GEFNFL - 2010 Game Summaries

WEEK 1


An excellent night for football, clear, only slightly cool and the mosquitoes didn't show up until late in the game. The entire game was played with 8 on 7, with Blue rotating a man out for a 7 on 7 game. We had about a dozen fans including Natalie a friend of some of our players and a group of teens with at least one young cheerleader-want-to-be that did the splits.

Shaking off the off-season’s cob webs was tougher for the Red team this year. Blue’s more seasoned team made steady progress most of the game. Red had a few more errant passes including those that contributed to 2 Blue interceptions (The only ones in the game). Red was also had a number of dropped passes. Combined this resulted in a large number of killed drives.

Blue took the opportunity to put players in positions that the seldom play together. Even though everyone has the chance to play all positions, it would be unusual to not keep the team somewhat mixed. Blue would rush it’s smallest fastest guys all together or keep all of its biggest (slowest) strongest guys back as its deep defensive backs at the same time. Still, Blue dominated the game. Red continued to fight until the end finishing with a long drive that ending in an ill-advised rushing attempt on the last play falling short of the end zone. Final score Blue 4 to Red 1.

The Play of the Day: I believe it went something like this: On 4th down with 10 to go for the 1st down, Gary Dahlke threw about a 15 yard to Willie Stover on the right flat. Willie tipped it up, and Todd Polczynski the defender took another swat at it. The ball bounced up yet again as Jacob Richmond made the diving catch for the Red 1st Down.

Stat Leaders: We have two of them this week. Dave Dubberstein with 1 Passing TD, 1 Receiving TD and a Sack, and Pietro Norante with 2 Receiving TDs, and an INT.
 

WEEK 2

Another excellent night for football, clear, and only slightly cool. We had 18 players at the peak, but limited it to an 8 on 8 game on the field. As it was with late arrivals and injuries, rotating a man out on both sides. With 8 on 8 we decided to go to a 4 count before rushing the passer to give the QB a bit longer to find a target. We had about a half dozen fans, 4 on the tennis court and 2 of Todd’s friends (one of which looked to be about 2 years old).

Your Red & Blue GEFNFL warriors pounded this one out, with several players ending up on the Injury Report including one on Injured Reserve. I don’t like having an Injury Report, and I have no reason to believe that there was anything we could have done to prevent it. Sometimes things just happen. I hope we done with injury reports for the season.

Related commercial break to enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgnS9bmP_qw

Red got off to a good start with a 2 to 0 lead, making me reconsider the division of the sides. There was a bit of a training issue with the change to a 4 second count for the delayed rush, but I believe it helped prevent the offenses from going scoreless.

Blue answered Red with 3 straight touchdowns, including right side only variation on a Bill Ray designed play called the Banana play that scored yet another touchdown. The injuries started to pile up during this part of the game. First Tony Melchior’s finger, and then the John Bopp & Dan Rhode’s collision detail in the Hit-of-the-Day.

Red took a deep breath and made a nice drive to tied it up at 3 to 3. During the final drive Andy Saugstad put his own thumb in his eye socket, (Yes. I cringe even typing that.) trying to defend the end zone. I think we need to have some supplies on the sidelines, cold packs, gauze and tape come to mind right away.

Blue took the last touchdown with a Jacob Richmond rushing touchdown from about 5 yards out. Final score Blue 4 to Red 3.

Better than Favre? Last week I noticed that with 2 Passing touchdowns and no interceptions thrown (something I generally don’t track) that Wayne Schott had a better passer rating than Brett Favre with 1 Passing TD and 1 INT. After two weeks in the NFL and GEFNFL, 2 more people joined me in that informal ranking. Brett has a huge advantage over us, in that he plays QB all game and we only get a few rotations a game, and clearly the competition level is different, but I thought it might be fun to see how long we can beat him…

                 Passing INTs thrown

Wayne Schott        3        0

Dave Dubberstein    2        ?

Ryan Anderson       2        ?

Brett Favre         1        4

The Play of the Day: This play was another tip drill. At about the ten yard line QB Ryan Anderson fired a pass that was tipped up by the defender Paul Vanschaick only to fall in the end zone in the awaiting hands of Pietro Norante.

The Hit of the Day: In a short and goal situation, Blue receiver, John Bopp was squaring in to the middle of the end zone as the Red defender, Dan Rhode was chasing another receiver to the outside. John said it was too late when he saw Dan and tried to protect himself with an outstretched arm. Yep, he broke his arm. It was the end of the game for him and sadly it’s likely the end of the season, too. Dan survived the a little better and managed to stay in.

I do believe I have access to a striped jersey, a whistle and a stat pad if John still wants to get out of the house on Friday nights.

