Playing For Keeps: week 4; Sun stroked, dazed and other states of being

Four weeks into the FPF season and we can safely say that summer has arrived at last. The sun is sweltering, and the steaks are searing, with good times abound as we gear up for the meat of the schedule ahead. NoName and Red Wave are lamenting their sluggish start, while Home for the Hollandaise looks like it was left out in the heat too long. The Royals, Commission and Bullies sit atop their throne, while upstart teams like the Smash Bros and Blue Chips remind us that FPF is often unpredictable and full of surprises. Teams like the Bearskins, Jagerbomb and Impeccable D are lurking in the muddy waters, waiting for the incumbents to slip and make their move.

The only thing for certain at this point is that there’s bound to be some surprises ahead. Let’s sit back and enjoy the fine weather as the intensity ramps up like thermometer, and the contenders begin to distance themselves from the pack.

Weekly Remarks

Texas Baremanz may have lost out to Nuggets in a high scoring game, but remain the top 1-2 team in the division in my view. Mike Roy is having a stellar season at QB with a 110.7 QBR. This team is certainly on the rise.
Smash Bros almost pulled off the unthinkable, narrowly missing going 3-0 to start the season without their starting QB.
Bearskins are dealing with some roster inconsistencies right now, and it’s showing in Neil Etinson’s stat line. His 69 QBR is over 36 points lower than his winter mark in div 3. They need their stars back in action.
Friends in Low Places have a huge hole in their lineup with Kevin Smuda’s absence for the season due to injury. This team needs to find that long term piece in order to turn their season around.
Home for the Hollandaise have 8 passing TDs in 3 games. Hardly acceptable for a team with so much FPF experience. Never getting Juwan Edghill has impacted this offense tremendously.
The average points scored so far this season is 25.13 per game. This is low for FPF standards. Either defenses are stingier than usual, or the offensive guns haven’t woken yet. With 3 teams averaging under 15 points per game, explosive offenses like the Royals, The Commission and Blue Chips will have a significant advantage down the stretch.
There are 6 rushers currently averaging at least 2 sacks per game. I don’t think I’ve ever seen 6 rushers finish with 20+ sacks in the same division before. This will be an interesting race to watch develop in the upcoming weeks.
Cory Johnson vs Sean Avraam for QBOY. Will anyone else throw their hat into this ring?

Recaps:

Going Deep stick it to Show Me Your TDs

In the battle of football-tinged sexual euphemisms, Going Deep looked to prove that they had the bigger bro globes by breaking their slump against the upstart SMYTD. It was a game that was meant to be closer than most pundits expected, as SMYTD were without defensive captain Eric Cantin, along with two-way stars Alexis Gaumont, Julien Bellevance Alex Rivet. In their place, they summoned Alpha-T stars Jesse Dupuis and Marc-Antoine Vallee from their hiatus to help fill the roster. On the Going Deep side, this was perhaps the first time all season that we’ve seen their entire roster on the field together, as it was originally conceived.

The game began a bit sluggishly for both sides, as there was an understandable lack of chemistry with all the new faces. Mike Addona, coming of a beautiful afternoon golfing, was not his usual sharp self, as he failed see the openings in the deep secondary. The lone interception of the game came on a wide open post route, which was underthrown by Addona and gladly taken by Mathieu Gratton. He was able to salvage his first half with a quick strike to Alex David for the score, and keep his team in the game going into the break. On the other side, Pat Riot, returning after a week off, employed an intelligent conservative style of play, which moved the chains gradually and relied on his receivers to make critical catches on third and fourth downs. Chief among those was Maxime Chateauneuf, who had 7 catches for 52 yards and 2 TDs on the night. Riot ran in the second score of the game from ten yards out, to the chagrin of several SMYTD defenders who came up empty handed.

