[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: New Season, new opportunities!
And we kick it off with a loss... Again.

After three seasons of starting it on the road, finally, we got a season opener in Oranje Haven. As per usual, one of our division rivals came to town and the Bordeaux Vineyards were the lucky ones. After a 6-1-1 series in the first four seasons against quarterback Walter Czech, last season he turned the tide and lead the Vineyards to victories against us. Given that, he has grown into the kind of player maker that we have to fear.

First quarter, Merchantmen draw first blood with a field goal after Earnest Ashley had found Clay Gaynor for 27 yards and Ed Schulz for 35 yards. Bordeaux tied it up 3-3 after Czech found Reggie Springer for 32 yards and Rusti Siavii ran for 28 yards. With a steady drive, Ashley drove us down field, saw rookie Ronnie Vanden Bosch run for 22 yards, inches short of a touchdown, but two plays later Ashley found touchdown machine George Stuckey for the 10-3 lead. A team effort strip sack by the defensive tackles gave us a chance to rack it up, but Ashley immediately followed up with an interception on a short pass.

Bordeaux got their engines running in the second quarter and leaning heavily on their running game eventually saw one of their backs pound it in for the 10-10 tied score. After three and out and a quick stop after four plays, We were at bat next and this time Earnest Ashley found Ed Schulz on a 44-yarder to set up Jack Crane's touchdown run for the 17-10 lead. On second and very long our defense chocked and long before the big break, Walt Czech connected to Derrick Velazquaz (yes, that kid that we once drafted and traded as a rookie to Bordeaux) to tie it 17-17. We choked our chance to take the lead before half time, even gave Bordeaux the ball back, but the half time score was 17-17 after all.

Second half, Bordeaux drove deep, but we avoided a field goal attempt and saw Ronnie Vanden Bosch run for 33 yards on our first play from scrimmage, followed by Earnest Ashley's passes for 15 yards to Theodore Bondy and then a 19-yarder for the touchdown to George Stuckey and a 24-17 lead. The ball went back and forth on medium drives, but neither team got a shot to even kick in the remainder of the third quarter.

The fourth quarter pretty much started with a blocked punt from our punter Shaun Barlow, which two plays later resulted in a quick touchdown pass by Walt Czech. After a missed extra point, we were still leading 24-23, thankfully. After three and down with two dropped passes by Theodore Bondy (oh, boy), we lost our run blocking tight end Renaldo Crawford for the rest of the season with a severe achilles injury. Otherwise bad was our defense on a third and five pass from Walt Czech to his tight end Reggie Springer for a 59 yards touchdown, putting us down 30-24, our first time trailing all game long. After three and out and a defensive meltdown, we were ripe for the picking, but Zachery Weisz blocked a short field goal to keep us alive. We drove downfield, anchored by Earnest Ashley's 22-yarder to Theodore Bondy, but our first play inside their red zone ended up in an interception. Our defense held ground to force one more chance for us, but a coaching blunder to punt on fourth down with less than a minute to go and only 1 time out remaining, ended the game for us after Bordeaux went into victory formation three times.

Ashley completed just 19 of 42 passes for 277 yards, 2 touchdowns, 2 interceptions. Yes, he's still in that 50% zone. Maybe we need to give him more easy short throws in our game plan? Clay Gaynor made 6 catches on 16 targets (are we overusing him?) for 80 yards. Ed Schulz had 93 yards on 3 catches (are we underusing him?) George Stuckey had 2 touchdowns, Theo Bondy had 3 catches on 8 targets. Rookie Ronnie Vanden Bosch ran for 62 yards on 5 carries, while veterans Beyer and Crane combined for 76 yards on 20 carries. The defense? They gave up 445 total yards. Still, we had chances, but we didn't take advantage of them and eventually lost this coin flip game.

Division
1. Paris 1-0
2. Bordeaux 1-0
3. Maassluis 0-1
4. Gothenburg 0-1

Yup, the reigning division and conference champions Gothenburg Giants lost 28-6 at home against the Paris Musketeers. Paris had quarterback Cary Bradford starting for the first time in 7 seasons in the league, completed 17 of 25 passes for 212 yards. He once was the Orlando Talons' mr. Irrelevant.

No time to keep sogging about our performance today, we have a new game upcoming, at the Outer Banks Ospreys, the only team to start the season with a shutout, handed to them by the Moontown Illuminati. Yes, based on our player collective, we have every reason to think we can't just win there, but do it by a good margin. Which usually is the kind of game we end up losing.

But not this time, team. Don't be like that. We've had our brain fart decision in week 1, a monumental one, from here on it can't get worse, can it? Go make us proud, go Merchantmen!