[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Another opportune season down the drain?
The pre-season favorites to win it all are once again south of .500 land. For the fourth time this season, we lost by 11 or more points. That's already on par with last season (then we still snuck into the playoffs at 10-6, only to get crushed in the wild card round). One more and we'll have our worst season since 2022.

Let that work into you: worst season since 2022. It was a horrific 5-11 campaign, despite having Rusty Harrison throwing long bombs to Gabe Springer. Sounds familiar? That season we had losses of 29-45, 14-31, 21-34, 26-37, 7-24, 24-38 and 14-35. (2061 would be next closest, as our fifth worst loss was by 10 points). What does it tell us? Quite simply that it's been one of the most disappointing seasons in quite some time.

The bright side of things? Back then, we bounced back big time in 2023, which was one of my personal favorite teams. We scored 507 points in the regular season, had an amazing offense and a shaky defense, an almost un-Merchantmen like team.

Today, we have the best wide receiver, a capable quarterback, a better than average running game and purely based on talent an awesome defense. In potential only, it seems. But maybe, just like that 2022 team, we're very close to breaking the trend and about to move forward into better times. Heck, why not this season? Shockingly enough, at 5-6 and a -17 points differential, we're still mathematically alive for the playoffs, knowing that the division title is closer than a wild card.

We're recovering from a less than stellar defeat by the hands of the Chicaco Norsemen. The defense achieved the unthinkable, allowing two running backs to run for 100 yards in the same game. Even though this was a team known for being run heavy, a team with Heath Oliver, Craig McCorkle and Bart Guthrie should never allow that to happen. Ever. Period.

Yet we did. And in the same game, we overdid the 'throw it to Bondy' thing big time. 20 target, 7 catches, 58 yards, 7 yards after catch. Bravo, Chicago defense. Monty Elliott and Artie Blazewicz sucked as well, so it wasn't as simple as covering Bondy, the support team was dreadful as well. That's how you stop our offense.

Five more games, the season isn't completely lost yet. We have no first round pick to suck for. Seriously, we've never sucked for luck and we'll never will, we'll always keep on playing to try to end the season on a positive note, even when we're out of contention. Our thing is choking it when we're doing well, and suddenly winning late in the season after we've sucked for the first 11 or so games. Well, how about that? Maybe we can righten the ship again, set sail for the promised land, make a short stop at .500 land and go north from there on.

One game at a time, though. One at a time.