Week 5 – Flashback and a Look Ahead – FlagPlus Football League

35+ Week 5 flashback and a look ahead

So, yet another week has come and gone. In this article you’ll get treated to game reviews, random thoughts, useless projections (I seem to suck at predicting things thus far) and, as we have reached the halfway-ish point in the 35+ Season, a look at the front runners for hardware.

What did we learn from Week 5?

– As I mentioned in the pre-season article, Kevin “K-Dub” makes a mockery of the rating system. He is a complete bargain at what FPF places him at and the Pacemakers learned that the hard way.
– The Oldpack brought out their full squad this past week, albeit again trickling in throughout the first half, and showed what they can do when everyone is there. If I were Pascal Murray I would tell his boys that they play 45 minutes earlier than what the schedule on the site indicates!!
– Steven Harripersaud continues to amaze with his precision “dink & dunk” style fitting footballs into these tiny windows on a crazy regular basis.

What did we NOT learn from Week 5?

– Where did the Paramount offence go? Normally unflappable, Eugene McLaren pulled himself on Thursday. Dave Allen finished the game for Paramount, who have now dropped 3 straight.
– FlagPlus Football needs to start tracking 4th down incompletions. FPF finished the night with no turnovers on the stat sheet but got lit up by JMJ. Stats lie.
– Do the Pacemakers know something that we don’t? The last time that Andy Peterkin did not have a rushing attempt was March 8th of last year…against the Old Goats…AKA “The Pacemakers”. Coincidence?

Random Thoughts (slow week because of the Super Bowl)

– Congrats to Simon Dagenais and Vince Nardone for being inducted into the FPF Hall of Fame.
– The QBs seem to be warming up. Through the first 3 weeks the Division was under 285 points scored each Thursday night. The referees have been much busier during the past two weeks as 380 & 341 points have been scored. Oddly enough, the winning teams have put up a cumulative 229 points in each of the last two weeks. Perhaps the Super Bowl teams should take note…people like to watch points being scored!
– If you do not yet know the name “Jonathan Maheu” you should take note. He is the QB for both the Braves (D1) and Braves 2.0 (D2) and is lighting up both divisions. He is also a monster defensive player. IMO the most underrated player in FPF, at the moment, because he does nothing flashy, but damn does he do EVERYTHING
– Another name to watch, from the lower divisions (for the moment) would be Justin Lerner. Two-way demon who plays DB, WR, and QB. He has already accumulated a great resume since joining FPF in 2015. Definitely someone to keep an eye on.
– Not sure if it will be a full-time thing, but Lonnie Johnson looked good on Wednesday night playing with the Brotherhood (D3). Lonnie will get to throw the ball to his extremely talented son Quaid on two rosters? Not fair. This is a scary team and Lonnie would be a great fit. Just weird watching someone other than Theo Ojeaha take snaps while Theo is on the field.
– This was actually Lonnie’s second great performance as he ripped things up on Monday night with an 8 TD performance against the Small Giants in D4B
– Stats lie part 2. Had the opportunity to watch newly minted HoF inductee Vince Nardone (nasty one-handed INT) & the Fun Bunch take on 35+ QB Jeff Rosenblatt led Keyport Lock. Stats say 19-18 win for Keyport Lock, but it did not feel that close. Jeff did a great job moving the ball but got greedy a few times trying to get the ball to one of his lads and the FB made him pay, including a nice Pick 6 from Kyle Smith. Right place – right time.

Week in Review

Polvige over Paramount 39-27

As mentioned earlier, Paramount finished the game with Dave Allen in the pivot position. Playing the QB position can be a frustrating thing and fewer people are harder on you than the “Man in the Mirror.” When the night is not going well, and the refs ask you to cheerlead for a few moments, sometimes the smart thing is simply do so. I am not sure if Jon Moodie has decided that he prefers wearing those darn yellow gloves over playing QB but for the second straight game Angelo “Aggie” Kalaidopoulos has taken the snaps from the Pivot Position. 79 points in their last 2 games vs. only 48 in their first 3 and we may have a controversy. Vince Mancini played the role of hero with 5 receptions, 2 TDs and 2 INTs on defence for Polvige.

