Reviews and Previews as Coed Approches the Mid-Season Point!

Week 4 is done and week 5 is underway. While this article might be a little late getting posted, I think I have some pretty valid excuses. For starters, FPF’s own Alex “Eagle” D’Aquilla got married on Saturday night, so my usual strategy of grinding an article out late Saturday night was not an option. My Sunday was then spent traveling, since I will be on vacation for the next two weeks. I will do my best while I’m on holiday to both produce the usual content and create the usual mid-season power rankings. I will be breaking down one division a week on a team by team basis for the next three weeks. While that may mean there is slightly less content about the weekly action, every team will be analyzed. This week is your last week to impress before the power rankings start coming out, so be sure to leave it all on the field.

Week 4 Games of the Week

Plenty of Fish (32) vs Vultures (34) – Coed 1

Maude Lacasse made her much awaited return to Coed this week and while things might have gotten started with a bang as she led Plenty of Fish to a convincing 41-28 win over The IG Team, Lacasse and PofF went on to lose to the Vultures later that week in what has to be the biggest upset of the Coed 1 season so far.

The first thing that jumped out at me in this game was the Julian McLaren-Thompson vs Benjamin McMahon matchup. McMahon, the Vultures Quarterback, is one of the shiftiest players in the division and is a nightmare for opposing rushers. While he does not run the ball that much, he can buy extra time with his scrambling ability. On the other hand, McLaren-Thompson is one of, if not the best, rusher in the division and has been able to consistently shut down the likes of Jeanslee Alexis. I fully expected this matchup to go in favor  of McLaren-Thompson but I was wrong. While McMahon only ran for nine yards on three attempts, he was also only sacked once. While McLaren-Thompson clearly did force the Vultures QB to get rid of the ball quicker, he did not have the impact I expected him to have in this game. McMahon’s ability to thrive, despite the pressure being applied to him, allowed all of his receivers to benefit. Kevin Donnet led the charge with six receptions for 63 yards and a score and James Drysdale was the go to man in the red zone, scoring a touchdown on all three of his catches. However, what makes this Vultures offence so hard to stop is their ability to spread the ball. Shantel Chippy Brown caught all seven targets thrown her way in this one, and she was just one of several  Vultures receivers with two or more catches. The other factor that does need to be considered in this win is of course Drysdale being back in the lineup. There are very few players in FPF, let alone Coed who can cover Drysdale man to man. What that forces opposing defences to do is to play almost exclusively zone defence. Even if a team could man Drysale, Brown and Geraldine Cabillo-Abante are two of the very best female receivers in this division and pose matchup issues in their own right. Simply put, playing man against this Vultures team is a mistake and that plays right into their hands. McMahon has tons of experience under his belt and knows how to shred an opposing defence, and that is what happened in this one. Defensively, the Vultures did just enough to secure the win. Kevin Donnet came up with a huge interception in the second half. On the very next play after a Vultures touchdown Donnet picked Lacassse off to give his team the ball back.

Plenty of Fish had a chance to tie this one up late. Lacasse completed a 40 yard bomb to Roco Christiano with just a few plays left in the game. PofF needed to hit the two point convert to tie this one 

up, but were ultimately unable to convert and tie the game. If I am Plenty of Fish I would chalk this loss to some growing pains, with the return of Lacasse at quarterback and an unfavorable matchup in Vultures. This is not a sign to panic and jump off the PofF bandwagon. They are still the top team in the division and the favorites to win it all, this just means they will face some adversity along the way.

Ghosted (14) vs The Strawhats (18) – Coed 3

The Strawhats did not play a perfect game, but they did enough to escape with the victory in this one. Amin Ennabaoui of The Strawhats did complete 15 passes on his way to throwing for nearly 130 yards, but his issue in this match were the incompletions. He completed just 15 of the 32 passes he attempted. Elite quarterbacks in FPF generally complete upwards of 65% of their passes, so for more than half of his pass attempts to wind up incomplete is an issue. I am not sure if this was due to drops, bad reads, inaccurate passes or a mixture of all three. A big reason why The Strawhats were able to escape with the win was the play of Andréanne Tremblay.  She led all receivers with four catches and 43 receiving yards. The turning point in this game came halfway through the first half when Maxime Durand-Trudeau picked Ghosted off and returned it for a score. That one play changed what looked like a promising drive for Ghosted and turned it into points for their opponents. Outside of that pick six, I was thoroughly impressed with the defensive play of The Strawhats in this one. This Ghosted team is experienced and knows how to exploit the flaws of an opposing defence, but The Strawhats did a fantastic job of taking away the first and second read of Ghosted’s Carol-Ann Ménard and ultimately gave up less than 100 yards of total offence. To hold such an experienced offence to just two scores and less than 100 yards is extremely impressive. While this Strawhats team might still have some kinks to work out on the offensive side of the ball, their defence is clearly firing on all cylinders.

As for Ghosted, I thought they had a lot of potential coming into the season. This all female team is by far the most experienced team in Coed 3 and I was convinced that experience would give them the upper hand against just about any team in this division. Unfortunately for Ghosted, it does not look like that experience is paying off for them, and I think that is largely due to their offensive play calling. While Carol-Ann Ménard might be a very good quarterback, she does not have the biggest arm so trying to force the ball down the field is not the best idea. When other teams see this Ghosted team, their first instinct is to play a lot of man to man coverage. However, there are simple ways to beat man coverage and the easiest one is to create traffic. By running crossing routes and rub concepts you can nullify the threat of man coverage. All in all, I think this Ghosted team needs to get more patient on offence. They should be consistently taking those short and intermediate throws which opposing defences concede. They do not need to push the ball downfield and take risks to win these games. The simplest concepts, like all hooks and triple slants, should be this teams go-to plays. I was high on this Ghosted team coming into the season and I still am. They have the best female players in Coed 3 by a wide margin and will find ways to win games. The first adjustment they need to make is their offensive play calling, but I am confident that the wins will start coming soon for this team.

