[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Another season down the drain
If only we knew how we broke things...

The Maassluis Merchantmen will not be amongst the 12 teams still standing after the conclusion of the regular season. We wasted our opportunities in the close game, resulting in a very underwhelming 9-7 regular season campaign. Let's recap the last 5 games of the regular season to run down how we ended up there.

In a home game against the struggling North Plainfield Plague (4-7) we failed to make the best of our chances as we lost 20-19. A couple of 40-yard-ish runs for touchdowns put us down by 7 at the end of the first quarter. A missed extra point in the third quarter came back to haunt us, meaning we kicked a field goal to trim the deficit from 4 to 1, rather than making it a tie game with 5 minutes to go. We even drove downfield in the final minute, but didn't get close enough to attempt a potential game winning field goal. QB Evan Drake threw for 233 yards with touchdown passes to TE Garrett Alcala and WR Vinny Buysse.

The we bounced back with a 20-17 victory at the Arizona Miners. The defense once again let an inferior offense go wild on us, running for 219 yards with 6.6 per carry, in particular their quarterback getting 105 yards on 10 scrambles, but winning the turnover battle 5-0 flipped the coin just enough to make it fair to say that we were the better team regardless. Our inability to pound the ball in almost cost us, as we settled for field goals no less than 4 times. QB Evan Drake threw for 264 yards, RB Bennett Holmes was credited for our sole touchdown of the day.

And then the season came down to a must-win home game against the Bordeaux Vineyards, hot on our tail for the race to the final wild card. In a shoutout that entertained the neutral football fans. For most of the game, our defense had little answer to Bordeaux' off-season singing QB Johnathan Freeman. After a fantastic third quarter 82-yard run by Van Goodwin, we took the lead for the first time, but as we way to quickly saw that turn into a 7-point deficit, a nervous fourth quarter saw neither offense do anything impressive, despite that we had our chances as we finally started getting our usual field position advantage. End result 38-31 loss that although not mathematically, it mentally finished our season there and then. QB Evan Drake threw for 271 yards with touchdown passes to TE Garrett Alcala (twice) and TE Wesley Martin. RB Van Goodwin added up to 109 rushing yards and aforementioned touchdown.

In our final home game of the season, a 31-6 drubbing of the Iowa Cobbers was insufficient to keep our playoffs chances alive as elsewhere in the league other teams maintained their 1.5 win lead over us. The score was arguably even lower than we should have made it add up to ass we outgained Iowa 496 yards to 223 yards combined with a 15-yard advantage in the field position battle. A couple of missed field goal didn't help, maybe. QB Evan Drake threw for 353 yards with touchdown passes to WR Calvin Maxwell (twice) and TE Wesley Martin. Maxwell was the only player with a 100-yard performance, gaining 108 yards receiving. RB Bennett Holmes scored the fourth touchdown for us.

The season ended with another disappointing performance from our defense, but we did more than on special teams to hand our offense a 23-yard field position advantage, to turn it into a well deserved 32-17 victory. QB Evan Drake threw for 235 yards, with a touchdown pass TE Garett Alcala. RB Bennett Holmes ran for a score, while WR Calvin Maxwell scored on an 85-yard kickoff return. LB Gus Coleman continued a streak, making it 3 games straight with an interception.

European Division 2107, final
1. Gothenburg 11-5
2. Bordeaux 9-7
3. Maassluis 9-7
4. Paris 5-11

Gothenburg closed out the season with a 41-34 victory at Bordeaux, kicking the latter out of the playoffs as the Rochester Razorbacks snuck into the last wild card at 9-6-1 despite their own week 17 loss. Gothenburg swept the division, including their impressive home victories against Bordeaux (41-0) and against us (29-3). Bordeaux still finished ahead of us as well based on their stronger strength of schedule (yeah, we finished level on strength of victory with each a very underwhelming 53.5). To be fair, both Bordeaux and us posted those 7 of the 8 non-head-to-head wins against teams with a 6-10 or worse record. The only playoffs team we (both) beat are the Chicago Norsemen (8-7-1), who ended up being the least underwhelming team in the worst division in the league (we both swept that division).

