[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: We won. Yay?
But it wasn't easy nor pretty.

Up by 10, third and five. The opponent comes out in a formation with 3 tight ends, which clearly calls for bringing our linebackers. The staff looks at the game plan: yes, we want to call a cover-1 here. But for whatever reason, the people on the sideline call Daquan Espino back and send in 5 defensive backs, then tell our shutdown corner Jackie Robinson to move into playing Espino's role. Wait, what?

17 seconds later, we have given up a 72 yard touchdown pass. After two-point conversion, it's only 24-21 now.

Thankfully we hold on to the win, but these are the moments in a football game where a general manager can feel like thing are completely out of your control. You've been over this with your staff again and again, but sometimes they will just revert from the plan and come up with something creative. With things blowing up in our face as a result.

Luck was on our side elsewhere in the league as Gothenburg and Paris both were a bit of a mismatch to the Southeast's elite teams from Orlando and Tucker, bringing us back into the division lead. We're going to need all the breaks we can for now, as we'll be playing four games on the road in the next five, starting with a game in Paris, then after home game against the Snapfinger Jazz, we'll be visiting Bordeaux, Orlando and Gothenburg. Going 3-2 in this stretch would suggest we're bowl game material.

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

The offensive game plan was enriched with a revival of the Blazewicz special, although George Stuckey appeared to struggle with it. I hope to make more drastic changes, but apparently we'll need the league commissioner to verify our changes by giving us a copy of our own playbook. Welcome to football?

So be it. I'm going to spend time on making playbook and corresponding game plan tweaks in an attempt to work with the strength or against the weaknesses of our talented receivers. Of course, it won't help us from not giving up 400 yards on defense, but one can only hope that one day, maybe, the staff and players will actually comply and play by the game plan.

We've got to stay positive.