Here we are, back after another scorching hot weekend. I hope that everyone had their soccer fix over the last month. Italy won the Euro Cup for the first time since 1968 and their fans couldn’t be happier.
Living in Montreal most of my life you come to notice the differences in the fans from different sports. Yesterday after being in Brossard for the games there I headed over to my father’s house in St-Leonard to finish watching the game with them. As soon as the game was over you couldn’t even hear yourself think (it’s not as if I do that often anyways) (ed’s note: not that you… oh wait, he already said it…), all you could hear were cars driving up and down the street honking their horns in celebration. It’s good for them they won and had a good time letting everyone else know they won and let it be. Then you have these Canadiens fans that are flipping over police cars because we made it to the finals.
This brings me to the fans and players of the MFL. We might not get tons of fans to our games, but there are two teams that remind me of the old days over at Louis Cyr. That would have to be Old School and 28-3 as both of these teams stick around, hang out and have a good time after their games are over. You might even have noticed that Old School have fans even in the rain. I’d love to see more teams having fans like this. What would be great is to fill the bleacher and have the fans going crazy for the playoffs. Everyone let’s make this happen.
(ed’s note: all fan restrictions are now lifted and canopies and chairs and everything are allowed again! Just not between the fields, please!)
Week 7 Recap
Division 1
Moretti Crime Family vs Centurions (42-30)
What I remember about this game was the lack of adjustments made by Centurions on defense to take away the floods. This season has been hard for them, coming up a division and missing players a lot of the weeks. The score looks closer than the game actually was. Joey was nearly perfect on the day and even though a lot of the throws were short his receivers made large gains after the catch. Brandon was back this week for the first time in a while and made his present felt. I was a little shocked to see him snapping and not Alex. Both are team players, so there were no issues, plus both still got touches. I would also like to point out that between the two QBs we had 11 TDs and no picks, that is if you don’t count the 2 point convert that Dom picked off had me run the length of the field trying to keep up with him as he gets in with a defender right behind him. This was a great game to watch and what any QB in the league should strive for.
Henchmen vs Trollers (46-28)
Everyone this season has been giving me a hard time over the way I have treated the Trollers and think I’m doing it because I’m no longer on the team. Let me set the facts straight: I left, they didn’t kick me off. With that out of the way, let me get to the game. It seems as if the Trollers were missing players this week and, yes, Ben is good, but not 18 points good. Max is still recovering from an injury last season and can no longer run around which is when he makes most of his plays. Henchmen are a great team when they are winning, but once they are down it’s all over for them and the fighting starts and then it goes from a team game to a me game with them. That didn’t happen this week as they jumped up early and never looked back. Trollers if they want success needs to down size their roster so they can build chemistry and Max won’t have as many mouths to feed.
Division 2
Outlaws vs Petits Phoques (31-35)
This was a game that Petits Phoques needed to show that they shouldn’t be over looked. Any time Dom is there they always have a chance to win, and he was there this week. In this game Petits Phoques got up early and ended up being up by 9 points at half. To me, there seemed to be a few questions that I would have liked answered from the refs, but it is their calls and we can’t blame a loss of the refs. I know from being on Outlaws that no one was happy with the way we played. Everyone dropped balls that would normally be caught and had they been caught it would have given us more time at the end of the game to score and win the game. I will tell you right now that Outlaws were outplayed. Defensively, instead of being in attack mode we were hesitant and allowed balls to be caught instead of contesting them. On offense we lost it because of converts and on both of them I was involved. The first 2 point convert I dropped, thinking that the rusher was lined up at the goal line and not rusher bag, the second one I was wide open and instead of a bullet pass it was lofted towards me where Bresse picked it off. I know next time we meet up it will be a different game.
