[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Life goes on?
Or how we can get our minds off bad things by enjoying the little good things.

Three more games played for the Maassluis Merchantmen and I can start this report by telling you we lost a crucial game to the Gothenburg Giants, but also won the games around it to keep the lead to two games. Divisional standings first, game reports second, so here we go!

European Division
1. Maassluis 7-4
2. Gothenburg 5-6
3. Paris 4-7
4. Bordeaux 3-8

What's happening here? Bordeaux is slowly recovering, but it's obviously too little too late as the second wild card is destined to go to a team with a 7-8-1 record at minimum. Paris' hopes for the playoffs are about done as well now, coming right after a mid-season ownership change. Gothenburg is somewhat still on our tail, but with the head-to-head series behind us and being split, we're in decent shape to fend them off. We both get the French teams in a trio of home games to close out the regular season.

How did we play in these last three games?

Our 25-17 victory over the Orlando Talons was heavily based on us moving the ball just enough to get into field goal range and not far enough to avoid the field goals. End result: 6 field goals from Oscar Harrington is a game where we completely dominated the field position battle, but our offensive production, especially the running game and unusual number of sacks held us back. We did win the turnover battle for a change, meaning the defense did plenty enough to give the offense just enough room move the chains 50 or so yards into the Harrington's kicking range.

The turnover battle wasn't on our side in the trip to Gothenburg. Before the first quarter was over, an interception and lost fumble had given the Giants a 21-0 lead before we even had an opportunity to score or punt. We fought back, getting two interceptions by our defense on long throws, and on the first drive of the second half we leveled the score 24-24. The Giants immediately responded on a typical long drive to go 31-24 ahead and held us off just enough, with our only true chance to score ending in another fumble.

Today we quickly rebounded with a dominating 30-13 win over the Capital City Blues. Most of their points came on a kickoff return touchdown, as our defense in particular was dominant. We held the Blues to 165 total yards, a thing of beauty for those that were so used to see dominating Merchantmen defenses of past times gone by. Slowly, but steadily, we're tweaking the game plan into a balanced one, while also finding ways to optimize the usage of our super star wide receiver duo.

I have some ideas why and how we're doing it. I have to admit that I'm happy to see that reverting back to some old traditions seem to work. The return of a stud defensive tackle (should I mention Ben Courcy or Gabriel Morris here), supported by a stud middle linebacker (Gus Coleman) and behind them an above expectations performing safety (undrafted rookie Craig Clancy). But is that it? That and the revamped offensive game plan?

I could report on the easy schedule ahead of us en route to ending the longest series of seasons without a division title, but I won't. We should remind ourselves to keep focusing on the next game and only that next game. The only exception to be made if we see a mathematical reason to give more weight to future games, but we haven't reached that point of the season yet.

Merchantmen, sail on.