[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: 2079 playoffs, here we come!
In a bit of a rollercoaster, we've finished the regular season with 2 wins and 1 loss. And that loss came against the team not making the playoffs, costing us the #1 seed in the AOC.

So, week 15, at home against the team on our tail: the Gothenburg Giants. It didn't come easy, with a wild fourth quarter, in which we came back from behind to win 33-27. Ellis McAlister threw for 330 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions (his second straight 2-pick game). Walt Blair was held to 21 carries for 88 yards and 1 score. J.R. Mills caught 5 passes for 98 yards, Dennis Nadell surpassed Mills again with 5 catches for 135 yards and a touchdown. We gave up a 95-yard interception return, but replied it with a positive turnover margin to not let the superiority in total yards go to waste.

Week 16 came the inevitable hilarious loss. We outplayed the Iowa Cobbers, but freakish managed to lose 20-17, coming time short to kick the tying field goal. Ellis McAlister finally snapped his multi-pick streak, throwing for 232 yards with scores. J.R. Mills had 6 catches for 89 yards. Walt Blair ran for 107 yards and 1 touchdown, Raul Curie ran for the other touchdown.

In week 17 we were much better than the Bordeaux Vineyards, but fumbles and a pick returned for a score shortly before half time kept the score close. Late in the game, Giovanni Morton made a crucial interception, keeping Bordeaux from kicking the game winner, securing the 17-16 victory. Ellis McAlister threw for 329 yards and 2 touchdowns, with aforementioned interception. Walt Blair ran for 102 yards, Dennis Nadell had 8 catches for 94 yards, J.R. Mills had 5 catches for 92 yards, while Monty Elliot and Gilbert Taliancich made the scoring catches.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 12-4
2. Gothenburg 11-5
3. Bordeaux 9-7
4. Paris 8-8

The strongest division with 4.5 wins more than the second best division will send 3 teams into the playoffs. Paris went into week 17 eliminated on tie-breakers, but theoretically had a chance to finish the season 7th in the AOC, (The 20-17 late game collapse to Gothenburg dropped them to 10th).

Sadly, we choked the #1 seed, falling behind the 13-3 Tucker Tigers, but we salvaged a bye week, giving us a home game in the elite eight round. It should be great news, we've gone 8-0 at home this season. But, better than everyone we know it's worth nothing once the post-season kicks off, it's all a completely new coin flip. Heck, the last time we managed that 8-0 was in 2059, when we crushed the league with a 15-1 record (#1 in both points scored and points allowed) only to fall apart 31-17 in the only playoff game that season. In 2043 we didn't even get to play at home in the playoffs. In 2040 we lost 24-0 as the #2 seeds. In 2037 we lost 38-20 at home as the #2 seeds. Yup. We've gone 1-4 in the playoffs seasons with an 8-0 record at home, winning 0 of 3 home games. The only bright side: we lost all 3 home games to the Atlanta Vipers, lo and behold, they didn't make the playoffs!

So, regular season in the books, how has our new starting quarterback done?
Ellis McAlister threw the ball 522 times, completed 59% of those passes for 4,193 yards, 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He ranks 9th in passing yards in the league, tied 8th in passing touchdowns with Gothenburg Tre Lynn. He had the 9th best passer rating, leaning heavily on the 3rd best yards per attempt. McAlister is our fourth different 4,000 yard passer in 4 seasons, a rare feat, something I might want to figure out, but probably is a novelty. I suspect three different guys in three seasons was already unique. McAlister was on roster all those season and has at least shown he can do it with much less interceptions than Erick Loera and Sammy Erickson. Ellis, who the fuck is Ellis? Well, he's our starting quarterback and bar disaster will still be next season.

J.R. Mills was our leading receiver with 77 catches for 1,349 yards and 5 touchdowns. Dennis Nadell had 86 catches for 1,273 yards and 6 touchdowns, in 27 targets less than Mills. Nadell can honestly make a case for having become our WR1, with Mills being the big gain WR2. Brody Stevens caught only 25 passes for 331 yards and 2 touchdowns, so much for being the most talented guy. Tight end Monty Elliott was our go to guy in the red zone, he had 73 catches for 798 yards and 9 touchdowns. Mills ranked 8th in yardage in the league, Nadell 11th, there was only one other team with two 1,200-yard receivers. Elliott was amongst a bunch of guys tying for 8th in receiving touchdowns.

Walt Blair came back strong after the mid-season injury as a rookie, running a league high 366 times for second most 1,609 yards and fifth most running touchdowns. We don't run the ball most of all, the seven teams ahead of us distribute their carries more evenly over their running backs, while we give Blair 23 carries per game and Raul Curie only 4 carries, on average.

