Week 7 Recap: Welcome to Upset City. I’ll Be Your Guide

FPF Week 7 saw much of the same as the six previous weeks.

The Rainmakers blew yet another golden opportunity to win a game. Marco Masciotra dominated the competition every time he stepped onto the field. Simon Dagenais still leads Div B in interceptions.

But it was also Upset City for the first time this season.

A slumping 1-5 Wolverines took down the 4-2 Predators. 3-3 Broccasion escaped the 5-0-1 Monstars. The Sacha Papich-less 2-4 BearSkins completed a magnificent comeback over a previously undefeated 6+R team.

As we inch closer to the end of the season, it only makes sense for teams to pump up the intensity as the race to the final playoff spots heats up. If the final three weeks of the regular season are anything like this past week, better get your popcorn now while you still have time.

 

Recap

Broccasion’s Occasion

Who called this upset? That’s right, this guy. And it was every bit the dogfight I expected it to be. With Ryan Aridi still nursing a hamstring injury, Monstars found themselves in a tough spot on both sides of the ball as they were down a top receiver and their starting rusher. It didn’t make for so much of a problem on offense, with QB Rod Mashtoub leaning heavily on Jad Aridi and Isiah Allard to move the chains. Neither did it change much on defense, with the speedy Stanley Milfort stepping in and adjusting easily to Phil Cutler’s style of play, recording three sacks and keeping Cutler in the pocket.

Even so, Ryan’s absence proved to be game-changing, with just 4 plays left in the game, and Monstars leading 32-30, Milfort was called for running into Cutler after he threw the ball. It resulted in the double whammy of a Broccasion first down near the redzone after a 10-yard penalty and five plays off for Milfort. Broccasion scored on the game’s last play, and down went the no-longer undefeated Monstars.

 

When it Rains it Pours

Surely, victory was theirs for the taking. Up 31-20, the ball in their hands after Kevin Wyeth’s second interception of the night, All the Rainmakers had to do was score. That’s it. Put the ball in the end zone and their first win of the season was all but locked up.

Stopped on four consecutive downs in the redzone, however, the Rainmakers turned the ball right back over to the Finest. Having held Akked Moore to zero receptions up to that point, guess which defense allowed Moore to make a big catch and run en route to the Finest’s first touchdown of the second half.

Their lead now cut to 31-26, the Rainmakers drove right back down into the redzone. With Ryan Kastner having taken zero sacks up to that point, guess who was sacked on 3rd down and then 4th down to give the ball back to the Finest.

The Finest got into the redzone. Akked Moore was held to zero TDs up to that point. And guess who scored to make it 33-31 for the Finest, a lead they would hold until the final whistle.

It was a second-half meltdown of epic proportions, as yet another glistening performance by Ryan Kastner and the Rainmakers offense was ruined by just a handful of bad plays.

 

Players of the Week

Division A:

QB – François Lebeau (Gladiateurs): 14 for 18, 203 yards, 6 TDs, 0 INTs. Marco had nearly identical numbers, but I give Frank the edge for his one rushing TD.

WR – Matt Kirouac (Roosters &Donkeys): 4 catches for 79 yards, 2 TDs. He’s won championships, sacked Kevin Wyeth, and now he’s WR of the Week. Only thing left for him to do is steal your girl.

D – Giovanni Lanni (Roosters & Donkeys): 2 tackles, 1 INT, 1 PD, 1 TD. First it was Antonio, now it’s Gio’s time to shine. I’m pretty sure the name Lanni is Italian for beast.

 

Division B:

QB – Neil Etinson (BearSkins): 17 for 23, 231 yards, 7 TDs, 0 INTs. The silver lining of my team’s defense getting lit up by Etinson: I don’t have to actually consider giving Simon Dagenais QB of the week. Thank God. 

WR – Marco Masciotra (Lightweight): 6 catches for 108 yards, 3 TDs. Marco single-handedly won Lightweight’s game versus Raiders this past week, and that’s not an exaggeration. Dude channeled his inner Megatron with catches looking eerily similar to this. Honorable mention goes to Sean Brophy and his 4 TDs.

