Women Shine In Week 4 of Coed Action

The Coed season is well underway, and the playoff race is shaping up in both divisions. In Coed 1, 3^rd Down For What appear to be running away with the season. On the podcast, Peeze and Moe speculated that 3DW had the division wrapped up. I would beg to differ. 3^rd Down For What have an extremely difficult schedule remaining to close out the season. They are facing their archrivals, Power Rangers, twice and they still have a game left versus the extremely talented Party Mix. Barring any upsets, they will need to win two of those three games to maintain first place. While the odds are good that they finish in first, they are very far from having top place locked up.

In Coed 2, the storyline for the remainder of the season will be whether Yin & Yang can overcome their brutal start to the season to climb back into first place, where everyone expected them to be. That quest will start this week when they face off against Funtastic 9 for the second time this season. They were upset by Funtastic just a couple of weeks ago and a second loss to them could spell disaster. Luckily for Yin & Yang, they very much control their fate. They still have two games left versus both Funtastic and Les Semi-Croquants. A loss in any of those games means they can kiss their dreams of the top seed goodbye.

Week 4 Recaps

Power Rangers (27) vs Fightin’ Tigers (28)

Every week there seems to be one major upset in coed. Last week, I was shocked to see Les Semi-Croquants upset Party Mix. This week, I was nearly as surprised to see the Fightin’ Tigers beat the heavily favored Power Rangers.

There is a very simple explanation as to why the Fightin’ Tigers were able to cause the upset in this one. Simply put, Anna Chevrier was better then all of Power Rangers’ women combined. She caught three passes for an impressive 60 yards and two scores. On the other hand, Marilou Beland, Jasmine Farmer and Constance Millaire only combined for 38 receiving yards. For so many years, we have been used to Power Rangers having the best women in the division and that strength lifted them to championships. This year, they have the same core of women. Beland, Farmer and Millaire are probably three of the top six women in Coed, however, Power Rangers are not using them to the full extent of their abilities. Those three are absolute matchup nightmares. If Power Rangers want to get back to their winning ways they need to start getting the women on their team more targets, a lot more targets.

While Power Rangers might have been responsible for their own demise, that does not take anything away from the Fightin’ Tigers incredible performance. Their quarterback room was bolstered by the addition of Theo Ojeaha. He threw two passes for 36 yards to complement a fantastic outing by Seth Galina who completed 12 passes for over 150 yards and four scores. When Ojeaha was not under center, he was a threat in the receiving game. He led his team with four receptions for 60 yards. Defensively, he was also a difference maker. He recorded his teams only interception. Ultimately the question will be which Ojeaha will be around for playoff time? I doubt that the Fightin’ Tigers can fit both Jamie and Theo in their cap so they will need to choose one. Based on last week’s performance, Theo is making a strong case.

3^rd Down For What (41) vs Party Mix (26)

I do not believe that I have recapped a 3^rd Down For What game yet this season. That is not because they have not been playing well. If anything, it has been because they have been playing so well and beating teams so handily, that there has not been a game close enough for me to feature in the recaps segment.

This week, 3^rd Down For What’s performance was too impressive to pass unnoticed. Despite only completing 16 passes Sara Parker managed to throw for exactly 200 yards and five scores. The only blemish on her record was the interception she threw. Parker has been on an absolute tear this season and she shows no sign of slowing down. This is not the first time Parker has decimated all defences in her path. However, Parker’s Achilles heel has always been the Power Rangers defence. Time after time, her dreams of a perfect season or a championship win have been stymied by the Power Rangers defence. While Parker is off to a great start, she still needs to prove she can beat Power Rangers.

Apart from Parker, the other star in this game for 3^rd Down For What was Jeremy Murphy. He was the team’s leading receiver with four catches for 70 yards and two scores. Defensively he also led the charge with four tackles and a pick six. That being said, what impresses me the most with this 3DW squad is their depth. Just to show how deep this team is, the extremely talented Alexis Gaumont only caught one pass in this game for 13 yards. The receiving depth on this team is simply incredible. I do not think any defence in Coed can go man to man with them. That forces opposing defences to play mostly zone defences, and that is perfect for Parker. She excels at reading zone coverages and finding the open receiver.

