So, ready for the season. My hope here is that we can inch back toward 4 or 5 wins, and just become a more competitive team overall. We have everyone pretty much developed, we are getting better in cohesion (top third in every area), and the next several years are our best chance to get some wins, before injuries start to ravage us too seriously.
So, with my QBs past the “developing” stage, I want to open things up a bit more. I just don’t think the west-coast style we have been playing, more or less, offers the best real chance to win games. I think with this team we need to run the ball a good deal, but I want to open up the passing game a bit more – we really don’t have any “playmakers” who can turn lots of 4 yard dinks into big plays, so to get yardage in “chunks” we need to be tossing it down the field more than we have been. We’ll see how this works.
I also have calmed down my tendency to drop into the nickel package. Not wiped it out, but we are probably going to be in it around 50-60% of the time, rather than around 70-80% previously. Just an attempt to get a little less predictable, I suppose.
So – the preseason sheds zero light on who should take the reins at QB, of course. Lamont Baker is tagged as “unhappy” but is signed for two seasons, so his situation is not urgent, I don’t think. I have it down to Montgomery and Mirer, and decide that Mirer has earned this shot, with the more opened-up offense, after a passable season last year. He gets the call.
The offense is pretty respectable in our first two losses – I’m not that upset, and Mirer is playing pretty well. But a 3-interception showing and 35-0 shutout changes my mind, and I decide to give Montgomery a try again. Montgomery opens his game with a 2-for-15 day, and gets benched for Baker, who looks okay on 6-of-12 passing for 61 yards and a TD in a loss.
Week six is a chance for a win, at 1-4 Yates. And we get it, with a strong 28-13 showing, behind a 16-of-19 day from Lamont Baker, in for the injured Montgomery. Does he earn the starting job here? He’s pissed off, and playing well, so why the hell not?
Baker is golden again with another strong game and win at home, and we are suddenly on a “winning streak.” Another win over 0-7 Ransomville and we are actually HOT. Maybe the AI was seeing something in Baker that I wasn’t? He looks awfully good out there for us right now – posting a very respectable passer rating of 100.7 – that’s good for a real player, not to mention an unwanted scrub playing with a team of the same.
The streak ends as we lose to 5-2 Roosevelt Beach (and only by 4 points, on the road), but that was nice to go through. Maybe it’s Baker, or maybe the team is really coming together – or maybe it’s just a trick of the dice, and we’ll finish 3-13. **shurg**
I confess that though 10 games, and a 4-6 record, I have focused almost exclusively on the offense, watching as the QB derby has yielded some strange results. It bears mention that LB Emmit O’Neal seems to be making peace with his role as the blitzbacker – to the tune of 10 sacks in 10 games, and a 7.7 PR%. Very solid season for him, and our team pass rush is substantially improved up to 24.0 – 3rd best, according to the in-game summary. Wow. We still cannot stop the run, it seems, but by the numbers our pass defense is middle of the pack – that’s a huge step forward.
Two straight losses shed us of any wandering thoughts about capitalizing on that near-.500 record and making something of this season. From 4-8, we’re clearly an up-the-track finisher. Need to get some playing time for my upset players, and get this season in the books – but it was nice to put together that little “hot streak.”