Overall, we scored more points than half the 12 playoffs teams, but also allowed more points than 10 of them. I mean, let's look at where we shape up compared to the entire league.

We finish the season with the offense ranking:
7th in points scored
12th in total yards
12th in yards per pass attempt (10th in passing yards per game)
4th in yards per carry (15th in rushing yards per game)

The defense ranked:
32nd in yards allowed
tied 18th/19th in points allowed
23rd in yards per pass attempt (31st in passing yards per game)
tied 27th/28th in yards per carry (30th in rushing yards per game)

We finished the season with a +6 turnover margin (tied for 6th/7th), with unarguably the best overall team in return yards (both gained and allowed). Our red zone defense was actually quite efficient, ranking tied for 1st/3rd in least points allowed per visit, with 23 touchdowns allowed in 56 visits. In return, our red zone offense was mediocre and what really jumps out to me is how unMerchantmen worthy our pass rush has been, despite the perceived talent on the defense.

QB Evan Drake finished this season in the middle of the pack of all starting quarterbacks, falling very far below the desired 4K mark with just 3,249 yards in 13 games. Would he have gained 250 per game in the three he missed? Arguably. His 21:18 touchdown to interception ratio was playoffs unworthy. WR Calvin Maxwell finished 6th in the league with 1,268 receiving yards. TE Garrett Alcala came 44 yards short of the 1K-mark. Both scored 9 receiving touchdowns. QB Monty Truitt played admirably well enough to give him another look next off-season and pre-season about whether he's ready and capable of taking over.

As mentioned earlier, the running game has notoriously improved. Neither RB Bennett Holmes or RB Van Goodwin broke the 1K-mark, but as a duo they had the best season we've had from our RB duos in years. I'm confident enough to say that they outperformed the Lost Cause Ken Torphy. Speaking of him, he spent the entire season as a free agent after the Texas Sharks cut him right after training camp. But I didn't mean just this season, we never managed to get to see Torphy to take off for a 1500-yard season or so, despite his support cast. 4 of our 5 starting linemen had between 27 and 30 key run blocks, which is quite astonishing. Only LT Harold Gruenwalder was (unsurprisinly) at roughly half of that.

It should came as no surprise that I do not believe in individual accolades, in particular on defense, as I strongly believe that one player's good numbers is a result of the entire unit playing well. Or sometimes even a result of the whole unit struggling. That said, both LB Gus Coleman and LB Abraham Desimone finished in the top7 of the league with far above 100 tackles. Our sacks leader was quite the disappointment with just 5.0, remember that as recently as last season we had 6 players at or far above that number. LB Coleman also lead our team with 5 interceptions.

Calvin Maxwell was the league's leading kickoff returner (including 2 touchdowns), while Dennis Finley dropped back to 3rd best. K Oscar Harrington missed 5 field goals and 2 extra points, which for a mediocre kicker would be acceptable, but we all know that this guy is touted as the best in the league. It's fair to say that had he lived up to it, we would have finished the season with at least 1 additional victory and would still be in the race for the 2107 IHOF championship. P Jimmy Summers probably did well, I suppose.

All that said, we'll have no choice but to take a peak at the next page, which will reveal the start of a new chapter: the 2108 season. We'll be heading into it with 43 players signed and roughly $105M over the cap (pending retirements). That's not taking into account that we have a lot of draft picks, including the 1.17 pick, Gothenburg's 1st (somewhere between picks 1.25 and 1.32), picks 2.2, (from Brooklyn), 2.4 (North Plainfield) and 2.3 or 2.5 (from Paris), our own 2.20, Gothenburg's 2nd (between 2.25 and 2.32), 3.19 and Rochester's 3rd (between 3.21 and 3.32). We also have our 5th, 6th and 7th rounders. Most importantly, we have 5 of the top 37 picks in the upcoming draft. Yikes. Or lost of fun! Least go with the latter!

Indeed, time to turn he page.