[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: From good to terrible to awesome
That's it basically, the last three games in a nutshell.

The home game against the Atlanta Vipers was a bit of a defensive slugfest, with a 24-7 win on the scoreboard. A bit as our defense picked off their quarterback on one of their two drives for more than 35 yards, while we were more efficiently on our long drives (2 touchdowns), medium length drive (42-yard field goal) and scored another touchdown on a short 7-yard drive. We went with Moe Sheldon at quarterback again and it somewhat worked. 17 of his 27 targets went to Theodore Bondy, who made just 9 catches for 106 yards out of it. Our tight ends made the touchdowns, as did Reggie Thongchanh' on another 100-yard running performance. The pass rush was particularly impressive with 16 broken up plays on 46 passing plays.

We followed up with quite the defensive stinker at the Fort Wayne Fury: a 48-20 loss. They scored six touchdowns, contrary to previous games, our defense was a no-show, giving up 515 total yards. Our running game was pretty decent, but our passing game was less efficient: Theo Bondy had 6 catches on 15 targets (seriously, what's up with that?), yet Branden Sandlin had 103 yards on 3 catches.

And then we hosted the Paris Musketeers and took full advantage of the turnover margin, beating them 48-14. Moe Sheldon completed 17 of 21 passes for 246 yards, Theo Bondy had 12 catches for 125 yards, Branden Sandlin had 3 catches for 111 yards. Reggie Thongchanh ran for 106 yards and 2 touchdowns. But the key to the blowout score were the 3 interception return touchdowns. Paris' decision to feed their running backs only 8 carries did not work out well for them.

And with that we're sitting at a somewhat surprising second place, just one win behind the division lead:
1. Bordeaux 4-3
2. Maassluis 3-4
3. Gothenburg 2-5
4. Paris 2-5

Yes, it's obviously still wide open and there's very little reason to think we're world beaters. But so is the rest of the division. Our points differential of -9 is best inside the division.

Elsewhere in the AOC, the Houston Mustangs have fallen to 1-6. The reigning IHOF champions will be our next opponents, at their place. Let's not forget that we've got their first round pick, beating them will be very good for our draft position!

So, I suspect you're going to ask "what about Francisco Farley?" Quite simply, he didn't improve much, if at all, so far. Contrary, Moe Sheldon has done admirably well, it makes sense to stick with our eleventh hour free agent signing, for now. With a 3-1 record, numbers look good on him, but to be fair, all three wins were home games. Farley got just one start at home, where he did indeed throw 4 interceptions. More importantly, Farley currently has 4.0 yards per attempt, Sheldon has 7.4 yards per attempt: sample size issues or not, we've got to like Sheldon here. Upside for Farley is his ability to scramble. Where Sheldon will take a sack for a 4 yard loss, Farley will run for 5 or 6 yards.

Defensively, Tony Whiting is turning into a pleasant surprise. Although already knowing he could be a pass rush machine, he's delivering it so far with 7.0 sacks. Archie Exner is behind him with 4.5 sacks, but with an impressive 10.3 pass rush percentage. The supposedly monster defensive ends Gene Kondolovski and Andy Russell are probably the ones taking all the blocking and opening holes for the two undrafted guys. Defensive tackle Jumbo Mojica has proven to be a crucial guy on the inside, the one game he was missing is the game we got crushed by the Fury.

That's about as much as I can say and see for now. We could just as easily end up a 3-13 bottom dweller (we have the #29 offense and #26 defense in yardage), but for now, we're actually half-decent enough to be in the race for the division title. A sweep of the Vineyards would put us in the division lead, but that's getting way too much ahead of ourselves. Houston is our next stop, Bordeaux is second. And all that comes next is way too far ahead in the future.

We live in the now. We're on the Moe Sheldon boat. A place I had no idea we'd be in during the pre-season. But here we are now, hopefully on the right route to success.