The second half saw the game pick up in intensity, as Addona found some rhythm by going to his trusty receivers Anthony Addona and Alex David. Julien Paiement’s blistering rush certainly threw Mike off balance and contributed a large part to his sub-50% completion percentage, to go along with 2 sacks registered. Despite the sluggish offense, the SMYTD defense largely held up, and forced Pat Riot into several turnover on downs which kept them alive late. Down by 4 with under 2 minutes to go, SMYTD defense mustered a red zone stop and gave their O the ball with 5 plays remaining and a chance to redeem themselves. Addona got his team in favorable position, at the 5 yard line with 3 plays left. However, Paiement saved his best for last, as he ramped up the pressure immensely and forced Addona to rush his execution. The first play wasn’t to be, as Addona missed a wide open receiver for the win. The second play barely escaped heavy traffic and caught Mendy Cardichon off guard, who went catchless on this night, and on the final play Addona chucked the ball up under intense duress, which fell incomplete and solidified the win for the hungry Going Deep team.

Weekly Fantasy Football:

The football Gods were in my corner this week, as I responded to Danny’s week 1 trouncing with a gritty team victory to even up the series at 1-1. It looks like I won the battle of the teammates this week, as both of my picks (Jordan Allard, Khalil Kerr) produced greater stats than their teammates on Danny’s side (AJ Gomes, Quaysie Gordon-Maule). Cory Johnson is this week’s fantasy MVP, putting up a near perfect game against MVE. He just nudges out my fantasy stud of the week, Khalil Kerr, whose 6 catch, 131 yards, and 2 TDs explosion helped propel my team to victory.

Sanders Armand pulled his disappearing act just at the perfect time for me this week. Mike Adonna had a rough outing against Going Deep, but I don’t blame him. The Weather was just too nice NOT to go golfing on Sunday morning. We still won, Mike. I also need to thank Marc-Antoine Vallée, who rushed for SMYTD this weekend and put up 5 sacks! There’s a reason I’ve been trying to recruit this guy for nearly 2 years now (still no luck). Finally, I’m a bit disappointed that I used my Justin Maclean pick on an “off week.” This may come back to haunt me later on. Still, we got the win! Onto week 4…

Week 3 (Final)

Alex Danny

QB: Mike Adonna (11.42) QB: Cory Johnson (32.04)

WR: Khalil Kerr (31.1) WR: Quaysie Gordon-Maule (18.3)

WR: Anthony Adonna (10.1) WR: AJ Gomes (16.1)

WR: Jordan Allard (23.5) WR : Jordan Moses (11)

2W : Justin Maclean (11.8) 2W: Sanders Armand (0.5)

DEF: SMYTD (26) DEF: Royals (21)

Final Score: (113.92) Final Score: (98.94)

Record: 1-1

Overall Score: (233.64 – 203.42 Danny)

Week 4

Danny gets the first crack at building his roster this week, and he put together a pretty formidable team, which took me a long while to counter. Sean Avraam is just poised for a big outing against Going Deep this week. There`s no QB in the division who gets rid of the ball quicker than Avraam, which will help neutralize the blistering rush from Julien Paiement. Steve Sanner is shaping up to be the GUY for the Bullies offense, which is a great for fantasy purposes as well. I might have given him a deeper look at 2WAY in Danny’s place though, since you can only use him once in the season. Bertoldi is everything for the struggling Bearskins offense right now. With Papich seemingly returning to the lineup this week, we’ll see if that massive production gets redistributed somewhat. Danny is diving into the Jagerbomb basket with Larouche, which is a smart pick considering he’s somehow gone under the radar with 206 yards and 5TDs already this season. He’s copying my Maclean pick from last week…do I sense some desperation from my opponent coming back from a loss?

On my side I’m channeling my inner fantasy guru to try to break Danny’s serve. Rose has yet to throw an INT this season and is facing a juicy matchup against the Nuggets. I picked Farag over the Aridis, but it’s a toss-up any given week who’ll be the main weapon for Impeccable D. At least I save them for the future weeks. Despite MVE team struggles, Foucault has been a beast so far this season. I’m hoping Marcus Mitchell’s big week 3 jumpstarts his spring season production. He was abnormally quiet in the first 2 weeks for a guy coming off a 14 TD winter campaign. With Chris Milard you know I’m aiming for those TDs and Sacks. He could be my game breaker against a QB who likes to dance in the pocket a bit. I’m riding the Home for the Hollandaise collapse with my JYD defensive pick this week. Some guys just love to watch the world burn.