JMJ over FPF 39-18

Stephen Harripersaud continues to impress me. More agile and shifty than he appears, he continues to be very, very efficient with the ball. Kevin Kousaie with yet another strong 2-way performance finishing with 2 TDs and a sack. While FPF shows a clean slate on the INT side of things, when you only score 3 TDs you had some 4th down stops. Tim O’Hara continues to have the hot hand for FPF finishing with 6 receptions and 2 TDs.

Spitfire over The GOXM 46-26

The GOXM came into this game with a great attitude and were looking to have fun. Considering the CAP difference between the rosters (keep in mind that rankings suck at times) this had the makings of a blowout. Guatama did a great job moving the ball in the first half but found himself having to stretch the field in the second half trying to catch up which led to some costly turnovers. For the second week in a row The Spitfire began with Andrew Carruthers in the Rush due to the injury to Andrew Adams. For the second week in a row he got yanked in favor of Jimmy Coupethwaite (who finished with yet another 2-sack game). Rusher controversy? I doubt it. Everyone is cheering for Adams’ return! First drive after the switch Mr. Carruthers steps in front of a short pass and strolls into the end zone. Guess that he did not mind the switch…LOL.

Oldpack over The Relics 49-26

Pascal Murray finally gets a full offence and it shows. Having to continually adjust your game plan as a QB because of missing players is no fun. The red-hot Relics just happened to be the squad in the way. For the Relics, Yoni Lehrer continues his great season with 6 receptions and 2 TDs. Not the normal size mismatch for him this week as the Oldpack are the LARGEST team in FPF and can definitely cause issues for any receiver. Pascal Murray spread the ball nicely hitting 7 different receivers with 5 players finding the end zone. Patrice Bernard found his way into the end zone on both sides of the ball for the Oldpack.

Monster Jim over The Pacemakers 56-15

The Spitfire were sitting in the bar enjoying a libation or 2 when we saw MJ arrive with Paul Lapierre & Rochdi Benabdelkader as substitutes. Even with a short roster this goes into the books as “overkill”. This was going to, and definitely did, pose problems for The Pacemakers. Andy Peterkin led a very efficient MJ offence as he finished 10 of 13 with 4 TDs. Easy to be efficient with your defence finishes with 4 INTs and takes 3 of them to the house. In my preview last week, I did mention that KW could pose issues if he went into Rush. Guess I forgot to mention that he poses issues anytime he steps onto the field! Found it funny the KW (shortest player on the field) and Paul Lapierre (tallest player on the field) each had 2 INTS. Only real bright spot for The Pacemakers on this evening was the play of Scott Binns who finished with 10 receptions and 2 tackles. Scott seems to garner no recognition, but he was the unsung hero for the Old Goats last season and is plugging away, with little to no recognition, once more this season.

As the season has reached/passed the half-way make for most teams I thought that I would take a moment to look at the race for the individual hardware. As I play QB I will leave that spot out of this.

Please note that this is my own little ramble and plays NO PART in what the league actually decides…I have NO VOTE. All players below are listed because of their STATISTICAL merits and not my opinion.

According to my convoluted, and completely unscientific formula, here are the top 5 Receivers so far.

#	PLAYER	TEAM	GP	REC	YDS	TD	YDS/REC
88	Yoni Lehrer	Relics	4	26	357	13	13.7
4	Tim O’Hara	FlagPlus Football	5	28	341	7	12.2
8	Andrew Carruthers	Spitfire	5	23	314	9	13.7
84	Jason Prince	O.A.S.	4	17	247	10	14.5
7	Rob Allen	JMJ	5	15	179	8	11.9

Again, using my rating system, here would be your top 5 DBs.

#	PLAYER	TEAM	GP	TKL	INT	SK	PD	TD
19	Jeff Brown	Spitfire	5	24	1	0	2	0
13	Vince Mancini	Polvige	5	9	4	0	7	0
2	Jesse Roberts	Paramount	4	20	1	0	3	0
12	Kevin Wilson	Monster Jim	4	12	2	0	2	2
13	Joel Shahrabari	Relics	3	12	4	0	2	0
1	Chris Rosen	Paramount	5	11	4	0	3	0

Finally, a quick look, according to my system, of the top 5 Two Way Players

PLAYER	TEAM
Yoni Lehrer	Relics
Rob Allen	JMJ
Andrew Carruthers	Spitfire
Tim O’Hara	FlagPlus Football
Vince Mancini	Polvige

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a look at the week ahead.

