The final push begins.

8 weeks in the books, I can finally claim that there’s very little time to redeem yourselves. 6 teams are officially eliminated from contention (TOPSZN, Les Blues Branleurs, Keyport Lock, Warhawks, Evolution, Killa Beez), 4 has clinched a playoff berth (Coyotes, Top Sauce, No Fly Zone, No Big Deal); quick math tells me there’s 16 teams left fighting for 12 spots.

Sure, viewing it this way, it feels like “most will claim a spot”, but most might not be you. Every single team out there can win-out and make the playoffs; destiny is within their own hands (except maybe Gotham Knights who’ll need some outside help, but you did dig yourselves that hole). Go out there and make yourselves proud.

No one likes that feeling you get deep down when you walk away with a L; you know that feeling that makes you feel sick and make you regret that dropped pass; the play you didn’t make or that pass you should’ve thrown but went the other way instead; yeah, THAT feeling. How about you don’t feel it anymore?

It’s up to you.

 

Important notes about the playoffs

• Division C has no byes.
• Division C is the usual 8 team format where 1st seed plays 8th seed, 2nd plays 7th, etc.
• We reseed teams after every round so lowest seed always plays highest seed.
• First round is Sunday July 24th. There’s literally two time slots (19:00 and 20:00). That is it. There will be NO exceptions. Some games can be played at Stade de Montréal or Lachine. Free your schedule.
• Round 2 is the following Sunday (July 31st). ALL Lachine games. Round 3 is Tuesday (August 2nd) ALL Brossard games. Finals are all on Sunday August 7th at Brossard.
• The time and dates for playoffs has been on the website for a while (Go to the schedule section and press the thumbnail Playoffs).

Let’s get started.

 

Week 8

 

Playoff race is upon us and it’s getting better and better by the hour. I know many of you are looking at who you’re playing this week and next; who your opponents are playing and comparing other teams’ schedule to see if you’ve got a chance at making the playoffs or not. Worry not, WIN and it’ll all work out. 

 

Thoughts of the Week

 

• Just as I’m getting the hang of this new format, the season’s coming to an end…
• How is it already week 9? Where has time gone?
• So a little bird told me I made a mistake last week and I owe apologies. I’m a man of my word, so here, I’m sorry Rich Humes; player of the week should’ve been yours.
• Yes, that little bird is Vinny Gualano. Yes, he looks out for his QB.
• After further investigation, I realized last week’s players of the week weren’t updated and were a copy/paste of Week 6’s. I feel dumb now.
• That being said, I’ve added Week 7’s players of the week as well. *shakes head in disbelief*
• Shoutout to Enrico Tulino of 69ers; he had a HECK of a game this week. Even if the stats sheet doesn’t necessarily reflect it.
• It’s good to see Francois Raymond back under center.
• Will anyone cover Justin McLean at some point? Please?
• I’ve decided to post my picks for the individual awards next week rather than this one. I’ll have better data that way.
• These NBA contracts make me regret my life decisions.
• I feel like Division Leaders don’t get the credit they deserve. We should get them banners like in the NFL.
• I’ve been writing about divisions for a while now and I must say, the race has rarely been this exciting to follow. Division C is really living up to its’ potential.
• Don’t call me out to fall flat afterwards.
• So far, most awards have tight races that’ll go all the way to the very end. Except Receiver of the Year. I guess Justin McLean felt he needed to make a statement last week.
• Fantasy is back this week with two very strong teams. Step up, make your “captain” proud.
• I can’t wait for playoff fantasy; it’ll be extra fun!

 

Players of the Week – Week 7

 

• Olivier Laberge (Les Blues Branleurs): In his team’s first win, he went OFF for 4 TDs, 67 yards and a pick. Well done.
• Justin McLean (Top Sauce): Writing about McLean is getting old. A pick, 3 PDs and 124 receiving yards + 3 TDs. Can we increase his rating already?
• Cédric Nuckle (Jagerbomb): Cédric felt like making a comeback for a game and guess what? He did just that. Going off for over 100 yards, 3 TDs and a pick on defense. Welcome back.
• Richard Humes (No Fly Zone): After a few not-so-amazing weeks, Humes decided he had enough: Perfect QB Rating, 7 TDs and an 88.2 completion%. Yeap, that happened.