Week 4 Team of the Week

Every week, I will name 12 players to the team of the week. If you make the offensive team of the week, you cannot be on the defensive one and vice versa. Since this is coed, there will always be a minimum of two women on the offensive and defensive team of the week. When choosing the players for the team of the week, I do not consider the tier that the players are in. I only consider their achievements.

Offence

Quarterback: Mariève Girard (Les Semi-Croquants) 25 completions, 89% completion rate, 211 passing yards, 5 TDs, 0 INTs

Receiver: Jeremy Murphy (3^rd Down For What) 4 receptions, 70 receiving yards, 2 TDs

Receiver: Alexandrine Trottier (Les Semi-Croquants) 6 receptions, 63 receiving yards, 1 TD

Receiver: Guillaume St-Jean (Funtastic 9) 6 receptions, 61 receiving yards, 2 TDs

Receiver: Anna Chevrier (Fightin’ Tigers) 3 receptions, 59 receiving yards, 2 TDs

Receiver: Alexandre Jubinville (Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce) 4 receptions, 52 receiving yards,3 TDs

Defence:

Rusher: Camille Ste-Marie (Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce) 2 tackles, 2 sacks

Defensive Back: Vincent Marquis (Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce) 1 INT, 3 PDs

Defensive Back: Wade Jr. Shallcross (Power Rangers) 1 INT, 3 PDs

Defensive Back: Olivia Francisco (Yin & Yang) 6 tackles

Defensive Back: Louis-Philip Thibodeau (Les Semi-Croquants) 1 INT, 1 defensive TD

Defensive Back: Mathieu Felipe (Power Rangers) 2 tackles, 1 INT, 1 PD

Week 5 Predictions

Fightin’ Tigers (1-3) vs Les Semis-Croquants (3-1)

This is an interesting matchup. One of the worst teams in Coed 1 is facing off against one of the best in coed 2. I do need to point out that Les Semis-Croquants’ quarterback Mariève Girard has been phenomenal these past weeks. She had a tremendous performance in her team’s upset win versus Party Mix and was even better last week versus Funtastic 9. I find it very difficult to bet against a passer on a hot streak, so I think that Les Semis-Croquants will take this one in a high scoring affair.

Prediction: Les Semis-Croquants

Funtastic 9 (2-2) vs Yin & Yang (1-3)

This is already a do or die game for Ying & Yang. If they lose this game, they can kiss their hopes of finishing the season in first place goodbye. If I know something about Y&Y it is that when the going gets tough they step up big. I expect Justin Weir to have a bounce back performance in this one. Last time these teams met, Weir was not able to get anything going offensively and Funtastic 9’s fantastic rusher Felix Daoust had a lot to do with that. I think Weir will have learnt from that game and come in with a game plan to get the ball out of his hand quicker.

Prediction: Yin & Yang

La Secte (0-4) vs 3^rd Down For What (4-0)

La Secte lost big last week to Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. To give you an idea of how good 3^rd Down For What are, they beat SHCS by nearly the same margin that SHCS beat La Secte last week. I unfortunately do not think this will be much of a game. La Secte should be happy if they score once.

Prediction: La Secte

Party Mix (2-2) vs Power Rangers (3-1)

Power Rangers lost a close match last week against the Fightin’ Tigers. A big part of the reason Power Rangers lost that game was because the Fightin’ Tigers had an uber dominant player in Theo Ojeaha. While Party Mix are a better team then the Fightin’ Tigers, they do not have a dominant presence like Theo Ojeaha. Without a star player like that on their roster, I expect Serge Pilon to run wild against the Party Mix defence. I think that Power Rangers will bounce back in this one and get right back in the mix for the division tittle.

Prediction: Power Rangers

This is the first time in recent memory that I have named three female players to the offensive team of the week. I have always stressed the importance of involving female players in the receiving game and clearly teams started listening. Across the board, just about every single game had a woman as one of the leading receivers. Teams are finally starting to realize the importance of using all their players and I am thrilled to see it. For the longest time, coed has been ruled by teams that used the women on their team as much as the men. Now as more and more teams start fully involving the women on their team, I think we could see some more parity coming to the division.

That is all for this week, best of luck to all the teams next week and as always, feel free to reach mat at [email protected] with any questions, comments or critiques.