[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: ... when a plan comes together?
Or how two big plays made a difference?

New season, new opportunities. In the last three season our season started with a loss, forcing us to try and play catchup. Time to end the trend, but the challenge was hard, hosting the defending European champion Paris Musketeers and their brand new quarterback Marty Forland.

Our off-season was busy, yet little really changed. The worst thing that happened was not re-signing offensive tackle Isaac Delgado, because I miscalculated our cap situation by about $300K. End result? Delgado is a free agent next off-season, while we created about $17M of cap space that now remains unused this season and will aggravate our cap situation next season by that figure. Face, palm: d'oh!

But today, was about the game against Paris with a brand new game plan on offense and not so much on defense. And here or there things seemed to work out yet others, well, not so much, I guess?

Paris got the ball first, but after a smooth 8-yard run the first pass thrown by Marty Forland was picked off by veteran Hayden McNeil near midfield. After a couple of incomplete passes, Earnest Ashley decide to change the plan as the designated target missed his route and the kid went on a scramble, proving why he became the player in the IHOF with the second highest base salary, with a magnificent 46-yard run for a touchdown. A sold out revamped Oranje Haven exploded. Less than a minute off the clock and the Merchantmen were already leading: 7-0.
Paris gained enough ground on their second drive to pin us inside our own 1-yard line, but with a tricky run from Ashley for 15 yards, the chains were moved and turned out to be the start of an 8-minute dominant drive for the full 99 yards. Ashley to Gaynor for 15 yards on third and long, an Ashley scramble for a first down, a 14-yard toss to Ed Schulz, a bunch of strong runs from Bert Ta'Amu and eventually a 24-yard touchdown pass on third and long to a wide open Malachi Pierson. A three-and-out later, we were back in Paris territory before the first quarter was over.

The Merchantmen offense then finally ran into the Paris defense for a bit, but Dylan McMullen didn't make a mistake on his 30-yard attempt to put us 17-0 up. Paris finally woke up and Marty Forland lead the offense of his new team with a lot of tricky plays (wide receiver run, fullback catch, and so on) and eventually scrambled from 2 yards out for making it a 17-7 score. A holding penalty haunted our next drive, but our defense stepped it up again and stopped Paris near midfield after 4 plays.
Earnest Ashley was sacked just before the two-minute warning, giving Paris a short field to attempt to do something about the 10-point deficit before the break. Forland continued to complete passes to his alternate targets, but as the time ran out, Paris was forced to settle for a 35-yard field goal, giving us a 17-10 lead at half time.

The second half began with a similar bang as the first half did. On the second play of our first drive of the half, Earnest Ashley found a wide open Clarence Gore at our 44-yard line, only to see Gore turn it into more than just a 12-yard gain, eventually outrunning all the remaining defenders and notching a 68-yard touchdown! Yowza! How about that for taking a 24-10 lead? The star players of the Merchantmen defense stepped it up on the next drive, with a beautiful team sack from Darien Fletcher and last season's sack machine Richie Piotte. Ashley quickly turned to spotlights back to his offense with an 18-yarder to Gore and and a 20-yarder to Clay Gaynor, but after running the same play twice, both times resulting an an incomplete pass to Malachi Pierson, we settled for a 21-yard field goal for a 27-10 lead.
Paris replied with a shift from throwing the rock to running with it. Chandler Ferguson's 34-yard run was the highlight of the drive that eventually was stopped in our red zone to force a 36-yard field goal for keeping us 27-13 up. A quick three-and-out was on our offense and two plays later Paris saw Ferguson have his big play of the day, bursting through our defense for a 58-yard touchdown run and becoming the league leading rusher after week 1. After the missed extra point, it was a one score game nevertheless: 27-19, Maassluis.

A quarterback sneak on third and short failed at the start of the fourth quarter, but our punter Shaun Barlow managed to pin Paris at their own 6-yard line. Marty Forland tried to get his offense forward, but on their sixth play, who else than Richie Piotte penetrated the Paris defense and sacked the quarterback. Earnest Ashley followed it up with a magnificent 29-yard throw to Clay Gaynor on third and long, an 11-yarder to George Stuckey, but as we were closing in on field goal range, the whole offense collapsed on third down, Ashley was strip-sacked and Paris' Bert Wescott recovered the loose ball. The Merchantmen defense immediately stepped up and after two short runs and a hurried pass, the ball was back in Ashley's hands at our own 19-yard line with 6 minutes to go and still leading by 8 points.
After Bert Ta'Amu ran for 8 yards, Earnest Ashley found Clay Gaynor for a 30-yard gain on third and one, then Ed Schulz for a 32-yard gain on the ensuing play to burst into the red zone. We tried to have Ta'Amu pound it in, but we had to settle for eating Paris' time outs and a 19-yard field goal for a 30-19 lead. Paris had no choice but to go into throw deep mode and our defense was well prepared. Adam Harmon deflected a pass, Jon Brotzman and Zachery Weisz tackled a wide receiver for a short gain, Harold Gough hurried Marty Forland into a bad throw and on fourth down Archie Exner did the same thing. We could have gone into victory formation right there, but we decided to let our rookie guard Roger Staigvil make a false start penalty and give Ta'Amu one more carry before Ashley made the game ending knee drop. Maassluis 30, Paris 19. Yay!

A round of applaus from the loaded Oranje Haven fell over the Merchantmen players, our fans were visibly enlightened with such a strong start to the season. Sure, Chandler Ferguson's couple of big runs in the third quarter made it a close game again, but overall we outgained Paris 468 yards to 324 yards, a tremendous performance.

Earnest Ashley took the most of the accolades, completing 19 of 35 passes for 304 yards, 2 touchdowns and also running for 78 yards and a score. Is the beast unleashed, or will sample size turn out to not be in his favor? Fair to say, his two big plays, one in part result of Clarence Gore's big-play ability, made a difference, but that sometimes that's what's needed to make a difference.

Elsewhere in Europe, the Gothenburg Giants beat the Bordeaux Vineyards 34-27 after almost, but not quite, choking a 21-point lead. Surprisingly lead by Mercury Pierce, as the Giants' seem to not yet be sold on first round pick Deon Sheldon nor the experienced veteran Cary Bradford they signed from the Musketeers after he quarterbacked them to the AOC Championship game.

Division:
1. Maassluis 1-0
2. Gothenburg 1-0
3. Bordeaux 0-1
4. Paris 0-1

Our journey continues with one of many trips to the USA, facing the Frederick Red Menace after tying the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums 20-20, dodging a loss by seeing them miss two field goals in overtime. A new encounter with the highest paid player in the league, who signed a new 5-year deal giving him a cap figure of nearly $106M this season and earning him another $100M signing bonus on top of previous off-season's $198M bonus. In comparison, Earnest Ashley's cap figure of $57M is modest, isn't it?