Word from the Mouth: It's Too Damn Hot! edition
Anyone who was out there all-day Saturday and is still alive, congratulations on that. Last week when I wrote my article it was calling for rain and I can tell you I much I’d rather have the rain than it be 30 plus degrees outside with minimal breeze and no clouds. Anyone who saw me at the end of the day knows I was dead and I’m not joking about that. I almost had to go spend the night in the hospital after suffering heat stroke and not being able to keep any fluids down.
Other than almost dying it was a great way to lose some weight, it was a good 10 pounds easily.
I want to thank the people who took over my games at the end of the day and the ones who stuck around and did the takedown. I appreciate it and it would have taken me hours to do it.
I’m no weatherman, but the app on my phone is saying 28 this weekend with a 30% chance of rain. Let’s hope its cooler than last week.
Week 2
Division 1 Recap
Bitter Boys vs Centurions (27-32)
I picked Centurions to win, but I expected it to be by a bigger score. Bitter Boys were playing their first game of the season and Centurions just came off a big win the week before. When your first pass of the season is a pick 6 you, know that’s not a good sign. JS looked for the easy completion and Yves stepped in front and walked it into the endzone. It didn’t take long for JS to get that back as only a few plays later he hits Guillaume for a big score to tie it up. After giving up scores on Centurions next 2 drives, the game just seemed out of reach. Bitter Boys did end up making it close in the end by scoring a TD on the last play of the game. If it hadn’t been for the 3 picks by JS, Bitter Boys might have pulled off the upset. Maybe next time they will.
Division 2
Outlaws vs Nice TDs (36-18)
Like everyone that doesn’t play on Nice TDs, we knew this was going to be a hard game to watch since it was expected to be a blowout. When I saw that Kris was playing QB for nice TDs I knew that there were going to be issues, especially when you saw the roster. I know Kris started the game by throwing 2 straight picks and Jafar was giving him a hard time about it, but don’t worry, Jafar did his best Tua impersonation late in the game and boy was it ugly. With 15 minutes left in the game and being up 36-6 Steve pulled himself from the game and that is when Nice TDs started to make the game interesting. I won’t say Kris struggled, I would blame it on drops and possibly a bad call. Yes, I will admit that it might have been a catch, but from where I was, I am unable to make that call. Would it have made a difference? Maybe, but probably not. It was in the first half and Nice TDs could have done something, but Steve could have stayed in the game and put up 50 points if he wanted to. You know what the best part of this game was? Seeing Jaf complete his first 2 passes short and thinking he was unstoppable only to try and go deep and get picked by Francois who took it to the house. I’m not a fan of taunting, but I would have allowed in this case just because Jaf was pestering Kris early in the game.
Division 3
Jagerbomb vs Manitoboys (37-14)
It sucks when your big, tall rusher Jeremy isn’t there to face a QB who gets rid of the ball fast in Simon. Alex did a decent job of it, but he isn’t Jeremy. Leon opened the scoring by finding Alex on a what I want to say was a post route, but I could be mistaken. After that it was all Jagerbomb the rest of the way. Some players and teams only care about stats, but it’s not that with Jagerbomb. After opening the second half with a big completion and a quick dump off Simon and JF switched positions. It took JF all of 1 play on the ground to reach the endzone from 9 yards out. After Jagerbomb scored Leon put a very nice drive together spreading the ball all over and keeping the defense guessing where he was going with the ball. Watching the game, you had a feeling that Manitoboys was starting to come back, that was until the defense got back out there. JF hit Loic for a huge 42-yard gain and left them just short of the endzone. On the next play JF was able to get Loic into the endzone since he couldn’t make it an extra 3 yards the play before. Not all the life has been sucked out of Manitoboys and any shot at a comeback is down the drain. Both teams stalled out on their next drive and the game came to an end.
Panaches vs Average Joes (24-36)
This was a fun and exciting game to watch. Both QBs played fantastic and other than getting sacked once, the defenses were just there making tackles. I spoke with Felix and Amile before the game and they had mentioned that they had lost a few players from the winter season and that they were teaching a few new players the game. If that is the case and they were able to hang with the big dogs in week 2, what are they going to be like further down the line? When Panaches scored to tie it a 12 with 19 seconds left in the half you had to figure it was going to stay that way, Jason had other plans and 3 timeouts. Jason hits Nick for 8 yards, then Nick for 23 more yards and to cap it off hits the Gator fan Ryne for the score as time runs outs. Second half begins and Felix takes no time to tie it back up. Jason and Average Joes score twice unanswered to take a 30-18 lead. Panaches wasn’t done just yet and Felix knew he needed to score and score quickly he did. It was now up to the defense to make a stop and get them the ball back. Was Jason going to have one of his moments and blow it for his team? Not today at least. Jason milked every second of the play clock before the snap and slowly marched down for the score. With under a minute left and it being as hot as it was Panaches knew the game was over so they called it and went to cool off and relax.
