Week 17 Summary - A classic - its raining hard and we have 9 on 9 - that's dedication (or insanity . . . hard to tell). In any case, it was our 2nd wettest games ever (we had a game about 7 years ago when it poured hard the entire game). Still, it was mighty wet - even after it stopped raining. Final score of 3 to 2 Yellow over Red.

Couple things came up that I wanted to talk about. First, for the past few months Leo's teams have been running a hook and ladder play once or twice a game that involves Leo throwing to a receiver on the line and then coming behind for a pitch. After it was run twice in a row this week, a question was asked as to whether or not that was pushing the "QB can't run rule." This is a good question but I don't think that it does. This play is not like having a player hand the ball to the "real QB" so he could run or throw on every play (which a couple of guys tried doing last year) for two reasons: 1) because it involves a forward pass and a pitch back. The QB doesn't have the option to throw or run. He threw and then took the pitch to run. We do hook and ladder plays to other players, including linemen (who are otherwise ineligble to advance the ball) 2) The pass could be dropped by the WR or intercepted by a really alert defender OR the WR could be flagged before the pitch OR the pitch could be dropped or intercepted by a really alert defender. So there is a higher element of risk in this play than in simply handing the ball to a stud Vince Young style runner/QB. I think the risk of little to no gain makes it more legitimate. So running it once or twice a week doesn't seem unreasonable any more than running half-back options or running Hook and Ladders to a lineman once or twice a week. They are fun plays and as long as they are not the staple of the offense, I don't see them violating the spirit of the rules by having otherwise ineligible players running the ball. Thoughts?

Another thing I needed to do was apologize for getting pissed off when I ran up the middle on a draw and Matt tackled me. It was a totally legitimate play. I was running up the middle, he got in the way and grabbed me to stop me, I went down. It’s just I hit a puddle face first and the cold water gave me a jolt so I reacted without thinking. I was wrong to complain about it.

Finally, I am really sorry about my forecast. It really looked like the rain was going to pass by 9:15 or so. And it did pass . . . only it was more like 10:30 before it did.

BTW - Kudos to Leo and Ray for struggling through the worst throwing weather in years.

Week 18 Preview - Weather.com shows a sunny day for Saturday with Wednesday being the only day for the rest of the week with a chance of rain so hopefully the field will have dried out.

Week 16 Summary - What a wild week this was. Another very large game of 10 on 10 whose highlights was probably turnovers. Two in particular. After solid pressure and contact with the Yellow QB's forearm, Red intercepts the ball. On the run back someone (not sure who) yells "pitch, pitch!" and Red pitches it straight to Yellow. Bizarre play. Only seen it one other time and that was a couple years ago. So flash forward a couple plays later on Yellow's possession. Yellow has a completion and is running up the field when once again the call "pitch, pitch!" comes out and Yellow pitches the ball to Red. Unreal. Good game though.

I think we need to discuss the size issue soon. If we end up with 24 players or so in one week, we probably will need to split into two games. Any time you have more linemen than eligible backs/receivers people spend more time on the line than as eligibles. I enjoy playing the line but when it becomes more than half the time, that's getting a bit much so just planting the seed that we might need to look at splitting occasionally.

Week 17 Preview - Probably another very big week. We've been picking up new players big time lately and more new ones are expected to everyone bring nametags.

Week 15 Summary - Large game. Seriously large. We had 19 and played 9 on 9 with a substitute. This was with 6 new guys and 3 who were making their 2nd appearance. So its great to have gotten game strength back up where it needs to be. We may actually have enough people one of these weeks to have to play on two fields. I'm going to grab some more cones and belts to be sure we have enough. In any case, Week 15 was a pretty good game. Final score was like 4.5 to 2 Yellow over Red or something close to that. The only performance I'm going to highlight this week was Ray's amazing defense. He was in on probably more than half the flag grabs - simply flying all over the field. He was particularly devestating against the run.

Week 16 Preview - An on-time start. Last week we had 16 by 9:15 so everyone had time to warm up and we got right into the game.

Week 14 Summary - Another great week. We got up to 8 on 8 and what started out as a skunking (6.5 to 1 at one point) ended up much closer. I don't remember the final score but I think it was 6.5 to 5. It was definitely much closer. Oh, and Jason wanted me to mention his touchdowns - he had one straight and then pitched to Brandon on a Hook and Ladder who then lateraled back on the 1 foot line so Jason could score. Had 4 new guys out this week and Dan came back so it looks like we have a new regular.

Week 15 Preview - We've had a strong start to the spring season so I can only hope that we keep it going this week.

Week 13 Game Summary - We had 7 on 7 and a hell of a game. Possibly the best this year. We had punts, picks, sacks, turnovers on downs, running, catching, and, since this game marked Brian Dainton's return as a QB, Hooks and Ladders. All we were missing was a safety. Final score 3-3 with scores on both team's last possessions. Great game. Also, we picked up 2 new players last week and saw Paul for the first time since last year.

Week 14 Preview - More of the same? Love to have the new guys keep coming back and to have more games like last week's.