[MIJB#19]

General Manager notes: 25% regular season check (and we thought 2083 was bad...)
It's official: the pre-season favorites to win it all are a disgrace to football. The 2084 Maassluis Merchantmen are incapable of putting a passing game on the pitch. It's a major letdown, given that we're counting heavily on the best wide receiver in football, and a quarterback that just recently signed yet another cap heavy contract. We're completely baffled about how the staff and I are so incompetent of making this fine collection of players on offense play well.

So, four games in, we're 2-2, with two 3-point victories and a couple of defeats that were completely uncalled for with a team like we have. The defense will probably claim they're doing a better job that last season. Obviously, those guys were in the bottom 2 teams (or thereabouts) of the entire league. These guys are still giving up the most yards per pass attempt, by nearly a yard more than the second worst. So yeah, improved? Not quite...

How did we get to 2-2? We beat the Bordeaux Vineyards at home, in a game where we got outplayed, then the defense made just enough stops to win 20-17 at the Outer Banks Ospreys. We then travelled to Atlanta, to come away with a 23-17 deficit that could have gotten a lot worse. We had 3.1 yards per passing play (rounded up), and followed up with 3.9 yards per pass play at the North Plainfield Plague. These four opponents combine for a league easiest schedule after four games.

How incompetent does that sound? Four games in, our average is a league most horrendous 5.3 yards per attempt, with the fourth worst sack percentage. There are no words to describe how puzzling that is. Our red zone offense is dreadful, the only thing really missing is a truck load of turnovers, albeit we did see Ellis McAlister throw an all-time regular season game worst of 4 in a single game.

What to do now? I guess we'll have to go to the film room, not just for a bit, but quite a long time to try to figure out why we've got the worst passing game and worst pass defense. Because quite frankly, getting together a team with the best of the best in football at key positions, apparently that isn't enough to play well, let alone win games. And to be honest, I don't think we've seen the worst of it quite yet...