I wasn’t the first to be reminded of the epic full speed collision between Curt Lesmeister and Wayne Schott back in 1996 Week 6.

Stat Leaders: Stat Leader was Paul Vanschaick with 1 Passing TD, 1 INT and 2 Sacks. Ryan Anderson had the most TDs scored with 1 Passing TD & 1 Receiving TD

Injury Report:

Questionable:

Tony Melchior - Sprained right pinky (Yes, pinkies are over-rated, but it’s his throwing hand.)

Andy Saugstad – Eye.

Dan Rhode - Cut on left arm & headaches for the weekend.

Injured Reserve:

John Bopp - Broken arm. I saw the x-ray already Friday night at Knucklehead’s in Eagle. Looked like a compression fracture of the right ulna, near the wrist, but I’m no expert.
 

WEEK 3

So far so good we have been drawing very good weather for these games. We had 12 players at the peak, but limited it to an 5 on 5 game on the field.  We had late arrivals and early departures, so we rotating a man out on both sides at different times.  We returned to the 3 count before rushing the passer, since we had a more manageable team size.  We had about a half dozen fans, 2 on the tennis court and a few kids including one girl wear a cast in honor of the fallen John Bopp from last week. 

Yet another related commercial break to enjoy:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4804033000500581013

On the radio we heard about a big accident around Highway 59 & Highway 83.  The Flight for Life helicopter flew overhead as the game started, it’s not a military fly-over that the Packer get, but we were honored.  Sirens were going off as the nearby Fire station emptied out during the first half.  (I’m not sure if that was related to accident or not.)

Blue got off to a good start, and never looked back.  Blue pounded Red with every Blue quarterback scoring a single touchdown except for Doug Saugstad, who made up for that, by scoring 3 TD receptions.  Doug also get an honorable mention for some outstanding blocking for a skinny guy.  His use of leverage and position was very effective even against Red’s sack leader.

The only thing slowing Blue down was 4 Red interceptions.  Early in the fourth quarter, Andy snagged Red’s last interception and pulled a hamstring doing so.  Only a late touchdown on a Steve Maciejewski rushing touchdown, prevented a scoreless night for Red. 

Final score Blue 5 to Red 1.

200 TDs!!!

Since we began keeping stats in 1996 the mark to chase has always been the number of combined touchdowns.  I knew that Tyler Jones was getting close the 200 touchdown mark, but I didn’t know that Dave Dubberstein had already achieved it in Week 2.  Both of these guys started just one game in 1998, and have become regulars from that point on.  Tyler’s first full season in 1999 contained a whopping 34 combined touchdowns.

Tyler was awarded a GEFNFL 200 TDs Football to commemorate the accomplishment.

David arrived late and left early due to a new addition to his family that week, so he didn’t get his award football yet.

(Disclaimer: I wish we had stats dating back to the beginning of the league, but like Deacon Jones’ sack records in the NFL, those records can’t be recovered.  The next guys in inline for this Award are Wayne Schott & Tom Sweinberg both of which have a long history of unrecorded stats.)  

 

Better than Favre?  With Brett Favre at 2 TD passes and 6 interceptions, two more players joined the ranks of Better than Favre.  (As I said, I don’t track interceptions thrown, but I am confident no one has thrown 6 yet.)

                 Passing   INTs thrown

Wayne Schott        3          2

Dave Dubberstein    2          ?

Ryan Anderson       2          ?

Tyler Jones         2          ?

Todd Polcynski      2          ?

Favre, Brett        2          6

The Play of the Day: On this Play Andy saved another one of Red’s failing drives with a ground level completion of a 40 yard Wayne Schott pass, putting the Red team on the 15 yard line with a first down.  The receiver and the defender collided high while trying for the incoming pass and Andy Saugstad swooped in from the side to snag the ball just short of the grass.

Stat Leaders:  Stat Leaders were Pietro Norante with 1 Passing TD, 1 Receiving TDs, 1 INT  and 2 Sacks, closely followed by Doug Saugstad with 3 Receiving TDs and 1 Sack.

Injury Report:

  Questionable:

    Andy Saugstad – Hamstring

  Injured Reserve:

    John Bopp     - Broken arm. 

WEEK 4

The weather was a mixed bag this week, starting with warm humid conditions with mosquitos, followed later with gusty winds, then random rain squalls and much cooler temperatures.  We had 15 players at the peak, for a 7 on 7 game with Blue rotating a guy, until one player on Red left.  We played with a 3 count delay rush, something I was reconsidering as the scoring seemed hard to get going.  Only about 3 fans including one kid with a cool bike that was not his, and 2 that sat down to watch for a while. 

