[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Slowly recovering...
Stayin' Alive mode now?

The Maassluis Merchantmen are bouncing back after our second 3-game losing streak of the season. We managed to beat the Houston Mustangs in their place 27-21, leaning heavily Calvin Maxwell, at last showing flashes of why league scouts think he's the best wide receiver in football at the moment.

European Division:
1. Gothenburg 12-0
2. Paris 5-6-1
3. Maassluis 4-8
4. Bordeaux 3-9

Yeah, it looks like a lost cause, but with 4 games still to be played, we're actually 2 games and a near hopeless tie-breaker situation behind the rest of the field.

I'm going to back off from my complaints about the offense - didn't I have to do that last season as well? - as we're actually looking at our key players having crawled into top5ish spots in their respective fields of business. Calvin Maxwell is 5th with 1,142 receiving yards, with a 2nd best yards per target figure (9.6) and a league leading yards per catch (17.8). We're probably throwing a bit too deep for Earnest Ashley's liking (he's still completing only 51.6 of his passes), but he's actually 4th in yards per pass attempt and ties for the lead in yards per completion. Ken Torphy rambled for his fourth 100-game of the season, putting him in 6th in the league with 996 yards, although on a far from impressive 3.97 yards per carry figure. This will probably jinx the bunch, but they are doing not too crappy. Plus, they're not showing us they're at the top of the league quite yet (Vinny Buysse is stuck at just 49 receptions for 683 yards).

It's still a longshot to make the playoffs as the current second wild card is held by the Augusta Greenjackets, a team that beat is already and at 6-6 with 3 games remaining against other 4-8 teams, they should be the favorites to make it. The Orlando Talons, also 6-6 and also with a head-to-head tie-breaker over us, will face two of those 4-8 teams as well. Paris is 1.5 wins ahead with tie-breakers locked up already, but we're the only team they're still facing this season that isn't 8-4 or better (read: Gothenburg). And despite that we beat Houston today, the 5-7 Mustangs visit three losing teams and will host the NAC leading Oakland Black Panthers.

But that's just another jinx, the playoffs are just not in our sight unless we actually win in week 14. We're going to visit the Chesapeake Chitterlings next, a team that we last beat in 2081, not to mention that we haven't won in their place (we'll, we visit only once every 8 seasons) since the 2037 season. Back then the Chitterlings and Merchantmen had the best two defenses in the league, with the third best allowing 264 points over 16 games, while the Chitterlings (227) and especially the Merchantmen (188) were the best in business.

The 2101 Chitterlings defense ranks 3rd with 197 points allowed in 12 games. Yours truly's team ranks 31st with 312 points allowed. Only the North Plainfield Plague are doing even worse (how the mighty have fallen, that defense looks far from what their reputation still claims). So, there's little reason to expect the Merchantmen to win two in a row for the second time this season. I'm surely hoping to see it happen, but it's farfetched... But the football can make some weird bounces, and every now or then, a football game can have a weird outcome. Maybe that can happen here?