Flag Recap: Oct. 22, 2005

WEATHER: Perfect football weather—cloudy, cool (in the 60s). All we needed was a little rain for a mud bowl.

WELCOME: A big welcome to first-timers Will, Rory and Cory. They all played well and are welcome back any time.

A great start to our season and we wound up with Dark and White playing to a 32-32 tie. We played one round of OT and were still tied, then too many people had to leave so we called it a draw. I need to call Vegas to see what the line was.

HIGHLIGHTS

GAME BALLS: First one goes to Rory, who dropped his first pass (he blamed it on my girly-man pass) and then caught everything in sight. I counted three TDs and a conversion. On his one TD, he caught a short slant and made some nifty moves to score.

Second ball goes to Brian (the tall Brian, not to be confused with QB Brian, whom we call Puff Daddy). Brian had about a zillion catches and two picks and was all over the field. But he does get one demerit for wanting to go for 1!

TRICK PLAY OF THE DAY: I threw it back to Will at wide left, who then threw it behind to the far right to Shon, who threw to a wide-open Rory for a 2-point conversion.

FAKE TRICK PLAY OF THE DAY: Puff Daddy made a terrific fake handoff to Dave, which caused the rusher to go after Dave. PD then made an easy throw to Shane for a score.

BEST JUMP PASS OF THE DAY: It was the only one, but it was pretty cool. Shon ran the option and tossed it to DuJuan, who jumped about 4 feet in the air while throwing a perfect strike for a score. I would need a ladder to get that high.

SPEED IT UP: For future games we will institute some sort of play clock. There were times when the White defense had time to paint still-lifes as Dark drawing up plays.

BEST USE OF BODY (For Football Purposes): Peter, who did a great job of using his body (somebody said booty) to shield the defender and make a catch.

WORST USE OF BODY: On a hard, low pass from PD that was just out of the reach of Joe, the ball was slightly defected and hit Peter in spot that makes one sing soprano. That's taking one for the team!

GOOD HANDS: Top catches were Brian’s slide along the sideline that was first ruled out. It was reversed when we went to replay. … Craig’s great over-the-shoulder grab that set up a touchdown. … Bubba going high to grab one in traffic. … Cory made a terrific catch for a TD on a key drive. ... Will had a great catch and run for a TD on the first drive, then set up the tying TD on a long catch down the sideline.

DEFENSIVE STAND OF THE DAY: Dark stopped White on four tries from the 1. It didn’t help when Bubba slipped while wide open. We made him get cleats for the tournament we played in, and he forgot them Saturday.

NOTABLE: Nice to see Lisa back and she had some nice grabs. … Brent continues to be the smartest defensive player and always has to be accounted for. … Mike had a nice sack and also a bat down of a pass while rushing. … Shane started slowly but it was nice to see his pony-tail flapping in the breeze as he zig-zagged on several catches. … Dave dropped one long pass, then came back a few plays later with a nice catch down the sideline.

NEXT: We are back next week, Oct. 29, noon. A plea to get there on time.