Reviews and Previews as Fall Season Approaches Halfway Mark
Alexi Dubois
25-08-2020 12:56 AM
Each week, I try to predict the outcome of every game that will be played. I like to think that I have a decent knowledge of the league. However, sometimes there are teams that I simply seem to misjudge. At the start of this season, I definitely undervalued Mean Girls. If you followed my picks, you may have noticed I predicted them to start their season 0-2. Instead, they jumped out to a strong 3-0 start and are considered the frontrunner by many to win it all in tier 3. That just goes to show that no one really knows everything about FPF. There is always a certain amount of unpredictability and that is in part what makes this league so exciting. With that, let’s take a look at the most intriguing action from the last week of games.
Week 3 Recaps:
BYOB (12) vs Braves Noirs (13), Tier 1
BYOB a eu un début de saison horrible. Malgré cela, je crois que cette équipe est plus forte que ce que leur fiche de 0-3 indique. Ce qui est encore plus promettant, c’est leur dernier match contre les Braves Noirs. Ils ont perdu 13-12, mais ils ont démontré qu’ils peuvent rivaliser avec les meilleures équipes de la division.
Lors de ce match avec BYOP, leur performancedéfensive m’a beaucoup impressionné. Ils ont tenu les Braves Noirs à seulement deux touchés. Pour comparer, les Braves ont marqué quatre touchés dans chaque de leurs deux premiers matchs. Cette défensive dépend de deux éléments clés. Critiquement, BYOB est une équipe qui manque très peu de plaqué. De cette manière, ils limitent les verges après l’attrapée et forcent leur adversaire à monter le terrain de quelques verges à la fois ou essayer le long toucher. La deuxième clé de cette défensive est de créer des revirements. BYOB force leurs adversaires à essayer un nombre de passes plus élevé que la moyenne et forcément, des erreurs arrivent éventuellement. Ces erreurs prennent la forme d’interceptions. Dans ce match, c’est Mathieu Lepage et Stephan Osman qui en ont profité et ont enregistré une interception chaque.
Pour les Braves Noirs, ils en ont fait juste assez pour s’échapper avec la victoire dans ce match. Par contre, des performances de deux touchés ne vont pas être assez pour battre la majorité des équipes dans cette division. La force de cette équipe est la passe courte. Ce jeu de passes courtes peut être très efficace, mais il faut le mélanger avec quelques longues bombes pour garder la défensive adverse honnête. Les Braves Noirs vont devoir repenser leur playcalling s’ils espèrent battre Terror Squad la semaine prochaine.
Lockdown (24) vs Lionhearts (20), Tier 3
Lockdown is one of those teams that is always good but never great. This year might finally be the exception. They have come roaring out of the gate and they are one of my favorites to capture the highest honors in tier 3. Lockdown are a team that relies on playing simple mistake free football to win games and that is exactly what they did last week. They methodically marched the ball down the field. They kept their opposition guessing throughout this game by targeting six different receivers. That slow and simple approach led quarterback Buck Aneer to an 80% completion rate. Most importantly, Aneer protected the ball and avoided throwing a single interception. As long as Lockdown keep on playing smart, simple football like they did in this match, they will be hard to beat.
Even in defeat, their opponents, Lionhearts impressed me. This team has been searching for consistent play ever since they entered the league in the winter of 2019. For too many seasons, this team was plagued with the interception bug. It appears they may have found their quarterback of the future and a cure to their interception curse in Carmelo Di Giovanni. While he was not able to lead his team to victory in this match, Di Giovanni was able to pass for 150 yards against one of the top teams in tier 3. While those stats are impressive, nothing was more important in this match than keeping a clean sheet and throwing no interceptions. This team has always had impressive athletes like Anthony Innacronz and Joe Morgese. When you couple talent like that with a few years of FPF experience and sound quarterback play, you are bound to win quite a few games.
Week 4 Previews:
Khansequence (2-1) vs Braves Verts (1-2), Tier 1
Avant que la saison commence, les Braves Verts étaient les grands candidats pour remporter la division. Un autre prétendant de la présaison de la division était Khansequence. J’avais de grandes attentes pour le retour tant anticipé de Daniel Lazzara. Malheureusement, aucune de ces équipes ont vraiment réaliser les attentes de la présaison. La défensive de Khanséquence a été démontée la semaine passée et j’ai des sérieux doutes s’ils réussiront à ralentir Jonathan Maheu et les Braves. Si Maheu réussit à rallonger les jeux avec ses jambes, je ne crois pas que la défense de Khansequence va pouvoir résister.
Prediction: Braves Vert
Warriors (2-1) vs Tough Lungs (2-1), Tier 2
People love to say stopping Tough Lungs is as easy as shutting down Justin Lerner. Honestly, I do not believe that is an oversimplification. Lerner has accounted for over half of his team’s touchdowns and has the fourth most receiving yards in the division. So, the question essentially is, can the Warriors stop Lerner? Simply put, yes they will. The Warriors have enough athletes on this roster that even if they have to double team Lerner, they will find a way to shut him down. Once they do that, I have very little confidence in Tough Lungs finding another way to score.
