Onto the next round.

With only one more night left for the Preliminary round, we’re already starting to look ahead at the possible matchups for the Qualifying Rounds. Many of you have finished all 3 of your games and know where you rank. Hopefully, by now, most of you have grasped the concept of the FPF Cup and understand how the next few weeks will work.

We knew, coming in, we’d have some unbalanced games, thus why we implemented a spread system to give team an incentive other than “face tougher competition to see how you’d fare”, but the mentality being all of it was always to see guys have fun first and foremost. The point isn’t to become bitter at higher division team, but to embrace the challenge; exactly what happened in the Fine Wine vs Diablos game on Tuesday night where Diablos’ players were all smiles although they were taking a beating and Fine Wine was even cheering for their opponents at times.

It was good times.

 *Side note: It has been brought to my attention that certain teams/players aren’t sure whether or not they are allowed to add new players to their teams once the Preliminary Round ends. The only restriction towards adding a new player is whether he fits your cap or not (like other seasons, you will forfeit if you go over your cap). For players to be eligible for the playoff (Bowl Rounds), he needs to have played 4 games prior to the Bowl Round (4 of the first 8 games. Can be done in either the Preliminary Round, Qualifying Round or both combined). 

*Please, also note, a player can only play on ONE team this season.

Let’s get started.

Week 3

Just when many stipulated there would be no upsets in the Preliminary rounds, Urgence Medic took down Braves to steal the #1 spot from the heavy favorite, BearSkins finished 0-3, Voodoo is having great success in Tier 2, KGP Ra took down #NR this week and Bruins pulled off the upset against No Name. Wow.

Thoughts of the Week

• I usually use this outlet to generate a list of my favorite plays of the week, but we’ve moved that to our weekly podcast (which can be found HERE). Check it out.
• I’d like to take a brief moment and pad Daniel Lazzara’s back; first QB to go perfect (18/18) in the FPF Cup. Sure, his team is LOADED, but he’s been money for the first two weeks.
• I still can’t believe the catch Gabriel Wiseman made Tuesday night.
• Expect the schedules for the Qualifying round to be available somewhere Wednesday.
• Seeing Jacques Void cheer on the Diablos was one of my favorite moment of the week.
• On the flip side, Dan Lazzara cheering up his defence when he’s up by like 30+ is kinda weird.
• Sadly, we don’t have the audio, but fun note on Serge Pilon Jr’s interception is hearing his teammates yell at him for being out of position prior to him making the catch.
• I also learnt this week that when people ask for a release time on an article, they like to shove it in your face every second; IT’S STILL FRIDAY AM, GOSH.
• Peeze and Eagle might make fun of my Top 5 Plays segment, but I know, deep down, they enjoyed it.
• Moe Khan knows, somehow, too much about CIS football. On the other hand, it is his job to know these things…
• I usually try to steer away from controversy as a media member, but the most FB thread did not help Warriors’ stock recently.
• Cage aux Sports showing Hockey on pretty much every single TV but like two on a Thursday night is a blasphemy. I know it was the Rams and 49ers, but it was legit a good game. C’mon, at least make it 50/50.
• For those of you who might not be used to my articles yet, I love to bust balls, but if I call you out on a bad play, it’s usually because I truly believe you’re talented, but dropped an egg.
• Man, Kevin Durant…!

