Flag Recap: Dec. 10, 2005

WEATHER: Clear and sunny, high 70. Contrast this with the headline from the New York Times: “Snow, Winds and Misery From Plains to Northeast.”

GAME: One of the best in a while because we had a real defensive slugfest, a nice change of pace. The mud from Thursday night’s rain (it did rain in some places, Venice being one of them) slowed people down and we had tons of great D plays (drops did help), with Dark prevailing 26-20 (a low score considering we played more than 2 hours).

WELCOME: Big hello to Dave (nickname, I’m told, Meggett after the former Giant and Patriot running back). Big welcome back to Walter, who’s disappeared these last few years, and to Toby (in his first game since hurting his groin in the tournament).

MVP: Let’s share the honor with Brent and JP, the 2 defensive coordinators, who designed some effective formations. Of course, JP and I jumped Brent after for his habit of eavesdropping in the huddle (who is he, George Tenet?) His justification? Nobody listened to me anyway!

PLAYER OF THE GAME: We’ll give this one to Tommy, who had three TDs on some great catches and routes. He was wearing a shirt he picked up somewhere that said “Roover, national champs,” (we liked the Pirate one better) and no one knew what a Roover was. All I could find on the word on the Net were websites in Dutch.

BEST DRESSED: Shon was stylin with his red Undergear shirt, red shorts and red socks, though the black leggings didn’t do it for me. He should have worn green ones and looked like one of Santa’s elf.

CATCH OF THE DAY: Patrick made a brilliant grab on a slant pass that went slightly behind him. Without breaking stride, he reached back, pulled the ball in, secured it and had a long gain.

DROPSIES: We had a lot of dropped passes and my theory is the low humidity (20%) and the mud on the ball that may have made it slick. Either that or else people simply had butterfingers.

BEST OF THE O: Marino (David) played terrific with 4 TD passes. My favorite was one where Tommy faked the in, Marino pump-faked, Tommy took the out and they had a score. … Brian’s TD was also cool, on a hard slant and run into the end zone. … White’s first score came on a fourth-and-goal when Shon kept running his pattern and I led him in the back of the end zone. …

Patrick had a great catch and run on his TD on a ball that Shon was throwing to me, but Patrick ran the underneath route and snagged it. … Meggett had a nice 2-point conversion in the back of the end zone on a tipped pass that he caught low. … Toby showed his usual great instincts on a deep post that he caught in stride and took down to the 2. … Joe excelled on a short dumpoff where he made two guys miss before finally being tackled. … Walter had a couple of nice grabs in heavy traffic over the middle.

BEST OF THE D: Two nice pics by Toby, one where he jumped an out route and the other that was a carom off of Brent. … Patrick also had a superb pic that he caught while falling backwards, no easy feat. … Anthony seems to always get one pic a game and today was no different.
Marino did a good job pass rushing, recording two sacks. JP also got into the sack festival with a great rush and grab. …

Puff Daddy had one of those cool blocks as a rusher where the ball thudded against his body and fell to the ground. … Peter was solid at LB all game, especially on two balls he batted away. … Tommy made a terrific cornerback play on a key fourth down, where he managed to knock down the pass from behind without contacting the receiver.

SCHEDULE: We are playing Dec. 17, taking Christmas Eve off and back New Year’s Eve. We are not playing Jan. 7 and 14 since we can’t compete with the NFL playoffs, but are back Jan. 21 until we stop (usually in May sometime).