I am back!

What better way to start off a new year but to be coming back home? Division 4 as always felt like home to me (probably the division I’ve played in the most and wrote the most over the years) and I’ve always had a special thing when it comes down to talking Division 4 FPF.

My colleague Francois Martin already has a heads start on me article-wise, but worry not, I’ll make up for it in no time; mine are just better.

For those of you who don’t know who I am, I’ve been part of FPF since 2010, been part of the FPF staff since 2012 and played across pretty much every division over the years, mostly as a QB. I scorekeep on Wednesdays at Hebert; feel free to reach out, say hi, come talk FPF. I LOVE smack talk. You can also reach me via twitter @DagenaisFPF or directly on FB. I love hearing from players.

Enough with these introductions, who am I, peeze?

Let’s get started

Week 1

Man Division 4 is poised to be THE most exciting division to follow. The level of parity is unmatched and it feels like it’s anybody’s game every single week. Some of my early favorites in The You, Keyport Lock, SMYTDs and All Hooks all lost this week; I truly know nothing.

Thoughts of the Week

This is actually the first time I write D4 without being part of it myself. Feels weird.
Game Changers have a nasty roster. See below for brief breakdown
As much as I love to hate on Francois Martin and his performances, I gotta tip my hat off to him for his work as a writer the last few days; both of his articles were pretty solid.
Could Derek be the QB answer the Daoust have been looking for all along?
The You might have lost their opener, but there’s a lot of rust there to shake off. Give Dustin White a few weeks and we’ll have a completely different conversation.
Jagerbomb going with Jonathan Brown as QB this season. I’ve already called them out for being chickens and not playing in D3 with Simon Duchesne, I won’t run the same narrative all season.
The trio of Shea Harbour, Dean Demetriou and Rico Tulino clearly hasn’t skipped a beat.
If EBros can win without Zach Stachowski throwing, imagine with him.
Welcome to D4 the Aylward brothers. I feel like I’ll be talking about them a lot this season.
Don’t Mess With Texas has a chance to be special this season once again (Like their former Warhawks-selfs in that Div D season). They have the players to make it happen. If playcalling can take a step back and focus on getting to the receivers rather than the explosive big play potential, this could be the division’s best offence.
Tough start for Mike Addona with such a star-studded roster. Sure the yards are nice, but the loss is what will be remembered here.
HUGE leap for Air Force 1 coming out of Division 6 to play in Division 4. They have talent, but there’s an adjustment period; look for Air Force 1 to explode on the scene in the 2nd half of the season.
I can’t wait for Sebastien Thibault’s return to Mad Bears.
I won’t believe the hype just yet, but I do have tendencies to jump bangwagons too quickly.
The last tme Zacharie Quiviger was the QB of Les Verges Folles? 110.9 QBR at the end of the season. I don’t see why this season would be any different.
Ghosts man-handled SWAT this week defensively. Their offence didn’t do much, but then again, also did not need to. 4 pick-sixs?? Are you SERIOUS?
GloGang a no-show? C’mon.
A-Squad is BACK! LET’S GOO.
MTL Originals has a phenomenal roster. Everyone here can be a #1 player on any team in D4, it’s crazy. As long as Stan Marino keeps distributing the ball this efficiently, I’ll be bringing up their name weekly.
Lonzo Ballers might be the best team no one is talking about. With such studs at WR, Lonnie Johnson may have his best season yet.
Kevin Marcil had a hell of a performance against Charles-Olivier Lavigne to propel The Sheriff over All Hooks. I have a feeling there will be a rematch eventually.
Les Blues Branleurs started off on the right note, but it was more of a poor offensive performance from Team Y.S. More on this game later.
Justin Lerner is back at QB for Small Giants and exploded on the scene in his first week. A new trend?
Pub Epoxy/Sports Campus: couldn’t settle one just ONE name?
How does one win a game with 32 yards passing? 78 total combined yards. Helluva defence.
I’m trying to keep the Players of the Week a prestige group. I know there’s SO many nice performances out there, but I can’t name everyone, you know.
Keyport Lock vs Game Changers was a close second there for Game of the Week.
Man, this was a tough Power Rankings to make.
Man that was a lot of thoughts huh.

