[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: When you have no idea what to say...
.. because everything that can go wrong goes wrong.

The 2098 season might appear to already be over. Wait, what, aren't we just 5 games into it? Definitely, but the outlook right now is, well, let's just look at the cold hard fact:

European Division:
1. Gothenburg 6-0
2. Bordeaux 4-1
3. Paris 4-1
4. Maassluis 0-5

Ouch.

Yes, that's where we stand right now. The tough start of the early schedule did it's work and we didn't even play good enough to win once, let alone twice. In return, the rest of the division is steamrolling, all the recorded losses came against each other.

How did we really do though? We started with a 33-21 loss in Gothenburg, then followed up with a 23-17 loss in Hanalei, a 17-7 loss at home against San Antonio, a 31-13 loss against Tucker and the quintuple was completed with a 23-14 loss at Augusta. I don't care that these opponents combine for the toughest schedule in the league as of week 6, you'll have to face and beat whatever challenges come on your journey.

Earnest Ashley has struggled, completed under 46% of his passes for 1,070 yards (so barely over 200 per game), 5 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. At least he ran a bit, but his 173 yards and 2 touchdowns are inflated by an 81- yarder in garbage time at Gothenburg.

Ed Schulz is struggling even heavier, already dropped 9 passes. He has 23 catches for 262 yards and 2 touchdowns. George Stuckey is thriving, so to speak, with 27 catches for 401 yards, while rookie Vinny Buysse is also struggling with just 11 catches for 165 yards and 1 touchdown. We've missed tight end Clay Gaynor significantly, as he went down in Gothenburg and hasn't played since. Clarence Gore, Wendell Borders and especially Myron Lofton are clearly not in the same realm as Gaynor. Maybe we should throw the ball even more to running back Bert Ta'Amu?

Speaking of Ta'Amu, his stats as the premier ball carrier are depressingly bad. 55 carries for 157 yards and 1 touchdown. Our change of pace Ronnie Vanden Bosch gained just 55 yards on 28 carries, which is even more pathetic. It makes you wonder what these guys would do behind an offensive line that isn't as good as ours and with an offensive coordinator also not as good as ours: would they combine for negative yardage?

Thankfully there's always the defense to fall back on. Except that they aren't setting the world on fire either. We allowed the 3rd most rushing yards per game and the 5th most yards per pass attempt. Not quite what I had in mind with all the talent and cap space invested that we have here. Even our state of the art pass rushers are below average, it's all or nothing with them: either the get a sack or don't make anything (not) happen.

Our rookie kicker isn't helping either: he leads the league with 5 missed field goals, scoring just 16 points so far.

I've tried to jumble and fiddle with our offensive game plan, but it didn't make much of a difference one time and the other time for no legitimate good reason, the game plan wasn't even used. Depressing, no?

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? If we win in week 7, we'll avoid tying the worst ever Merchantmen start to a season. I suspect none of y'all remember the 2030 season, where we started with 6 losses, then somewhat recovered with a 5-2 stretch, to finish with 3 more losses for a 5-11 record, actually outscoring our opponents 357-351.

But I'm honestly close to numb, throwing my arms up in the air wondering: where have we gone wrong, what are we doing wrong that was never broken and now all of a sudden is? Or should I really stick with excuses like a tough schedule? Nope, we can't go for the latter, a competitive team would have gone 2-3 at worst here. We were outmatched all five games.

Back to the drawing board? Perhaps, but I'm far from optimistic right now. Heck, even Kelvin Everett proved that he can play ball. He was signed by the Chesapeake Chitterlings, stepping in for rookie Willie Monroe, the kids the Chitterlings picked at the #20 overall slot after trading down with us. Everett was Merchantmen'98 like in his first game, but in week 6 he recovered with 291 yards and 2 touchdowns. The 3 picks he's throwing per start haven't kept him from splitting them 1 win, 1 loss.

Which makes our franchise quarterback's performance that much more depressing. Our faith is tied to Earnest Ashley for this and at least the next season. From there on, cap technically we can evaluate the situation.

Right the ship and move on, although I'm afraid we have to make an 180 degree turn to make that happen. The fat lady won't even get to the stage to give her a chance to start singing, but we're peaking behind the scenes and realize we'll likely see her much earlier than others will. Next up: a big test in Paris and if we fail that one, which is highly expected right now, despite that we this same team beat them big twice last season, we'll get a visit from the only other winless team...