Another Weekend, Another Win

This weekend gave witness to another resounding victory by What?!. At the same time, it was also a game of several firsts. Here is the list:

• First appearance by the butter brothers, better know as the Ryans
• First time someone called "out of bounds" on a pass when it was actually way inbounds
• First time in team history that someone was targeted double-digit amount of times, as Chris "Terrell Owens" became a ball magnet once he stopped chasing QB's
• First career touchdown for Elaina as she used ninja moves to score on a catch and run, justifying her $50 million contract
• First medical bill that Chris has to pay for that broken ankles caused by his shake n bake move
  
• First time we incurred deductible on our medical plan as 4 players suffered injuries including:
• Alja - Toe
  
• Ronny - Calf
  
• Eric - Quads
  
• Elaina - Fingers
  

Otherwise, game was not so dissimilar from our previous ones. We put up a lot of points despite a lowly completion percentage of 46%. Matt was the only exception as he had a short and efficient day as QB, tossing 3 touchdowns as well as getting 2 interceptions on defense. Coen and Felix were able to get in some pass attempts as they continue working on their timing and placement, especially on the deep throws they narrowly missed.

In other stories, Eric continues to use trickery on opponents as he caught ANOTHER touchdown while drawing 2 interceptions from the opposition, including a pick six. Jen blessed the team with her second appearance of the season and promptly caught everything thrown her way, including a long touchdown while also passing for another. Ronny had several more catches on offense, including a Kirk Gibson like one after his injury and added 2 interceptions. Lauren harassed and chased after the other QB all day even though he wasn't good looking, and chipped in with a catch. Alja's passing TD streak ends as she became a own-team-induced injury casualty.

The big negative was that we gave up 18 points, even though they were all fluky. We'll just chalk it up to laziness and playing dumb defense towards the end of the game.

PLAY OF THE GAME: Tie, Chris tipping a ball to himself and then proceeding to snap some ankles and Elaina's TD
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Matt, narrowly over Jen, solely due to his ridiculous stat padding

Honorable mention to Lance for showing up at the field, after the game ended. Mad props.

Game 5 Results

Click for full size.

What?! Mimics Performance of Local Area Teams

"Game conditions were similar to those in the picture..., except for the snow, and the 6 TD's in 1 quarter"

Given that a good number of players on the team are fans of NY state football teams, the Giants, the Jets, and the Bills, it was only fitting that the performance of the team this past Sunday closely mirrored that of their professional counterparts. Below, I will list the feat of the professional team(s) followed by What?!'s version of events.

- Pros: Jets rookie QB Mark Sanchez throws 5 interceptions.
  What?!: Amateur QBs match Mark Sanchez's prowess throw for throw, in turnovers.

- Pros: Giants offense miss multiple times on deep bombs by inches
  What?!: Offense play makers off rhythm and narrowly missed connecting on multiple deep throws

- Pros: Bills defense gets 5 turnovers
  What?!: Defense induced 4 picks and a sack, plus one shoulder-shot to the face of opponent receiver.

- Pros: Jets and Giants running game were relatively successful.
  What?!: Converts the only designed running play into a touchdown and 6 points.

All in all, a mixed performance. Somehow, the team put up 34 points even with under 50% passing. The defense was also aided by their opponents and their drops. Clearly, What?! looks to play much better on both sides of the ball in upcoming week. Meanwhile, a big shout-out to Tara who filled in admirably for, surprise, Tara, as we were short on girls. Thanks so much!


PLAY OF THE GAME: Close call this week as the halfback toss to Eric S aka "running plays are stupid, they'll never work" for a touchdown narrowly beats the touchdown catch by Ronny aka "I steal TD's from my brother right in front of his face"
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Alja by a landslide as she tosses two long TD passes and continues her hot hand at QB.

Game 4 Results

Includes 1 rushing TD by Eric S. Click for full size.

Fall 09 Stats Update

As we have reached the half way mark of the Fall season, just posting where we stand on season stats and making some observations. (CLICK FOR FULL SIZE)

• Looks like we need to step up the passing for our "alternate" QB's, heehee.
  
• TD/Int ratio of 2.5 is pretty good, although a 3 would be awesome
• We're really terrible at extra points, only converting a lowly 33% of the time (including defensive TD)
  

• "Eric squared" is dominating the receiving category and points scored
• All the drops for the team came in 1 game
• Chris and Jen are the only two with perfect catch per target ratio.

• Team is +8 in turnover ratio
• Defense is averaging almost one touchdown per game worth of points
• The points is correlated with the team averaging more than 3 interceptions a game
  

TEAM LEADERS (projected full season number in parenthesis):

Passing

Completions: Matt, 66 (132)
Attempts: Matt, 104 (208)
Completion %: Tara, 66.7%
TDs: Matt, 11 (22)
Interceptions: Multiple, 0 (0)
1pts: Multiple, 0 (0)
2pts: Matt, 6 (12)

Offense

Targets: Eric A, 23 (46)
Catches: Eric A, 14 (28)
Drops: Eric A, 2 (4)
TDs: Eric S, 6 (12)
1pts: Multiple, 0 (0)
2pts: Lance, 2 (4)
Points: Eric S, 38 (76)

Defense

Passes Defended: Eric A, 5 (10)
Interceptions: Eric A, 3 (6)
Tackles: Alex, 9 (18)
Sacks: Chris, 7 (14)
TDs: James/Lance/Matt, 1 (2)
Safeties: Chris, 1 (2)
Points: James/Lance/Matt, 6 (12)

What?! Rewrites Ending For Untouchables

Untouchables is one my my favorite movies of all time. Featuring the studly cast of Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Sergio Garcia, and Robert DeNiro, the classic cops and gangster movie elicits images of baseball bat head bashing and horseback charging Canadian Royal Mounties.

This past Sunday, What?! was scheduled to face Eliott Ness and company in a battle of epic proportions. Unfortunately, due to massive lameness aka scheduling conflicts and various parties, the team was reduced to a paper thin roster starring a QB and "The Magnificent Seven." This, combined with the team's lackluster performance from the previous week, posed a interesting challenge for the burgundy bunch.

Game 3 Result

Click for full size.

Knocked Off Rythmn

The D-1 NYIT team we were supposed to play had to forfeit due to scheduling mishap. We wound up playing the league champs from last season in a scrimmage.

Offensively, our troubles on extra point and goal-line conversions continued. In addition, we were consistently battling the play clock in getting our snaps off and had trouble adjusting and adapting to our opponents defense. Our biggest mistake on offense was a ill timed option call on the goal-line that led to our only turnover of the game and a 12 point swing.

On defense, it felt like we were consistently 1 step behind, as we missed on many multiple passes that we should have intercepted. Furthermore, we were not quick enough on making the adjustments to close down the deep middle, which our opponents exploited fully.

All in all, we played a very out of sync and inefficient game. It actually surprised me how close the game turned out to be with these mishaps. Among the things we will probably work on to improve are:

• getting in/out of huddles quicker and simpler/quicker play calls
• better match-ups on defense with personnel and zone positioning
• more throws deep and use full field (ie sidelines and middle of zone)
• don't run gadget play that we haven't fully practiced/planned out

Hopefully we'll be able to correct these problems for our upcoming games.


Btw, Niners 3-1. Pat Willis scores 2nd TD of season.

Scrimmage 2 Results

Click for full size.