Alex Danny

QB: Jeff Rosenblatt QB: Sean Avraam

WR: Laurent Foucault WR: Steve Sanner

WR: Daniel Farag WR: Marco Bertoldi

WR: Marcus Mitchell WR: Felix Fontaine Larouche

2W: Chris Milard 2W: Justin Maclean

DEF: Junkyard Dogs DEF: Impeccable D

***The standard scoring will apply as follows:

QB: 25 pass yards = 1 pt, 1 pass TD = 4 pts, 1 INT = -2 pts

Receiving/Rush: 10 yards = 1 pt, 1 TD = 6 pts, 1 REC = 1 pt

DEF: 1 TKL = 0.5 pt, 1 SK = 2 pts, 1 PD = 1 pt, 1 INT = 3 pts, 1 TD = 4 pts

Points Allowed (0): 15 points

Points Allowed (1-6): 11 points

Points Allowed (7-13): 9 points

Points Allowed (14-20): 7 points

Points Allowed (21-27): 5 points

Points Allowed (28-34): 3 points

Points Allowed (35-41): 0 points

Points Allowed (42+): -3 points

Game of the week:

Impeccable D (2-1) vs Nuggets (2-1)

QB: Jeff Rosenblatt vs Fred Mallette

There was a time a few years back when Fred Mallette would have been considered the superior signal caller without much thought. He was a rapidly rising All Star with the Warhawks, using his deceptive quickness to buy time in the backfield, and his cannon arm to launch projectiles downfield. However, times have changed, and the past few seasons have seen Mallette regress somewhat as an FPF QB, whenever he has taken the field (which has been sporadic). After 3 games this season he seems to be finding his comfort zone again, with 12 overall touchdowns and 567 yards to only 1 INT, he’s looking much more like the behemoth who set div D ablaze in the spring of 2015.

Nevertheless, this week he faces off with a red hot gunslinger who is tuned in and slicing defenses apart right now.

Receivers: Impeccable D vs Samuel Phaneuf & Co.

There are few teams in the division as balanced as big D. Daniel Farag is a well-rounded receiver with reliable hands and precision route running. Ryan Aridi takes the top off the defense with every route, and Jad Aridi is a slot machine underneath. All of this and we haven’t even mentioned Kevin Boustany’s silky route running, or Marty Freedman and Zack Goldstein’s ability to carve up a zone defense. There are far too many weapons for opposing defenses to account for, and Rosenblatt does a fantastic job diversifying this minefield. Opposing defenses can game plan at their own peril. On the other side, Samuel Phaneuf has been a one-man wrecking crew so far this season, carrying the Nuggets offense on his back for long stretches. It’ll be interesting to see if a guy like Jamal Henry returns to the lineup full time, and helps lessen the burden from Phaneuf.

Defense: Impeccable D vs Nuggets

You’d expect a team that’s named Impeccable D to dominate in this category in any given matchup, but after 2 weeks that isn’t the case between these two stout defensive units. The Nuggets apply blistering pressure to opposing QBs from the rusher position. The duo of Raphaël Ducas-Lapalme and Fred Malette already have 8 sacks in 3 games. They will use that pressure to force Rosenblatt to throw into the teeth of their smart and athletic secondary, headlined by Laurent and Vincent Ladouceur, Maxime Verna-Gagne and Cédrick Charpentier-Jouan.

Prediction: 38-34 Impeccable D

Power Ranking

Another week gone by and the ranking remain exactly the same, except for a shift at the eighth spot. The top three look cemented right now. I’m looking at 3-6 to create some shuffling amongst themselves this week. 7 has a target on its back as 8 is looking to piggyback it.

