[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: 50-50 for the home stretch?
At least for this home game streak.

It was a bit early to give up faith in the team when Earnest Ashley dropped out injured. After all, he was completing only barely over 50% of his passes, surely Efrain Batcheck should be able to copy that, no? But facing the Orlando Talons, half a win ahead of us in the wild card race, this wasn't going to be a game where we'd be the favorites, or were we by a point or so?

It doesn't start well when your kickoff returner muffs the ball and the opponents recover it. All you can hope for then is your defensive stars to step up (and they did) to hold them to a 36-yard field goal. We responded with a decent drive, but closing in on field goal range, we chickened out. Orlando responded, but a couple of sacks eventually stalled their drive just enough to force them to punt to maintain their 3-0 lead. We failed to gain too much ground in return and Orlando woke up on their next drive.

But barely into the second quarter, our defense stepped up again, forcing them to punt. Bert Ta'Amu woke up, big time, with runs for 11, 8, 9 and a catch for 6 yards to move past midfield. We went for it on fourth and one, but our trick play failed. Virtue of our defense, three and out was there to give it back to us. Ta'Amu continued his good day with runs for 6, 7 and 26 yards, but we ended up punting yet again, to pin them deep. Randal Solomon lead an impressive drive from Orlando's 6-yard line and finished it off with a 22-yard touchdown pass to his running back for a 10-0 lead. Our offense was stopped quickly, but just as you'd expected Orlando to run out the clock, they decided to go for it, finding Devon Farrell on their way, picking off Solomon's pass and returning it the full 60 yards for a touchdown! Going into half time trailing 10-7 felt much better.

Orlando had the ball first in the third quarter and moved the ball quickly to end up with a converted 49-yard field goal for their 13-7 lead. Our offense couldn't do much, but neither did they, although they pinned us at our own 1-yard line. Efrain Batcheck finally got his groove going, finding Malachi Pierson for 13 yards and Ed Schulz for 20 yards on the next play. Bert Ta'Amu moved the chains and so did George Stuckey on a 10-yard catch and soon after Ed Schulz on an 18-yard catch converting third and very long. Pierson made another crucial third and long reception to keep the drive going, inside the Orlando red zone.

The drive continued in the fourth quarter as Clay Gaynor made a 22-uard reception on Efrain Batcheck's pass to brush away another third and fifteen play, coming a yard or so short to make the touchdown. It followed two plays later as Bert Ta'Amu bulldozed it in, making the 14-13 lead complete. Orlando fought back, saw Randal Salomon complete a 30-yard pass to one of his receivers and a pair of sacks by the hands of Caiden Croyle and Archie Exner were required to push them out of field goal range. From our 5-yard line, we started another strong drive. A pass interference call on third down moved the chains, but the equally important play became George Stuckey's 44-yard catch. It all stopped there though, as we failed to gain any yards on the next bunch of plays to make a field goal attempt impossible. Our defense forced three and out, which was strengthened by Mark Perkins punt return to midfield. Batcheck found Ta'Amu for 29 yards and another score was inevitible, right? It turned out to be a 33-yard field goal, sufficient to extent our lead to 17-13. Momentum was on us though, Ernie Grant intercepted a screen pass on the first play of the next drive. Slowly, but steadily did we move the ball and take out Orlando's time outs leading up to our 26-yard field goal to jump to a 20-13 lead with under a minute to go. Their kickoff return got the Talons somewhat of a good field position, but their second play turned out to be their last: Preston Bradford intercepted the ball in Orlando territory. Victory formation followed: Merchantmen win 20-13!

Elsewhere, the Gothenburg Giants crushed the Toronto Lake Monsters 37-3, while the Paris Musketeers upset the Tucker Tigers 45-27, meaning the European division leader is now #1 seed bound. Bordeaux extended their winning streak to 3 games.

Division standings
1. Gothenburg 10-2
2. Maassluis 9-3
3. Paris 4-8
4. Bordeaux 4-8

Despite that Orlando played quite solidly in the first half, we somehow took control with that pick six just before half time and turned it all around. We actually outgained them 375 yards to 319 yards, so we can honestly say we were the better team. Turnovers were in our favor, but I think our running game finally made a difference as Bert Ta'Amu had his best game in orange-white-and-blue so far: 137 yards rushing, 35 yards receiving, 1 touchdown, 5.7 yards per carry.

Next up, a road game, at the Chesapeake Chitterlings. Almost any other season a sure loss. This season? They're floating around .250 land, they're on a 6-game losing streak. BUt 5 of those came on the road and today they got unlucky at the 11-1 Oakland Black Panthers, losing 23-20 in overtime after choking a 13-point lead in the last 2 minutes and a half. There are no easy wins in IHOF, especially not against traditionally the league's second best franchise: they're still 126 regular season wins (minus 3 ties) ahead of us. They missed their chances to record win 1000 this season, they'll get their somewhere during next season anyway (only 9 more needed). We're coming off win #903 overall (including playoffs games) and hope to yank it up to 910 this season.

But, one win at a time, drive by drive, play by play. Yet another big test, with Earnest Ashley still out. Keep course, Merchantmen, something like today would be nice.