[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Still on cloud nine...
Still going strong.

Everything that went wrong last season, well, the coin flip apparently is going the other way this season. There probably are many reasons why things are clicking this season, but the night and day difference with pretty much the same bunch of guys is unusual.

No time for long game recaps this time, but we had a strong couple in Houston and at home against Bordeaux.

In Houston we posted a 24-10 win. The defense sacked their quarterback 7 times and with 2 pick sixes to open the score, we really dominated until they finally pulled their quarterback and made a late game surge to, well, still come 2 touchdowns short.

Against Bordeaux it was a 38-10 win. Moe Sheldon and Theodore Bondy connected on a 92-yard touchdown early on and supported by a defense that silence their running game and held them to 234 total yards, it was smooth sailing. Sheldon finished the day with 319 yards and 5 touchdown passing, earning Solecismic Player of the Week honors. Bondy gained 204 yards and scored 2 touchdowns on 8 catches, as a result receiving DogBytes player of the week.

The connection between all the units of the team is working wonders. The defense and special teams unit so far are playing top of the league level. The offense is getting by, flipflopping from decent, to efficient, to more recently two big games from Theo. Old times reliving?

As a result, Moe Sheldon's position as our starting quarterback is more secure than ever. This was only his second 300-yard performance in his 3 and a half seasons with us, previous one in a losing effort even, but I'm feeling more confident that he'll keep getting the job done. And all that without our anchorman of the O-Line Butch Pearson.

Standings:
1. Maassluis 7-1-1
2. Gothenburg 5-4
3. Bordeaux 3-6
4. Paris 3-6

No looking back, the next game will be an early chance for an all or nothing. Yes, we're going to Gothenburg.

Their third year quarterback Mercury Pierce sees his team struggling with getting the wins, but his throwing numbers are hardly worse than last season, you could even say he's even improved. Their running game is struggling as Jack Crane has been held to 3.4 yards per carry, opposed to his 4.4 of last season, while running for less than 80 yards per game, whereas last season was over 100 yards per game. But, we know very well that we are perhaps Crane's favorite opponent.

So yes, we're much improved compared to last season, but it's perhaps just little things that's making it happen. First of all, by keeping the roster together for the most part, cohesion has slowly returned to the levels we've been used to. It takes quite some time to recover from mass departure like we had three seasons ago. The changes otherwise are very small.

At tight end we've made rookie Clarence Gore our second most targeted player, while George Stuckey (almost dumped on roster cut day) has grown into the WR3 spot and is basically our WR2 now ahead of Branden Sandlin. On the O-Line we're actually downgraded from Butch Pearson to Mark Silvan, with Michael Szott moved inside from guard to center.

On the D-Line we're giving Darien Fletcher and Jumbo Mojica less playing time, but apparently it's working for them and we can't say Kurt Ackerman and A.J. Ritt are horribly change of pace replacements. In the secondary it's Devon Farrell who's stepped in in place of Alexander Marty, while Chuck Murray took over from Salvador Harper.

But it's all pretty much pointless to talk about if we somehow falter in the second half of the season. We're only 9 games in, our goal is to play 19 games, with 20 being acceptable if we manage to choke the bye week slot that we currently virtually hold. Road game in Gothenburg, I'm sure the Giants are up to it and have something special planned for tomorrow's blockbuster game. I'm confident we can win this one, but realistically this is one of the games you'd pencil as a loss before the season start. But it's still a game to be played, we have what it takes, at least this season... If this reborn THeodore Bondy can keep it up, we'll have a serious shot at it.