Ah football on Valentine’s Day!!! Let’s see how this affects the game day rosters!!!

Pacemakers (1-3) vs. Polvige (2-2-1)

Questions abound in this cross-division match up. Who will be the QB for Polvige? Jon Moodie has been present for both of the last two games and has contributed on both sides of the ball. Do they continue with the hot hand of Angelo “Aggie” Kalaidopoulos or does Jon return? Christian Talbot has 3 sacks thus far, but he will definitely be in tough against Jason Rossie. Will he be able to keep him in check? If the Pacemakers are going to win this one, they will need more consistency from Jason and more use of his arm and less of his legs. Having brother Jordan on the field would undoubtably help as well as he has only put in 1 appearance in 2019. If Aggie starts at QB then this game will go to Polvige.

O.A.S. (4-0) vs. The Spitfire (3-1-)

Oddly enough, this is the only game this week that features two teams with winning records. This should be a back and forth affair with plenty of points scored. The Spitfire have been on a bit of a roll recently after their early season issues and O.A.S. have not broken stride at any point in time this year. Roster questions are what will keep this game interesting as both teams have been short staffed several times. O.A.S. are led by Cory Pecker who is having yet another great year and is using all of his receiving corps effectively (5 players are in double digits for receptions). Weird to see Jason Prince atop the offensive list as he has made his name mostly on the defensive side of things. The Spitfire can match them head-to-head for balance as they also have 5 players with double digit receptions. Both teams bring the type of offensive balance they can drive a defence nuts. While I always pick my team to win the one prediction that will come true: I WILL NOT THROW BACK TO BACK PICK 6s TO KEVIN WYETH!!! Sorry Kev…

Relics (2-2) vs FPF (0-4-1)

If the Lonnie Johnson that played this past week (Lonzo Ballers, Brotherhood, and FPF) shows up, then the Relics will be in for a tough game. Lonnie played some lights out football and might finally be all the way back from some early season injuries. Tim O’Hara has been a one-man wrecking crew for FPF so far this season, but Lonnie needs to find a way to get Domenic Tosi more involved. He is a dangerous player just waiting to explode. For the Relics they are being led, on both sides of the ball, by Yoni Lehrer. This lack of balance from both teams should give the defences an advantage as they know where the ball is going to go. Having said that, few teams have stepped up and made the stop so far. Personally, I feel that the Relics have the better defensive chemistry and will squeak out the win.

Paramount (2-3) vs. JMJ (5-0)

Their previous match up was a tale of two halves. Paramount went into halftime with a 14-7 lead but then got blown out in the second half. Of note was that, in the game prior, very reliable Center Dave Allen was hurt late. Having your center off kilter or adjusting to a replacement can be frustrating. The timing and chemistry are a much larger factor than most people believe. Eugene has not appeared as comfortable since the injury and it has shown on the scoreboard since. Through the first 3 games he only had 1 INT. In the two games since, there have been 5. Do they go hand in hand? I truly think so. JMJ are led, as always, by Rob “I can do everything” Allen and the Energizer Bunny himself: Kevin Kousaie. If Dave has come all the way back and judging by his having thrown a few balls last week I would say he has, this will be a great game to watch from up top. If not, then JMJ will waltz to 6-0

Oldpack (1-3) vs. The GOXM (0-4)

For the second straight week the GOXM get stuck facing a Tier 1 team. Ironically this will be the second straight week that the Oldpack face off with a Tier 2 squad. Thank you, Richard, “Chief” Shefteshy for this scheduling quirk! Last week’s game for the Oldpack was just what the doctor ordered. Of course, they also had their full line up for the first time this season so that helped as well. When they have all hands aboard they are a tough out. Let’s see who arrives this week. Would be even cooler if they arrived on time! The GOXM are in the middle of a tough part in their schedule with consecutive games against the Spitfire (Tier 1), Oldpack (Tier 1), and JMJ (currently at 5-0). Even with all of that these guys continue to smile, play hard, and have fun. Their offence has been led this season by Wade Williams (normally more of a defensive player) who has even filled in at the QB spot for a game. Their main issue is that their defence has not been led by anyone. If they can figure out this part of the puzzle, then Guatama has the ability to lead them to some Ws. If not, then I think that they are simply asking too much from their QB. I think that Oldpack will take this one.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the field…and in the pub after.