Longs Chefs vs Joey’s Haters (6-8)
I’m glad that Longs Chefs played right up until the end. Haters took forever to score their TD in the first half, then followed that up with a safety and all their scoring for the day was done. Going into the season everyone was worried about the Haters and from the last few games they played you shouldn’t be. Longs Chefs are in need of a QB, but are a solid team otherwise. Who would have thought that a bunch of gym teachers would be in good shape, what happened to the old fat lazy gym teacher from in my days. As the game went on you could feel that Longs Chefs were still in it and on the last play of the game Max finds Marius for the score. They went for 2 since they needed that to tie and it went in and out of the hands of the receiver. That’s how the game ended. Haters have to stop allowing teams to stay in games, because it will bit them in the ass sooner or later.
Division 3
Average Joes vs Mustard Tigers (39-28)
I’m not sure how we are still waiting for this to happen, but are Mustard Tigers going to win a game this season? As I see it now there best chance would be their last two games of the season. Average Joes went out this week and won the game with some help from their sub Jared. To me this should never have been allowed, but Jon approved it so who am I to say anything (ed’s note: I didn’t know who he was!). Average Joes jumped out to such a big lead in the first half that after that they just coasted the rest of the way, it also helped that Mustard Tigers took their time and used up tons of time off the clock.
Iron Wolves vs Deep Threats (24-13)
This was the game that everyone wanted to see and would decide who the top team in the division was. Boy were we all disappointed. Yes, Iron Wolves won, but are they the best team in the division? They only won by eleven points to a team missing their QB and the player filling in for them is their best receiver. To me this doesn’t prove much. I will point out that on Defense, Svetna still wreaked havoc for Jon and the Iron Wolves offense. Will also ended the game with 3 picks and that’s great, but this just brings back the point on Deep Threats not having a QB. Iron Wolves get credit, but its only partial credit. Do it in the playoffs and then I’ll apologize from not believing in the Wolves, but until then I’ll leave it like that.
Division 4
Thunder Buddies vs RawSauce (19-20)
How bad did Thunder Buddies have to play to lose a game where they get 5 picks? I know QBs get all the blame and more often than not it’s true, not this time. Terry played his ass off. Ok, his completion percent was right around half, but 3 TDs to 2 picks and just under 250 yards and those numbers should win you games. This was a very close game and if it wasn’t for last plays before the halves ended the score would have been 7-20. Terry managed to score on the last play of the first half and then again on the last play of the second half. I know people hate ties (ed’s note: there are no ties in the MFL!), but instead of going for 1 and the tie, Thunder Buddies went for 2 and the win. On that play Terry takes the snap, Rob drops back behind him gets the pass and instead of throwing it Rob tries to avoid the rusher and gets sacked and the game is over. For me Rob needed to throw it up and hope for the best. At least give your team a chance to make a play and win the game. For Terry, all I have to say is winner always want the ball when the game’s on the line.
Les Improbables vs ADED (25-47)
Big shout out to ADED on getting their first win of the season. The first win is always the hardest. I will point out that ADED did have a sub QB plus a few other players from lower divisions since they were short players. This is the second time I’ve done one of ADED games where they were only 7 players and it was their best game of the season. This team has a huge roster and with very little experience they are all over the place, but with fewer players they all get a feeling for the game and are more focused. I also don’t want to start a family mutiny, but I heard it from two different family members that maybe Robert is the weak link. Robert left after the first game which was a loss and then they won without him. I spoke to Improbables after the game and they knew that this was going to happen. They had just played a game beforehand and some it was their third game of the day. They played a younger team that had played earlier in the day, but a game off in-between. I’m glad to see that ADED won, but if this was the first game for both teams it might have gone the other way around.
Division 5
Phoenix vs Spin Doctors (44-18)
I will make this short as I don’t want to talk much about my own team. Spin Doctors were missing players, but that’s not an excuse for a game like this (ed’s note: so Deep Threats missing players means the game proves nothing, but if a team is playing against you, then missing players doesn’t mean anything? Convenient…). On offense Raph needs to do a better job of spreading the ball and not depend on Rob so much. Defensively they need to do a better job tackling. Phoenix played good all around. Defensively we made one mistake that went for a long play and a score, but other than that we made them work for everything they got. I know Raph has been around for years, but what was he thinking on their first drive of the game by going for it on fourth and 3 on their 12-yard line? That was a huge play since they didn’t get it. The play of the game came from Yann and it was on the last play of the half as Spin Doctors were driving to score. Yann picked the ball off and kept Phoenix up by two scores. Since Spin Doctors were starting with the ball in the second half it could have been a tie game.
