Tier 3 and 4 Playoff Previews – FlagPlus Football League

The Preliminary portion of the tournament is now in the books. You’ve had 8 games to gel, build chemistry, work on communication, and it’s now time to put it all together as we move onto the Knockout Round. Tier 4 will kick us off on Sunday Nov 13th in Lachine with 2 double-elimination games and 1 single-elimination game. Tier 3 will then continue the party on Monday night in St-Laurent as only the single-elimination games will be played. The first round of double-elimination games will only take place on Sunday Nov. 20th, so those games will only be previewed on next week’s article.

Alright, without further wasting time, let’s dive into the matchups and see who Iggy Magnets has to win their games as we dive into the newly formatted knockout round.

Tier 4 Playoff Preview – Sunday Nov. 13th in Lachine

To preview the Tier 4 Bracket, let’s give a quick breakdown of this week

The #1 seeded Save The Turftles and #2 seeded Penetrators are 2 of the 3 teams in blue, meaning they have a bye in the first round and will only play their first knockout game on Sunday Nov. 20th. The 7th seeded Deep Ballz are also on a bye, HOWEVER, they DO play on Sunday Nov. 13th at 10pm, and will face the winner of the 8th seeded TuneSquad who will go up against the 9th seeded QB Roulette. Because the 8 and 9 seed game is a single-elimination, the loser goes home, and the winner stays to play Deep Ballz later that night.

Double Elimination Games

WIB 2.0 (3) vs. Primetime (6)

This is the matchup of the night in Tier 4; a battle of two yellow jersey teams as Primetime will need to wear pinnies to differentiate the two teams. Primetime could have avoided this matchup altogether had they won their last game of the Prelim round against QB Roulette. Instead, they face the most difficult opponent in the 1st round. That said, there’s at least some pressure that is taken off knowing that even if they can’t beat the hottest team in Tier 4, they would still be alive in the tournament. There’s something about playing without that pressure that allows teams to go in and just give their best performance, especially in the underdog role, and with the athleticism that Primetime possesses, they can certainly pull off the upset. WIB 2.0 will have something to say about that though, as ever since the team made the switch to Zack Stacey at QB, the team hasn’t lost a game. In fact, he’s been so good, it’s very likely that had he played all 8 games at QB, he would have been a leading candidate for QB of the Year if he was able to keep up his 6:1 TD-to-INT ratio. But enough intros, let’s breakdown this matchup.

Previous Matchup: Primetime 25 – 32 WIB 2.0

First, let’s take a look at their previous matchup. It was a close game when these 2 teams squared off. I recall this game as I caught a bit of it and was impressed with Willie Habimana‘s range as a receiver. He caught and successfully converted Primetime’s onside kick attempt as he stretched out his body and snatched the ball out of the air. That was what I thought his coming-out party to the FPF world, but it didn’t turn out that way. He is though, an X factor for Primetime in this matchup as WIB 2.0 did have a hard time defending him. Also in that game, Daniel Spina‘s deep ball was on point. All 4 of his touchdowns were of 32 yards or more, so you can be sure that WIB 2.0 will be respecting the deep ball. That means that Spina will need to be patient and take the underneath that WIB 2.0 will be giving up. Take what that defense gives you! Not only will Spina need to be patient, he will need to protect the ball, as the difference in the regular season game was Nick Di Maulo‘s Pick 6.

From WIB 2.0’s side of things, both Skylar Bayliff and Kris Schicchi could not be stopped. They combined for 16 catches on the 17 targets that went their way for 183 yards and 3 TDs. They almost singlehandedly were the offense for WIB 2.0 that night. The Primetime D will need to know where Bayliff is lined up at all times (as I believe Schicchi is the snapper so I hope they know where he is lined up).

Tale of the Tape

That said, both these offenses are explosive, but Primetime will need to make sure they execute and ensure their hands are on point, or their explosiveness won’t matter as much as it could. Like I mentioned on CTA, Spina did reach out for some help in the redzone, as the field really does tighten up down there, so I’m excited to see how that goes for him and the offense with a few plays to try out.

We know that WIB 2.0 will put up points, so it will be important that Primetime get 1, if not 2 INTs on Stacey. Peeze believes that Ethan Adrian will have a big game, and while he certainly can be difference maker, the Zack Stacey statline of 20/28 suggests to me that he releases the ball quickly. More than sacks, Adrian‘s impact will come when the Primetime defense can shoot the first read from Stacey, causing a back pedal or a a rollout throw off his back foot. Hopefully for Primetime, that’s where the INTs can come from and then of course, Spina will need to capitalize and convert those turnovers into points, again, especially if they make it down into the redzone.