Prediction: Warriors
Kiss My End Zone (3-0) vs Fightin’ Tigers (3-0), Coed
For full disclosure, I play for Kiss My End Zone. While I generally try to avoid writing about my own team, I cannot help myself from discussing this awesome confrontation between the only remaining undefeated teams in the coed division. Even though the Fightin’ Tigers are new to coed, they have wasted no time adapting to the particularities of the division. If anything, the predictability of defenses has played into Seth Galina’s hands. Let me explain. In normal FPF play, defences will keep the opposing quarterback guessing by constantly dropping different players into coverage. In coed, certain teams are not hesitant to drop their female players deep to play safety. This makes defences more predictable and easier to read as a quarterback and this has played perfectly into Galina’s hand. However, I have a strange feeling that Kiss My End Zone may be wise to Galina’s ways and have a few defensive wrinkles waiting for him. Another key to victory for KMEZ will be shutting down the always dangerous Jamie Ojeaha. While Ojeaha has not yet gone off for a monster game, he has the talent to flip a game on its head with just a few touches of the ball. While I definitely expect an extremely close game, I cannot side against my own team.
Prediction: Kiss My End Zone.
Week 3 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. When choosing the players for the team of the week, I do not consider the tier that the players are in. I only consider their achievements.
Offence:
Quarterback: Colin Sequira (Texass Shorthorns, Tier 2) 21 completions, 280 yards, 7 TDs, 132.9 QB rating
Receiver: Dylan Garber (KGP, Tier 1) 7 receptions, 110 yards, 3 TDs
Receiver: Marc-Antoine Chaput (Mangoose, Tier 2) 8 receptions, 118 receiving yards, 2 TDs
Receiver: Giordano Marinello (Mean Girls, Tier 3) 10 receptions, 152 receiving yards, 3 TDs
Receiver: Jeremie Ledoux (Bud Knights, Tier 3) 7 receptions, 95 receiving yards, 3 TDs
Receiver: Nick Van Aelst (Texass Shorthorns, Tier 2) 6 receptions, 107 receiving yards, 2 TDs
Defence:
Rusher: Matthew Canuel (Ballin 60’s, Tier 3) 5 tackles, 2 INTs, 3 sacks, 1 PD
Defensive Back: Angelo Mourelatos (Mean Girls, Tier 3) 1 tackle, 2 INTs, 1 defensive TD
Defensive Back: Max Rosenfeld (Half-A-Stars) 2 tackles, 3 INTs
Defensive Back: Jaylan Greaves (Kiss My End Zone, Coed) 2 tackles, 2INTs, 1 PD, 1 defensive TD
Defensive Back: Nicholas Grappini (Unknown Talent, Tier 2) 2 tackles, 2 INTs, 1 defensive TD
Defensive Back: Godefroy Verron-Trudel (La Secte, Coed) 2 tackles, 2 INTs, 2 sacks
Week 4 Picks:
| Home Team | Away Team | Predicted Winner |
| BYOB | Sweat & Beers | BYOB |
| Khansequence | Braves Verts | Braves Verts |
| KGP | Urgence Medic | KGP |
| Braves Noirs | Terror Squad | Braves Noirs |
| Texass Shorthorns | Les Gros Coqs | Texass Shorthorns |
| Tough Lungs | Warriors | Warriors |
| Los Banditos | Unknown Talent | Los Banditos |
| Voodoo | EZW | EZW |
| Pardon My Swag | Half-A-Stars | Half-A-stars |
| Trojans | Les Centaures | Les Centaures |
| Pardon My Swag | Pepperoni Boyz | Pep Boyz |
| Outlaws | Hot Sauce Sports | Outlaws |
| Mangoose | Bruins | Mangoose |
| Rainmakers | Bada Bing | Rainmakers |
| Replacements | Honey Martin | Honey Martin |
| Triple P | Lockdown | Triple P |
| Ballin 60’s | South Side Speedsters | South Side Speedsters |
| Les Nains Johanais | Trapstars | Trapstars |
| Mean Girls | Lionhearts | Mean Girls |
| Le Speakeasy | Bud Knights | Bud Knights |
| Goon Squad | Goblin Gang | Goblin Gang |
| Zone 6 Ballers | TuneSquad | TuneSquad |
| Les Semi-Croquants | Yin & Yang | Yin & Yang |
| Fightin’ Tigers | Kiss My Endzone | n/a |
We are nearly halfway through this season. Wow, how time flies when the world is in a lockdown and your only entertainment is recreational flag football. The exciting thing about week four, is that a whole bunch of teams are already facing a playoff like crunch to stay in the top half of their tier. You have to look no further than tier 2 for the perfect example. There are currently six teams with a 2-1 record who risk falling to the bottom half with a loss this week. Perhaps the biggest X factor in tier 2 is Pardon My Swag who are playing two games this week. With a pair of wins, they could wind up at the top of the standings. However, if they lose both games as I predicted them to, they will be relinquished to the consolation brackets.
This week is just a few hours away from starting and I cannot wait to see how things play out for the next round. So with that, I will wish all the teams I predicted to win good luck in week 4. As for those teams I predicted to lose, try to prove me wrong.