Week 6 Game Summary: Ugly, at least for Yellow. It was so ugly that I couldn't write about it for 2 days. Yellow simply couldn't get it going on offense. The QB was under pressure way too much. Many passes were off target early. Then when they finally began be on target receivers dropped or tipped them. I think every Yellow receiver dropped one catchable ball. Between the early missed throws and the later tips, Red had 9 interceptions (I'm pretty sure it was 9 and it certainly was a record). But in all fairness, that doesn't do Red justice. They played pretty good defense (hence the picks). The final score was 4-1* Red over Yellow. I asterisked the "1" because it came on a Cuba Libre that was totally clean but over which there was some confusion and the only defender who might have had a chance to prevent the long touchdown kind of quit on the play as a result.

The MVP could have easily been Red's defense but for the fact that Yellow dropped and tipped so many passes (at least two of which would have gone for touchdowns, another two that would have been first downs) and but for the play of one guy. This week we had 2 new players show up. While Ty had a nice game, Chris had a very impressive debut as Red's QB. Usually when guys come out it takes them a week or two to get the flow of the game, particularly when they try to play QB. Chris' biggest problem was getting used to the extra flag on the belts which was his bane for 3 or 4 sacks by Red. But what he did otherwise more than made up for it. I'm not sure but Chris may be the first player to ever throw for 2 TDs, catch another TD, have 2 picks, and return one of them for a touchdown - He scored 3 ways. Even if we've had someone score three different ways, I'm pretty sure it wasn't in that person's first game. In any case, congrats to Chris our week 6 MVP.

Game 7 Preview: Weather looks like a bit higher low and lower high with a chance for some light rain but remember, we play in the rain.

Link of the Week: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40255643/

Week 5 Game Summary: Well it was a blast from the past as advertised by Jason who brought remnants of his old team the Untouchables out to play in honor of a visit by Chris Treadaway who is in town about to get married. But it was also the debut of 5 new players with Dave bringing a couple and me finding 3 online. While the new guys brought skills to the game, 4 of the new players were on Red who didn't have a lot of experience at QB - Josh has QB'd some in our game but mostly in relief. Yellow, with more experience playing together and bolstered by the best pass-rusher in our game (Matt), kept Red's 3 QBs from establishing much momentum - 50% of Red's yardage came on one play. Yellow won 2-0.

Selecting an MVP was tough once again this week. It was a toss up between Indy who had 2 picks and, had he gotten his feet down, nearly had a 3rd and Kris Burleson who QB'd Yellow to victory. He kept several drives alive with come nice runs and his 2nd TD pass was an absolute rocket that was dead on accurate. If it had been any slower, it would have been deflected by a very nice dive by the new Matt who made a terrific break on the ball and made contact but not quite enough. I give the MVP to Kris because with the exception of what would have been a 3rd pick, Indy's picks were more the result of badly thrown balls than having to work hard on the play (no offense).

Week 6 Preview: I think Chris' wedding is this weekend. Does that mean we have another blast from the past coming?

Link of the Week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz9uLFdfacM&eurl=

Week 4 Game Summary: A very interesting game - the first defensive struggle of the year with the win coming on the final play of the game. Final score was Yellow 2.5 to Red 2. Yellow's advantage was its size. It had all the mass. That mass was able to provide great protection for the Yellow quarterback and put serious pressure on the Red quarterback. The game was still close because Red had a ton of speed. So Red was able to cover Yellow's receivers well.

Choosing the MVP was really hard this week. There were certainly some highlight plays - Jeremy had some nifty moves and I was proud a diving catch I made - but there was no dominant performance by any player. But as I thought about the game I think there were two key plays by one player that changed the outcome. These two plays were flag grabs that saved two Red touchdowns. Had either of those two grabs not been made, Red would have won the game 3 to 2.5 or 4 to 2.5 if both had been missed. The maker of these grabs is our Week 4 MVP and that is Ethan. On one play, Red excuted a terrific reverse and the Red QB made an outstanding block, there was no one to beat when Ethan came flying into the play and made the grab. The other play was similar in that Jason Brecht had a very nice reception and no one in front of him when Ethan came in laterally to make the lunging flag.

RULES UPDATE - during the game, there was discussion about incidental contact that occured when the defender got his legs tangled up with the receiver's. I went to NFL.com to read the rules on the subject to research pass interference and found that the following do not constitute pass-interference:

(a) Incidental contact by a defender’s hands, arms, or body when both players are competing for the ball, or neither player is looking for the ball. If there is any question whether contact is incidental, the ruling shall be no interference.

(b) Inadvertent tangling of feet when both players are playing the ball or neither player is playing the ball.

(c) Contact that would normally be considered pass interference, but the pass is clearly uncatchable by the involved players.

(d) Laying a hand on a receiver that does not restrict the receiver in an attempt to make a play on the ball.

(e) Contact by a defender who has gained position on a receiver in an attempt to catch the ball.

So those are some things to keep in mind. I think we came to the right decision regarding inadvertant contact, particularly the legs.

Week 5 Preview: More good weather? Another full-sized game? More trash-talking the 18 year olds on the other field? (I'm looking at you Nick and Leo :)

Link of the Week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv4Potdpjhw

Week 3 Game Summary: Well this was a weird week. We only had 11 guys so we played 5 on 5 with an all-time QB (Leo and Nick taking turns) and a 2 man line. Then when Sam had to leave early, we played a little old-school 5 on 5, 4 Mississippi rush game. I think what we learned was that the smaller the game gets, the more important to match guys up carefully. Normally in a 7 on 7 or better game, you can mix and match as much as you want but this week with such small teams, having most of the speed on one team was bit much with Yellow winning 6-1.

Picking the MVP was actually hard. I think a good case can be made to give it to a couple of people. I had 2 picks, a couple of nicely defensed passes, and 2 touchdowns (and might could have scored another but lateralled to Leo who took it in). The yellow defense as a whole could have been nominated as well with 4 picks, a turn over or two on downs and forcing a number of punts. But this week, I'm going to award the MVP to Leo because he had 3 TDs (one of which was a really nice WR screen where he had to make some very nifty moves to get in) and threw for a couple.

Week 4 Preview: Hopefully the weather will continue to cool a bit and our numbers will increase slightly. I think most people will agree that 7 on 7 or 8 on 8 generally produce our best games so getting a few more people out this coming week would be really good.

Something that would really be nice would be if we had numbers at 9:00 which is actually our start time. We're starting games now as soon as we have enough to begin playing - even if that means playing a smaller game to start or having to substitute guys in or something. 9:00 start means arriving early enough to put on cleats, stretch, warm-up, whatever and starting the game at 9:00.


Link of the Week: http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=9066&where=index

Week 2 Game Summary - Goodness the quality of play jumped up from week 1 to week 2 while the offense was much stonger this week, that doesn't take away from some nice defensive plays. Game finished 7 to 4, Yellow over Red but here's the odd thing - when I looked back at the game to identify the MVP, I came up with one player who had no touchdowns. This is the oddest winning performance I think we've had. This week the award is given based not on TDs, sacks, or picks but on strategy and blocks. Jason Chenault called three running plays and all three resulted in TDs - 2 of them scoring because of his blocking including one of those where he made both the lead block and the second block without which there would have been no score. On defense I think he had a sack or two but more importantly he designed a new coverage scheme that was highly effective. So congratulations to Jason on a contributions last week. Its not about being the superstar, its about putting your team in a position to win.

Week 3 Preview - Probably still hot but at least Texas-OU will be on later than last year so we shouldn't have people leaving early to watch the game.

Link of the week - http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=11947&where=index