[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes
(Sigh of relief)
It wasn't pretty, but I'll take the win over playing great football. Besides, our fans are not used to seeing us score 30 or more points in one game.

A recent statistic showed that our team has faced the toughest schedule in weeks one through four. Our game against Tucker (0-5 now) will probably make us drop on the list, but having played the defending conference champions and having lost at both of them makes us look mediocre at best so far.

How did our European rivals do? The Bordeaux Vineyards shutdown the Gothenburg Giants and are looking stronger than ever. In the 23-10 victory, Billy 'Bam Bam' Jamerson ran for two scores and 119 yards. The yards per carry figure of 2.9 wasn't so great, but I think Bordeaux will take the yardage and scores over the average any day. The Paris Musketeers are impressive all of a sudden. They managed to shutdown Georgia Gridlock and their 2007 rookie of the year quarterback Nate Sutter. The 20-7 victory shows the Musketeers are a team to watch out for this season. And having allowed only 23 points in their last three games, it looks like Paris has a defense now.
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European standings:
4-1 Bordeaux
2-2 Maassluis
2-2 Paris
2-3 Gothenburg
Maassluis holds head-to-head tiebreakers over Paris on divisional record.

Schedule:
The Bordeaux players, staff and fans will sit on their couches, watching the games of the other European teams. The Maassluis Merchantmen play at the 3-2 Georgia Gridlock, the Paris Musketeers host the 2-3 Orlando Knights and the Gothenburg Giants host the 0-5 Tucker Tigers.

Player of the year:
Five heroes for our win, and they were not easy to name with so many candidates. From fifth best to best they were:
Middle Linebacker Cody Cluff, who made 6 tackles, 2 assists and defended 1 pass.
Quarterback Louie Flannery, who nullified two interceptions with 248 yards passing and 3 touchdowns.
Receiver Devin Henson, who had 3 catches for 60 yars and a score, as well as 78 kickoff return yards.
Defensive end Omar Gougeon, who had 2 tackles, 1 defended pass, half a sack and 5 quarterback hurries.
Defensive tackle Charles Gomez, who made 7 tackles, 3 sacks and recovered a fumble after forcing it.

Standings:
8 points - Devin Henson
7 points - Louie Flannery, Lincoln Gilmore
5 points - Charles Gomez, Omar Gougeon
4 points - Cody Cluff
2 points - Xavier Clyburn, Cary Coles
1 point - Mike Kershner, Tai Wayne

So, after 1/4th of the games, how are we doing stats-wise?
Offense
After four games, we're just an average passing offense. The injuries on the offensive line made the pass protection worse than normal and we all know that Louie Flannery is no sacks avoider like Justin McDavid is. With 225 yards per game things look better han they are. A completion percentage of 48.7, a 5.8 yards per attempt average, and 2 sacks per game allowed are not the best of stats. But if you think the passing game is bad, the running game is even worse. Our linemen are all black and blue and can't get key run blocks anymore. Our runners combined for 83 yards per game and a pathetic 3.2 yards per carry.

Defense
What happened here, were we not a top defense last season? Let's start with our charm last season, te pass rush. With 2.5 sacks per game, we're closing in on our average, but this figure was boosted by the 5 sacks against Tucker. Our pass defense is lacking recently. We're allowing teams to complete 61% of their passes for 7.8 yards per attempt and 285 yards per game. Yeah, ouch. Add the 117 yards per game and 4.6 yards per carry rushing and we're looking plain aweful. At least the defense still keeps teams from scoring a lot of touchdowns, although 9 touchdowns in 4 games is not a good average.

Individual Passing Game
Louie Flannery is not making the difference so far. Flan' completes only 49.6% of his passes and for just 6.0 yards per attempt. The good news is that he's got only 5 interceptions so far versus 7 touchdowns. Devin Henson is our top receiver so far, to my surprise. With 10 catches for 174 yards and 2 scores. Gregory Monti has 6 catches for 134 yards and a 22.3 average so far in limited action. Jerry Beyer helps out with 11 catches for 129 yards. Only Bryce Ewald is a bit disappointing with 9 catches for 111 yards. Jim Reiser isn't getting much looks yet, but that's partially due to his temporary role as fullback.

Individual Running Game
Don't look. Really, don't. Randy Harris has ran for 181 yards so far and an average below 3.0. The new backup Joseph Schoen ran for 61 yards and a 2.2 average, go us! In four games, our team has zero running touchdowns, zero! Where is it going wrong? Well, we're missing our run blockers a bit. Jamel Rosenberry got hurt, Cornelius Rice is out for the year, Tim Lacy is hurt, Harold Hurtado is hurt, Brant Heinrich missed time, Butch White is hurt now. I can only hope we can get over the slump.

Individual Pass Rush
Finally something that looks decent so far, although we're entirely leaning on the pass rush pressure we showed against the Tucker Tigers. With 3 sacks from Charles Gomez, the highlight is already mentioned. Omar Gougeon is doing his share with 1.5 sacks and 8 quarterback hurries. Aaron Sherrill, Erwin Baranowski, Shaun Shiroma and Andy Weliczka all added 1 sack, but not much more.

Individual Pass Defense
Guess what: Our rookie Bernie Surry is the charm of the group so far. How bad is that? Okay, granted, we wanted a pass defense linebacker, but if Surry is already our best guy, what's going wrong elsewhere? Lincoln Gilmore has been great as our strong safety, 1 interception, 3 defended passes and 5 catches allowed is a good averages. Others helping out are Tai Wayne (3 defended, 8 catches), Cody Cluff (1 interception, 2 defended, 11 catches) and Borderick Schultz (2 defended, 7 catches). The rest is lacking a bit, especially cornerbacks Winford Endicott (2 defended, 14 catches) and Xavier Clyburn (1 interception, 1 defended, 10 catches). Even Myron Stevens is joining mediocrity with 1 defended pass and 4 catches allowed.

Oh well, the toughest part of the schedule has been survived. We're 2-2 and that's just were I expected us to be. Well, okay, I hoped and expected 3-1, but 2-2 is not bad given our schedule. Outer Banks and North Plainfield are conference champs, while we never beat Tucker before. Gothenburg was a sort of no-brainer, given the 4-0 streak we have against them, yet I'm aware of how good that team actually is. The season is still long and expecting another streak of 10-1 smells like arrogance and insanity. Let's stick with the plan to hope for at least 10-6 and a playoff ticket, okay?