The WIB 2.0 defense will need to throw a mix of cover 2 and 3, and disguise who is dropping and staying short. Spina is good at scrambling when things bust down, but the receivers tend to drop 1/2 balls when running into spaces, so the D can, when plays break down, have 1 player assigned as a spy on Spina to make sure he doesn’t take off and burn them with his legs.

Prediction: WIB 2.0 32 – 25 Primetime – I know, it’s the same score as the regular season, but I really see the game finishing with the same score.

Red Dragons (4) vs. The Step Bros (5)

There are a lot of questions for both offenses going into this game. Has Pranav Sharma figured out how to run an effective, sustainable offense? You can even ask the same of Guillaume Boulanger. The Step Bros have averaged 21.5 points a game while Red Dragons are averaging a shade over 3 TDs (18.6). While both offenses are a work-in-progress, the defenses are the strength on both teams. Both teams are very athletic and the game will come down to who can play better defense and create turnovers from risk-taking offenses that don’t realize they are risk-takers.

Previous Matchup: Red Dragons 25 – 12 The Step Bros

If you are Red Dragons, replicate the previous game: Start on D, get a stop. Score on your first possession, and create a turnover on your 2nd defensive series and score another to go up 2 scores early in the game. Having a 19-6 halftime lead would be a perfect game script for Red Dragons to duplicate in this playoff game. Why? Sharma loves the deep ball and loves to run. With a 2-score lead at the half, and starting with the ball in the 2nd half with a chance to go up 3 scores, you know the run game will be abandoned and Sharma will try to go deep often. Knowing that, you can play cover 3 most of, if not the entire 2nd half and get those INTs to ice the game.

From the regular season game, I also see that the Red Dragons couldn’t exactly put The Step Bros away offensively. The Step Bros did force several punts, especially in the 2nd half, to keep themselves in the game. They will need absolutely to bring that defensive prowess earlier into their playoff game to change the script in their favor.

Tale of the Tape

A lot of this game rides on the shoulders of Sharma. Has he, over the course of the season, wiped out the plays that don’t work and developed repetition on the plays that do work to create an offensive gameplan that works against anyone? I’m not sure he’s at that point yet, but his last performance against The Penetrators was an impressive stat line. It would seem he caught The Penetrators off guard with the deep ball early, and it opened up the rest of the field thereafter. It’s not a bad strategy and definitely cannot let this playoff game get out of his hands early. He will need to apply the pressure on Red Dragons by scoring on The Step Bros’ first possession of the game. Force the Red Dragons offense to go score-for-score with you. If he can score on that first drive, and then get help from the defense with a stop, and then punch in a 2nd TD on the 2nd drive and flip the script, that would be huge and definitely a path for victory for The Steps Bros. With them up 2 or more scores, now their defense can be the one’s playing cover 3 often as the Red Dragons would need to go deep more often than they would like. That would put a pressure on the RD offense that they are not built for.

If this game is tight throughout the game, Sharma will use his legs to keep drives alive. He does however, struggle against good rushers when he can’t buy time and run down field. Red Dragons have that in Vincent Bolullo and his 18 sacks, so look that to be an important matchup if the two teams are tied or within a few points of each other. For Boulanger, he will need to be careful with his shots to Émile Bolullo as Tyler Laroche of The Step Bros, their leader in INTs with 5 is a ballhawk and can create turnovers if balls aren’t placed exactly where they need to be. Boulanger will need to avoid him at all costs and instead needs to be patient and hit the holes underneath with Tommy Caetano and Lucian Leontiev.

Prediction: The game script can go in favor for either team, depending if the offenses are rolling and one team goes up by multiple scores. I’m going to have to go with the Red Dragon defense being able to intercept a few of those deep balls like they did in their previous match.

Red Dragons 25 – The Step Bros 20

Single Elimination Game

TuneSquad (8) vs. QB Roulette (9)

Kenny Boutilier has improved over the past few games at Quarterback and now gives his QB Roulette squad a chance against TuneSquad, as it appears that this will be a “first to 21 points” kind of game. The TuneSquad offense is the better of the two teams, but goes up against the better of the 2 defenses in QB Roulette, so really, this game will be whether both offenses can put together what they’ve done all season into 44 minutes and 10 plays and who’s better at executing plays, both from the receivers as much as the QB’s. It’s interesting though, that we are 8 games into the season and we still aren’t sure who the QB will be going in for TuneSquad. By virtue of who has recently taken snaps, it would suggest that Garner Ross will be suiting up at QB, but neither his nor Adam Antel‘s stats are convincing. That said, given both quarterbacks strengths, I would have to give the nod to Ross. QB Roulette are better at protecting against the deep ball, and that is more of Antel‘s strength, whereas Ross is the better passer underneath.