Division 4
Super Friends vs Airborne (13-25)
Before the game I was asking Jacob why he and his brother left Flamingos, and this is what I was told. That they are all friends on both teams, but they are closer friends with the players on the new team. Everyone on the media team picked against Airborne and were we very wrong. You must wonder if Airborne has turned a corner or they were just playing a new team that didn’t know much about the game yet. Airborne looked like a good in this game. Guillaume was on point under center and on defense they were where they needed to be. After all these years, has Airborne figured out what works for them? Jacob looked off after not throwing since last year. Alex looked good running routes, but far too often Jacob had him running deep and wasn’t able to connect with him. Super Friends on the other hand need a bunch of work and I’m sure that Jacob and Alex will get this team in shape. Other than when Adam broke on the ball and picked it off and ran the field for a score, Super Friends were lost on defense. I missed the second half of this game, but was told nothing eventful happened. By this point in the day, it was 35 plus degrees in the sun, and no one wanted to be out there longer than they needed to be.
Wizards du Groupe SG vs Weakest Link (8-12)
I know very little about this game, but what I can tell you is that Marvin and his one arm was able to convince Jon to let him play. It might only be at QB, and he has never thrown before so it is new to him. Marvin might not be the best thrower in the division, but my bet would be that he is right up there as a runner. One arm Marv ran 6 time for 87 yards and 1 score. Marvin should be lucky my team already played his team because you know what happens to a deer when it gets hit by a tractor trailer, lights out. Even with Marvin playing, if he doesn’t play defense, I can’t see Weakest Link doing much damage. Wizards on the other hand have a ton of athletes that are still figuring the game out and once they do teams need to watch out for them. The first win is always the hardest and Marvin got his out of the way, how long before Remi gets his?
Division 5
Titans vs Phoenix (0-33)
This week Phoenix had a new player in Khalil who is the brother of Myriam. When we first brought him on, I was like great, we have a second safety, but then he wanted to rush. At first, I was a little sceptic of this since we already have a great rusher in Gab. The way Gab showed she was multi talented was very impressive. Gab ended the day with 2 picks with one run back for a score and a sack as well. Not to bad for the birthday girl playing out of her regular position. For Phoenix this was a good game where everyone contributed and there is still room to improve. Titans were playing there first game of the season and didn’t have their stud QB ben from last spring, so it was going to be a struggle for them. Steve had a hard day under center, it was a fast rush and was under constraint pressure. When he did have time to throw it was had to be short. At one point he took a deep shot against me where Matteo had a step on me, but Steve threw it so far out of bounds that there was no way it was ever going to be caught. If I had been Steve, I would have tried it again at least once. The first half was dominated by Phoenix and the second half was just played with nothing exciting happening.
Heisenberg vs Knight Triangles (7-13)
I know very little about this game other than Heisenberg needing a few spares, so Simon and Yann were there helping and were the only reason why Heisenberg got on the score board. After the performance Knight Triangles had last week, everyone was ready to put them as one of the favorites to win it all. Well after this week those expectations have dropped dramatically. Knight Triangles couldn’t do much on the ground or through the air. On defense they managed to get 3 picks and a sack, but this was against a will little to no experience player at QB. All the scoring was done on 3 consecutive drives. The first by Knight to end the half, followed by Knight starting with the ball in the second half and then Yann went QB for Heisenberg and marched them down to score. Other than those 3 drives the game was slow boring and nothing exciting happening. This is what you expect to see in D5 early in the season.
There you have it, this week’s wrap up or at least from my side. You should tune in to Terry and Will on MFL Access to see what they have to say about what they say out there this weekend. The leagues podcast which goes up on Wednesday and you can catch it on our Facebook page or YouTube channel.
Player of the Week
Last week I talked about giving a prize to the winner like I did in the fall and what I have come up with is one prize for the entire league. That means if you win my player of the week your name will get entered a draw with everyone else that has one and I will pick a random name from a hat to see who one. You can only get nominated for the highest division you play in and yes if you get more than 1 nomination your name goes in more than once. Here are this week’s winners.
Division 1
Offense
- Guillaume Roberts pulled in 8 passes for 117 yards and 2 TDs.
Defense
- Felix Bergeron made 4 tackles and had 3 sacks.
Division 2
Offense
- David Gutkovsky went 6 of 9 for 35 yards, ran once for 5 yards, caught 5 passes for 59 yards and 1 TD.
Defense
- Francois Rochette made 4 tackles, 2 picks and returned 1 for a TD.
Division 3
Offense
- JF Daloze went 5 of 11 for 63 yards and 1 TD. JF also ran 4 times for 21 yards and a TD, he also caught 4 passes for 19 yards and 3 TDs.
Defense
- Victor Okoro made 7 tackles and had 4 sacks.
Division 4
Offense
- Steve Morisseau made 6 catches for 142 yards and 4 TDs and 1 1point convert.
Defense
- Caio Brayner had 3 picks and returned all 3 for TDs.
Division 5
Offense
- Lakshmi Sharma grabbed 5 passes for 59 yards, 1 TD and 1 2point convert.
Defense
- Gabrielle Chaput made 3 tackles, 1 sack 2 picks and returned 1 for a TD all on her birthday.
Those are my picks for this week’s players of the week. Congratulations to all the winners this week, and for those who didn’t make it better luck next week.