Backyard Bullies (3-0): Despite the score, they made easy work of a strong Blue Chips team this week. These bullies keep rolling.
The Commission (3-0): Another week, another easy win for them against a backup QB. Div C is really boring them right now.
Royals (3-0): Cory Johnson is arguably the QBOY through 3 weeks. Their offensive formula is unstoppable in this division. No slowing down for these guys.
Blue Chips (2-1): They looked uncomfortable and out of their element against the Bullies. Still, they fought hard and made it interesting. This is a growing team.
Bearskins (2-1): Papich’s return should come just in time for this surprisingly struggling offense. Their experience is winning them games right now.
Junkyard Dogs (2-1): Look for this team to really take off in the upcoming weeks if Pollice stays on. They now have a superstar on O and D (Lapointe), with a 2WAY stud (Bernett).
Impeccable D (2-1): Nudged out a Red Wave team starving for a win. Wasn’t pretty, but they know how to win in all circumstances.
Nuggets (2-1): Back on the list after a week off. They surprised us by beating Texas Baremanz. Can they surprise us again this week against Impeccable D?

Weekly Awards

QB:

Jason Rossie – Junkyard Dogs:

12/19 – 171 yards – 7 TD/1 INT – 109.9 QBR

In a game that feature Carmine Pollice and Paul Lapierre, Jason Rossie was the most impressive player on the field. He completely torched FiLP with ease, taking what he wanted and marching the field like he owned it. I’m also a sucker for 7 TD games. Second week in a row our QB here feasts on FiLP.

WR:

Carmine Pollice – Junkyard Dogs:

7 catches – 113 yards – 3 TDs

Speaking of Pollice, the legend was back in action for the first time this season and reminded us once again why he’s one of FPF’s GOATS. This sort of stat line could become a regular occurrence as the DOGS begin to heat up the summer.

DEF:

Domenic Benevento – The Commission:

2 TK – 2 INT – 1 INT

This was a tough week, as two rushers got 5 sacks in a game…but since two rushers got there, then 5 sacks must not be that impressive…step it up, rushers! In that case, Domenic had the best game in the secondary this week and gets the nod. His addition to The Commission roster in winter season has rejuvenated this defense, and will go down as one of the most underrated acquisitions of the year.

2WAY:

Fred Mallette – Nuggets:

18/24 – 22 yards – 4 TD/0 INT – 142.7 QBR

2 rushes – 20 yards – 1TD

3 Sacks

It looked like Marco Bertoldi was going to take this award home for the gazillionth time, until Fred Mallette showed us a duel threat performance that was just too good to pass up. He was practically perfect at QB, and did just enough to disrupt Texas Baremanz on defense and secure his team the win. I love seeing QBs get their hands dirty at rusher, it shows a true desire to win.

Predictions

Clean sweep for me this week, as I took home fantasy and predictions. My 6-3 record just tops Dan’s 5-4 record for the week, but builds my season lead even further. We both overlooked Going Deep and Nuggets, which were certainly the upset specials of the week. Maybe Dan should stop picking his own team if he hopes to mount a comeback…

Alex (20-6)
Danny (15-11)

Alex Danny

Royals Royals

Impeccable D Impeccable D

Backyard Bullies Backyard Bullies

Blue Chips Blue Chips

Junkyard Dogs Junkyard Dogs

MVE Smash Bros

The Commission The Commission

Texas Baremanz Bearskins

Friends in Low Places Friends in Low Places

That’s it for this week! Week 3 of FPF is officially in the books, and week 4 is set to start up soon. See how fast it goes! Enjoy your time on the field because Spring season passes by in a blur. If you have any feedback, concerns, comments or just want a shoulder to lean on you can reach out to me @alexholowach1 on Twitter, or hit me up on Facebook. If you’re craving more div C content please check out the Calling the Audible podcast featuring GM and Justin, it’s a healthy dose of sophisticated silliness to get you through the week. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and make sure to check back next week to find out how week 4 shook out!