Recaps

• Diablos vs Fine Wine: Coming into this game, I expected a serious blowout from start to finish, but the first play of the game took me by surprise (and the entire Fine Wine’s defence) as Luis Begin torched Marco Masciotra on a post route for 39 yards. Sadly, Diablos suffered a turnover on downs from that 1 yard line and Fine Wine’s offence took over; unstoppable. Luis Begin went on to continue to make Marco’s life miserable as he finished with 80 yards and a TD IN THE FIRST HALF. Sure, Daniel Lazzara went perfect, Fine Wine’s offence was as flawless as possible and even Matt Kirouac threw a convert (yes, threw), but the real story is how two receivers, Gabriel Wiseman and Luis Begin, managed to make plays for their team despite the difficult matchup they were up against and got Diablos 18 points. Kudos to them.
• Mean Machine vs X-Men: Mean Machine without Daniel Goloff is simply not the same team and his presence, both as a QB and DB was dearly missed on Tuesday night as X-Men handled their opponents pretty well. With Daniel Goloff (who couldn’t play due to a hand injury), this game would’ve been a lot different, but it’s something we can only stipulate on. X-Men impressed me on Tuesday as Gautama Swaminadhan had a pretty good game all around distributing the ball well and putting his team in good positions. Sure, there were a few bad drops left and right, but overall X-Men had a good night; it also helps when Kevin Boustany scores 2 pick-six’s. X-Men officially took the #1 seed in their grouping and Mean Machine fell to the 2^nd spot; the next round is bound to be VERY exciting for both teams.
• The Commission vs DK: The game film is out, so I’ll keep my recap simple as many of you have watched this game by now. For those of you who don’t know who Serge Pilon is, well, yes, he’s THAT fast. In all fairness, The Commission looked much better than most bystanders expected (myself included) as they managed to cover the spread (!!!) and Jean Lussier looked quite comfortable under center distributing to brand new receivers as half of the regular squad couldn’t make it to the game. Finishing 3^rd in their grouping, The Commission are poised to be challenged in their second round, but should be a very good position to allow them to surprise a few teams on their way to the Bowl Games.
• Warriors vs Sunday Touch Boys: With many Warriors’ players serving suspensions, the remaining few scrambled to find players and quite a handful came out to ball. First that comes to mind is Billy Makris instant impact as a rusher on this game as he forced premature throws from Mark Bellini. Going deep a bit too often made STB’s offence stall in the first half (although they did find a nice pace late in the 2^nd half and moved the chains well; something to build on in future weeks). AJ Gomes continues to impress as a dominant feature on this Warriors’ roster and Joseph Mancaniello, who by most account isn’t a QB, did pretty good all things considered. After this week’s performance, I’m left to wonder why Januson Vas doesn’t play offence more often.
• Sons of Mitches vs Hold My Beer: After two good offensive weeks from Sons of Mitches, I was expecting this to be an absolute barn burner and offensive game, but SoM stalled real quickly as Patrick Manning tried the deep ball against Michael Khazaka way too often and ended up with many turnovers on downs/punts early in the game that allowed Brad Evans to do Brad Evans’ things and put up good numbers in the first half. Myles Keiller was unstoppable in the redzone and Hold My Beer took a dominant lead that they’d never look back from. Sons of Mitches did get their offence going in the second half once they started dumping the ball a bit more and stopped looking for 40 bombs constantly, but it was too little too late as their opponents had a lead they simply couldn’t spoil.
• Top Secret vs Freshii Superfoods: Gianni Settino is officially back in FPF and he did not disappoint in his first game back as he posted a perfect QBR and absurd numbers; I guess his time away from the game really served him well. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Freshii Superfoods is the best team no one is talking about and will wreck havoc in their qualifying rounds if they play as the 2^nd seed. Seeing how these guys are faring so far, offence is no worries, but their defence will be truly tested next week against DK; if they can stop Rochdi a few times, we’ve got a true contender right here. Top Secret continues to shake things up as Nicolas Saro played QB this week and did OK distributing the ball to four different receivers and scoring 19 points on a high caliber defence. I can’t help but feel like something was missing for Top Secret offensively though.

Players of the Week

• Daniel Lazzara (Fine Wine): Going perfect (18/18) is no easy feat, but he managed to do so this week after a very impressive outing last week too. He’s poised to keep the hype train going.
• Gianni Settino (Freshii Superfoods): I was excited when I saw his name on this team and this is exactly why; perfect QBR in his first game back. Dayum.
• Rob Robinson (Top Guns): Two passing Tds (and a perfect 5/5), 3 receiving Tds, two interceptions (and a pick-six). Is there anything he didn’t do on Monday?
• Serge Pilon Jr (DK): 102 yards, 4 receiving TD and an interception. You can also see on film how dominant he truly was.
• JF Daloze (Lightweight): In his first ever game with us, he finished with 105 receiving yards and 4 TD. I guess that’s a nice warm welcome.

• Maxime Chateauneuf (Lockdown): 108 receiving yards, 4 Td and 3 interceptions. HOT DAMN.
• Danny Aylward (Greendale Human Beings): I don’t know what’s more impressive; his perfect QBR or his brother’s 202 receiving yards. Hmmm.
• Patrick St-Amand (Voodoo): His passing numbers are decent, but the reason why he’s on this list is the defensive hat trick (3 interceptions) he recorded this week.
• Thomas Coutu (All Hooks): Playing rusher and receiver is not easy feat, yet he ended up with 2 receiving Tds, 50 yards, 3 sacks and 2 Pds. I guess he CAN do both at a high level.

That’s it for me this week. Hopefully this is what you’ve all grown to love and expect out of me for your weekly readings. If it isn’t, you can send any sort of formal complaint to Paolo Della Rocca via twitter (@PeezeFPF) so I can keep tab and act like I didn’t know about it. Otherwise, if you have any comments, feel free to hit me up either via emails ([email protected]) or twitter (@DagenaisFPF). Until next time.