Blue got off to a good start, but it never looked like it was going to be a high scoring affair.  With a slight edge Blue was holding on to a 3 to 2 lead well into the third quarter when a strong gust front came through making passing difficult.  It then started raining off and on. 

Tyler left early to play hockey, so Blue traded the man out on rotation (Paul Vanschaick) to the Red team, for zero future draft picks.  Red was down by one at the time, but with the addition of Paul, they quickly tied the score at 3 to 3, with a drive that started with the Play-of-Day.

Even with the surprising back to back 20 yard rushing plays by Wayne Schott setting up a short yardage, second & goal situation, Blue couldn’t get back in the lead.  That drive turned over on downs.

Red followed that drive with another score putting them one score ahead.  Red even allowed Blue a final drive, for another shot at evening up the score, but it fell short as well.

Final score Red 4 to Blue 3.

200 TDs!!!

Dave Dubberstein was there long enough to be awarded his GEFNFL 200 TDs Football, but not long enough to remember to pick up hi blue & black wind breaker coat.

Better than Favre?  Brett had a bye week this week, and so remains at 2 TD passes and 6 interceptions.  Since he gets every drive at QB and we get maybe 2 a game, a bye week is the closest equivalent I can think of.  Three more players joined the ranks of Better than Favre and Tyler Jones moved into first place.  The GEFNFL now has eight QBs with better passer ratings than Favre!  Don’t think this will hold long with Randy Moss becoming a Viking again. 

                 Passing   INTs thrown

Tyler Jones         4          ?

Wayne Schott        3          2

Dave Dubberstein    2          ?

Ryan Anderson       2          ?

Todd Polczynski     2          ?

Jacob Richmond      2          ?

Tom Sweinberg       2          ?

Paul Vanschaick     2          ?

Favre, Brett        2          6

(Note: We don’t track interceptions thrown, but I am confident no one, except Brett, has thrown 6 yet.)

The Play of the Day:  Okay this play was called by the Blue defense, when Paul Vanschaick got his first rotation at QB on the Red team.  Blue had every intention of allowing Red to get the play over, they just wanted to mess with Paul.  The call was a no count blitz with 3 rushers, clearly an illegal call.  The look on Paul’s face was worth it.  However, Paul managed to salvage the play with a nice 15 yard pass to Jacob Richmond!  When given the option of having the play over, Red decided to keep the gain on the play.

Stat Leaders:  Stat Leaders is Paul Vanschaick, who played on both teams getting 1 Passing TD, 1 Receiving TDs, 1 Rushing TD, and 1 INT.

Injury Report:

  Injured Reserve:

    John Bopp     - Broken arm (Still no visual aids).

GEFNFL 2010 Official Bartender

Marianne at Buffalo Wild Wings on Sunset!  It’s been a while since we selected an official bartender because of the high standards that were set by the previous young ladies.  She’s going to school at Carroll College, hustling wings & beer at BWW’s and yet still in a cheery mode for us worn out football warriors.  We welcome her to our fan list and direct her to the web site link below, so she catch up on, or laugh at, our history. (She can also check out our previous official bartenders.)

WEEK 5

Awesome football weather, even a little warm for October.  We had 13 players at the peak, for a 6 on 6 game with Red rotating a guy, until one player on Red left, Blue traded Tom Sweinberg to the Red team to even the sides.  We played with a 3 count delay rush. There were only about 6 fans, 2 of which played tennis. 

This battle started with the trading of interceptions through most of the first half, as we wondered if any scoring would happen at all.  The football chess match was a big part of this week’s game, as each team looked for a way to out-play-call the other.  Defenses switched from various zone configurations to man-to-man more often than seen in previous games.  It must have worked because the defenses piled up a total of 10 interceptions in this game!

Blue broke the zero to zero tie with a rushing touchdown on a Ryan Anderson 10 yard run as they sucked all the defenders deep into the end zone, leaving the sole rusher one on one with Ryan. 

Tom Sweinberg’s Play-of-the-Day run for the Blue team was an example of exploiting the positions of the defenders on the open field and some bad communication by Red’s defenders. 

While doing his stint on the Red team, Tom Sweinberg called a play for a run fake to the right.  The only player lined up on the left was Dave Dubberstein.  To sell the play Dave slumped his shoulders to indicate his disappointment on the play going the other way, as the defender released him to cover the run.  Tom stepped back to thrown a cross field pass to Dave for a 20+ yard gain.

