Weekday Quarterback (D5) – Divisional Round

I hate to sound like Moe Khan, and ask what I learnt from the first week of the playoffs, but I must, because there was just so much to take in after a shocking weekend. I expected there to be some exciting games this weekend but we all got more than we were expecting with two huge upsets. Park X Streets, who lost only once all year, were trounced in the first round by a Love Cows team that won only three games all year. I know it’s not nice to gloat but I did call this upset following the loss in the final week of the season for Park X Streets. It was a case of not being able to hit the ground running after shutting it down for a week. Park X Streets did not want to show their stuff to Run’N’Wild in that final game of the season so they decided to take a loss and go from there. Well it did not work out very well as they did not get another shot at Run’N’Wild. In a league with this much parity you cannot take any teams lightly, particularly in the playoffs, and expect to get away with it. I have a great amount of faith in Park X and I believe that they will be back in the spring and have another outstanding season. It was a lesson learnt for a new team.

In the second upset of the week we saw the Golden Eagles, led by Captain Alex David, defeat the very tough Patriotes team. I believed that the Patriotes had a legitimate shot at beating the best teams in Conference A because of their great playmakers Sebastien Pereda and Matt Belanger. Both of those players came up with huge plays all season and put up a lot of points for a high scoring team. The Golden Eagles used a well thought up defensive scheme to stop those players this weekend and it worked to perfection. Belanger was invisible on the stat sheet while Pereda had only 20 yards receiving. The Golden Eagles had such a tough season with some really heart breaking loses but I think this makes it all better for them. Obviously, they know their work is not done yet, but winning that game shows that they are much better than their record previously showed. These are two teams that will definitely get better in the near future and could be a force to be reckoned with next season. The Golden Eagles will have another tough game this weekend and we will get to that in a second.

In other games this weekend, The Monstars continued their hot run with a 20-14 victory over Lockdown. Lockdown played well enough to lead at halftime and probably gave the Monstars more of a scare then they would have liked, but in the end they came up just short. Andrew Funamoto did not have best game for the Monstars but he was able to do enough to get his team a victory. His counterpart, Gianfranco Renaudo, had a tough game with only 70 yards passing but this is a team that showed a lot of improvement throughout the season. I expect them to try and make a few changes to their roster and come back with a fresh attitude in the spring.

The final game of the weekend was a tight defensive affair between the Recruits and Affreux. Affreux played excellently on the defensive side of the football with 4 interceptions including 2 for touchdowns. Francois Brochu had a tough game for the Recruits as he could not seem to get anything going this weekend in place of the absent Jeff Mather. This is a nightmare for any QB especially in the playoffs. The final score was 18-7 for Affreux who will need to get an even better defensive performance this coming weekend.

Round 2 Playoff Preview

Sphinx vs Golden Eagles

– This should be one of the more interesting games of the weekend as last time these two teams met it was a 6-0 victory for Sphinx. It is very rare that you see a defensive struggle like that in FlagPlus Football and I think both teams will put up more points than they did in the previous matchup. If you are the Golden Eagles, you try and shut down arguably the best QB in division 5: Etienne Cloutier, who had over 1500 yards and 36 td’s in the regular season…and oh yeah…he did not lose a game. That obviously is a daunting task for any defense looking at the numbers, but the Golden Eagles will not show up on Saturday expecting to lose. This is a team that knows they can contain the high powered Sphinx offense and they will try to do it one more time. The only difference is this, time they need to find a way to get into the endzone. Can Kevin Lubin be the all purpose player that he was in round 1? Only time will tell.

– Prediction: Sphinx 21 – Golden Eagles 19

Wildkittens vs Monstars

– Early in the season most people would be surprised if you told them that these two teams would be facing off in the second round of the playoffs. The Monstars were struggling early on and could have been happy to just make the playoffs, but they did not allow that rough start to get them down. They played hard all season and managed a win in the first round. They have a lot of confidence right now and that should carry over to this week. The Wildkittens were the division winners of the North Division of Conference B with only 3 victories. They fought hard towards the end of the season and were able to sneak into the playoff picture. I give them all the credit in the world and I think that the toughest part of this game will be that they had to take a week off after being so good for a couple of weeks. In the previous matchup between these two teams, the Monstars won 20-12. If you are the Wildkittens, you need to try and force mistakes by the Monstars offense. The Monstars are most dangerous when they get in a rhythm and are able to get into the flow of the game. They may not be the most dangerous offense, but they can get the job done with a good mix of short and long passes. The Wildkittens are also going to need a good performace from Matthieu Sola who had an up and down season. This should be another close game

– Prediction: Monstars 26 – Wildkittens 14

Run’N’Wild vs Love Cows

– These teams both got here in similar fashion, by beating Park X Streets. Run’N’Wild won the final game of the season to earn a bye, while Love Cows pulled off the huge upset last weekend. I like both of these teams for certain reasons. Run’N’Wild has been consistently good all season thanks to their duo of Jeff Lyall and Mark Guerriero. Guerriero had a ridiculous 20 receiving touchdowns this year while helping his team to a 9-1 record. The Love Cows are the team in the hearts of all the fans of division 5. They just got into the playoffs and fought hard to win a game. Can they do it again? That would be a tough call for me to make. The key for the Love Cows is to shut down Guerriero while doing what they did last week which is get a complete team effort. If they can do that then this might be another upset in the making. It should be another close game as long as the Love Cows contain Lyall and Guerriero, which is no easy task.

– Prediction: Run’n’Wild 32- Love Cows 24

The Family vs Affreux

– The Family is a team with a major chip on their shoulder right now. Early in the season they were the favorites to win it all and then, in the blink of an eye, everyone forgot about them thanks to two tough loses. I think it would be a big mistake to take this team lightly if you are anyone in divison 5. They can really play well when they are firing on all cylinders and I think they will start to do that this week. Affreux needs a major miracle this weekend if they are going to win. Mathieu Domon had a rough week last week, passing for less than a hundred yards in a win over the Recruits. That cannot happen again if they are to have any chance against The Family and its explosive offense led by QB Maxime Forget. The Family will spread the ball around and probably put up points somewhere in the 30’s. Affreux needs to get a great defensive performance like they did last week and hopefully get some points off of turnovers.

– Prediction: The Family 40 – Affreux 12

That’s it for this week, I hope you all enjoyed the first week of the playoffs, but it is only going to get better as the playoffs continue. If you win this weekend make sure to speak to a FlagPlus Football representative about the Press Conference we will be having for all teams who make the championship game. I hope to see you all there this weekend. Happy Easter and Passover to all who celebrate those holidays.