Intro

Previous Matchup: QB Roulette 19 – 20 TuneSquad

QB Roulette actually started this game on fire, scoring 3 TDs on their first 3 drives. TuneSquad did make a comeback in that game and even stopped QB Roulette’s final drive of the game, as QBR had a chance to win the game. Both teams spread the ball, but TuneSquad did a bit better of a job in that department. Both QBs ended with 3 TDs and 1 INT, but Kenny had the advantage in the rushing yards. While Avi Korman had 2 sacks, he still let Kenny run free: 7 times for 54 yards. Zackary Alberts-Gill with his 3 sacks put TuneSquad in 3rd and 4th and long distances and even creating punt decisions and will need much of the same if they want to win their playoff game.

Tale of the Tape

Ross, like Adam Antel did that night, will need to use all of his weapons and spread the ball so that the QB Roulette defense, led by Kenny and Zach Alberts-Gill, can’t zone in on 1 guy and take him away. The Arnovitz‘ bros are the 2 leading receivers on the team, but we know that Ross loves his snapper Jesse Dym, and even Adam Antel can make waves out there as a receiver. Spreading the ball will be key for TuneSquad, making sure everyone stays focused with touches going around. To boot, Ross cannot be afraid to go short all game and take 1 or 2 shots deep to catch the QB Roulette D off guard. That’s his play style and he will need to be accurate on the short passes if they want to win.

Rushing for TuneSquad is Avi Korman and will need to do a better job just containing Kenny from running the ball since is a big part of his game, although Kenny has focused more on the passing game. We’ll have to see if Kenny still runs a few plays since he can make you miss and dance his way downfield for extra yards and the 1st down.

Not only will rushing be important for TuneSquad, but Zach Alberts-Gill is one of the premiere rusher in the lower-to-middle divisions and can absolutely bear down on quarterbacks. One thing Antel does have over Ross is the height advantage, and with Alberts-Gill‘s large frame barreling down on Ross, he can take away a lot of passing lanes over the middle of the field. Not just that, but if Ross shows any doubt (like a double clutching the ball) when Zack pounces in, he does not miss his opportunity to come back with the sack to make it 2nd, 3rd, or 4th and long, like in their previous game.

Kenny will need to attack the TuneSquad defense head on, but needs to be careful when taking his deep shots, in particular, he needs to avoid Antel. He lead TuneSquad with 4 INTs during the preliminary round and has a good eye for tracking the ball and coming down with the turnover. For QB Roulette, that equivalent is Jonothan Joseph. He too will need to (and can) under cut Ross‘ often underthrown balls and get his offense the ball back.

With both offenses struggling a bit, I think a defensive pick 6 would be huge and can end up being the difference in the game.

Prediction: TuneSquad 24 – QB Roulette 19

Tier 3 Playoff Preview – Monday Nov. 14th in St. Laurent

Single Elimination Games

Warriors (9) vs. Why So Serious (16)

Previous Matchup: None

Look, there’s not much to break down here. Warriors are younger, more athletic, have the better hands overall, etc, etc. I can go on all day with the mis-matches, but it will come down to whether Why So Serious can stop the high-octane, very fluid and “everyone-get-open” type of play calling and style that the Warriors play and are very effective at. They have a rather unconventional, constant rolling and flooding concept that they play at a high-level, and takes an unconventional defense to stop. The best a team can do is man-up on Warriors, but Why So Serious is not that team.

While the Warriors are likely to score on every one of their possessions, most of the game will come down to the Why So Serious offense. They need to snuff out 8 minutes of the clock and patiently drive the field. Frank Teoli-Colatrella must stay clear of Benji Ziegler, Adam Rabinovitch and even Adam Lieblein, which happen to be the guys that mostly drop deep. In other words, going deep cannot be the gameplan going in. He will need to hit his receivers short and let them gain the yards after the catch. Protecting the ball will be the #1 priority and is best accomplished by going short. One turnover by the Why So Serious offense and the game is over. Drives need to be long, sustained, and end in touchdowns. Doing so will give the Warriors 4 or 5 possessions to work with. WSS needs to drag this game out to a 28-24 type of score and avoid the 7-8 normal type of possession game so the score doesn’t end up 56-12.

Since I think that is Why So Serious’ path to victory, but don’t think that will happen, I see more Benji Ziegler finishing with a ridiculous stat-line. Something in the 90 yards, 4 TDs, 2 INT vicinity.

