[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Cautiousness remains, we're not there yet
Yup, we lost in Orlando, the most logical result of the season so far.

We had it coming of sorts, we knew the stretch of one-score-margin wins would come to and end sooner or later. We're kind of similar to last season's team, still. All our wins were kind of blowouts, today's 27-11 loss at Orlando only shows that we're still far from a true contender.

Brandon Bell was brought back to earth. Although completing 22 of 34 passes, the ground gained was only 176 yards, with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. Indeed, that's from 1 to 5 in just 3 games time. Growth spurts, or early signals Bell is closer to the replacement level quarterback he's been talked about being?

Theo Bondy has completely lost it, that's a sure thing. After 9 games, he's gotten over 100 yards just twice. Twice! And that was with 114 and 110 yard figures. Ronnie Hammond as the diversion tactic is slowly stopping to work. But perhaps he can relive the week 1 success against his old team as we're visiting the Gothenburg Giants up next.

Gothenburg isn't in good shape either though, they got crushed 31-6 at home by the Paris Musketeers. The Bordeaux Vineyards got destroyed 51-20 at the Tucker Tigers.

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

Aside from our struggles on offense, despite that I've been impressed by our defense at times, we continue to be bottom feeders in rushing (28th per game, 31st per carry) and passing (27th per game, 25th per attempt). As impressive as our defensive front looks on paper, we're actually mediocre in pass rush figures. Yeah, I actually thought we were doing pretty well, but we're actually below average.

Oh well, losing in Orlando wasn't a shocker, it's back to focusing on games that will matter even more for the division title race. We'll pout about the missed opportunity to grab the #2 seed spot with head-to-head tie-breakers over both Southeast division's title contenders by the time we find out the loss in Orlando cost us a bye week. Now we'll just have to stay ahead of Paris. For starters, extending our wins in the division would help us make another leap towards maintaining the division lead.