Let me commend the Grizzles and Nomades for showing up on Saturday to play outside in the snow. This isn’t the first time we have played in the snow and I’m sure it won’t be the last time either. The funny thing is that with Ball Hawks deciding to just forfeit their 5 and 6 pm games, it meant that this game was being played for no reason since Grizzlies were cool with just taking the forfeit.
All day Friday I was dreading Saturday night’s games because of the snow and it was cold a bit windy and even a few flurries, but the worst part was cleaning the field lines which I donkey-brained up and put at 25 yards wide instead of 35 like it is indoor. All this snow really Jabroni’d my plans for this weekend since I had planned to fix Le Ber, but now I’ll need to wait for all the snow to melt and for it stay above freezing at night. I have a few ideas to try and fix Le Ber this season, so let’s hope it works.
Spring season is coming around, so get your roster ready, but remember that player ratings will be adjusted in the next little while, so your team might end up having to move up a division or cut a player or two to fit in a lower division.
Some good news for the league is that we are looking to expand and create a women’s division, so that should be interesting to see how it turns out. Right now, we have 2 confirmed teams and at least 1 free agent team, so spread the word so that for the fall season we can possibly have enough women’s teams to make 2 divisions.
Recap
Division 1
Villains vs Master Chiefs (24-33)
Villains started out slow as Will had trouble with the Chiefs defense. With their first 2 possessions, Will only completed 1 of his first 4 passes and they also had 2 muffed snaps. Now being down by 7, Villains got lucky when Mike used his arms to get separation to pull down a pass that would have put Chiefs inside the red zone. A few plays later Chiefs turned the ball over on downs and this gave Villains a short field which they easily scored on. At half is when things changed, Jeremy showed up for the Chiefs. The score was 13-6 at half with Chiefs starting with the ball. First play, Vinny noticed Villains in man and threw it deep to Jeremy who scored his first of 3 TDs (45, 45, and 1 yards). After Jeremi scored from 8 yards out, it made the score 19-13 with plenty of time left. After scoring with 3 minutes left to make it 25-18, Chiefs Vinny went for 2 and Jaz was left open and this looked sealed the game for Chiefs. Villains did score, but on the onside kick the pass was short of midfield and the receiver wasn’t able to make the line to keep their chances of winning alive.
Inlaws vs Rockets D1 (19-18)
With all the players missing all over the place this should have been an easy win for Rockets. Well, when you start out giving up a 45-yard TD it doesn’t look good, but the defense settled in after that. After that both teams struggled on offense with picks and turnovers on downs. Midway through the first half, Alexis hit Andrew who was running what looked like a post that he flattened out to score. Half time score 6 all. Rockets started the second half with the ball and Alexis took his time and used 10 minutes to reach the endzone and take their first lead of the game 12-6. Now late in the game, Inlaws hold a 1 point lead, Rockets have 5 plays to score and win the game. 10 yards to Andrew plus an extra 5 for contact, Andrew for another 4 yards, second down. At this point Rockets are around midfield and Alexis looks right, can’t find anyone, looks back left and Andrew is all alone in the endzone, easy 6 right. After all the smack talk Andrew gave Nick after his TD, Nick got him back by knocking the ball ever so slightly to knock it out for an incomplete pass. With 2 plays left, Rockets got a first down and on the last play of the game the pass fell incomplete. Game over, but at least we get to see a rematch this week and hopefully with both teams having their complete rosters.
Division 2
Sorry folks I didn’t get any D2 games this week and with 2 games being a forfeit and not hearing anything from either game, I’ll skip this division.
Division 3
Blue Ballers vs Action Squad (13-42)
In this game, Shermika started strong by making her first sack which led to a Blue Ballers punt, but Action Squad were unable to take advantage partly due to a muffed snap on their first play. However, Justin made a diving one-handed pick to place his team at the 15-yard line. Action Squad then got the first touchdown, but Blue Ballers immediately responded when Lambert did damage with his first catch of the game by running through the entire defense. After a Frank touchdown, Blue Ballers attempted a long pass, but it was intercepted by Michael (ed’s note: names and things, this sentence). The next touchdown put a lot of pressure on them as time was running out. The play that ruined the hopes of the Blue Ballers was definitely Shermika's second sack on a 4th down and 3 yards to go. The score was 27-7 at that point. Action Squad got the needed 5 yards to score and that pretty much seal the deal. (ed’s note: how does 27-7 get to 42-13?)
Grizzlies vs Nomades (20-34)
This was played out in the snow and let me tell you it did not have as many big plays as you’d expect. Corry was a dog for Grizzles pulling in 5 catches for 69 yards with 3 TDs. As was Elliot for Nomads who had 7 catches for 76 yards, 1 TD and 2 2-point converts. I think the difference in this game was Zack getting hurt mid way through the first half and didn’t return(bleeding nose), nothing too serious. In the second half Grizzles switched QBs and that’s when they fell apart and Nomades picked up their play.
Phoenix vs Nomades (20-47)
What do I say about a game that meant nothing to either team? Phoenix was eliminated weeks ago and Nomades locked up a spot with their win earlier. I’ll point out that Phoenix had cut their punter prior to this game, so they went for it on every fourth down. Elliot was a beast scoring 4 times while racking up 133 yards on 7 catches. Emma did a great job on defense making every tackle she was with in arms reach of and she had a pick that she ran in for a score. The one player that really stepped up for Phoenix this week was Haydee. She caught all 4 balls that were thrown to her and scored 2 TDs and had 65 yards in the game.