With Wayne Schott drawing many blocking assignments, the call in the Red huddle was to send him long.  Calling a down out and down on the right side, with Dave Dubberstein pulling the deep man to the inside on a slant from the right wide out position to midfield.  Wayne caught the 40 yard Brandon Maas pass, while back peddling into the end zone for the touchdown.

Final score Red 4 to Blue 3.

Better than Favre?  Brett tacked 3 TD’s on in one quarter of the Monday Night Game to take the lead.  That doesn’t mean he isn’t within striking distance.  He could always get suspended. 

                 Passing   INTs thrown

Favre, Brett        5          7

Tyler Jones         4          ?

Wayne Schott        4          3

Dave Dubberstein    3          ?

(Note: We don’t track interceptions thrown, but I am confident no one, except Brett, has thrown 7 yet.)

The Play of the Day:  Hands down it was Tom Sweinberg’s quarterback sweep right from his own 20 yard line.  As he rolled right he shot up the right sideline, making a move inside just before the first down marker at mid-field.  At this point he took a diagonal path to the left goal line for a 80 touchdown run.   

Stat Leaders:  Stat Leaders is Brandon Maas, with 2 Passing TD, 2 Receiving TDs, and 1 INT.

Injury Report:

  Injured Reserve:

    John Bopp     - Broken arm (Still no visual aids).

  PUP

    Alex Schott   - Hamstring

GEFNFL 2010 Official Bartender

Marianne was a no show at Buffalo Wild Wings, causing the quality of service to drop off considerably. 

WEEK 6

Can’t complain about the weather we are getting for Friday nights.  We had 16 players at the peak, for a 8 on 8 game, until one player on Blue was knocked out of the game.  Red was forced to rotate a player in and out for a while until another Blue Player left early. So Red traded Doug Saugstad to the Blue team to even the sides.  There were only about 3 fans, 2 humans just passed through and 1 raccoon watched from the south end zone for about 5 minutes. 

During the pregame, the Blue team was discussing the inequity of the teams, I selected.  I walked over to the Blue team, and mentioned that, “I might have stacked the Red team a bit.” 

“Do you think!”, Dave replied.  “I was just telling them to ‘Trust the Wayne.’”  As it turned out Blue held its own throughout the game, never letting Red get too far ahead as to put the game out of reach.

Starting with 8 on 8 we began with a 4 count delay rush and later changed to a 3 count delay rush as we lost players.  And we did lose players.  Paul Vanschiack went down with the Hit-of-the-Day.  Leonard Davis ducked out sometime late in the 3^rd quarter.

Red scored first, and quickly scored again with the Play-of-the-Day, getting out to a 2 to 0 lead.  Blue responded with a touchdown of its own.  It stayed in this range for the rest of the game as each team matched each other touchdown for touchdown for the next 2 scores each.  The game did bog down a bit with several drives turning over on downs and/or reversed with interceptions.

As the ranks thinned out and the time approached 9:00, Red gave Blue another chance to tie it up late in the game, but they fell short again.  The difference in the game basically came down to the Play-of-the-Day interception for a touchdown.

Final score Red 4 to Blue 3.

Better than Favre?  Brett added only 1 TD in the Cowboy game, so he is still within striking distance for a couple of our quarterbacks.  (In Lumpy’s bar in Eagle River, there is a Favre #4 Viking Jersey for sale.  The sign under it says, “Burn me or wear me.  $5”   Someone added a handmade sign underneath it, that said, “Just don’t text me!”)

                 Passing   INTs thrown

Favre, Brett        6          7

Wayne Schott        5          4

Dave Dubberstein    5          ?

Tyler Jones         4          ?

(Note: We don’t track interceptions thrown, but I am confident no one, except Brett, has thrown 7 yet.)

The Play of the Day:  Blue’s pass from the 20 yard line out to nearly mid field, was cleanly intercepted by Doug Saugstad followed by a 45 yard return for a touchdown. 

Hit-of-the-Day: Paul Vanschaick’s in midair collision with Steve Maciejewski (I think), as they were both closing in on the ball thrown from the 5 yard line out to about the 20 yard line.  It knocked the wind out of Paul, and maybe a little more.  If you have ever had this happen to you, you may not know how bad it can be.  If you get hit hard enough it may be 20-30 seconds before you can inhale again.  This looked like that kind of hit. 

Stat Leader:  Doug Saugstad who played on both teams with 1 Passing TD, 1 Receiving TD, 1 INT and 1 INT for a TD. 

Injury Report:

  Injured Reserve:

    John Bopp       - Broken arm (Still no visual aids).

  PUP

    Alex Schott     - Hamstring

    Tom Sweinberg   – Tweaked Hamstring

    Paul Vanschaick - Ribs  

GEFNFL 2010 Official Bartender

No one to go to Buffalo Wild Wings with, so I drove to Eagle River, to be there early enough to pick up an insulation blower for the weekend’s work at the cabin. 

