[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes, 2079 Regular season
Another couple of weeks in the books, we've added a couple of home victories: 32-14 against the Augusta Greenjackets (7-5-1) and 31-17 against the Arizona Miners (1-12). Neither impressive wins, neither games were we played bad. Which is to say, Ellis McAlister had his first multiple pick game. And his second one. At the same time, he threw for 301 and 299 yards, he's proving he can move the chains. Walt Blair got stuffed badly by the Greenjackets, but bounced back with 146 yards and score against Arizona. J.R. Mills' demise continues, 30 yards and 111 yards were his numbers. Mills has scored a total of 2 touchdowns in the last 11 games. Dennis Nadell hasn't overtaken Mills, but with 119 yards and 2 touchdowns against Augusta, he's shown us again he can get the job done.

The defense is, well, mediocre. I can't put my finger on the cause, but we're not doing what I thought we could and should do. The disastrous third down run defense against the Chicago Norsemen was, well, that: disastrous. We won, but even the best linebacker trio in the league is just mediocre. Perhaps we should package all our picks next off-season and acquire a couple of new safeties. Maurice Harkleroad, Ben Gilbert and Rex Indoe should be good enough stop gaps, but I'm not seeing the results. Cohesion ain't the issue either, we're in the upper echelons in that regard.

Despite all that, we keep finding ways to win. We're the 8th best scoring team in the conference, 3rd best in the division. At least we're the 'best' defense, doing 1 point and 4 points better than division rivals Bordeaux and Gothenburg, making us 2nd in the league. I'm making a "say what now" gesture as I'm writing this, because some things just can't be explained.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 10-3
2. Gothenburg 9-4
3. Bordeaux 7-6
4. Paris 7-6

So, as it is, we're on a 5-game winning streak, sitting at a conference leading 10-3 record. Upcoming a home game against the Gothenburg Giants, in which we can guarantee the division title with a victory. A loss would still keep us leading, but with road games at Iowa (5-8) and Bordeaux (7-6),no easy task to maintain, despite Gothenburg's slightly harder schedule. And they should have it harder, compared to the rest of the division, they've had a cup cake schedule, would say the former Astoria Heroes owner/general manager.

So yeah, we're in pole position to be the #1 seed, but I'm not yet buying it. Aside from Gothenburg, the Tucker Tigers are on our tail with a 10-3 record, the Toronto Lake Monsters are 9-3-1. Thankfully the Houston Mustangs dropped to 8-4-1, but we can't count them out just yet. The playoffs are, well, the closest thing to locked as it can be. The only thing that can keep us from the post-season would be 3 losses, combined with Gothenburg winning at least 1 of their last 2 games (on top of beating us), Augusta winning their last 3 games, Tucker not losing both their next 2 games (they play Augusta week 17), San Antonio winning their last 3 games and Houston getting a win and tie in the next 2 games (they play San Antonio week 17) to finish 9-5-2 and beat us for the last wild card based on that week 9 loss.

Thing is, we've been here before, several times, and have quite a track record of not pulling it through, dropping a game or two, ending up with the #3 seed and lose on a missed field goal in the wild card round. Too pessimistic, or stuck in "Been there, done that"?