[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: One to go, but our season is done
And it's turning out to be one of our worst ever...

We had our chances, we had the Bordeaux Vineyards defense in check, were one of the toughest opponents for the Iowa Cobbers all season, but for those teams the dream is still alive: Bordeaux won at our place 23-13, Iowa won in our place 41-20. Wait, what? Yeah, that's the kind of season we're having. For the fifth time in 15 games we lost by 21 or more points. That's just bizarre to think about, I really think it's unprecedented in team history. I should check the numbers on it, but we're used to losing by a score, maybe two, not three touchdowns and then some...

European Division
1. Gothenburg 12-3
2. Bordeaux 8-7
3. Maassluis 6-9
4. Paris 3-12

Last game to go will be in Paris. Yes, we'll try to win this one too, there's no tanking in Maassluis.

Not much else to share for now though. Earnest Ashley arrived at a phenomenal 300 of 600 pass attempts completed after 15 games. He needs 148 yards to get to his second 4,000-yard season. His 24 touchdowns versus 19 interceptions means he's not flawless at all, but he is in the positive, bar a complete meltdown in Paris.

Theodore Bondy has dropped to fourth most receiving yards on team. Other teams might try to yank it up by overplaying their aged veteran, but we're not one of those, we love our stars, but let them play to their ability. He needs one more catch to hit 50, 4 more yards to reach 600, he needs 17 catches to hit 1700 for his career (not gonna happen) and 48 yards to hit 21,000 for his career. Now there's a nice goal for what once again could be his last game... 5 more touchdowns to reach 150, not gonna happen, right?

I've clearly been lacking in paying attention to the right things though, only now do I find out that our star defensive tackle Darien Fletcher has been on the field much less than his side kicks Harold Gough and Caleb Domis, a duo that's actually still in the race for one of them to be the second All-IHOF second teamer. I hope they both fail as this dreadful team does not deserve to get All-IHOF honors. Which Devon Farrell will undoubtfully get as a clear cut 1st teamer.

Which all sounds the season is over already, but it really isn't we get a chance to beat Paris in their place, always nice to do something like that. The way we've been playing lately? No way, The way we played in the last three road games? Well, we might even blow them away and brush away the -33 in points differential. That should be our goal, to at least even that out. A loss would put us in the worst 7 seasons (8th if we lose by a single point, 6th if we lose by 3 scores one more time, 5th place would require losing by 37 points) all time in that metric, I really hope to not see us fall that hard and deep.

We're better than that, team. Much better. So show it to the world. Y'all can do it, go Merchantmen!