[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Worst season ever avoided, barely

A dreadful season has come to an end. In a season where we got outscored by our opponents by 110 points over 16 games, it required a couple of blowout victories over our French division rivals to keep it north of our -122 figure in the 2102 season. It was still our 3rd ever with -100 or worse. "Dreadful" indeed.

That was a bit of a spoiler on our final games. In week 13 we managed to lose a home game to Harlem 35-23 despite picking their quarterback off 5 times. We followed up with a hard fought 29-22 loss at Chesapeake and in week 16 we lost 28-7 at home against Williamsburg. We wrapped around that unwatchable home game with solid 34-10 and 41-21 wins against Bordeaux and Paris. Beating Bordeaux required us 3 interception return touchdowns, whilst the week 17 victory saw QB Bart Tanner achieve his first 300-yard performance, leaning heavily on WR Jessie Vertelney's 149 yards receiving, his second best in 5 season with us.

European Division
1. Gothenburg 10-5-1
2. Bordeaux 9-7
3. Maassluis 5-11
4. Paris 4-12

Bordeaux would have still missed the playoffs had they beaten us in week 15, which is a tiny solace to what otherwise was a bit of a turnaround season for the Vineyards. Gothenburg lost crucial home games in the middle of the season to Tucker and Augusta, which dropped them to the #3 seed, although the Giants might put it all on their week 17 loss at Bordeaux. Despite our pathetic showing, we still didn't finish last in the division.

People in and around Indianapolis would have cheered for their team to fail even harder, but that's just not our attitude. We'll get the 7ht overall pick in the 2114 draft as well as a yet to be determined how high or low first round pick from Orlando.

Sadly QB Harrison Singleton didn't recover in time to get to play this season, but the outlook for now is he'll be as good as ever. Which is bad news for QB Dakota Peterson and QB Bart Tanner, as this should mean their demotion to playing for second fiddle in the next off-season. But with their respective bottom of the league passer ratings, they should be happy to still be in the league next season, they had the luxury to team up with the most talented wide receiver duo in the league right now and possibly in Merchantmen history.

RB Renaldo Billodeaux finished the season with 1,338 yards and 10 touchdowns without a single fumble. He was a rare bright light on our offense. Although WR Rodolfo Lane might be worth mentioning somewhat as he is quickly turning into one of the best punt return specialist in the IHOF ever.

The defense was plain and simply Merchantmen unworthy. The team finished last in sacks with just 20. The final stretch was just acceptable enough to finish below 400 yard per game allowed, but we still finished last. And the points allowed figure swung to Paris because of the head-to-head beating we gave them in week 17, or we would have "earned" another last place.

So, yeah, all in all, a season we shall try to forget as quickly as possible.

Is it 2114 already? Not yet, we'll have to sit out the playoffs first...