WEEK 7

The football gods continue to bestow great weather upon our Friday night games.  The player count however, is starting to thin out as the season progresses.  I’m not sure if it’s the injuries that are beginning to mount up, or if Friday nights are becoming difficult to schedule.  Maybe it’s both.  We started with only 10 players, for a 5 on 5 game. Red had to make major roster changes all during the second half to maintain a team.  There were only 1 fan this in the south end zone, he didn’t remain just a fan for very long, Red needed to make him a player.   

My kingdom for a touchdown! (Since I don’t really have a kingdom, that isn’t really saying very much.)  The entire first half of the game was completely scoreless!  There were either long drives that turned over on downs, or shorter drives that turned over on interceptions.  The players began to question my theory that smaller teams make for higher scoring, but the game wasn’t over yet.

Shortly after half time, the scoring began to pick up with both Blue and Red scoring few back to back touchdowns as Blue held a 1 touchdown lead most of the game.  Red began to struggle to maintain a player count of 5.  First they lost Andy to a date with his girlfriend leaving around 7:45. (Really?  Where are that kid’s priorities?)  Red recruited rookie Haywood Beamon from the south end zone fan base, to replace Andy.  Haywood stepped in like a pro, considering he was only there to pick up his daughter from a Prairie School event, stuck it out his rookie game for about 45 minutes before he had to go.  He even caught a short touchdown pass to make it in the stats.

Sometime in the 4^th quarter Haywood had to leave and at about the same time, the hamstrings started to tighten up.  Red loses Will Stover to a hamstring.  Red was down to 3 players, so Blue traded Tony Jordan to the Red team to keep the sides even, at 4 on 4.   Tony made stats on both sides of the field.  On one play for Red, he made an extra down move on a square out at the first down marker and chased a overthrown pass by Wayne Schott who was scrambling to the right. With a really nice effort on the play, he turn a short yardage gain into a 60 yard touchdown play.

Later, Pietro lost a hamstring, but stuck it out, hobbling around as their one legged quarterback, for the end game.  Blue had a 5 to 4 lead going into the final minutes but allowed Red another shot at tying the score.  Red did it with a 15 yard Pietro Norante pass to Dan Rhode.

With 10 touchdowns scored in the second half, this test of the smaller team scoring theory leaves it at least somewhat intact.  Final score was a tie, Red 5 to Blue 5.

Better than Favre?  I nudged out Favre again, by adding 2 more touchdowns to my passer rating, as Brett added only 1 TD and 3 more interceptions in the Packer game.  He is still within striking distance for a couple of our quarterbacks, Dave Dubberstein and Tyler Jones are the next closest.  This is quite surprising, as we are 7 weeks into the football season.  How the mighty have fallen. 

                 Passing   INTs thrown

Wayne Schott        7          4

Favre, Brett        7         10

Dave Dubberstein    6          ?

Tyler Jones         6          ?

(Note: We don’t track interceptions thrown, but I am confident no one, except Brett, has thrown 10 yet.)

The Play of the Day:  Tyler Jones picked off a pass on his own 35 yard line and began to pick and weave his way to the end zone.  Along the way he picked up that formidable lead blocker, Dave Dubberstein, who began to mow down the Red team as it unexpectedly switched from offense to defense.  Tyler was able to go the entire distance, for a 65 yard interception, returned for a touchdown.

Stat Leaders:  Stat Leaders are Tony Jordan, who played on both teams, with 1 Passing TD, 3 Receiving TDs, and 1 INT, and Pietro Norante with 3 Passing TD, 1 Receiving TDs, and 1 INT.  Dave Dubberstein also had 1 Passing TD, 2 Receiving TDs, 2 INT and a Sack. 

Injury Report:

  Injured Reserve:

    John Bopp       - Broken arm (Still no visual aids).

  PUP

    Paul Vanschaick - Ribs

  Questionable

    Will Stover     - Hamstring

    Pietro, Norante - Hamstring

    Alex Schott     - Hamstring

    Tom Sweinberg   – Tweaked Hamstring

GEFNFL 2010 Official Bartender

Our apologies to Marianne, we haven’t had enough interest in post-game celebrations.  We will see how Week 8 plays out. 

WEEK 8 

It’s getting a little cooler but the weather was still great for another of our Friday night games.  The player count was down to 10.  We started with only 10 players, for a 5 on 5 game. Red had to make some roster changes during the second half to maintain a team.  There were only 3 fans as the Jordan Family showed up to put pressure on Tony to perform. 

