[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Winning record!
Will 2103 finally be the turnaround season?

Facts first: we continued our season with yet another home game, facing the Atlanta Vipers. In 2100 division champions, the Vipers have dropped hard the last two seasons and actually had a worse record than we had in 2102, although by just half a victory. Although the defense struggled to hold the not so impressive Atlanta offense off, by the start of the fourth quarter, the offense had done quite enough to we managed to take a 20-point lead and eventually won 36-26.

The biggest news of the day was RB Van Goodwin's 133 rushing yards and 1 touchdown (with a 9.5 yards per carry average), while RB Bennett Holmes also added a score on the ground. Winfred England continued the 50/50 kind of play, but it was all just enough to keep the chains moving, with WR Calvin Maxwell bouncing back with a 114 receiving yards and a touchdown. Even TE Garrett Alcala scored a touchdown!

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

So, a 3-game winning streak, when did we achieve that most recently? Week s 12 through 14 of the 2100 season, also a 3-game stretch at home, then we finished it by upsetting the eventual NAC top seeded Texas Sharks. Gothenburg is also on a 3-game winning streak, pushing Paris to the bottom of the division in a game where the loser was always going to end up there. Bordeaux lost their unbeaten status in a 54-17 humiliation at home, by the hands of the Fort Wayne Fury. Some kid named Billy Russell threw for 6 touchdowns, missing his chance to join the 7-touchdown club by getting replaced in the fourth quarter.

Guess what, we'll be visiting those Fury in week 7. We won only 3 of our last 28 road games (yeah, I took the silly selective stats route here, we actually won 5 of the 9 before that). It will be an interesting matchup, because the Fury have a loaded defense in terms of talent and their management appear to be able to turn a random off the streets QB into the best performing one in the league: in 5 games, Russell threw for over 400 yards per game, 18 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. And the kid has legs as well...

So, yeah, it'll be time to go to the drawing board for a defensive game plan. Or take the double bluff card and stick with our current game plan. We actually flipped between 3 completely different defensive game plans, so it won't be possible for the Fury to predict which one we'll use anyway. Most likely, I'll indeed take the time to think hard on what kind of plan we can make for this specific game.

On a more overall scale, it's good news to be 3-2 and on a winning streak, but reality is that we've already played 4 of our 8 home games. Based on that we're basically not far ahead of what we managed to do last season (3 wins at home, 1 on the road). But for now, it's much better to clamp on the positive side of things and try to tweak the things that can be improved.