Four down, Six to go.

With the rust of the first few weeks behind us and the division starting to shape up, I must admit that both divisions are equally as wide-open; there are frontrunners, but I don’t feel like they’re THAT far ahead of everyone in their respective division. If we continue to have this level of football, we’re poised for a very special end of season. It’s amazing.

Let’s get started.

Week 4

Braves proved their #1 status this week with their full roster, Freshmen might end up being competitive after all, #NR are rolling, Spring Cleaning might have found their QB moving forward and Underachievers took down the #1 seed in Division B. All in all, A/B is shaping up for a sick finale.

Thoughts of the Week

Will Monstars fix their roster issues before the end of the regular season?
Is Prospects Squad the most up and down team ever?
I’d like to take a moment and thank GM Kolethras for replacing me next week for this article; it’s actually a much bigger commitment than people realize. THANK YOU.
Pat Chenard couldn’t be at the game this week and his team dropped 54. I mean.
Mario Porreca managed to score 32 and be VERY competitive against a top team in B with a makeshift roster. This deserves SOME credit.
Le Sport Campus are actually turning things around. Don’t take them lightly.
If I had to predict the 4 teams who won’t make playoffs, I actually wouldn’t know where to begin. Which is amazing.
After 4 weeks, Dylan Taylor is yet to throw an interception.
AJ Gomes is currently the frontrunner for WR of the Year in Division B. Marc-Antoine Viens isn’t that far behind.
Could Sam Mashtoub win 2-way player of the year in Division B? He’s the favorite right now.
Jonathan Maheu’s two-way performance this season is pretty spectacular. Can he keep it up for 6 more weeks?
I’ll have my mid-season breakdown in two weeks when I return. Have no fear, it’ll come in due time.

Players of the Week

Serge Pilon Jr: Endzone to endzone pick-six, a few clutch tackles and three touchdowns. Pat Jerome was also pretty dominant offensively, but Serge’s two-way performance really sealed the deal for me.
Jason Courchesne: He may not have had the dominant stat line others have every week, but he made some PLAYS all night. Starting with his pick-six to really tilt things in Braves favor, a key sack on a 2-point convert and a slant pattern that looked impossible to cover and got his team a bunch of converts and a touchdown. I hope he got the gameball this week.

Craig O’Brien: 8 touchdowns, 340 yards and 54 points on his first start with this team. WOW!
Sam Mashtoub: He continues to make a case for himself as two-way player of the year with this week’s 4 touchdown, 106 yards and one interception. He’s making it hard to not call him the favorite.
Marco Masciotra: Defensive hat trick (3 interceptions) with the game winning TD. Doesn’t get much better than this.

Recaps

Outsiders vs Ocean’s 12: In this week’s best game, too many friendly faces faced off against each other and it was a fun yet weird environment. Seeing Mike Harrington line up against Patrick Chenard isn’t the craziest of matchups (considering it has happened quite a handful of time), but seeing Jermaine Parrish play off on Pat Jerome isn’t something we’ve grown accustomed to. Both offences were in full display as neither teams looked like they were able to do much defensively until one ill-advised pass by Ryan Kastner was intercepted by Serge Pilon Jr and brought back all the way for six as no one was able to match him up speed for speed. With a late touchdown, Outsiders grabbed the lead and couldn’t knock in the convert to go up by a full score, leaving the window wide open for Ocean’s 12 to score and seal the deal, but with only a few plays left, Ryan Kastner’s offence wasn’t able to manufacture a scoring drive and the game ended with Outsiders improving to 3-1 as Ocean’s 12 fell to 2-2. Considering how the game played out, a rematch may very well be another 50/50 game.
Freshmen vs Spitfire: In Alex Holowach’s first game with his new team, the lack of chemistry between him and his receivers was noticeable, but there was also a few sparks and moments that made us believe there’s something there. Freshmen are new to the league and learning as they go; there’s plenty of talent to go around, but they need to turn their tackle knowledge into actual FPF knowledge and that takes time. With a few nice defensive plays here and there, there is reason to believe Freshmen will be a competitive by the season’s end. Spitfire took control of the game early and never looked back, which is not surprising, but the story here remains that Freshmen may actually turn out to be OK after all.
Braves vs Khan Artists: In the battle for the first seed, Braves had their full squad and really put on a show for most of the night. After taking control of the game early, they had a chance to go up by 14 (+ the pending convert), but on a 2^nd and goal at the one, their offence was called for a delay of game (yes, you read that right) and were backed up. Two incompletes later, on a 4^th and goal, Jonathan Maheu tried to go to Mike Pierrecin in the front of the endzone, not seeing Jason Courchesne open in the back and Pierrecin simply couldn’t hold on to the ball with 2 defenders on his back. With two plays left, Daniel Lazzara hit Zack Jauniaux on a deep hook to cut the field in half, but he managed to break free and got tackled at the one, setting his team up to the score. With the 2-point convert, Khan Artists turned a 14-6 deficit into a tie game at the half and stealing all the momemtum away from Braves, but it didn’t frazzle them whatsoever as Braves came back firing on all cylinders in the second half and made Khan Artists look not-so-great for the 2^nd 22 minutes. Sebastien Crisi-Lauzon was forgotten on two posts up the middle for touchdowns and Daniel Lazzara’s dislocated/popped back in shoulder seemed to bother him on a handful of throws as he made key mistakes that costed his team the game down the stretch. I can’t wait for this rematch with both teams’ full roster in full display.
Drop The Mic vs Victory Royale!: Seeing Mario Porreca run around the St-Laurent Complex minutes before his game scrambling for players, I was expecting DTM to be done by halftime and barely fight their way through the 2^nd half, but I was wrong. Oh-so wrong. True to himself, he started slinging balls in tight windows and made plays happen at times many thought he couldn’t. One of the game’s highlight was a run by Quaysie Gordon-Maule who, somehow, made the weirdest juke look real good and turned a quick hook into a 15-20 yard play. Sadly, it wasn’t enough as VR managed to score on the 2^nd to last play of the game (nice fade to Marco Masciotra who had one too many highlight INT in the game for me to elaborate further) leaving DTM with one play/throw up a prayer to attempt to steal the win. We all know how these end; not in the offensive team’s favor. Nonetheless, a great but scrappy game that made every bystander happy they stuck around to witness it.

