[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: We stuffed the Lost Cause
And beat Paris in the process, yippee!

A crucial victory in what basically was a stay in the race or fall far behind game. It's always a lot to ask from the team to win on the road in a divisional clash, but the visit to Paris was in particular one that I was particularly wanting us to see win. Preferably, or honestly maybe more importantly, by keeping the Lost Cause Ken Torphy in check.

First play from scrimmage, Paris in possession at their own 35-yard line. The Paris quarterback handed off to Ken Torphy and in his attempt to run around the right end, Torphy bumped into second year LB Tony Burks to get tackled for a loss. His fullback and backups got some action on the same drive, as Paris still managed to move inside our redzone, but on his second carry, Torphy was stopped by DT Gabriel Morris and LB Abraham Desimone for no gain. A couple of plays later Torphy's QB ran the ball in for Paris 7-0 lead, but Torphy's production was held to 3 carries for 0 yards gained. Surely the team wasn't happy about falling behind a touchdown on the first drive already, but the owner/general manager of the Merchantmen was smirking, the Lost Cause was put back to earth.

A defensive battle followed, Paris nailed us at our own 1-yard line late in the first quarter, we were stopped on 4th and not so short when kicking wasn't really an option nor was punting, but in particular off-season acquisition S Pete Weaver showed himself. Recently I instructed for letting him play a bit more in neutral and run oriented downs and with a couple of interceptions, one returned for a touchdown, he made the best statement for why he deserved more playing time.

In between all this, RB Van Goodwin struggled once again, while RB Bennett Holmes played okayish. QB Winfred England had a typical 50/50ish day, completing less than half of his passes, but when he did, it was usually for the first down and usually with a good gain as well (he threw for 297 yards). WR Calvin Maxwell bounced back with 120 yards on 7 catches, making up for WR Vinny Buysse having a bit of a down game. But TE Garrett Alcala won over some doubters. Amidst the turnover battle that the Merchantmen defense was winning, the second-year tight end caught a long pass and turned it into an 83-yard touchdown.

A couple of forth quarter giveaways could have hurt us, as it helped trim our 21-7 lead to 21-14 and saw us miss the opportunity to bring it back up to a 2-score lead. But we stuffed the Lost Cause once again and as Paris ended up in a pass on all downs catchup mode, good old CB Zachery Weisz made a crucial interception just before the two-minute warning. We failed to run out the clock, but the defense was solid enough to keep Paris from a miracle last minute drive.

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

Bordeaux is currently tied at the top of the AOC with the league champions Toronto Lake Monsters, while Gothenburg sits in the first wild card slot. We're currently a game behind the second wild slot, but a victory in Houston (our next game) would actually virtually put us in that spot, knowing that the virtual #6 seeds Tucker Tigers won't have their bye until after their home games against Harlem (2-5) and Snapfinger (2-6). So, yeah, it's not very likely we'll jump into that virtual wild card slot anytime soon. Maybe if Gothenburg loses in the upcoming game of the week in Bordeaux.

But, why would be have the confidence to actually win in week 9? We'll be visiting the Houston Mustangs, a team that we lost 35-21 at last season, which was the worst of our 6 late season games were we kind of restored some confidence in our ability to play good offense. The change of quarterback has brought some additional boost to our star receivers, both are performing as league top10 receivers.

Speaking of quarterbacks, QB Earnest Ashley is unhappy about his playing time. It hasn't come as a surprise, it's likely that by the end of the season he'll be demanding a trade, unless we flip back to him for whatever reason. It could create a peculiar situation as both Ashley and England are signed through the 2104 season and out of contract in 2105. England is signed for $37M with no bonus (which means a retirement wouldn't cost us dead cap space), while Ashley is signed for a $45M salary and a $30M bonus. And then there's QB Randy Walters, our rookie project. I see a couple of scenarios.

No changes in 2103, England sticks around
This will be a scenario where we'll have to take our losses with Ashley and either trade or release him, assuming he doesn't retire. Walters would hopefully hold up over pre-season and look like our 2105 and onwards option.

No changes in 2103, England retires
If this happens, we'll have a choice between Ashley and Walters, hopefully. If that happens, we know Ashley will be non-negotiable in the off-season, costing us $75M in cap space. We could either start Ashley for one final season and figure out in the 2105 off-season whether we can re bring him back after he returns to happiness after a season of starting again. If we go with Walters, we'll have to decide whether we want Ashley as very expensive mentor and backup behind Walters. All that, providing Ashley doesn't retire after one season of riding the bench...

But that's all future talk, right now, we're in the middle of the 2103 season and for now are in an okay enough spot to think that we're still in the hunt for a playoffs ticket. The Solecismic playoffs probabilities calculator currently gives us roughly 1 in 6 odds. That's good enough for me though, as of right now, if we would win all of our 9 remaining regular season games, we'll be division champions. Quite simply because we've still got both games against Bordeaux and Gothenburg still to play. And all could look much different if we fall to 2-5 Houston in the next game and see Paris jump back ahead of us by winning their game in Atlanta...