[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: underperforming is an understatement
The 2100 Merchantmen are the most depressing team we ever had. Period.

European division:
1. Gothenburg 7-4
2. Paris 6-5
3. Bordeaux 3-8
4. Maassluis 3-8

Ouch.

I mean, seriously. Ouch.

I think it's unprecedented for any team in the 97-season history of the International House of Football to have such a talented offensive collective and hit the 8-loss mark by week 11. We've stumbled into a victory in week 12, improving to 3-8, but this season looks quite clearly as a lost cause already.

Okay, it's easy to grumble and complain, especially if you have some sort of clue what you're doing wrong. But that's kind of the problem here, we're trying to be unpredictable, which apparently in this world of football means you're actually being predictable by doing the unpredictable. I've tried hard to get us back to a very balanced offensive game plan, but doing so continuously ends up in defenses finding ways to actually understand what we're doing by keeping track of what we're not doing. Or something along those lines. It's weird, but it feels like that's where we are right now.

The defense has also fallen apart. We're giving up more than a full touchdown more per game compared to last season, while allowing over 55 yards more per game, while the league average yardage allowed went up only 13 yards per game. On that end, I'm feeling that the departure of Jerome Shumate as our rock solid defensive tackle has been crucial. That combined with some of our grizzled veterans losing some of their speed and power, their experience isn't enough to overcome that.

Still, we should have the offensive skill players to outscore any team we face. But no. We're 25th in the league with 335 total yards per game on offense. Our running game of 93 yards per game, with 3.97 per carry (over half a year below league average) is mindboggling. The passing game has actually improved a tiny bit this season. Earnest Ashley continues to complete under 55% of his passes, but our yards per pass attempt has improved from 6.1 to 6.7, which means going from below average to above average. Anyway, our second year players are at least showing their names in the gross yardage lists, with Calvin Maxwell sitting 4th in receiving yards and Ken Torphy 5th in rushing yards. And we've actually had the most 100-yard receivers in the league this season, with 10 of such performance and 4 different guys achieving it. Torphy had a rare 100+ in both rushing and receiving, while Maxwell has made 5 centuries and behind him Vinny Buysse and good old Ed Schulz had a pair each.

And yet, glancing at the league standings, I have very little reason to feel even remotely optimistic as a 3-8 record means we're 4 wins behind the teams currently occupying 6th and 7th place in the conference, where only 6 teams go into the playoffs. Our chances at a division title collapsed in a severe choke job against the talentwise inferior Gothenburg Giants. But really, most of our opponents are inferior in talent, it's the wrong argument to use here to proclaim we should be winning. Fact remains, neither my staff members or me are capable of coming up with an offensive game plan that isn't dreadful. Yeah, I'm saying that despite my previous observations. I demand top5 performance from an offense that's on paper that: a top5 offense.

So, we're certainly not going to play out the season as if we don't care, we still have 5 more games to prove that we're as good as we should be. It won't come easy, that appears to be clear, but I've got to trust in the talent of my players, because my staff won't make it happen, nor will I. All I can do is try to fix the mess I made, the ruble my staff is clearly incapable of cleaning up.

A famous phrase in this line of work comes up once again: "I suggest more testing"... Maybe I'll get around to it in the next bunch of days, to get my mind off non-football related things. I mean, seriously, this is no 3-8 team, this bunch of players has 8-3 in them. Ending up at 8-8 would be quite the challenge, but I'm going to accept it, get some of my pride back, we're the Merchantmen, we're still 3rd in most regular season wins in league history by a good margin. Reaching win 900 by next season is still possible. Get that done, team. Go Merchantmen!