 

Players of the Week – Week 8

 

• David Faucher (Gotham Knights): 92 receiving yards, 3 TDs and 3 sacks IN THE FIRST HALF. Dominant.
• Kurt Shields (Eskimo Brothers): 3 offensive TDs and 2 pick-six. Talk about putting up numbers!
• Justin McLean (Top Sauce): It’s getting ridiculous. 176 (!!!) yards and 4 TDs. And I heard he has a broken thumb.
• Juwan Edghill (Brunch Buddies): 132 receiving yards, 3 TDs and a pick on defense. Oh, and he played FPF Junior this very Winter.

 

Recaps

At many people’s surprise, Gotham Knights took down Honey Badgers in this week’s opener. Everyone has bad nights and Doug McKernan suffered from one in his return on Sunday PM. In fact, after seeing his team lose their undefeated status due to his absence, he returned to lose a 2nd game in a row after not looking like himself most of the night. Frustrated by rushers, he gave up 6 sacks (3 to David Faucher in the first half and 3 to Jonathan Chevalier in the 2nd half) and couldn’t seem to connect with his receivers the way he usually does. After getting a UR, Chris Rivest was stuck riding the bench and watching Alexandre Gaudet take the reins of his offense in an attempt at getting their season alive and he shined probably brighter than their actual starting QB in that one drive. All in all, Gotham Knights came ready to behead the beast and did exactly just that whereas Honey Badgers started the night with poor tackling and finished it with remorse.

Jagerbomb were without their star QB and without their backup QB in Jérémie Cloutier this week and Maxime Marsan took snaps for his team most of the hour before allowing Jean-Félix Daloze to give it a shot. To be fair, Maxime Marsan didn’t have the easiest of tasks going up against one of the best defense in the division and they made him pay by getting 5 interceptions. On the flip side, Kristian Cerantola continues to struggle offensively as he posts below 50% completion and threw 3 picks himself (sure, he got 2 back himself, but). The game stalled for WAY TOO LONG at 35-18 for Broccasion before the Bros managed to finally push their lead and end the night with the much-needed W. Jagerbomb are now in a tough spot sitting at the 9th seed on the outside looking in. They’ll have to turn things around if they want to clinch yet another playoff berth.

Coyotes feasted on Evolution as Rick Cummins continues to struggle under center and Sammy Feder keeps exploiting the coverages other teams are giving him. Using his new acquisitions in Ofir Levy quite decently, Sammy Feder keeps making his offense look pretty good out there while his defense continues to improve. Hugo Roberge got pretty much every single tackle for his team most of the night as he looked like a man-possessed trying his best to elevate his team. The addition of Hinsley Adams to Evolution is paying dividends as only a handful of players can cover him in Division C, but it simply isn’t enough to overcome the troubles the team is facing all around. With a tough end of a schedule, Evolution’s woes aren’t quite ending just yet.

Eskimo Brothers made TOPSZN look bad on Sunday night as Zach Stachowski kept going deep to Shawn Steen and connecting over DB’s heads as he ended up the night with quite decent numbers and managed to reach the 50-burger for the first time this season. Defensively, Eskimo Brothers continue to improve as, yet another name surfaces from the pact; this week Kurt Shields was the playmaker nudging 2 pick-six’s and making Lonnie Johnson look bad out there. Still trying to get used to his receiving corps, Lonnie Johnson might not be the solution TOPSZN required although his receivers simply aren’t getting the job done on most of his throws (dropping TDs is always a tough sight). With their season over, TOPSZN will look to play spoilers and redeem whatever’s left of their team by making most of their last 2 games this season before the long break.

In the Sauce Bowl, La Sauce’s Francois Raymond came back under center to face off against Top Sauce and the game didn’t go quite as planned as Francois Raymond needed a bit more time getting used to the whole FPF experience once again while Chris Milard decided against easing his way back under center. In fact, although he didn’t get a sack (yeah, Francois Raymond is THAT elusive), he did manage to contain him just enough to force some bad throws and was much better than people give him credit for. Cory Kennedy was finally back at receiver and made a splash, but it was nothing compared to the night Justin McLean had posting up QB numbers as a receiver. Vince Nardone really found the right beast to feed amongst his plethora. With their defense making plays and their QB looking the part, Top Sauce could really be a force to be reckoned with by week 11.