D – Marco Masciotra (Lighweight): 1 INT, 1 PD, 1 TD. I told you—single-handedly. Shout-out though to Wolverines’ Eric Kavaldjin for his two picks and to BearSkins’ Shawn Payne for his own game-changing interception.

 

Power Rankings

Division A:

1. Montreal’s Finest (6-1) /–/: Something something good teams find ways to win.

2. Roosters and Donkeys (6-1) /–/: Well that was a fun bye week, wasn’t it? 

3. Gladiateurs (5-2) /–/: The Glads didn’t have Paul Lapierre this time around. Clearly, that didn’t matter. 

4. Legends (3-4) /–/: Props to Jeff Rosenblatt for stepping in and actually playing a decent game at QB, but there’s a reason Cory Pecker was the starter heading into the season.

5. Maniax (1-6) /–/: A part of me is convinced Maniax are making us all think they’re a terrible team, then when the playoffs come around they’ll take us all by surprise. The other part of me thinks the other other part of me is crazy.

6. Rainmakers (0-7) /–/: Man. Just… man.

 

Division B: 

1. Darksiders (6-1) /+2/: Losses by Monstars and 6+R helped make this jump happen, but Darksiders are more than deserving: they still have yet to give up 30 points in a game, haven’t lost in six weeks, and Fred Morissette is even generous enough to give Peeze the ball once in a while.

2. Monstars (5-1-1) /–/: In the past three weeks, they’ve tied a winless team, had to come back to beat Lightweight, and are coming off a loss. Not pretty. 

3. 6+R (6-1) /-2/: Your offense is only as good as your defense. Having given up 38 points in back-to-back weeks entering Sunday night, a loss was bound to happen.

4. Broccasion (4-3) /+1/: Four weeks, three wins and one one-point loss. If Broccasion were listed on the stock exchange, they’d be a Colin Cowherd-like bye buy. 

5. BearSkins (3-4) /+1/: Sacha Papich is the heart and soul of this team, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the body can’t function without him. Good teams step up when the lights are on, and that’s exactly what BearSkins just did. 

6. Predators (4-3) /-2/: An interception on the game’s opening play is never a good sign, but credit to them for keeping it competitive all the way to the end.

7. Lightweight (2-5) /+1/: If this were a movie it’d be called “Marco Masciotra Presents: Lightweight.”

8. Wolverines (2-5) /+1/: With a spot in the playoffs on the line, Wolverines couldn’t have picked a better time to get back in the win column.

9. Raiders (2-5) /-2/: Marco Masciotra going up and catching a deep touchdown pass in triple coverage in the corner of the endzone may forever be engrained in the minds of the members of the Raiders’ defense. 

10. The Commission (0-6-1) /–/: Well, at least the defense was back on track this past week. Now might we see some offense this week?

 

Race to the Playoffs

Week 8 brings the only standings that really matter: the official ones. Here’s how the race to the playoffs looks in both divisions right now.

Note: these were written up entirely by Simon Dagenais, so I’d like to a) thank him for his help and b) not take any responsibility for any potential errors.

 

Division A:

Conf A	Team	PTS	W(P-F)	DIV	PA
1	Roosters & Donkeys	12	6	[6-1-0]	201
2	Montreal’s Finest	12	6	[6-1-0]	278
3	Gladiateurs	10	5	[5-2-0]	267
4	Legends	6	3	[3-4-0]	280
5	Maniax	2	1	[1-6-0]	277
6	Rainmakers	0	0	[0-7-0]	315

 

Division B: 

Conf A	Team	PTS	W(P-F)	DIV	PA
1	Broccasion	8	4	[1-0-0]	212
2	BearSkins	6	3	[1-1-0]	253
3	Lightweight	4	2	[1-0-0]	226
4	Wolverines	4	2	[1-1-0]	230
5	The Commission	1	0	[0-2-0]	224

 

Conf B	Team	PTS	W(P-F)	DIV	PA
1	Darksiders	12	6	[1-1-0]	148
2	6+R	12	6	[1-0-0]	218
3	Monstars	11	5	[1-0-0]	179
4	Predators	8	4	[1-1-0]	201
5	Raiders	4	2	[0-2-0]	230

 

Random Thoughts

• I’m pretty sure Week 7 was the first one this season that The Commission’s 21-man roster didn’t get bigger. Progress baby, progress.
• Simon Dagenais’ throwing motion leads me to believe he would be an amazing shot putter.

