[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: One more thing about this past season
Yeah, I'm still not over this.

I'll try to wrap it up, but to be able to make progress, it does help to figure out what the mistakes were that were made. But before looking into that, I wanted to see where this past 2090 season stands for us historically, not just in previously mentioned points differential.

The neat stuff explain in a nutshell. I took all the regular season standings of all 87 seasons into a spreadsheet and went to the points scored and points allowed figures again. Knowing there are some flaws in comparing seasons with another, I've adjusted all figures for all teams by comparing their points scored and points allowed to the league average that season. This in an attempt to adjust era to era differences. Then I calculated the percentage figure over or under league average, and less useful, but still fun, compared to the franchise average.

Jumping out right away is how our 251 points scored is 25% less points than league average. That may not tell you a lot without putting it into perspective, but on average the Maassluis Merchantmen score 9% higher than league average. In fact, this -25% is the worst in team history. In the early days (2004 and 2005) we scored less than 250 points in the first two IHOF seasons, but with those being the upstart seasons, those figures of 238 and 239 were actually -14% and -16%. In 2021 we scored 275 points, which was -23% compared to league average, that was our worst season in scoring, until this just finished 2090 season.

So, where do we rank in points allowed? The figure of 332 is actually slightly above average, a whopping +1%. It's still below Merchantmen standards, as our average is at +8%. We've actually broken through the 400 points allowed barrier 8 times, but the inaugural 2004 season still took the cake as 358 points allowed was actually a -30% compared to league average (to put into perspective: as recently as the 2088 season, two teams scored a +1% with this exact same points allowed figure).

Our total figure for 2090 thus was a cumulative of -24% if you're tallying up both points scored and allowed. I'm guessing you've already figured out that 2004 must have been even worse overal (it was, a -43%), so 2090 comes in as just the second worst season all-time. Go team?

When were the good times then? Well, unshockingly, the 2059 15-1 campaign jumps out way ahead of the rest as we scored 562 points (55% over league average) and allowed 254 points (30% better than league average) combining for a stellar +85%. Of course, we had just as many victories in the playoffs that season as we did this season, so our roster from back in that day has nothing to show for it.

That one season when we won it all and the defense guided us to the second largest margin of victory in IHOF Bowl history? We scored +22% more than league average and were surprisingly at league average (0%) in points allowed. It reiterates that quite often, regular season play does not translate into post-season success either.

After that 2004 campaign, we bounced up to -11%, -6% and then the anomality towards the other end, the 2007 campaign with a 13-3 record and a +41% in this metric. And after our 2021 campaign with a -23%, we rebounded as well, with a -9% the next season and a +50% as early as the 2023 season, continuing to be good for a stretch of 6 seasons, peaking with a +52% in 2028. However, two seasons ago we put down a gruesome -20% in Moe Sheldon's first season as a starter with a -9% in points scored and -11% in points allowed. Last season we bounced back up to +4%, which makes this season's -24% that much harder to explain.

But those are just numbers, at the very least, it's a repeat of earlier conclusions: we can hardly blame the defense, despite that points from turnovers were down, it's really on the offense that has scored way too little touchdowns this past season. Unless we achieve progress, and a lot of it, there, we're going to be in for a series of seasons of unpreceded mediocrity and below...