[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Two for three on the road...
The season has barely started and we've already had our bye week, without having played a single game in our own Oranje Haven. Such is the life in football, at time.

So, three road games to start the season. We knew this was coming, but it's still nasty when you're in that series. And lo and behold, we've come out of it with 2 wins, including a drubbing of the reigning IHOF champions. How about that?

Week 1 against the Gothenburg Giants was a near choke victory. The first half 31-7 lead was barely enough to win 34-31 on a last second field goal. Theo carried the team like we want him to do: 11 catches for 163 yards and 2 touchdowns.

We followed up with a horrible showing at the Hanalei Dragons. The other conference championship losers played tremendous red zone defense, forcing us to kick it way too much. The defense actually returned the favor, resulting in a 26-12 loss, with just 2 touchdowns all day. Theo caught 11 passes for 163 yards.

Week 3 was a different story. Playing at the North Plainfield Plague, the reigning IHOF champions, the top-notch defense for a change actually managed to play top-notch pass defense. How awesome is that? We somehow kept their star receiver to 6 catches on 22 targets, letting their quarterback throw for only 91 yards on 37 pass plays. Theo had 10 catches for 113 yards and a score.

Week 4 was our bye week.

Week 5 is up next, with yet another heavy matchup. We'll be hosting the undefeated revived Tucker Tigers. Granted, they played the easiest schedule so far, which doesn't say a lot at this stage of the season about either the team itself or those opponents. Their running game is traditionally efficient, their passing game dangerous with a rookie tight end averaging just over 10 yards per target. Their pass defense might be the weak spot, we'd better take advantage of it, but the only way to do that is keep them from controlling the ball and clock. Missing Howard Humphrey due to an achilles tendon injury will be a major blow. This kid has been phenomenal for our running game.

We'll have to see what we can do here, I hope for the best, but we've shot ourselves in the foot way too often in the previous three seasons. Being favored by a point or two means very little. If anything, that this game could go either way.

Hopefully our way. Go Merchantmen!