• Peeze called me out for my power rankings looking too similarly to the FPF standings. He’ll be surprised to know I base myself solely on my rankings from the previous week, the results on the field, and some logic. So basically, everything Peeze doesn’t base himself on for his own power rankings.

• If you watch the game of the week, you’ll see that I go knocked down again this past week, on the Hail Mary throw before halftime. At the time, I thought I was shoved hard from behind. Boy was I wrong. Oh so wrong. Forget the gym, I need some balance-improving classes. And eat some balance-improving food. And take some balance-improving pills. And maybe buy a balance, just to be sure.  
• Random fact of the week: teams featuring Jacob Peterson, Marco Bertoldi and Neil Etinson are 4-1 against the 6+R core (Ryan Phillips, Marc-Antoine Viens and myself) dating back to the Winter 2012 season. The Incredibles went 1-1 against Les Caves that season (they won the one that counts, which was in the playoffs), 1-0 against Favre Dollar Footlongs in Spring 2012, 1-0 against Six Fast Guys Plus Ryans in Spring 2014 and now 1-0 against 6+R this season. (1 of 2)

• I thought about why that could be the case for a while, and have come to the conclusion that whenever Ryan, Marc and I see those guys line up on the other side of the field, this is what happens to our subconscious. There can be no other explanation. (2 of 2) 

• Why must the good bald young?

• Some men (all men?) just shouldn’t wear white tights to football games. Especially when their jerseys are pink. I’m looking at you, Eagle.

 

Picks of the Week

6-1 this week to bring me to 33-16 (67%) on the season. Forget an FPF championship – I want the FPF media team predictions crown. Well, along with an FPF championship.

Division A:

Roosters & Donkeys vs. Gladiateurs: Only six points separated these two teams last time they played in a game that saw both QBs combine for 15 TDs and nearly 500 passing yards. I’m not sure we’ll see a repeat of that, but I think the end result of an R&D win will be the same.

Montreal’s Finest vs. Maniax: Kevin Wyeth > Rapha Beladjat. Finest receiving corps. > Maniax receiving corps. Finest defense > Maniax defense.

Rainmakers vs. Legends: Rainmakers lost by six to Maniax three weeks ago, by six to the Glads two weeks ago, and blew a two score lead in a two-point loss to the Finest last week. At some point they have to break through to the other side, no?

 

Division B:

The Commission vs. Predators: Looking back at the Preds’ inconsistency this season, they have gone win, loss, win, win, loss, win, loss thus far. So this should be the beginning of another two-game winning streak, right?

6+R vs. Raiders (N/A) 

Broccasion vs. Wolverines: Okay, let’s try this again: Broccasion have the speed advantage, the momentum, and my vote.

Lightweight vs. BearSkins: I’ve gone back and forth on this one for a while. On the one hand, if Jacob Peterson rushes, Simon Dagenais will have 0.1 seconds to throw the ball unlike the hour and a half he had in the pocket last week. On the other hand is the one-man wrecking crew named Marco Masciotra. As much as I wouldn’t be surprised by a BearSkins win, I think Lightweight and their safety duo of Marco and François Raymond keep Etinson’s deep ball at bay en route to a tight victory.

Monstars vs. Darksiders: No. 2 offense vs. No. 1 defense. Rod Mashtoub’s vertical attack vs. Fred Morissette’s chain-moving offense. Space Jam vs. Star Wars. I can go on. The point is, this is the game of the week right here, even if Ryan Aridi is still out with a bum hamstring. I think this one’s a toss up, but if I had to choose between Monstar’s unstoppable (but sometimes sputtering) offense and Darksiders’ (consistently) immovable defense, I’m siding with the latter. Also Star Wars is the shit, so…

 

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As always, be sure to catch the Div A/B podcast “The Sack Exchange” with Moe Khan and Matt Kirouac on the FPF YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/flagplus every Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. or on demand at the same link afterwards. Don’t forget that you can always reach me on Twitter @JBlanchFPF or by email at [email protected]. See you at the fields!