 

Pietro’s cartoon: Friday Night League

For more of Pietro’s work…

http://dailyshitspietro.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00%

Without someone with whom to hash out the game details, after the game, I’m finding the recap to be much more difficult to write, so bear with me.

This week’s theme seemed to be Wayne Schott’s inability to catch any passes while running forward.  Must have been at least 5 of them.  Yet, he had the remarkable ability to catch passes while running backwards, including one 40 yard sideline catch and his touchdown catch.

Unlike last week, we had a steady stream of scoring throughout the game. Tom Sweinberg had a nice little scramble for the only rushing touchdown of the game.  Red started losing players early as Tyler Jones left around halftime. This changed the game to 4 on 4 with Blue substituting a player.  Then Leonard Davis left forcing Blue to trade Ryan Andersen the Red team.

There were only a few random drives falling short of a score.  Your Red and Blue Warriors pounded it out score for score with Red slipping up on matching Blue touchdown drives on only one series. 

The most memorable drive ending play was a fourth down with 25 yards for a first down.  (Note that punting hasn’t been part of this game for years, the last team that did it, was promptly called “girly men” for not going for it on fourth down and 75.) This play started with one forward pass out to one side, and was followed by three cross field lateral passes.  Blue remained in a lane disciplined 3 wide zone, rather than pursuing hard to each side, and pushed each receiver further back on each lateral catch.  I believe the last pass was back to the original quarterback (Pietro, I think it was).  It was a valiant attempt by Red to keep the play alive, but they were losing ground and at one point they had retreated all the way to the their own end zone.  Blue closed in with calls of “Get the Safety!” but only made the tackle at the 1 yard line.  It was the closest thing to a sack all game.

This set up a one throw drive by Wayne Schott for a touchdown, who incidentally closed out the game with 2 one play drives, one for a touchdown the other for an interception.

Final score was Blue 6 to Red 5.

Better than Favre?  2 more GEFNFL quarterbacks, Dave Dubberstein and Tyler Jones, have nudged out Favre, as Brett added only 1 more interception in the Patriot game.  Dave & Wayne are now a full TD ahead of Favre with Tyler ahead because he has fewer interceptions than Favre.  Pietro is now within striking distance of Favre.  We are 8 weeks into the football season, never expected the race to go this long. 

                 Passing   INTs thrown

Wayne Schott        8          5

Dave Dubberstein    8          ?

Tyler Jones         7          ?

Brett Favre         7         11

Pietro Norante      5          ?

(Note: We don’t track interceptions thrown, but I am confident no one, except Brett, has thrown 10 yet.)

The Play of the Day: Blue set up a hook and ladder play at Red’s 25 yard line.  Essentially the pass was to be to Wayne Schott on a 5 yard square out to the right, which went as planned.  Then, he was supposed to pitch or pass it to Dave Dubberstein on the outside, that didn’t go quite as planned.  Tony Jordan wasn’t fooled by play as was there to intercept the pitch while in route  to Dave.  If not for the quick change of direction of Dave Dubberstein, Tony would have gone the distance. 

Stat Leaders:  Stat Leaders are Dave Dubberstein, with 2 Passing TD, 1 Receiving TDs, and 1 INT, and Tom Sweinberg with 2 Receiving TDs, 1 Rushing TD, and 1 INT. 

Injury Report:

  Injured Reserve:

    John Bopp       - Broken arm (Getting cast off this week).

  Questionable

    Paul Vanschaick – Ribs

  Probable

    Wayne Schott – Broken tooth from a smack in the jaw during the Week 7 game.

(The piece didn’t come out until late last week, as it was trapped by a filling.)

WEEK 9

This one started chilly and got colder as the game went on, ending up in freezing temperatures.  The players responded to the cold each in their own way, with game attire ranging from shorts to coats.  Although I was expecting a lighter turn out, the player count jumped to a 9 on 8 game with Red initially making the substitutions.  The Dubberstein clan made up the entire 5 count fan base this week.  All of the men from Dave’s family and most of the women from Steve’s family, joined the fun.  There were actual cheers coming from the sidelines and at one point, a 2 person pyramid was formed. (I guess that would be a tower.)

Blue got had the edge on the game and once it had the lead it never relinquished it.  Each team had 2 drives ending on interceptions, but Red had few more drives that ended on downs than Blue.  Blue even tried a trick play that didn’t work.  That play was supposed to be a triple pass from Todd Polcynski, back to Wayne Schott, further back to Dave Dubberstein and then down field to Jacob Richmond.   However, a turf monster grabbed the heal of Wayne’s shoe, dropping him backward on his back and head, as the pass flew forward and incomplete.