Week 4 Team of the Week

Every week, I will name 12 players to the team of the week. If you make the offensive team of the week, you cannot be on the defensive one and vice versa. In the spirit of the Coed division, every team of the week will have a minimum of three female players on the offensive and defensive team. This week I will only be creating one team of the week with players from across all three divisions.

Offence

Quarterback: Maude Lacasse (Pig 6) 20 completions, 216 passing yards, 7 TDs, 1 INT

Receiver: Theo Ojeaha (Plenty of Fish) 8 receptions, 133 yards, 3 TDs

Receiver: Maryse Paquette (Plenty of Fish) 5 receptions, 95 yards, 3 TDs

Receiver: Justin Leblanc-Guindon (La Secte) 6 receptions, 90 yards, 3 TDs

Receiver: Emyl Gregoire (Cavaliers) 8 receptions, 91, 3 TDs 

Receiver: Florence Leonard (EZFun) 4 receptions, 61 yards, 1 TD

Defence

Rusher: Jacob Benoit (1-9ers) 3 sacks

Defensive Back: Elodie Bourget (Ghosted) 6 tackles, 1 INT, 1 PD

Defensive Back: Jessica Zerbino (Panini Pressers) 1 tackle, 2 INTs

Defensive Back: Xavier Couture (Pass Whoopin’) 3 tackles, 3 INTs, 2 PDs, 1 TD   

Defensive Back: Thomas Chaussé (Pig 6) 2 tackles, 3 INTs

Defensive Back: Audrey Lajoie (Kiss My End Zone) 1 tackle, 1 INT, 1 TD

Week 5 Predictions

Vultures (1-2) vs Les Porcinets (1-4)

Most of the time, the question I have when predicting a Porcinets game, is who will play quarterback, this time it is who will rush Ben McMahon. Through five games this team has recorded just five sacks, and three of those have come courtesy of Mathilde Sybille. However, I am not sure how well she will be able to contain the ultra elusive McMahon. The key to slowing down this Vultures offense is limiting their quarterbacks time in the pocket and I have my doubts as to whether Les Porcinets will be able to do that.

On the other side of the ball, I love the way that this Porcinets offense matches up against this Vultures defense, especially if it is Tam Vilaydeth under center. Vilaydeth’s system is all about flooding either the short or the deep and then benefiting from the most favorable matchups. Against a team like Vultures who run a predominantly zone-coverage defense I think Vilaydeth will be able to pick and choose matchups that are favorable to him and his offense. 

Ultimately I expect this game to come down to a matter of converts since I do not see either team getting a stop. Seeing that Vilaydeth struggles to hit two point converts and prefers to go for 1, I will give Vultures the edge in this one.

Prediction: Vultures

Pig 6 (2-2) vs Fitsquad (3-0) – Coed 2

The first question that needs to be asked is who is playing quarterback for Pig 6. Seth Galina was under center for the first four games but Maude Lacasse took the reins last week and she had a phenomenal week, throwing for seven scores and earned QB of the Week honors in the process. If it is Lacasse under center for this team going forwards, they will be extremely difficult to stop. 

However, my spidey senses are telling me that it will be Seth Galina back under center for Pig 6. Fitsquad are a veteran team, but tend to run relatively simple zone coverages on defense. While Galina might not have the strongest arm or even the best ball he excels at reading a defense and finding the open receiver. While Lacasse might be the better quarterback overall, I think Galina’s skillset is perfectly suited to what the Fitsquad defense will throw at him.

As for Fitsquad, they are quietly putting together one heck of a start to the season. They are one of only two undefeated teams in the division and have only conceded 70 points over their first three games. While Pig 6 are definitely the toughest challenge they have yet to face, I like their odds of prevailing in this one. Simply put, I think their defense can stop the opposing offense more times than their offense will be stopped, and that is the golden formula to success in FPF.

Les Pookies (1-3) vs Goal Diggers (0-5) – Coed 3

While Goal Diggers might be winless, they have faced five of the top seven teams so far this season. For a team of just about all new players to FPF, that is a brutal way to kickoff the season. Sometimes you just need a game where you can face an equally inexperienced team so that you can make mistakes, without those mistakes costing you the game. If Goal Diggers are looking for a reason to be optimistic about the remainder of their season, they do not need to look any further than Marckens Théodore. Despite just playing three games, he has picked off opposing quarterbacks twice and even managed to run one of  those picks back for a score. On the offensive side of the ball things have been rougher for this team. They have only passes for five touchdowns and have thrown more interceptions than they have scores. This team needs a game to get their confidence back and this game against Les Pookies is the perfect opportunity.

Les Pookies have also had an extremely tough schedule to start out the season, and they even managed to win a game versus Panini Pressers. The good news for this Pookies team is that their season will only be getting easier from here on out. Not only are they gaining more valuable experience, but they are also facing off against opponents in the lower half of the standings. This team needs to get the ball rolling and string together a few wins and that is exactly what I think will happen starting in this game versus Goal Diggers. I see Jules A Cardinal, who is a threat on both sides of the ball, being the difference maker and leading Les Pookies to victory in this one.

Prediction: Les Pookies

There you have your week 4 article! Stay tuned for power rankings and more coed content coming out soon. As always, please feel free to share any comments, critiques or concerns with me at [email protected]