[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: defensive woes continues, however...
It's not all bad, I suppose?

It's week 8 of the 2085. We just got home from a visit to Paris, France. The Musketeers were our seventh opponent of the regular season, technically the sixth, as we already faced them on opening weekend.

Boy, were we in for a disappointing start of the season then. Some no name rookie quarterback had the best day of his life, tore our secondary apart late in a game that we should have won easily, but instead let our asses get kicked. Theodore Bondy lead the way to a strong offensive performance, but Austin Rodham's 474 yards passing, including a 53-yard hail mary pass, resulted in a 41-34 loss for us, where we could and should have made it to overtime. Alas, Paris was luckier.

The same Musketeers have nowhere been close to that performance in their next five games and today, in week 8, they weren't either. Austin Rodham threw 2 interceptions less, but we kept the Musketeers enough in check to smoothly post a 41-20 victory. Wendell Marshall sacked kiddo Rodham 2.5 times, he had to share one of those sacks with Glen Stiegler.

It's been an up and down season in between these two games. We steamrolled the Frederick Red Menace, at their house, 59-31, despite letting them throw for 447 yards on us. We put quarterback Wesley Elliot on his back 8 times, which was more or less what we expected to do against him.

Week 3 was a smooth 30-20 win at the Toronto Lake Monsters, giving us another chance to beat the future hall of fame quarterback Clayton 'Champ' Andrews one more time. Theodore Bondy was back to his pre 2084 form with 13 catches for 236 yards. Welcome back, Theo.

Week 4 was a disappointing 30-26 loss. The San Antonio Tidal Force dominated early, taking a 13-0 lead, but we came back from behind in the second half. The game went all over the place, but despite that we were clearly the superior team, we failed to put the points on the board on the final drive where we needed a touchdown due to an early game missed extra point.

The bye week didn't resparkle things at all. Despite that we were dominating the Atlanta Vipers, there was this Deon Collier kid, a gifted cornerback with a nose and the hands for a pick or three that day. We choked into a 28-19 deficit, making us 0-3 at home.

But despite our misfortunes, the lack of ability to win games haunted the entire European division.

In week 7, we found ourselves playing at the Fort Worth Fury, facing a very familiar face at quarterback: Kelly Blalock, the fourth year pro that we cut in pre-season. Blalock threw for 358 yards, but also into the hands of Craig McCorkle and Kirk Hitchcock (twice). Those picks were just enough to solidify the 23-15 victory.

So, despite the triplet of frustrating losses in Oranje Haven, we also posted a foursome of road victories to find ourselves smoothly in the division lead:
1. Maassluis 4-3
2. Bordeaux 2-5
3. Gothenburg 2-5
4. Paris 2-5

It's way way way too earlier to draw conclusions, but we've somehow got the second most scoring offense (or team if you like). The bad news? We're giving up a lot of passing yards, the most of all teams. Not just per game, but also on per attempt and per catch basis. Our run defense has been rock solid, forcing teams to pass. Somehow, those quarterbacks overcome all the sacks they're facing.

Still, the season is young, we haven't even reached the mid-way point yet. Next up yet another road game, this time at the 6-1 Houston Mustangs. They've been solid since week 2, including a recent drubbing of the Bordeaux Vineyards. We actually have a lot to gain here though, Houston is currently in the second seed spot in the AOC. Their strength this season? Their running game. That could be a neat game of the week against our league leading run defense. In return, their inferior defense has played way above their heads so far, which if they can keep it up, could be a tough task for McAlister, Theo and Leo.

That's where we're at for now. By the next time I'm reporting, we might be just that game against Houston further down the road, may have lost 9 straight, but hopefully, we've by then fixed the home losing bug and are giving the top seed positions holding teams a run for their slowly fading lead... We have to keep faith in this team, it's still one of the best Merchantmen rosters ever assembled. Make good use of it, staff.