For a real trick play by middle school football team, click this “Must See” link…

http://www.fox6now.com/news/nationworld/sns-viral-video-football-trick-play,0,992782.htmlstory

(Note: You will want to play this at least twice.)

Red was not without some good moments.  Gary Sima and Tony Jordan both put together an nice long drives ending in a touchdown passes to Tyler Jones.

Late in the game, as a couple of players left, Will Stover got traded to the Blue team. (Making him this week’s “purple” player.) He hoped, no, he prayed, that he still might get a stat for the night.  And that he did, with an end zone catch in the praying position.

Final score was Blue 5 to Red 2.

Better than Favre?   Favre is making a game of it adding 2 TDs to his record but he also added 2 interceptions. Dave Dubberstein and Wayne Schott are still hanging on to the lead by virtue of a lower interception count.  Tyler Jones is within striking distance. 

                 Passing   INTs thrown

Dave Dubberstein    9          ?

Wayne Schott        9          5

Favre, Brett        9         13

Tyler Jones         7          ?

(Note: We don't track interceptions thrown, but I am confident no one, except Brett, has thrown 13 yet.)

The Play of the Day:  Dave Dubberstein selected this play, which was my strangest call of the night, maybe the strangest of the season.  With 4th and goal, and after a couple of failed short and goal plays, Wayne Schott told the team, “No blockers. Spread out and everyone goes straight into the end zone.  When you cross one of those diagonal lines painted in the end zone, turn and follow it back to the goal line.”  So their routes depended on where they lined up and the QB would know where they should be with a glance before the snap.  There were 3 good pre-snap reads, but the left wide-out, Dave Dubberstein was the first to get any separation from his defender.  Wayne dropped the pass just inches over the defender’s reach into Dave’s arm’s for the touchdown.  

Stat Leaders:  Stat Leaders Dave Dubberstein also had 1 Passing TD, 2 Receiving TDs. 

Injury Report:

  Injured Reserve:

    John Bopp       - Broken arm .

  Probable

    Wayne Schott    - Head, neck, and knee (last one not related to football)

GEFNFL 2010 Official Bartender

No Marianne, but we were graced with the presence of our 2004-2005 Official Bartender, Claudia, at BWW!  It was really nice to see her again, she wanted some information on GE and of course to catch up on the GEFNFL.    

WEEK 10

This one was played with temperatures in the low 50's, and with a stiff wind coming out of the northeast (The field runs north and south, so we had a gusty wind running diagonally to the field).  The player count was higher than I expected with a solid 6 on 6 game the whole night.  The fan count was down to 2 this week, the father & daughter fans in the south end zone.

Blue and Red started this one off with matching each other’s touchdowns for the first two touchdowns on each side for a 2 to 2 score just into the second quarter.  At one point Blue's Bryan Kolenbeck made a spectacular 40 yard catch in traffic down the middle.  He caught the ball while in a horizontal position about 4 off of the ground.  After that successful drive, the wheels fell off, for Blue and they never scored again the rest of the game.

Todd Polczynski emerged as Red's MVP.  Todd had well over 300 yards (probably nearly 400 yards) in offense (no stat for that), catching 4-5 passes in the 50 yard range while getting stopped and the 1 or 2 yard line each time.  These giant chunks of yardage saved many a Red offensive drive from turning over on downs. This also makes him deserving of the Edgar Award (for outstanding achievements that fall slightly short).  Each one of those long catches could have been touchdowns in Todd’s stats, but getting tagged consistently at the 1 yard line prevented a huge stat night for him.  This however did make him very valuable to the Red team.  He did go on to throw both a touchdown and catch a touchdown as well as snagging an interception, so he wasn’t completely stat-less.

Red broke the 2 to 2 tie and never looked back marching for 5 more unanswered touchdowns for a final score of Red 7 to Blue 2.

Better than Favre?   At week 10, we still have one QB, Dave Dubberstein that is still ranked better than Favre, due to a lower interception count.  Wayne Schott and Tyler Jones are still hanging in there chasing the leaders. 

                 Passing   INTs thrown

Dave Dubberstein   10          ?

Favre, Brett       10         16

Wayne Schott        9          7

Tyler Jones         8          ?

(Note: We don't track interceptions thrown, but I am confident no one, except Brett, has thrown 16, yet.)

The Plays of the Day:   

Tony Jordan tossed a nice 40 yard pass from his own 5 yard line, to Brandon Maas, who separated himself from the deep defenders for a 95 yard TD pass.  Also, Brandon Maas snagged an interception at Red’s own 40 yard line and chose a clear path to a 60 yard interception for a TD.

