“Pre-Game Thoughts:

- I have ZERO faith in my team. Its been a brutal season and the big guys always let me down when I need them. I see a ton of block and guard, so I give the other team the edge in this because I'll have to worry about mino frenzy traps into multiple MB pieces. I'll be lucky to get a draw.

First Half Thoughts:

- I did a few mves up and down the field, waiting for my opp to commit to one side a little heavy. I drew ouot some of his pieces with some linemen sneaking in. This is the part I like about my drive.

- I kept blitzing the mino in such a way that he always ended up with a friend. I know he cant be on an island. When he was finally separated and I made a break for the ball - instant KO - used the apo.

- I used the sideline for the cage, but I feel a little better about it because I had the ogre there and an extra lineman around the side of it. I normally see sideline cages as a last report but I think it was the right play here.

- Mino was 50/50 - either a stud with the murder or a dud soaking up a valuable blitz opportunity.

- I scored and everything came crashing down. I was minus 2 players before I got to go, and the kick off result provided an extra turn for my opp. I tried to make it difficult, but the lack of players and the mino refusing to blitz sealed any decent defense I mightve had here. Opp only failed a 3 plus RR for the catch for a score. I usually like the chevron defense, but I think Im going to use the smiley face versus slower teams from now on.

Second Half Thoughts:

- Down a player, I set up an even more conservative chevron defense. I think even wtih this, I should set up witht he team closer together. I think my failure here is the set up choice.

- Opp used the guard well, it messed up a lot of things. I still havent fogured out how to contend with it.

- My players kep dying again so I attribute a lot of my lack of a defense to lack of players.

- At one point I tried a 2 die uphill blitz to get a player off the field. I actually set this up by having the elf tag the guy. But I read the dice wrong when I blitzed - thought I had the push off the pitch and I didnt.

- On the turn I needed the elf to sack the carrier, I used all RRs to get a block because there was like a 1 every other dice in that string. Only got the push at the end. Then the elf got MNG'd.

- TTM was wrecked by a deep kick and a pitch invasion that took out the goblin for good measure.

Overall Thoughts:

- I was really lucky to get a draw here, inspite of what felt like auto removal in the second half. Opp played great and took advantage when they needed to.

- The mino soaked up 6-7 turns of blitzes on 1s. I think if I ever want to punch myself int he face and play this team again after this season, no big guys. Just way too unreliable. 3 are straight worthless half the time. ”