Recaps

Half-A-Stars vs Sphinx: In a very week 1 matchup-y game, Half-A-Stars looked like a much better squad than Sphinx when it was all said and done. Etienne Cloutier struggled to move the ball efficiently on multiple drives; sure he was able to connect with plenty of receivers and got a decent amount of yards tallied up, but overall, the Sphinx offence looked flat as they weren’t able to turn yards into touchdowns and Half-A-Stars’ defence looked in complete control (that pick-six did help). Jordan Prizant’s offence was a little bit better, but it was clutch when it needed to be in the redzone and that was the real difference maker here. Failing to score on a red-zone possession in FPF is killer and that was the real reason why Half-A-Stars took an early lead and never let go. I’m convinced both offences will only improve as the season goes by, but this Half-A-Stars’ defence looked like the real deal and will be troublesome for 9 more teams before this is all said and done.

SMYTDs vs Game Changers: Looking over these rosters on paper prior to the game, I did give the edge to SMYTDs as Game Changers tend to have this revolving door at WR and can’t seem to get all their guys together for a season, but I was wrong. Mike Addona managed to move the ball efficiently, but redzone was truly an issue as there seemed to be miscommunication between QB and WRs on multiple plays and costed them some drives. Anton Sakiz picked that defence apart like the vintage Anton used to do and he’s got himself a nice set of weapons this season now that all his guys are back in line. With Louis-Philippe Paquette and Jordan Panetta spreading the field, Alvy Mizelle and Ludwik Jananji being the matchup nightmare that they are and Vadim Chernyak underneath, this offence could exploit pretty much any defences Division 4 can throw their way. If it wasn’t for that pick-six by Justin Blanchard on a convert, SMYTDs looked flat and seemed to lack that “fire” Peeze hates so much.

Les Blues Branleurs vs Team Y.S.: I’ll start off by saying that it’s good to see Minh Ton-That back in the lineup with LBB and will give them the extra guy they’ve needed recently to really be competitive. Olivier Pilotto is getting better and better at QB and his playbook is really starting to shape itself nicely. Defensively, Olivier Laberge continues to his campaign as one of D4’s premier safety and overall LBB looked solid. Sadly, it wasn’t the case for Team Y.S. After moving up into Division 4, they were in for a rude awakening as their offence (which was always their strong feature) couldn’t get anything going. William Vandelac couldn’t seem to find a single pair of sure hands as drops started to affect the early drives for Team Y.S. and they never really got on track from that point on. Considering how poorly they started, morale was low and it was very understandable. There’s enough talent on this team to bounce back from this and I fully expect Team Y.S to move past this game and laugh about it in a few weeks when they’ll be dropping 25-30 points on a weekly basis.

Players of the Week

Shea Harbour (69ers): 4 passing TD is fine, but combine that with his 3 interceptions on defence and their 4 points on 4 convert success rate and you’ve got yourself a MVP caliber performance.
Brandon Aylward (Greendale Human Beings): Losing no time getting known in D4; Brandon finished the week with 11 receptions, 127 yards and 5 TDs. Alright, okay.
Simon Duchesne (Jagerbomb): The QB-turned-WR scored every touchdown for his team this week (2 receptions, 60 yards, 2 TD + a pick-six).

Ghosts’ Defence: Combined for 16 tackles and 4 pick-sixs. I’d love to give love to Jean-Daniel Joly for his 2 pick-sixs, but the combined effort here is too great to overshadow.
Kevin Marcil (The Sheriff): 2 tackles, a PD and 4 sacks. Starting the year right if he’s gunning for that Defensive Player of the Year award!
Olivier Laberge (Les Blues Branleurs): 40 offensive yards, a TD and FOUR, yes FOUR interceptions on defence. Maybe stop throwing his way?