Stat Leaders:  Brandon Maas with 1 Passing TD, 2 Receiving TDs, a rushing TD and an Interception for a Touchdown.

Injury Report:

  Injured Reserve:

    John Bopp       - Broken arm.

  Doubtful:

    Ryan August     - Thumb

  Probable

    Wayne Schott    - Elbow  

GEFNFL 2010 Official Bartender

Marianne surprised us, by serving our food, rather than taking our order. She said she wasn't getting our Game reviews, I thought it might be the large size of our fan list, that is choking her spam filter.   

WEEK 11 - Superbowl

Yet another excellent football night with it only slightly on the cool side.  The player count was 9 for a 5 on 4 game with Red doing the substitutions for a 4 on 4 game.  The fans forgot about us this week with our first zero count.  They must have assumed the Superbowl is in January.

Yes, the GEFNFL Superbowl was an awesome game, which included the surprise return of John Bopp from an early season injury (Broken arm).  He had to shake of the rust while everyone else was in late season form, but hat’s off to him for getting back on the field so soon.

Blue started the battle with a drive that ended in a Brandon Maas rushing touchdown, which was quickly answered by Red with a Dave Dubberstein touchdown pass (need a receiver credit here).  Blue then responded with another rushing touchdown by Jacob Richmond, so Red answered again with another passing touchdown by Todd Polczynski.  Clearly we were off to the races, with Red answering nearly all of Blue’s touchdowns.

Red had the “luxury” off short rests for its players that were rotated out as the some of the Blue team began to get gassed or pull up lame.  This became obvious on one Red kick-off received by Jacob Richmond who skillfully returned it deep into Red territory, while his three blockers watched and applauded from their own 40 yard line.  I think Blue was running on only about 5 of the 8 legs they had on the team, at the time.   

I thought one play was never going to end.  Brandon Maas nearly had all day to pass, with Wayne Schott as his blocker.  The rusher had made the decision not to press the quarterback and to just contain him from running.  The receivers had completed their routes without getting open, and began to run around looking for an open spot.  This went on for well over a minute.  At one point, the hand checking at the line resulted in Wayne accidentally hitting Ricky in the jaw, he had time to apologize as the play continued.  Finally Tony Jordan ran across the field at about the 2o yard line to get open for the much awaited pass.

Late in the game with 5 yards and goal to go, quarterback Jacob Richmond became aware that Wayne Schott had no stats yet and asked him what he wanted to run to get him something.  “The Ed West Play” he replied.  Jacob’s bewildered look, indicated that the explanation was going to take a little bit of time in the huddle.  Yep, Ed

West used to run this one for the Packers, and Bill Ray used to call it in the GEFNFL early days.  With the two receivers on the right making square-ins to the left side of the field, Wayne Schott centers the ball and does a slant to the right, falls down, gets back up again, and catches the touchdown pass.           

Brandon Maas removed himself from the Blue line up, very late in the game forcing Todd Polczynski to be traded to the Blue team for a final couple of series.

Overall, this was a fairly evenly matched game.  Blue’s only statistical edge was the 2 interceptions caught by Tony Jordan.  These stand out as the difference makers in the game.

Final score of Blue 8 to Red 7.

Better than Favre?   At week 11, we still have two quarterbacks outperforming Brett Favre, Dave Dubberstein that is still ranked better than Favre, due to a lower interception count.  Wayne Schott and Tyler Jones are still hanging in there chasing the leaders. 

                 Passing   INTs thrown

Dave Dubberstein   12          ?

Wayne Schott       10          7

Favre, Brett       10         17

Tyler Jones         8          ?

(Note: We don't track interceptions thrown, but I am confident no one, except Brett, has thrown 17, yet.)

The Plays of the Day:   

Late in the first half, a much needed first down was obtained on a Wayne Schott to Tony Jordan pass from Blue’s own 45 to about Red’s 30 yard line.  However it never made it completely into Tony’s grasp, it bounced out with the help of the Red defender, backwards with everyone expecting it to fall incomplete.  Jacob Richmond swooped in from the far right side to retrieve the tipped ball just before it would have hit the ground.

Stat Leaders:  Brandon Maas with 2 Passing TD, 4 Receiving TDs, and a rushing TD!  That would make for 7 combined TD’s in one game, probably a season record, and I will have to see how it stand up against the other records.

GEFNFL 2010 Official Bartender

Much to my surprise, everyone went to Buffalo Wild Wings for post-game refreshments.  Even though Marianne was not our server, she did swing by our table to get introduced to the entire GEFNFL Superbowl gang.  Thanks for everything Marianne, not sure when we may see you again, but good luck.