The Goal Line Stand (Div 5) – Week 4

Tout les joueurs de FPF entrent en bye week; une semaine de congé bien mérité. Négligez pas l’importance de cette semaine en plein milieu de la saison; elle nous donne la chance de nous reposer, et reconstruire nos défensives et dire aux filles dans les bars qu’on écrit des articles de sport.

 

Most of the talk, of course, this week will be about our sister league, the NFL. We thank them for planning their Super Bowl around our bye week so that we may enjoy the high-quality finals between the Patriots and the Giants. But who will be FPF’s Patriots and Giants? Will it be the aptly-uniformed Big Birds and amicable Buddays? Or maybe it will be the rookie Coyotes against the veteran Warhawks. I think everyone would like to see No Regard match up against Checkmate in a rematch of week 2. 

 

Lends with Benefits

 

Here’s a reminder to teams across all divisions that we’re a society of football fanatics who don’t mind sharing flags when one team doesn’t have enough. Everyone benefits from an increased sense of community. 

 

Weekly Recap

 

Rally Machines

 

Mean Machine rallied back from being down 13-8 at halftime against TCO this week. Thus far, Francois Ethier has improved on his completion percentage from last season by about 20% and has widened the gap in his TD/INT ratio significantly as well. This has Mean Machine looking like serious contenders not only to win their sub-division, but to potentially scare a few people come playoff time. TCO brings a lot to the table as well. Matthew Rupcic has proven a reliable target and he shows no signs of stopping unless opposing defenses begin to plan specifically for him.

 

Equality Reigns Supreme

 

Spreading the ball around seems to be the name of the game for No Regard’s Alex Holowach. He completed a pass to six different receivers this week, resulting in a relatively equal distribution. Similarly, besides Holowach himself, two other players ran the ball three times for a total of 22 yards. The story holds on the other side of the ball where 5 different players chipped in with tackles. One of whom is D. Feelgood (how cool would it be if the D stood for Dr.?) and his 2 important sacks. These guys are starting to attract a lot of attention. Incidentally, the bulk of their schedule is in weeks 5 through 8. Where this team will stand at the end of February is tough to predict.      

 

Un V6, plus vite qu’une armée.

Cette semaine, les Mustangs du Gridiron remportent une belle victoire sur Centurions 38-18. Rajoutant 6 passes de touchés à sa fiche, Simon Vallée connait une excellente saison malgré la fiche de son équipe s’établissant à 2-2. Centurions semblent manquer de joueurs ; avec un nom de la sorte, on pouvait s’attendre à voir 83 joueurs lié au Capitaine… Le changement de Quart-Arrière semble nuire à l’équipe et ce problème se doit d’être remédié s’ils veulent rétablir leur winning streak initiale. Malgré les horaires difficiles à venir pour les deux équipes, je sens que des victoires s’en suivront; ils semblent avoir plus à offrir qu’ils ne le laissent entrevoir.

 

By the Numbers

 

Shaquille O’Neal once said, “The stats win nothing. I’m still sexy. I’m still great.” We can all consider O’Neal to be one of the great sages of our time, in part because of his stellar performance in the 1996 thriller, Kazaam. If this section discourages you, remember: the stats win nothing.

 

0: Number of points allowed by Team Ethnik against Predators.

14.81: Percent of dropbacks that resulted in a sack against TCO

10: Number of interceptions returned for a touchdown this week.

21.5: Average yards per reception by Mustangs du Gridiron

5: Number of teams with 6 TDs through the air (Coyotes, Crooklyn Dodgers, La Sauce, Mustangs du Gridiron, Spartans)

31.45: Difference in QB rating between the undefeated teams (average 84.34) and the winless teams (52.89)

7: Number of passes defended by Pendant Publishing against the Dark Knights

28.5: Average rushing yards in week 4. Only week 1 had higher rushing yardage (29.47)

 

Power Rankings

 

One’s rank depends entirely on those other members he is being compared to. So, for example, in comparison to my FPF colleagues as a writer, I would rank…

 

1. Les Buddays (4-0): Can’t argue with success. Or an aggravated bear.

2. No Regard (4-0): Recently caused a commotion on the FPF Facebook wall. Tiger Horn (runaway winner for best name in Division 5) may have placed a bull’s-eye on No Regard’s back. The next 4 weeks will not be easy. 

3. Big Birds (4-0): These guys are 1 of only 3 teams to remain perfect through the first four weeks of the season. However, the teams they’ve beaten are a combined 2-14. (Or a combined 3-13 if you count Venom’s default win).

4. Coyotes (3-0-1): Earned my respect when they tied Thunder and beat Les Affreux.

5. Team Ethnik (3-0-1): Vladir Boursiquot has these guys playing consistent.

6. Mean Machine (3-1): If they can beat the Dark Knghts convincingly next week, these guys are for real.

7. La Sauce (3-1): Are 3-0 since losing to the Centurions.

8. Lockdown (3-1): 3 straight wins has them atop Conference B South.

9. Thunder (2-1-1): Still better than their record purports.

10. Flying Comics (3-1): Find themselves in a tough Conference A West. Frank Grenier is making his bid for best QB in the first half of the season.

 

… Hey, you weren’t first either. 

 

Predictions

 

Experience tells us we shouldn’t bet a day’s pay on tomorrow’s weather forecast. And those guys are meteorologists (fancy word for cloud-watchers). If that’s the case then take my predictions with a grain of salt; there’s no such thing as a FlagPlus Footballologist.

 

1. Tyrants vs. J’s: The Tyrants earned a slim victory over les Affreux last week. Look for a similar type of game this week with the same result.

2. Checkmate vs. Venom: Picking Checkmate here may be less about picking for Checkmate and more about picking against Venom.

3. Spartans vs. Predators: The Predators have a combined 0 points in their last two games. They’ll score against the Spartans but won’t win.

4. Affreux vs. Green Lantern Corps: The experience of les Affreux will prove too much for the rookie Green team.

5. La Sauce vs. Mustangs du Gridiron: The Mustangs’ two-game winning streak will come to an end in week 5.

 

Rolling record: 7-3-0

 

———————————————

 

This week I was forced to stop the presses and add something from last week’s theme. Here’s one more entry to the “You know you’re starting to take flag-football too seriously when…” contest submitted by a referee:

 

You know you’re starting to take refereeing flag-football too seriously when for the first few hours of every Monday morning, you tell your co-workers they can’t go on working unless they remove their jewelry.

 

Ours thoughts and prayers go out to this referee as his trial for workplace theft is on-going.

 

Someone once told me they don’t believe in e-mail. I feel bad for this person because almost all of the empirical evidence suggests that it does, in fact, exist. Since this is the case, let’s use it. E-mail me at andrew@flagplusfootball.com with anything you might want to talk about regarding Division 5. It’s more personal than the league’s Facebook wall, and less frightening than waiting by my truck in the parking lot after games.

 

Enjoy the bye week!