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Old 07-14-2020, 05:27 PM   #330
MIJB#19
Coordinator
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
General Manager Notes: Facing the reigning champions
And we put up a fight in their place.

Going into today's game, the Kansas Creationists were obviously favored to beat our Merchantmen. But any given Tuesday and what not other clichés, there's always a chance. And we got some chances to make it happen.

First quarter, first possession. We got the best we have on the field on defense, but it wasn't to be, Hugh Gaines threw a short pass to his receiver Ryan Blalock, who ended up promoting the catch to a 63-yard touchdown. 35 second into the game, 7-0 down. Welcome to Kansas.

But, we had no intentions to just hand that W to them. We brought a game plan that almost worked against them in the past, plus, we should have a bunch of players that actually can play defense. Really, just look at them and tell me they aren't suitable for the job, because they are. But y'know, this is football, something silly and crazy unexpected things can happen.

Our first drive got cut short, but at least we gained enough ground to pin them at their own 1-yard line. It paid as one of their tight ends fumbled the ball after a pretty long catch and had to see our linebacker Daquan Espino run it all 45 yards back to tied the score 7-7. That guy Blalock then torches us again, this time for a 48-yard gain, but an illegal block penalty a couple of plays later takes their touchdown away and we have a moral victory by just giving up a 35-yard field goal.

Moe Sheldon is slowly growing into his role as our quarterback and found George Stuckey and Branden Sandlin for first down catches, then rookie Clarence Gore for a huge 26-yard catch to not just convert third down, but move into field goal range. Then rookie running back Trey Beyer runs for 12 yards and we're on the move. Three plays later, Moe Sheldon find Stuckey for a short touchdown pass and a 14-10 lead. On Kansas' next drive our pass rush finally woke up and apparently went back te bed right after, but at least we stalled them at midfield and we had the ball back at the end of the first quarter.

Moe Sheldon started connected passes with Theodore Bondy: 16 yards just before the second quarter and 14 yards on the second play into it. Then 12 yards to Bondy to march deeper into Kansas territory and then out of nowhere our special teamer Asher Ford gets a carry and turns it into a mindboggling 25 yard gain. Three plays later, Sheldon sees Braden Sandlin wide open in the end zone and all of a sudden we're leading 21-10 at the league champions. How about that?

On Kansas next drive, we get torched for a 30-yarder on third and long, but luckily it gets called back for holding and they fail to make much ground on third and twice as long. On their next drive, we play well on first and second downs, but two long third down conversions start to break us up. Hugh Gaines then finds the fumbling tight end for 28 yards and then another tight end for a 12-yard touchdown and a 21-17 score, still barely halfway into the second quarter.

We gain enough ground on our next possession to get more than 3 minutes off the clock and put Kansas back at their 20-yard line, Of course they throw and throw and throw and no matter what we try, we get either a penalty or see them gain 22 yards on a screen pass, or 14 yards on third and 11. And as Kansas efficiently throws their way into our red zone, what seems to become the go ahead touchdown, ends up in a fumble just 4 yards away from our end zone to stop their drive and give us a knee drop into a 21-17 half time lead.

Momentum shifted quickly though, as our first possession in the second half starts with our own shouldn't be trying to make catches tight end fumbles the ball on our very first play. 20 yards on a short pass later and we're just extremely happy to hold them to a 29-yard field goal and hold on to the lead by the slimmest of margins: 21-20. Moe Sheldon rediscovers his starting caliber throwing skills, finding George Stuckey on a crucial third down and then the rookie Clarence Gore to move past midfield. Eventually a throw to the rookie running back falls incomplete (why would you even make that throw, Moe?) and all our efferts go without results. We actually manage to stop Kansas on their next drive, but their punt pins us at our own 1-yard line. For a couple of seconds they thought they got a safety, but our rookie Trey Beyer was stuffed inches away from the end zone, but eventually we have to punt anyway. Our defense finally returns the favor with three and out, but our running game falls flat on the next possession with back to back no gainers on 1 yard to go situations. The pass machine then wakes up on a fourth and one situation, in which they manage to force our defense to play in some absurd fantasy formation and obviously torches us for 35 yards. One play later, the 6-yard pass puts Kansas 27-21 up. That too is football, apparently.

No worries, we return the favor of sort by seeing our run blocker and nothing bu a run blocker fullback make a run for it and gain 21 yards to start the fourth quarter. Moe Sheldon then finds Theo Bondy for 14 yards, but on third down we do the opposite from what Kansas would do: our screen pass ends up in a catch far behind the line of scrimmage. Two plays later Kansas' tight end makes a deep catch for a 38-yard gain and we're eventually thrilled to hold it to a 40-yard field goal, yet going down 30-21. We continue to make silly calls on offense, but the defense wakes up again and actually gives us another chance. We don't grab it, but instead pin them at their 7-yard line. Eventually we stop them, but we have to burn all our time outs and find ourselves pinned even deeper at our 5-yard line. By then, the immobile Hugh Gaines has started racking up the rushing yards as well. On our own possession, Moe Sheldon becomes unable to get the ball to Theo Bondy on four straight pass attempts. It was one of those games again, the post 2087 Bondy is curiously unable to win games for us.

So it goes, we lose 30-21 at the league champions, somewhat helped by fumbles to gain a lead and maintain it, but we return the favor with a fumble on our own and should never have happened fourth down non-sense. We lose the one game we were most likely to lose in the regular season and we actually were in the game for a majority of it. Yes, our defense got exposed, we struggled more than we should have, but maybe Kansas deserves some credit for the talent that they have been able to collect on their wide receivers group. As a GM, you wish other teams in the league would do what you've been doing: not trading your best player to them, but some owners overestimate their ability to turn picks and less talented players into a league championships winning team, while the rich get richer. But that's just one of the obstacles to overcome as well.

Speaking of obstacles, the Gothenburg Giants stumbled at the Iowa Cobbers, but instead the two French division rivals had somewhat solid victories, which gives us a near deadlock in the division:

Standings
1. Maassluis 1-1
2. Gothenburg 1-1
3. Bordeaux 1-1
4. Paris 1-1

Hilariously, the NAC Midwest, the teams we faced today, are in a similar four 1-1 teams situation. It makes for a weird who beat who carousel.

So, we gave up 575 yards of offense, but realistically that's what we were likely to do today anyway. We got quite a bit out of our own more realistic 322 yards. Should we have tried to go all guns galore deep throwing to our gazelles? Probably not, our gazelles aren't as spectacular as theirs. In return, our lions just failed to put up a consistent fight and at the end of the day, you're not supposed to win a game when you give up that much yardage.

The season is still young and we continue our back-to-back on the road at the Rochester Razorbacks. They're coming off a 27-0 clobbering, so they're probably overly motivated to play their first home game and prove they have no intentions of going winless this season. Well, we'll get there with the intentions to make it three in a row for them.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen
* Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail
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