In a game not going the way I predicted it, The Commission managed to survive against Varennes to making their playoff berth a little easier on themselves as the rest of their schedule isn’t a cakewalk. In fact, Varennes brought in serious weapons to surround Anthony Vendrame as both Laliberté (Benjamin and Kevin) were present and Vincent Jacques decided to come in and lend a hand. Regardless, getting many players on the backend of back-to-back games is always tough and Varennes’ offense simply couldn’t do much as Sean Avraam exploited the very little flaws he saw and managed to post up 21 points as his defense kept Varennes to a mere 13. Although he didn’t use him THAT much, Eddy Lee managed to make a splash and push his team into playoff contention.

 

Power Rankings

 

1. No Fly Zone (8-0-0): Can they go all the way? A little bird said they would.
2. Coyotes (7-1-0): Aside from one fluke week, these guys have been dominant.
3. Top Sauce (7-1-0): Oh, hi there. Almost forgot about you guys for a second. …Oh wait.
4. No Big Deal (6-1-1-): They get it done regardless of their roster. Ridiculous.
5. Honey Badgers (6-2-0): They’re making it interesting.
6. Former Tomahawk (6-2-0): There’s very little doubt left; these guys are the real deal.
7. 69ers (5-2-1): They make it look SO easy.
8. Show me Your TDs (5-3-0): People doubted SMYTDs; I guess they’re back on people’s radars now.
9. No Name (6-2-0): With still 2 games left, they’ll figure it out.
10. Broccasion (5-3-0): So many interceptions, yet, that defense is absurd.

 

FlagPlus Fantasy Football

 

Second forfeit in 7 weeks. A serious disappointment.

GM prevails.

Here’s the breakdown of last week’s results:

GM won by like 99999 points. SO GOOD.

 

Last week’s MVP: —-

This week’s challenger is Jean-Daniel Joly. Some of you may know him for playing for Les Affreux in Division D. He’s also been part of Snatchers for the past few seasons/years. He’s been in the league long enough to know, well, almost every team in Division C and agreed that GM’s reign needed to end.   

Let’s remind everyone of the simple rules we follow weekly:

• Cannot draft someone from your own team
• Cannot draft the same player twice (Gives an edge to Challenger)
• Winner stays. Loser’s out.
• Challenger picks first.

Here’s the scoring format we’ll be using this season:

Quarterbacks

• 1 point per 15 yards passing
• 3 points per passing TD
• 1 point per 5 yards rushing
• 5 points per rushing TD
• – 2 points per interception
• – 1 point per sack

 

Receivers

• 1 point per 5 yards
• 5 points per TD

 

Rusher

• 7.5 points per sack

 

Defense

• 1 point per 3 tackles
• 1 point per 2 PD’s
• 2 points per sack
• 3 points per INT
• 5 points per pick-six
• 10 points for allowing 10 points or less
• 8 points for allowing 11-20 points
• 6 points for allowing 21-30 points
• 4 points for allowing 31-40 points
• 2 points for allowing 41-50 po ints
• 1 point for allowing 51 + point

 

** Key note: If any given player wants to be part of the Fantasy Duel in the upcoming week, we need new challengers. Send me a message (FB, Twitter, email) and I’ll set you up. You don’t need to be media/well known. As long as you love FPF / Division C and will spend about 25-30 minutes of your time to draft your team, we’ve got a deal.

This week’s teams:

 

	GM	JD
QB	Joey Taylor (Stockton Slap)	Sammy Feder (Coyotes)
Snapper	Michael Bourgaize (69ers)	Alexandre Provencher-Rivest (Gotham Knights)
WR	Julien Bellavance (Show me Your TDs)	Justin McLean (Top Sauce)
WR	Aleksander Papich (BearSkins)	Vincent Lauzon (MVE)
WR	Kevin Laliberté (Varennes)	Juwan Edghill (Brunch Buddies)
WR	Kevin Smuda (Coyotes)	Anthony Addona (Show me Your TDs)
Rusher	Kevin Marcil (La Sauce)	Alec Cerantola (Broccasion)
Defense	Broccasion	No Fly Zone

 

 

Playoffs Standings

 

Names in bold: Teams that clinched a playoff berth.

