What to expect in the second half of the season

Ladies and gentlemen Week 7 is here, and Week 6 is in the rear-view mirror. Let me be the first to welcome you to the second half of the season, or as I like to call it, the warmup to the real season. If you’re confused as to why I’m treating this as the second part of the season, remember that there was no article prior to Week 1.

Last time out I gave you my mid-season awards article. As promised, things are back to normal this week. (With one little change. More on that in a bit.) So once again, before I get to any of the lists, let me tell you what caught my eye in the week that was.

What’s going on with the Mean Machine? After looking like world beaters the first four weeks of the season, they’ve suffered two losses in a row, and are far from a lock to knock off a slowly improving Team Fourth and Twenty squad.

After reading my mid-season pick for Defensive/two-way player of the year, I heard from a reliable source that Balls Deep’s Jordan Allard wasn’t too happy to see the award went to Danny D’Armour. Allard sent yours truly a message with two big interceptions last week against Goon Squad.

Speaking of Balls Deep, their pivot Anthony Pitoscia has really been stepping up his game. His outing against the aforementioned Goon Squad was really impressive. I have a feeling I’ll be mentioning his name at the more often.

Note to everybody, if you’re upset with my choices, prove me wrong and we’ll see what happens with my end of the season awards.

Flagrant Fouls looks like the cream of the crop in Div. 6. They smashed a VERY good L.A’s Finest in Week 3, and have pretty much done the same to everybody else they’ve faced. Their closest win was in Week 1, but really, if you know anything about football, the first game of the year doesn’t really reveal anything about anybody.

It won’t be smooth sailing for F.F the rest of the way as they face back to back threats in Obamacare and the N.W.O Week 8 and 9, but if they take care of business, the road to the championship will most likely go through them.

 

High Five

Samuel Saumure. He has been a tear during his team’s three game winning streak.

Brad Evans. Talk about efficiency. If you take away the INT, he was almost perfect.

Chris Gafoor. The Balls Deep DB/WR had a strong game Monday night against Goon Squad. 41 receiving yards and a TD to go with 2 tackles, a pass knock down, and a pick 6 on defense. Not bad, not bad at all.

Jason Castiel. When your team gets 5 interceptions, and you get 4 of them, (he missed a fifth one by a couple of inches) what else is there to say?

Kyle McGuigan. Little Gronk had 4 catches for 100 yards and a TD. When you averaged almost 30 yards a catch, (on more than just 1-2 catches) you know you have a pretty good chance of ending up on this list.

 

Step It Up

The Mean Machine. As mentioned above, they looked like a completely different team as early as two weeks ago. After the aforementioned game against Team Fourth and Twenty, they face a really good Balls Deep. That game will say a lot about double M.

The Minge’s QBs. Noah Zucker showed some promise last week as they recorded their first win of the season against TMNB. This week they go up against Jean Guy (admittedly a much better opponent)- Whether it be Matthew Young or Zucker, I honestly don’t know what to say besides step it up.

Orange Crush. Speaking of QB play, the first half of their game against Beast Mode was hard to watch. O.C’s offense did nothing but turn the ball over (5 INTERCEPTIONS) that has to be a new FPF record for a half, and leave their defense out to dry. To their credit, they were finally able to move the ball offensively once they switched to Chris Mana, but it was obviously too little too late, as they were down 32-0 at the break. Step it up Orange Crush, and keep Mana at QB.

 

Elite 8 (Formerly Top 11)

Yes I am making a change. As I mentioned at the top of the column, the season is now in its second half. With that I am shrinking the number of teams from my list. Instead of giving teams some leeway, I am going to be harder on them, so bring you’re a game each and every week. While this might make my job harder, I feel this is the most effective way to separate the contenders from the pretenders.

1. Flagrant Fouls. As mentioned above, they are the team to beat.
2. L.A’s Finest. If it wasn’t for the previously mentioned loss to Flagrant Fouls, they would be in the top spot. This is a fast team, with a VERY good defense. They even got to show how deep they are in their 46-6 win over TMNB when they started backup and arguably best quarterback on their roster Theo Bekelis.
3. Obamacare. I’m giving them the edge over Pardon My Swag based on strength of opponents. Obamacare has two extremely tough games left against Flagrant Fouls and the N.W.O in the next 4 weeks, so this spot could definitely change.
4. Pardon My Swag. An interesting game Sunday against versus the Tigerz depending on which Tigerz team shows up.
5. Jean Guy. They are arguably the hottest team in all of D6. They’ve played some soft teams 3 out of the last 4 weeks. They have a HUGE test this Monday night at Stade Hebert against L.A’s Finest. If they can pull off the upset, they will shoot up the rankings.
6. Woofpack. They got a much needed win over the N.W.O on Tuesday night. After a game against winless TMNB on Monday, they’ll have a tough test in Week 8 vs Jean Guy before finishing up with two easier games to finish the season.
7. Wax On Wax Off. They get the nod over Balls Deep based on their defense and plus/minus ratio. Speaking of Balls Deep, both teams square off this Wednesday, in a match that will have a huge impact on the rankings.
8. Balls Deep. After their aforementioned upcoming game against Wax, Balls Deep has two big tests in the Mean Machine and the Diablos. B.D holds their destiny in their hands; let’s see what they do with it. 

Picks

Diablos vs Flagrant Fouls – Flagrant Fouls

Beast Mode vs Goon Squad – Beast Mode

The Sun Bros vs Orange Crush – The Sun Bros

The Mean Machine vs Team Fourth and Twenty – The Mean Machine

Pardon My Swag vs Tigers – Pardon My Swag

TMNB vs Woof pack   – Woofpack

Mountain Goats vs N.W.O. – N.W.O

L.A’s Finest vs Jean Guy – L.A’s Finest (My pick for game of the week)

Wax On Wax Off vs Balls Deep – Balls Deep

Smokin’ Axolotls vs The Minge – The Minge

The Pocketwatch vs Obamacare – Obamacare

Last Week: 9 for 2

Season: 41- 14

 

That’s it for this week. I’ll be back next week with my Week 7 recap.

Don’t forget to listen to the Super Flag Bros Division 6 podcast on Thursday nights at 6:45 at www.theunclemikeshow.com The show is hosted by Peeze Della Reeze and David Della Rocca. Feel free to tweet either one or both of them at @ PeezeFPF and @DavesRepublic respectively.

I’ve been checking my e-mail and twitter regularly for feedback and suggestions from you guys, so keep it coming. If you loved the article, hated it, or simply felt I left something out, don’t be shy. You can shoot me a tweet at @BADNEWS51, or do it the semi old fashioned way and e-mail me at [email protected]