Code:
Front Office Football 2007
2011 Summary for Golden Hill Hoplites
Year 2011
Record 4-12
Winning Pct. .250
All-Time 11-69
Winning Pct. .137
Playoffs 0-0
Playoff Visits 0
Bowl Wins 0
Head Coach Desmond Shanabrough
Record 10-38
Winning Pct. .208
Off. Coord. E. Diano
Def. Coord. J. Howe
Golden Hill Hoplites Team Rank
Rushes per Game 27.5 16
Rushing Yards 104.5 21
Yards Per Carry 3.80 27
Pass Attempts 29.6 25
Completions 16.6 28
Completion Pct. 56.1 23
Passing Yards 187.4 25 (T)
Yards Per Attempt 6.32 19
Yards Per Catch 11.27 20
Total Yardage Gained 270.0 29
3rd Down Conversions 42.3 9 (T)
Points Per Game 16.4 22 (T)
Pass Rush Pct. 20.2 17 (T)
Pass Defense Pct. 58.6 16
Turnovers 25 16 (T)
Turnover Margin +3 12 (T)
Opponents Team Rank
Rushes per Game 31.1 26
Rushing Yards 140.1 31
Yards Per Carry 4.51 29
Pass Attempts 29.9 3
Completions 17.9 6
Completion Pct. 59.8 19
Passing Yards 207.1 14
Yards Per Attempt 6.93 20
Yards Per Catch 11.59 24
Total Yardage Gained 332.7 24
3rd Down Conversions 39.9 21
Points Per Game 23.9 27
Pass Rush Pct. 26.5 32
Pass Defense Pct. 62.6 22
Turnovers 28 11 (T)
Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 24 at LYN 31
2 17 BUC 28
3 0 at WRC 35
5 10 OLC 23
6 28 at YTS 13
7 24 WIL 14
8 20 at RAN 14
9 16 at ROO 20
10 21 SHA 48
11 23 LYN 6
12 7 GRI 13
13 7 GAS 21
14 10 at GTI 14
15 17 YTS 23
16 21 at CAY 51
17 17 at SHA 28
Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int Rate
2 L. Baker QB 324 191 2135 6.59 13 10 79.2
5 H. Mirer QB 103 59 730 7.09 2 4 69.6
9 W. Montgomery QB 36 12 88 2.44 0 0 42.4
**Team --- 474 266 2998 6.32 16 14 74.1
$$Opp --- 478 286 3314 6.93 30 21 83.4
Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD Fum
20 J. Greene RB 224 877 3.92 5 2
44 J. Fling RB 119 437 3.67 2 0
43 D. McDonald RB 44 231 5.25 1 1
**Team --- 440 1672 3.80 10 30
$$Opp --- 497 2242 4.51 16 24
Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc Y/Tar Drop TD
83 G. Stevenson WR 106 57 589 10.33 5.56 8 2
89 W. Okobi WR 112 56 691 12.34 6.17 7 4
86 D. Rivera WR 74 37 537 14.51 7.26 3 2
81 L. Reynolds TE 43 28 269 9.61 6.26 1 3
15 P. Turnbull WR 54 28 354 12.64 6.56 2 4
Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn PDPct
93 Z. Swift ILB 94 30 0.0 0 2 5 80.1
29 L. Newhart CB 62 9 1.0 0 5 7 80.1
51 T. Houston OLB 61 27 4.0 1 1 5 76.8
23 J. Martins CB 60 23 0.0 0 0 5 74.5
27 S. Inzinna S 54 20 0.0 0 1 8 80.6
47 T. Nichols S 54 25 0.0 0 8 6 82.0
57 G. Malchow ILB 50 18 0.0 0 0 2 71.6
98 E. O'Neal OLB 49 13 10.0 7 0 1 76.9
34 K. Gottschalk CB 33 10 0.0 0 0 6 79.3
91 L. Campbell OLB 31 8 3.5 5 0 1 80.0
30 T. Gomez S 30 13 0.0 0 3 1 84.7
74 D. Wilkins DE 27 10 6.0 14 0 0 81.5
95 W. Malcomson DE 26 5 7.0 6 0 0 81.9
92 Z. Fenno DT 22 17 2.5 4 0 0 82.0
97 W. Samuels DE 18 8 0.5 2 0 0 82.5
54 R. Coleman ILB 18 10 0.0 0 0 1 77.5
Okay, we’ll settle for 4-12. It’s not exciting to finish there, but things certainly could be worse.
Offensively – I think opening up the passing game worked fairly well, and we still managed to be a decent rushing team. It would be nice to feel we could rush even when the D knew it was coming – but baby steps.
As usual, none of our skill players even got very close to 1,000 yards – part of this is undoubtedly the FOF oddity that endurance is just distributed more or less like any other skill (which makes no sense to me). Thus – with all these marginally talented guys as it is as my main handicap, we also have to suffer through the fact that they are also wheezing little pantywaists as well, and can’t stay on the field for very long. So, another decent year from Jose Greene with a solid 800+ yards (though YPC were down, I basically blame the gameplan and our competitiveness) but I don’t think he has a 1,200 yard season in him, no matter what we do. He probably can’t handle the workload.
Defensively, the pass rush came together well, led by LB O’Neal (who missed our last four games, regrettably) and DEs Malcolmson and Wilkins. Being “middle of the pack” in a number of stats is a great step forward for us.
Injury-wise, I think TE Lorenzo Snee is our only worry – he is tagged as returning in “late 2012” so that might be bad. He has been a sort of 1A guy for us there, but we can back in with FBs if need be, for now.
RB O.J. Winters takes the superfecta of awards, adding Superbowl MVP to his honors for this season to his trio of defenses from last season. What a player, and unfortunately he plays in our division and has Shadigee as a major league power.
12-29-2007, 01:01 PM
