Flag Recap: Nov. 26, 2005

WEATHER: Craig showed up and complained how chilly it was. It was about 68 with bright sun. Meanwhile, up to 1,000 people were trapped in their vehicles Saturday night as blizzards brought chaos to Britain. What would Craig say about that?

GAME: It was like the Colts playing the Bengals last week. No one could stop the other in the first half and the defenses took over in the second. White beat Dark, 42-38, but no offense scored a TD in the last eight combined possessions.

WELCOME: A huge welcome back to Ruben, a great player and one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. He badly injured his knee in a tournament game in 2003 so this was his first action back. And he had a typical Ruben game: three TDs and two interceptions.

Another welcome back to Al (also known as Foxy, a classic Brent nickname). Al will be running in the Honolulu Marathon in two weeks, so I know we all wish him well.

HOLIDAY SKED: We ARE playing Dec. 3-10-17. We are NOT playing Christmas Eve. We ARE playing New Year’s Eve (people are in town). We are NOT playing Jan. 7 and 14 (NFL playoffs), and Jan. 21 is up in the air. After that, we play virtually every week through mid-May or so. There is still a lot of football left.

HIGHLIGHTS

MVP: Craig and Ramsey said I needed to pick myself, so there! After the game, I went to Disneyland!

SACK ATTACK: Bubba had a great pass rush, getting one sack on me and coming close other times. Ramsey called him “The Beast.” On one play, Bubba was ferocious, but Craig was an equally determined blocker and I had a lot of time. Someone on Dark said they couldn’t see where I was throwing to since Bubba’s “ass got in the way.”

M*A*S*H UNIT: Brent banged his knee when he dove for Anthony’s flag, missed and hit the ground hard. “I fucked my knee up on a play where all I grabbed was a lot of ass,” Brent said. … Luciano tweaked his hammy on a flare pass down the sideline. … Craig hurt his toe when someone stepped on it. … JP called from showing his mom around LA and was still bitching that his thumb was hurting from a week ago; he even whines when he doesn’t play!

GOOD HANDS PEOPLE: Brian was awesome all game, especially running out patterns. He caught the ball high, low and while falling towards the sidelines. My favorite pass was when I pumped on a short out and led him on an up pattern for a long gainer. His best was when he called his own number on 4^th and goal and he caught my hard pass in the back of the end zone. He also snagged an interception. He went in to QB the final drive and was picked off by Shane. “You are human, after all,” David told Brian after the game. …

Ruben ran two beautiful stop-and-go patterns that resulted in 60+ yard TDs. He also made a nifty grab of a pass that was slightly behind him. … Shane showed good hands both as a receiver (once on a great fade pass) and as a linebacker when he caught an interception low on a ricochet. … Ramsay made a couple of tough catches look easy, which is why I call him Dallas Clark. … Al made his presence known quickly when he got wide open for a score on the game’s third play. That started the shootout.

BAD HANDS PEOPLE: Was it the bright sun, but I saw more easy passes dropped than in memory. Had JP been there, it would have qualified as an epidemic.

MY KINGDOM FOR A 2-POINT CONVERSION: We scored 12 total TDs and 1 2-point conversion. That’s an 8% rating, or just slightly lower than Dick Cheney’s approval numbers.

DEE—FENSE: The top defensive plays were Peter’s terrific read and grab on a pass for an interception, and Brent’s great reaction on knocking away a pass that Shane seemed to have secured for a long gain. … Marc plays a great linebacker and seemed to always have his side secured. … Zach frustrated me a couple of times when I tried to squeeze one in to Rory, once mockingly inquiring as to whether he actually was the intended receiver.

NOTABLE: John played well as Dark starting QB, especially on TD passes to Marc, Shon and David. … Anthony then came in and fired bullet after bullet, but would rather catch than pitch and went back to being a receiver. … Lisa got the most cardio as she ran her butt off as a pass rusher. … Mike ran a great route on a misdirection play where he wound up all by himself for an easy TD. Mike was also in the middle of the White comedy of errors series where we tried two direct snaps to him. The first one he wasn’t expecting and the ball flew away. On the second, he caught the snap and decided to play Garo Yprmenian instead of run with a wild left-handed pass. … Another weird play was when Shon sprang up from hitting the ground in the middle of a play and wound up in effect throwing a nice block on Rory.