Mimosa Crew vs Gold Rush (25-24)
Mimosa Crew has made Will the happiest guy in the MFL with those Dolphin inspired jerseys, he might even try and sneak his way onto the team. I know Travis wasn’t there for Gold Rush due to injury and that is fine, better to rest up then push it and be hurt for longer. Being up 24-13 with just under 5 minutes left how can you lose? Let me tell you how, poor clock management. Who would have thought that the only extra point scored was going to seal the game and the funny thing is that the extra point was a return by the defense. I know everyone says that they would never run it all the way back unless it was for the game (ed’s note: I wouldn’t run it back even if it was for the win). Anjelica didn’t know that when the score was 24-12, but that point turned out to be what decided the game. Good job for Mimosa Crew, keep it up.
Top Performance of the Week
I’m going to keep this short and sweet so I can get back to relaxing in the pool. By now you know that you had to win your game to get your name up here or pull a D4 player of the century (ed’s note: Millennium) move and ask to get up here like he did last week and by doing that I find some way just to get under your skin so you won’t do it again. In two of the divisions I only had two games to pick from so it was really difficult to pick an offensive and defensive player, so I did the only thing I could do and just picked one player for those divisions that made a huge impact and got their team the win.
Division 1
After a few weeks away Brandon Aylward came back and tore it up. The man went off with 4 catches for 74 yards, 2 TDs, 1 tackle and a sack on defense. Now just imagine if he hadn’t take those weeks off the number he might have put up.
Division 2
Offense
Last week OG asked him to fill in at QB and then this week they asked him to score TDs. Louis-Mathieu Dufour is a beast when he wants to be. This week he was nearly unstoppable going off and getting 7 catches for 80 yards and 3 TDs. With numbers like that it wasn’t hard to pick him this time around.
Defense
In such a close game that went to OT Jimmy Maddoloni had no easy task trying to keep Jonathan from KOLB from running all over the place. He got constant pressure on him and even end the game with 3 sacks, but he also made him throw 5 picks. That is why I picked him as my defensive player this week.
Division 3
Offense
I told this player that if wanted some tips to stick around and watch me play and it looks like it paid off and then some. Leon Holder is a fabulous QB that is just getting to know his players. This week he went 18 of 34 for 209 yards with 5 TDs. Leon also ran 7 times for 43 yards. Can’t complain, those are some serious numbers.
Defense
All I had to do was look at one game to see that this person earned his spot up her on the list. Remi Roy from Nice TDs is someone most people don’t know and why would they when Andrew and Kris are on that team? People better know who he is now. Remi had 4 tackles and 3 picks. You don’t see players getting 3 picks in a game too often, but Remi did.
Division 4
Offense
Last season she was the QB and this season she is snapping for Panaches. Amelie Durocher can do it all and that includes catching a ball batted away from one of her teammates and walking in for the score. Amelie caught 4 passes this week for 82 yards and scored 2 TDs.
Defense
I don’t know how Antoine Theroux did it, but he kept Terry from running all game. On top of stopping the run Antoine also had 5 tackles and 3 sacks. He also sealed the game with a sack on a 2-point convert attempt that won’t show up on the stat sheet. (ed’s note: for those who don’t know, stats don’t count on converts! We only add the stat for the score itself (e.g. 1-Point Receptions) and not the yards, receptions, completions, etc)
Division 5
The player I went with is Angelica Sood. You won’t see her name appearing all over the score sheet as it’s only there once. I spoke to a lot of players from around the league and everyone says running back a convert in a regular season game they would never do it. Well, Angelica didn’t take that approach and took hers back for the point. It turns out that her return was the point that won the game for Mimosa Crew so I hope they picked up her tab that night. Congratulations on winning the game and doing what a lot of players wouldn’t have even tried.
That is who I felt really stood out this week and half way through the season means that you only have 5 weeks left to get up here. Ball out, show me something and over the next few weeks you might be seeing your name up here.
