Pre-season favorites are slow out of the gate; week 3 preview

Welcome to another week of FlagPlus Football’s coverage of the oldies division. What a great second week it was in the 35+ division. I have to admit I was wrong about most of my predictions and my expectations. I had figured the ultimate winner of the division would either be Hitmen Retro and Monster Football; if week 2 was any indication, every team has the ability to win it all.

Here are last week’s takeaways:

 

The Allen Factor

It’s well known that Rob Allen is a great two-way player who can not only get his team a TD when needed but also an INT at crucial moments of the game. Furthermore, his brother Dave Allen, also known as “sure hands”, is a dependable receiver but we saw another side of him last week. Near half time he relieved a hurting-Lonnie Johnson to play QB, and was fantastic at it. He threw for 3 TDs (one of them to this brother Rob) but more impressive was his ability to do so against a solid Hitmen Retro defence who had a tough time adjusting. His snapper was none other than Lonnie Johnson, who filled in admirably as well. Such depth and versatility in your offense can pay huge dividends for Dagwoods during the course of the season should other unforeseen circumstances and injuries occur.

 

Venom showing promise

After their dismal week 1 performance, Venom played much better last week. Remember I said in my first article that Eric Cantin had to be the go to guy for them? Well he came through big in week 2, accounting for all of their 3 TDS on offense. There were a couple of plays where Relics tried to matchup the big and talented Darnell Lovelace on Cantin, but he was still able to create separation and make the play.

Their opening week QB, Brian Zenobi, had a rough first week filling in; as of this past week, they brought in verteran touch QB, Andy Meikle, to throw for them and the offence looked much better. Hopefully for Venom, Meikle will stay on as their full-time QB. Things should only get better for them as the veteran pivot becomes more and more assimilated with not only his teammates, but the smaller field and different paced game. It’s an answer I can’t wait to discover tonight.

 

Life without Andy

Another QB named Andy- Andy Peterkin, was missing from Monster Football’s line up and that proved to be troublesome for them. They were only able to muster one TD on offense. One would think that a roster that includes several players with experience throwing the ball would be able to adjust easily; unfortunately for them that was not the case. If Peterkin will be in and out of the line-up, one would think JF Leclair would fill in at QB. Hopefully he will be able to keep this talented squad in sync. Despite the offensive struggles, what shocked me most was their inability to limit the Povige Tech offense. Polvige Tech didn’t even have to march down and work for their TDs, QB Jon Moodie was airing it out most of the night and found his receivers consistently behind the opposing DBs.

Good for Polvige Tech, to seize the opportunity and capitalize. On the other side, Monster needs to adjust or find some key replacements because it’ll be tough for them to compete with a thin roster week after week.

 

Hitmen Retro Winless

Hitmen Retro were my pre-season pick to go undefeated; through two weeks of football, they are winless. They’ve brought out a full roster for both games, so no excuse there. The issue here is execution. Chris Moufrage was able to score 4 TDs this past week, but also got intercepted 3 times (6 INT through two games!). He’ll definitely need to take better care of the ball if they look to turn things around. The turnover battle is huge and Hitmen are down 6-2 in that category through two weeks. Also, they weren’t seemingly able to adjust to the QB switch (first Lonnie, then Dave) from Dagwoods at halftime. Good news is they can work on these things because on paper, they have a very talented roster and lots of experience playing together.

 

Top 5 Performances (week 2)

It’s kind of like Deion Sanders’ primetime list on NFL Gameday, only on my list you don’t have to win to be mentioned!

-Tony Lalla (Relics) had an amazing week with 3 TDs on offense and 1 INT on defense.

-Chris Rosen (Polvige Tech) also had 3 receiving TDs and 2 INTs on defense.

-Jon Moodie (Polvige Tech) threw for over 200 yards and 6 TDs.

-The entire Dagwoods team from the combo of Dave/Lonnie to their great defense.

-Eric Cantin (Venom) showing he can carry a team on his back catching all 3 of Venom’s TDs

 

Weekly Picks

Monster Football vs Relics

Probably the hardest game to predict. Assuming Andy Peterkin returns, it will make it a back and forth game. Jeff Roseblatt had a great week 2 and he’s showing that he can do it without sharing the duties with Cory Pecker. Monster showed they had some holes on defense last week and even with Andy back, it seems they’re still getting re-acquainted on defense. Winner: Relics

 

Venom vs Hitmen Retro

This is the battle of the 0-2! I just don’t know who’s starting for Venom at the QB position, which makes me lean towards Hitmen. That said, Chris Moufrage averaging 3 picks a game is hard to avoid when analyzing Hitmen. Venom took great strides last week and they’ll continue to build on that but Hitmen are due a win which they’ll get this week. Winner: Hitmen Retro.

 

Polvige Tech vs Dagwoods (Game Of The Week)

Well Vince Mancini said the loser of this KTFL Draft team battle has to buy the winner beer so there is more on the line than just bragging rights in this one. Both teams are very familiar with each other so it will be hard to have an advantage.

Here are the key match ups to look for in this game:

Lonnie Johnson against the Polvige Tech defense that has 5 INTs already in 2 games. Vince Mancini and Chris Rosen will have a tall task to try and maintain that pace.

Jon Moodie will face a Dagwoods defense that has 7 INTs and a good rusher, who is familiar with his tendencies to scramble and roll out in Christian Talbot (Div 5A, Longhorns teammate)

Even though it’s a cliché, this game should come down to the last 5 plays but it’s very hard to call it because you can make an argument for both teams. Prediction: Tie, everyone pays their own beer!

 

That’s it for this week’s article. If you any suggestions for what should be covered, written or done please let me know as I am also your scorekeeper every Thursday night. Aside from tracking me down at the field, my email is [email protected] and I can also be reached on Facebook.

Thanks again for tuning, good luck in your games and see you next time.