Power Rankings

Braves (4-0): The only undefeated team AND they took down last week’s #1 seed. Truly deserving of the top spot after 4 weeks.
Outsiders (3-1): Back to back weeks where their offence looks great, but their defence does not. Still plenty of time to figure it out though.
Ocean’s 12 (2-2): Their only losses came to the two teams above them in the rankings. And that Outsiders’ game was as close as it gets.
#NR (2-2): After a 0-2 start, they’ve clawed their way back and looked pretty good recently. Next week should be a pretty good benchmark.
Khan Artists (2-2): From first to fifth? In one week? Yeah.
Spitfire (2-2): After their first few weeks, I was ready to sell all my stock. Maybe I should’ve been a bit more patient.
Monstars (1-3): Roster inconsistency or not, they haven’t played up to their potential all season.
Freshmen (0-4): The future looks bright. Hopefully they’ll get there before the season’s end.

Underachievers (4-0): The only undefeated team left in Division B is also this week’s top dog. No more doubting it now.
Meta Mayhem (3-1): Their only loss came on a week they were missing one too many guys. I don’t see that happening again anytime soon.
Dad Bods (3-1): As much as I love to pick on Sean Avraam, Dad Bods is having a pretty stellar season.
2HD (2-2): A tough loss sees them drop a handful of spot. How quickly will they recover?
Victory Royale! (3-1): I can see the potential, but they aren’t there yet. They might have the 2^nd best defence in the division, but they also have the 2^nd worse offence.
Spring Cleaning (1-3): After seeing what Craig O’Brien was able to do with these receivers (and considering they didn’t Pat Chenard on both sides of the ball), maybe they will find a way.
Drop The Mic (1-3): Who is the real Drop The Mic, that is the question.
Le Sport Campus (1-3): They’re slowly getting there. They’ve got a good shot at an upset this week against Dad Bods; a win could really put them into contention status.
LGM (1-3): Their offence is fine, but they allow WAY too many points per game. Prospects Squad aside, they’ve allowed 49 points per game on average.
Prospects Squad (1-3): They might just be the most up and down team in FPF right now. After week 3’s huge game, they came out FLAT.

Predictions

Ocean’s 12 vs Spitfire: Ocean’s 12

Outsiders vs #NR: Outsiders

Khan Artists vs Freshmen: Khan Artists

Monstars vs Braves: Braves

2HD vs Drop The Mic: 2HD

MetaMayhem vs Spring Cleaning: MetaMayhem

LGM vs Underachievers: Underachievers

Le Sport Campus vs Dad Bods: Dad Bods

Prospects Squad vs Victory Royale!: Victory Royale!

That’s it for me this week. I know it might not have been the longest of articles, but, to be fair, you guys haven’t even started playing yet! I’m looking forward to Sunday and the season’s kickoff. I’ll be scorekeeping Tuesdays in Brossard, feel free to stop by and say hi! Until next time…! Good luck next week, Eags.

Week 4: Only two left undefeated