Prediction: Warriors 41 – Why So Serious 12

Sulé Fess (10) vs. Threat Level Midnight (15)

This one is actually an interesting matchup. The Sulé Fess defense has been atrocious the past 3 weeks, giving up 133 points in the past 3 games. Threat Level Midnight were feeling that pain of giving up points all season, until they played the #1 seed Arouch last week, and while it was a loss, it a was a very close and tight 20-18 game. I’ll get back to that game in a second as I continue introducing these 2 teams. Offensively, Sulé Fess is a lot more dynamic and explosive while Threat Level Midnight is a more methodical and not-so-flashy offense.

That said, TLM had a perfect game plan against Arouch that almost went their way. Arouch finished the game with 4 possessions and 15 offensive snaps, compared to the 40 offensive snaps from the Mat Domon-led offense that finished with 12 first downs and drives of 10, 9, 6, 11 and 7 plays. This is exactly the game plan that TLM will need to replicate if they want to beat Sulé Fess. Milk the clock while marching down the field and forcing your opponents to do the best with 4 possessions. Domon is great at exactly that, and why not drag your opponent that can score 30-40 points down to the 18-24 mark which is around the number of points TLM could put up in any game (regardless of the game script).

Previous Matchup: Threat Level Midnight 6 – 35 Sulé Fess

First, Jo Lemieux was in this previous game, and I believe they should go with Domon if they want a shot at beating Sulé Fess in the playoffs. In the regular season game there was just too many 4-and-outs by Threat Level Midnight and Sulé Fess made them pay by punching it in on the very next drive.

The other thing that Threat Level Midnight should remember from that game is that Francis Desrochers loves going deep, in particular to Vincent Benjamin, as he caught a 40-bomb, but there was another 40-yarder as well as a 30-yard TD going Jeremie Gauthier‘s way (who is not playoff eligible for Sulé Fess).

Tale of the Tape

If Domon can duplicate his game plan he executed against Arouch and do it against Sulé Fess, there’s nothing Sulé Fess can do more offensively than run their own plays and execute on all 4 or 5 drives TLM will give them. Defensively, Sulé Fess need to be more aggressive on the shorts and force Domon to double clutch and force him into a mistake. If they can force a turnover or 2, this should be Sulé Fess’ game to lose.

Prediction: Sulé Fess 26 – 24 Threat Level Midnight

Lallimo’s 17 Year Olds (11) vs. Ravens (14)

There’s a few things that come to mind and need to be mentioned before diving into this one. First, and this will be talked about more in the Previous Matchup section, but this was the game where L17YO made a 23 point comeback on October 11th. The other thing that stands out when looking at the rosters, is that Jean Lussier, who replaced Joel Houle has only played in 3 games, which means he is NOT playoff eligible. However, after further review, it was determine that the Ravens did follow proper protocol back on October 13th and did put Joel Houle on IR and got Jean Lussier in his place, so he gets all 4 games played of Houle which bumps him up to 7 GP. While Lussier‘s play has been questionable, with 8 TDs and 6 INTs thrown, there are defensive questions for L17YO’s, as they were the team that gave up the 4th most points. This is nothing new since the Lallimo franchise have been notorious for being a strong offensive team but weak on D, always being a top 3 team for the most points against.

Previous Matchup: Lallimo’s 17 Year Olds 34 – 31 Ravens

This game was really a tale of 2 halves. The first was dominated by Ravens. Lallimo’s could not defend Yvan Desjardins who had 46 yards and 2 TDs nor Justin Sarlabous who had 50 yards and 1 receiving TD as well as a pick 6. Twice the Lallimo offense was stopped on quick 4 and outs that the Ravens were able to punch in for TDs.

In the 2nd, the momentum flipped when Lallimo were able to score on the opening drive of the 2nd half and were able to get a turnover on downs and then score on just 4 plays later. After having score 14 straight, they decided to go for the onside kick and converted it, not just to keep the ball, but got a 45 yard TD from Simon Sanita. The Ravens were still up 31-28 and just needed to move the ball on offense and score a TD. But it was this game and around the 1st half/2nd half that Joel Houle suffered his injury. Lallimo would not only stop the Ravens for another turnover on downs, and would not only score on a 7-play drive to go up 34-31, but they actually stopped the final Ravens drive which ended up at the 2-yard line.

Tale of the Tape

Look, even without Joel Houle, the Ravens need to run and execute their regular offense. The Lallimo defense is subject to giving up yards in chunks and points en masse. With the 3-headed monster of Mathieu Houle (flag Jesus), Yvan Desjardins and Justin Sarlabous, this trio is a handful to defend like Lallimo found out in that 1st half of their preliminary round matchup. The Lallimo D will need to play with more urgency (like in the 2nd half) and do it earlier in this playoff game. They now have a better idea of what the Ravens like to play, although they will need to quickly adapt to the play of Jean Lussier.