Power Rankings

Division 4A

69ers (1-0): With their previous success and a team pretty much intact, there’s no reason to think 69ers aren’t a top contender this season.
Game Changers (1-0): It’s a very good team on paper, but their execution on Wednesday topped with Anton Sakiz’ performance has me on the bandwagon early.
Soft Serve (1-0): Good team but even better performance week 1 has their stocks rising fast. This week’s showdown should give us a good idea of how far they’ll make it this season
Savage Storm (1-0): I had The You very high on my preseason list and they took them down week 1. I can’t think of a more suitable way to kick off their season.
Greendale Human Beings (1-0): FPF is a very offensive oriented league and they scored the division’s highest 45 points this week. Can’t hate on tha
Baby Kangaroos (1-0): Strong win to kick off the season. Bolstering their division’s best +/- is just the cherry ontop.
EBROS (1-0): Winning decisively without their starting QB only helps their stocks.
Half-A-Stars (1-0): We know their defence will keep them in games, but seeing how clutch their offence was only adds volume to Half-A-Stars’ potential this season.
The Tide (1-0): With Doug McKernan at the helm, The Tide is poised for a big season. How big? We’ll talk in 9 weeks.
Don’t Mess With Texas (1-0): They have all the right pieces to win a Championship this season. It’s only a matter of execution, but I have a feeling they can right some wrongs.

Division 4B

Lonzo Ballers (1-0): Putting a fairly unknown team as #1 is pretty bold, I agree, but this ain’t no regular team.
MTL Originals (1-0): Star studded from top to bottom. MTL Originals might be the best roster in 4B. Stan Marino had a solid opener and the right weapons to excel this season.
Les Verges Folles (1-0): Zacharie Quiviger keeps having monster season with this franchise and I don’t think this trend is about to end anytime soon. LVF is a stacked team that is poised for a deep playoff push.
Ghosts (1-0): The best defensive performance of the week has a lot of people paying attention to Ghosts. Let’s see if their offence can get in line in the upcoming weeks.
A-Squad (1-0): A-Squad is back and ready to prove all their doubters (Moe Khan) wrong. If their offence can remain explosive and puts up 30+ points per game, they could go on another long streak all the way into late March, early April
The Sheriff (1-0): As long as this roster remains intact (and healthy), The Sheriff has all the right tools to excel. With a very tough first half of the season, we’ll know soon enough if they’re the real deal.
Small Giants (1-0): Justin Lerner is only getting warmed up and already threw 6 TDs? This offence is poised for big things this season and we know their defence will get them stops often.
The Infantry (1-0): Ranked low simply because they did not get to play last week. This roster alone is good enough to scare opponents into playing them.
Les Blues Branleurs (1-0): A solid week 1 performance should give LBB the motivation to give it their all this season. If their defence continues to ball this way, they could turn into a serious contender real fast.
Mad Bears (1-0): Winning without their star player isn’t always easy, but they got the job done in Week 1. I’m excited to see what they can do once full roster.

Predictions

Game of the Week in 4A: The You vs Soft Serve

Game of the Week in 4B: Lonzo Ballers vs Ghosts

**Please note, these are purely subjective and have nothing to do with FPF’s official GOTW filmed product**

Past Our Prime vs Half-A-Stars: Half-A-Stars

Don’t Mess With Texas vs Les Hommes De L’Ouest: Don’t Mess With Texas

Pub Epoxy/Sports Campus vs EBROS: EBROS

Wolverines vs Baby Kangaroos: Baby Kangaroos

Greendale Human Beings vs Jagerbomb: Greendale Human Beings

Keyport Lock vs Game Changers: Game Changers

The You vs Soft Serve: Soft Serve

Savage Storm vs Sphinx: Savage Storm

Fun Boys vs The Tide: The Tide

B.D. Bandits vs SMYTDs: SMYTDs

The Stoics vs 69ers: 69ers

Mean Machine vs SWAT: SWAT

Canes vs Check Out My TDs: Check Out My TDs

Team Y.S. vs The Infantry: The Infantry

Les Blues Branleurs vs Ballers: Les Blues Branleurs

GloGang vs A-Squad: A-Squad

Lonzo Ballers vs Ghosts: Lonzo Ballers

Air Force 1 vs Believe The Hype: Air Force 1

All Hooks vs Dream Breakers: All Hooks

Mad Bears vs MTL Originals: MTL Originals

Les Montagnards vs The Sheriff: The Sheriff

That’s it for me this week. Hopefully this will trigger you just enough to drop me a message either via email ([email protected]), twitter (@DagenaisFPF) or in person. Remember, I didn’t do this to you, YOU did this to you. Until next time…! I know you missed these Eags.

Week 1: Proving the doubters wrong