Lumberjacks vs Belloz in Business (13-44)
Cooper started the game off well for Lumberjacks going 3 for 4 for 40 yards and a TD. Cooper finished the game going 5 of 12 for 58 yards 2 TDs and 2 picks. Belloz in Business had 3 different players throw a TD pass, had 2 players run in a TD and even had a defender pick a pass off and run it in. Both teams are young, but Belloz in Business is fast and seem to have a bunch of athletes and once they learn the game a bit more, they might become a very dangerous team.
Studs & Duds
This was your last opportunity to make the cut. Let’s see who balled out and who fell the Babrovsky off the cliff.
Studs
Division 1
- Craig Browning caught 8 passes for 94 yards and 3 TDs. On defense he made 3 tackles and had 1 pick.
Division 2
- Guillaume Fontaine all I have to say is 4 picks with 1 returned for 6. The 2 catches for 36 yards, 1 TD, 1 1-point convert, and his 2 tackles are just icing on the cake.
Division 3
- Goldrick Noël went 12 of 21 for 166 yards, 5 TDs, 4 1-point converts, 1 2-point converts. Gold also ran 6 times for 34 yards and 1 TD.
Duds
Division 1
- Andrew Grant for his dropped pass that would have won them the game with 3 plays left.
Division 2
- The entire Ball Hawks team for not showing up for their 2 games with a chance to win out and make playoffs.
Division 3
- Mattei Caciula when you throw 4 picks there is a good chance to make the list, which you did.
There you have it, your final winners for the regular season. Big props to everyone who made the cut this season and for those who flopped, better luck next season trying to make the correct list.
Power Rankings
With the season over who the cares where you might be ranked when all that matters is if you win you move on and if you lose you’re done for the season.
All-Stars
I do this every year and every year it has the same rules. I will be picking 1 player per position, so no two-way payers, you can only make it for your highest division unless you play a different position then you can make it twice, but it’s never happened, not yet at least (ed’s note: that’s literally what never happened means). Now for the unveiling.
Division 1
Offense
QB- Vinny Gualano
Center- Alex Joltopuf
WR 1- Craig Browning
Slot 1- Kevin Smuda
Slot 2- Jeremy Rooney
WR 2- Jeremi Thompson O'Reilly
Defense (3-2) lineup
Rusher- Guillaume Malo
CB 1- Ali Issa
Middle– Mike Apa
CB 2- Sean Murphy
Safety 1- Marvin Steinberg
Safety 2- Andrew Grant
Division 2
Offense
QB- Guillaume Renaud-Dumoulin
Center- Roxanne Roy
WR 1- Gabriel Guérette
Slot 1- David St Jean
Slot 2- Steve Girardot
WR 2- Corey Horwood
Defense (3-2) lineup
Rusher- Edvard Baptiste
CB 1- Jason McAleer
Middle– Laïty Sow
CB 2- Pierre-Olivier Barbeau
Safety 1- Jacob Pilon
Safety 2- Alexandre Massie
Division 3
Offense
QB- Louis Vranderick
Center- Oliver Quinn
WR 1- Eliott Bourque
Slot 1- Jérémie Desrochers
Slot 2- Frank Mpeck
WR 2- Tyrell Sutton
Defense (3-2) lineup
Rusher- Shermika Bartley
CB 1- Alex Miquelon
Middle– Jelani Duhaney
CB 2- Darren Sylvestre
Safety 1- Lambert Vandycke
Safety 2- Connor Martin
Those are you 2024 winter all-stars picked by me. You all need to know I base it all off stats, so if you didn’t make the list, you didn’t do enough or everyone else just balled a little bit harder. Congrats and better luck to everyone who didn’t make it. Spring season is only a few more weeks away.
Predictions
Here we go, playoff time minus the 2 games we still have to make up for because of the lights being out. Last week I went 9 and 3 which took my season total to 100 of 148 or 67.5%. I would have liked to finish with a better winning percentage, but some players can’t read or just want to to be jerks and not help me out. At least I wasn’t picking against anyone else. Now here is who I have winning, and my picks are in bold.
Regular Season
Division 2
Punks vs Bandits
- Jesse
Show me Them TDs vs Team Rockets
- Better QB
Playoffs
Division 1
Double Dippers vs Kiss my Pass
- Defense and David possibly being rusty
Inlaws vs Rockets D1
- Speed
Division 2
No games scheduled because we are waiting on results of the last 2 regular season games.
Division 3
Action Squad vs Tropic Thunder
- Defense
Sorry to disappoint a few of you, but we all cant be winners like the teams I picked above.
Final Thoughts
Did the NFL just make the game even softer? Dilan, sorry to inform you but we need to follow suit and start banning you from those diving tackles where you let yours arms run down the players back and onto their flags. That used to be a great way to tackle when the old-style flags were used, but not so much anymore. I
How much longer until players are going to be carrying playing cards with their abilities and stats like Pokémon cards and the higher player wins. This is a complete sham of a game from what I grew up with. (ed’s note: old man yells at cloud)
I will say a lot of people aren’t happy with the kick off rule change, but I like it and we will have at least 6 kick returns for TDs this season, watch and see.
That’s enough for this week. Good luck to everyone playing this week and please remember we are playing a game, so go out, have fun, and don’t kill anyone. See you Saturday.