For the Ravens, it’s no doubt they need to know where AJ Zeppetelli is lined up on every play, and make sure there is tight coverage at all times, since even a 1-2 yard hook, AJ Zeppetelli can get away with his speed and shifty hip move to prevent getting deflagged. It’s no surprise that the weapons don’t end there, as they will need to put their 2nd best defender on Simon Sanita as he had one hell of a rookie season with 416 yards and 9 TDs. Whoever rushes for Ravens will be key, whether it’s Kevin Hébert-Pedulla or Karl Pelletier. Personally, if both are available, I would put in Pelletier, who has more speed, but instruct him to simply contain Mathew Zeppetelli, as he is one of the Tier’s premiere QB runners.

Both defenses actually didn’t get too many INTs on the season, 9 for the Ravens and 6 for Lallimo. Since turnovers via INT will be light, both QBs need to make sure they are safe with their passes and protect the football. That is more true of Mathew Zeppetelli, as defenders like Yvan Desjardins and Mathieu Houle are big bodies with high football IQ that are great at shooting gaps to get their interceptions.

Prediction: I think this will once again be a high-scoring affair and while I usually go with the more experienced team, I think losing Houle at QB is something the team never recovered from and the experience at QB is relatively the same, if not a slight edge to to the L17YO passer.

Gimme Lallimo 38 – 32 Ravens

Lockdown (12) vs. Bandits (13)

Previous Matchup: None

After my comments on CTA about this matchup, I had the chance to speak to Manu Allard-Roy, and man, while I love the Bandits team, there’s just something just doesn’t look right and it starts with the 2-5-1 record. The team is just too talented individually to post such a record, but that’s the beauty of team sport, is that you all got to be on the same page for it to click and be successful. Bandits haven’t won a game since October 2nd and will look to change that on Monday night, or else their season will be over.

For Lockdown, they must be happy that they performed the way they did against Sulé Fess since Bandits are not identical, but a close proxy to Bandits, so to put up 47, Buck Aneer must be feeling good heading into the playoffs. Speaking of Buck Aneer, I’d say he had an average season. While he did throw for the 4th most yards (1411), and 4th most TDs (32), the 9 INTs (T-5th most) are a little too high for my liking. A 3:1 TD-to-INT ratio is fine, but I would consider Buck to be a good-to-very-good quarterback and would have liked to have seen a 4:1 ratio.

Tale of the Tape

Overall, this game is going to be decided largely on Eagle‘s defensive play calling and how well his personnel can execute it vs. the execution of Émile Skaf. Émile has all the tools in the QB toolbox but is a bit too trigger-happy on the deep routes and actually has a worse TD:INT ratio with 1.8. He needs to be more disciplined and take shots when they are there. Now, the Bandits offense do actually have a similar playbook to Kiss My Inlaws, which the Lockdown defense did struggle against it, so Eagle will need to make adjustments, or better said, give reminders to his defense quickly so that Bandit drives aren’t extended and go for touchdowns. Obviously, or at least obvious to me, is that the defense will need to key in on Cecil Belenger on the deep post route and Sébastien Champagne on the short/intermediate routes, and then of course they make sure their tackling is on point when Manu Allard-Roy gets his hands on the ball from the snap. With only 4 INTs, Lockdown will need a good rush (which Louis Messier-Lavallee often provides) to force Skaf into making mistakes and throwing deep balls he thinks he can squeeze in.

From the Bandits D point of view, they will need to make sure they have their best deep cover defenders on the sidelines as Buck LOVES going deep, but then once hitting the deep, he loves hitting the hooks and slants underneath to keep defenses guessing where the ball will go next. The Lockdown receiving core, when they are all there is a nice and balanced one with Max Newcastle as the clear #1, having the most receptions, yards and TD’s in just 4 games. But with Antoine Caron and Louis Messier-Lavallee reaching the 250+ yard mark with 15 TD’s between them, along with trusty snapper Steven Alberico. The Bandits D will also need to influence bad throws that start with pressure from rusher Ammar Jessa. They’ve collected 16 INTs from across their defensive board, led by the unassumingly athletic Cecil Belenger

Overall, I can see both defenses coming away with 1 INT and 1 turnover on downs, and both offenses scoring 4 TDs, so it will come down to converts…

Prediction: Lockdown 26 – 25 Bandits

Epilogue

Alright, those are the in-depth matchup previews for Tier 3 and 4. For the breakdown of all the other Tiers, follow Peeze and I and the ducks that are the FPF media team!