seemed to limit Ballz Deep was that Humes only ever looked comfortable throwing to Anthony Da Silva.

For the X-Men, the hero of the game was clearly Kevin Boustany. His incredible speed and somewhat granola haircut helped him lead the team with 3 offensive touchdowns and a sack. Is this perhaps Boustany’s X-Men power? I believe it is. Another new recruit, Wade Williams added 2 interceptions on route to a 37-18 victory over Ballz Deep.

The Real Matty Ice

The real Matty Ice stood up this week as Mat Domon started at quarterback against Lockdown. Despite never having beaten this familiar foe Domon looked confident from the start. Domon was on point tonight as he was fitting balls into tough coverage and infuriating the Lockdown defense. The turning point in this game came when Daniel Bellefeuille sacked Pat Rio in the redzone for a safety and the Affreux offence followed that up with another score. Bellefeuille had an all-star caliber performance in this one recording 3 sacks. Affreux won this game 37-25.

I have said in the past that Lockdown plays as well as Pat Riot does. When he’s great they are unstoppable; when he looks ‘off’ they don’t look very good. He did spread the bll and his four touchdown passes did go to 4 different receivers (Mongeau, Binette, Brown and Alberico). Unfortunately 4 touchdowns were not enough to win it this week as the Lockdown defense looked like a colander attempting to stop water.

Power Rankings

This week I considered the Wednesday games as well. The reason for this is that I believe it will lead to more arguments. Since no press is bad press I figure that in turn, it will mean that more people are reading my articles. Here is a top ten list of teams to look out for in our divison:

Jaggerbombs-I’ve been waiting for this ever since their first FPF game. During opening week last winter season, a new and naïve Jaggerbomb team were elated that they didn’t have to wear mouthguards. They’ve come a long way in a short period of time.
Affreux- Beating the team that I predicted to go 10-0 is a way to move up the charts fast. Are Affreux that good or do I not know what I’m talking about? I think both things can be true.
Blue Mountain State- On last week’s Calling the Audible, Mat Domon refered to them as the Big Muscle Squad. We probably will never stop talking about how large these humans are. What we should start talking about is how good they are. They stand tall at 3-0 and they do not look like they are slowing down.
Lockdown- They lost in what I thought was the toughest game on the docket this week. I’m not going to overreact.
Hostile Territory- They are 2-0 and have played solid opponents. A win this week against Shamrocks would really send them flying up the power rankings.
Project Mayhem- I am “Jack’s complete lack of surprise” seeing Mayhem doing so well this season. They are a tough win for anyone who faces these orange men this season.
X-Men- X-Men look great on both sides of the ball. That’s usually a recipe for success in FPF.
Longhorns- Tough, seasoned and intelligent. Combine this with their size and hunger for the ball and the Longhorns are one of the strongest teams in the division.
Centurions- Won’t make the same mistake as last season. Centurions are good and getting better each week.
Wheel of Fish- Fine Justin, your team made the power rankings. Don’t get comfortable. That said, I really like the Yayon to Niphakis connection.

Other Teams Receiving Votes- I asked Justin Blanchard for his input and he pretended not to know me. We kind of got into it and as such only one vote was awarded to these teams from inside the ‘overnight’ cell. Maybe that guy really wasn’t Justin after all.

Bearskins- They haven’t quite made it back into my illustrious top 10. They beat a team that I expected them to beat in Big Blue Wrecking Crew. Let’s see how they fare in their big week 4 showdown.
Mongoose- They seem a little inconsistent. They will have to do well for more than one game to make the top 10.
Underdogs- They fought back against Wheel of Fish and only lost by one. I still can’t truly figure them out but when I look at their roster, they should be a dominant team.
Shamrocks- It was an ugly loss in week two. I don’t expect them to lose many in that fashion.

Reflections, Rants and Ravings

This week FPF brought back the Game of the Week. I am honored to be a part of it. It does however, mark the first time that Checkmate does not vote against themselves when in contention for GOTW.
In the winter, Black Ice had a great defense. It did not look that way this week.
We keep talking about who is too strong to be playing in division D, yet after week 2 (and some of week 3) there are only 5 undefeated teams. With only ten teams in division E, could we talk instead about teams that should have dropped down?
Having loaded his fridge with Innis & Gunn (only the greatest beer on Earth) with promises to share, GM Kolethras has become the best person of all time. Move over Ben Franklin!
Avi Yayon threw for 200+ yards for the first time in his career, in just his third ever start at QB!
In their first two games, the Longhorns have only allowed 19 points. That is impressive.
The Decepticons were always after energon. I have never come across a cube of it and am starting to doubt its existence.

The Thursday Turnover

For those of you who haven’t tuned into Calling the Audible, you must be living under a rock. Join the hordes of FPF players who listen on a regular basis by subscribing on iTunes or listening at http://podomatic.fpf.com. If you’re tired of hearing about other teams and you want to get on the show please email me [email protected] or tweet me @PeezeFPF.

For all complaints you should absolutely reach Terry Tam @TerryTamFPF. He’s got thicker skin and his ego is far less frail than me. To the same effect, please direct your hate mail to Justin Blanchard by emailing him at [email protected] or by tweeting him @JBlanch6. Have fun, be safe, thank you for letting me be myself.