Names strikethrough: Already eliminated from the playoff race

*next to name: Clinched division title.

 

Conf A	Team	GP	PTS	W(P-F)	DIV	PA		Conf B	Team	GP	PTS	W(P-F)	DIV	PA
1	Coyotes	8	14	7	[3-1-0]	161		1	No Fly Zone	8	16	8	[4-0-0]	135
2	Honey Badgers	8	12	6	[2-1-0]	194		2	Former Tomahawk	8	12	6	[2-1-0]	171
3	Top Sauce	8	14	7	[3-1-0]	178		3	No Big Deal	8	13	6	[4-0-0]	151
4	69ers	8	11	5	[3-0-0]	214		4	No Name	8	12	6	[3-1-0]	184
5	Show me Your TDs	8	10	5	[3-1-0]	160		5	The Commission	8	10	5	[2-1-0]	179
6	Broccasion	8	10	5	[2-1-0]	148		6	BearSkins	8	8	4	[3-2-0]	188
7	Eskimo Brothers	8	8	4	[3-1-0]	199		7	Varennes	8	8	4	[2-1-0]	193
8	La Sauce	8	8	4	[2-2-0]	205		8	Stockton Slap	8	8	4	[2-1-0]	230
9	Jagerbomb	8	8	4	[1-2-0]	232		9	MVE	8	8	4	[1-2-0]	204
10	Gotham Knights	8	6	3	[1-2-0]	222		10	Brunch Buddies	8	8	4	[1-3-0]	216
11	TOPSZN	8	2	1	[1-4-0]	294		11	Les Blues Branleurs	8	2	1	[0-5-0]	292
12	Evolution	8	0	0	[0-5-0]	253		12	Keyport Lock	8	0	0	[0-4-0]	268
13	Killa Beez	8	0	0	[0-3-0]	268		13	Warhawks	8	0	0	[0-3-0]	307

 

Quick notes:

• It’s a really tight race in every division for the title of division leader.
• With this week’s loss, TOPSZN and Les Blues Branleurs add their names to the list of eliminated from playoff contention.
• Jagerbomb fell out of the race with their loss to Broccasion, for now.
• Gotham Knights are still alive after upsetting Honey Badgers.
• Both conference will have a tight race to the finish.
• The Commission decided to upset my predictions and push themselves up to the 5th They aren’t out of hot waters just yet.
• It’s crazy to think that .500 has you on the brick of elimination and even 5-3 isn’t safe anymore.
• I still believe in every word I wrote about my predictions last week.
• With only 4 teams (Coyotes, Top Sauce, No Fly Zone and No Big Deal) having clinched a spot out of 16, everyone’s in do-or-die mode. It’s awesome.
• I do believe 69ers and No Name could lose out and still clinch. 11+ points should end up being enough, but don’t tempt luck; go out there and win. Clinch before week 10.

 

Picks of the week

 

3 weeks in a row at 10/12. It’s getting out of control!!

Let’s see if I can end the season on such a high note for the following two weeks, huh.

 

Here’s this week’s picks :

Eskimo Brothers vs Top Sauce: Top Sauce

Broccasion vs Honey Badgers: Honey Badgers

Show me Your TDs vs Evolution: Show me Your TDs

TOPSZN vs Les Blues Branleurs: Les Blues Branleurs

Gotham Knights vs Killa Beez : Gotham Knights

Coyotes vs La Sauce: Coyotes

69ers vs Jagerbomb: 69ers

No Name vs BearSkins: No Name

Brunch Buddies vs Keyport Lock : —-

No Big Deal vs No Fly Zone: No Fly Zone

MVE vs Varennes: MVE

Stockton Slap vs Warhawks: Stockton Slap

The Commission vs Former Tomahawk: Former Tomahawk

 

That sums it for this week’s article. It’s always a pleasure to write and hear back from you guys. After all, the content is meant 99% for you. I keep a percent for me; ranting here and there is fun after all. You can always reach me via twitter @DagenaisFPF or via email ([email protected]). I’ll be at Lachine every Sunday night scorekeeping/playing and at the new Stade on Mondays so you can stop by and chat. Don’t hesitate. Eagle sent me about a dozen messages this week on different platforms; I guess he really did miss me last Thursday. It’s okay, Bird, I’m back now