Free agency singing Nicky Sherman had 41 key run blocks, leading the team in that area. Right tackle Oscar Meadows had 30 key run blocks, both could be considerations for all-league honors. Fullback Gilbert Taliancich had 12 key run blocks (on 33 opportunities), making him by far the most used fullback on running downs in the league. We used Taliancich on 250 running plays, second most used was the Arizona Miners' fullback on 159 running plays. Apparently using a 2-back formation on running downs is falling out of favor.

On the defensive side, our linebackers thrived. Glenn Brewer had 118 tackles, 25 assists, 7.5 sacks, 11 defended passes, 1 interception and 2 forced fumbles. Antonio Battle had 114 tackles, 36 assists, 1.5 sacks, 11 defended passes, 3 interceptions and 1 forced fumble. Brewer tied for 5th in the league in tackles, Battle tied for 7th in that figure. Rookie Craig McCorkle didn't see a lot of action, because (as mentioned on the blocking numbers) IHOF teams are drifting away from 2-back formations, making the usage of 3 linebackers rare. McCorkle saw the field on 401 plays, compare that to Battle's 1,007 and Brewer's 923. It'll be interesting to see what to do with that next season. Battle is an elite pass defender, it might be worthwhile to consider using him as a nickelback...

Speaking of nickelbacks, Giovanni Morton led the team in with 5 interceptions and added 10 defended passes to it for an exceptional 3rd best pass defense rating in the league. The picks rank him tied for 8th in the league. The rest of the secondary, well, they were there. We weren't bad, but not great either.

Our pass rush was second best with a 25.6 percentage, but basically on par with Houston Mustangs' 25.7 percent. Arnie May led the guys with 9.5 sacks, but Herb Crane was more prominently active with 8.5 sacks and 26 hurries (compared to May's 8 hurries). But really, with use four defensive ends in our rotation, these guys are all part of team effort. Defensive tackle Glen Stiegler is the workhorse in the line. His sidekick Chandler Posante may appear like a weak link, he may be, his endurance really calls for us to get either veteran Willie Turner, rookie Cameron Erlitz or a 2080 acquisition more involved to work around Posante's weakness. Our defensive ends are all too light to play on the inside.

We've cursed at our kicker Dave Eiermann from time to time, he scored a league low of 88 percent of extra points with a league most 5 misses. But we shouldn't forget that he was playoffs quality on long field goals and hit his only 50+ attempt. He's out of contract after the season, so, it's still more likely we'll look elsewhere...

Enough about the regular season, the playoffs are here. And the field this season is massive. There are four teams that scored 500+ points, all are amongst the 38 best scoring teams ever. That's 76 seasons of football, on average we should have only one of such teams every two seasons...

AOC
1. Tucker 13-3 (526-299 points = +227)
2. Maassluis 12-4 (404-309 points = +95)
3. Toronto 11-4-1 (535-391 points = +144) (we won 24-17 at them)
4. Houston 10-5-1 (338-315 points = +23) (we lost 20-10 at them)
5. Gothenburg 11-5 (428-317 points = +111) (we swept them 34-29 and 33-27)
6. Bordeaux 9-7 (370-306 points = +64) (we swept them 17-10 and 17-16)

NAC
1. Moontown 14-2 (526-285 points = +241)
2. Hanalei 13-3 (529-336 points = +193)
3. Williamsburg 13-3 (409-282 points = +127)
4. Kansas 11-5 (404-334 points = +70) (we lost 27-22 at them)
5. Fairbanks 9-7 (328-357 points = -29)
6. Chesapeake 9-7 (347-294 points = +53)

Two teams are out of contention with strong points differentials: Paris 8-8 (+53) and Harlem 7-9 (+51). But given the setup of the league these two teams were quite simply the also-rans in the AOC.

We're probably the mismatch amongst the four bye week teams. The simple result of only 5 wins by more than a score, but we've also lost just once by more than a score. We've gone 5-2 against this field, with 4 victories against our division rivals. Rivals that we've apparently dominated for quite some time. It was our second straight clean sweep in the regular season, we beat Paris in the playoffs in between and finished the 2077 season by beating Bordeaux and Paris in our home. It would be awesome to extend our winning streak from 15 to 17 in this post-season, if only for the fact that it would mean we'd be the 2079 AOC champions. But we have nothing we can do to determine who we will face, you can only beat the teams you meet. Toronto or the Gothenburg at Houston winner will be first, which regardless of the opposition will have us very motivated to beat them.