Jewball could have used a good week of football. The Turkey Bowl was a really nice and special day. The Chanukah party was a really nice and special night. But this isn’t a league about the trimmings. It’s about the roast. And that’s the Sunday morning football experience. And over the past few weeks, it felt damn near vegan up in here. The anomaly and joy of a Rabin win aside – let’s be honest – we have been struggling to feast on good football. We have instead found ourselves in a mid-season famine. Starving for quality games. We wander and stumble through wastelands of blowouts and ties. For a while, I thought it was me. Maybe you thought it was me as well. Surely, it was the team making. It was the imbalance of the squads. The randomizer was busted and in desperate need of a reset. Thank God for League Week 3, right? That’s gonna fix all that ails us. Because the Commish can’t blow this one. The teams are set. They are fair. The competitive balance of the League Weeks has been its defining characteristic. So many great players. So evenly distributed. Bring it, League Week 3! Cure us! FEED US!!!

And here I am, writing a Week 10 recap and there is good news and bad news. The good news is only for me…..the problem wasn’t me. It wasn’t my team making. So I feel better. The bad news is…it’s you. Well, it’s us. It’s our players. The problem with Jewball right now is that the Jewballers are letting us down. To be clear: only on the field of course. 

What do I mean by that? Quite simply…..we aren’t playing to the best of our abilities. We aren’t playing smart enough. Or tough enough. Or hard enough. And bad play has lead to bad habits. Only one thing to do about it. Week 11 the f*** out of it!

It was our first December game. It was Chanukah. It wasn’t exactly cold. You’d call it football weather outside. Low 40s to start Game 1, but the sun was rising and about to make it beautiful. Yaron and the Lionhearts had not won a League Game. And that’s odd looking at their team preparing. Irv, Singer, Ross, Zada, Dobs, Beast, Yaron. Those were the 7 Lionhearts that showed on Sunday. That’s a team without a flaw. They had lost to BOP in a game without Singer. They had lost to the Cronies in a game without Singer (playing like Singer). Unfortunately for Feit Club, Singer had taken about 2 weeks off and was ready to tear someone’s head off on Sunday. Feit Club actually played like that proverbial chicken who has been decapitated and runs around dying for a while before realizing it is dead.

This same wayward chicken, only a few short weeks ago was a proud strutting red crested rooster. The cockiest of cocks, crowing on TBI about a team that has bought in. I remember that golden hued time. I remember the game that precipitated it. Oren and Kut turning back the clock and in relentless pursuit of Pray. Storm, everywhere. MK, everywhere. Feit….so bouncy and confident. Efer-effing-vescent! Like I said on the field, it was the 7th day of Chanukah, and FC looked like it had been binging on donuts and latkas for a week. Their reactions were slow and heavy. Weighed down by an anchor of malcontent. Oren brought the Big O inflatable helmet and it was a great touch. It added flair to the affair, but the player that was a joy to watch against BOP was not the same. Beast and Dobs manhadlndled Kut and O…pretty much on both sides of the ball. Vegh did not have the game that he needed to show FCFT that they made a huge mistake ignoring him. Feit was doing his best to rally his team in the huddles and from the sideline, but his actual play was uninspiring. To the contrary; it was demoralizing. In the prior game he was sure of everything. Now he was sure of nothing. Perhaps nothing but that he wasn’t himself. He was uncomfortable. Hurt. He was once the QB who couldn’t stop bouncing around with exuberance; now the QB who can’t stop pump faking with indecision. He pump fakes his way to another shut out loss. Back to back soul crushing shut outs is not easy to do, but that’s where the early season MVP candidate finds himself. Week 8 he was top of the Power Rankings. Where will he be after Week 10? And this is why you play the game? Because if we didn’t play the games, well, Yaron might still have the reputation of a perennial loser whose receivers love nothing more than to drop his passes. But how does he look on December 7th? After that win? Short answer: He looks pretty darn awesome. His team looks pretty darn unbeatable. Dobs and Beast looked as formidable against Feit as O and Kut did against Pray. All motor and determination. Every receiver is sure handed. Yaron was always accurate. The difference now is the passes are being caught. Singer was getting the butterfinger treatment on Chanukah….maybe he took that personally. Maybe. Good work, Dobs. Brilliant, actually. Singer was grabbing everything. High throws. Low throws. Flags. He pulled a flag on Oren when he was in the air and upside down. By choice! He was also bringing the pressure. He was basically the difference maker. It was Snow Pup without a flake to be found. We call that in Jewball recaps the honorable mention. It’s like a Jewball but doesn’t get you a stat. Singer would have had an actual Jewball but he dropped a late TD. So it’s Yaron who gets it of course. Just like the one Storm got that lifetime ago in a League Game victory, Yaron was perfect. Did he throw a pick? I don’t know. I’m not checking. He was perfect. 6 TDs thrown to 4 different receivers. Heady play from the start. Leadership, arm strength, all the intangibles. And he did it all while dressed like Madonna from the Like a Virgin era. Lionhearts are back. Look out, rest of League.

And after Game 2, maybe look out, Lionhearts. The Cronies looked for real. Feit Club got shut out on Sunday, the BOP did not, but they did have something in common. They weren’t trying their best. Birds of Pray is a star studded team. Sure, that sometimes comes with drama. BOP is carrying baggage stuffed with drama right now. And they need to dig deep and fix it. They need to unpack that shit. They each need to buy in to the team mentality or this train is going off the rails. 3 more games to figure it out.

The game played is more recap worthy than Game 1 since it had some elements of competition, although not many. I believe Cronies scored at will for the first 45 minutes of the game. Goldberg, who has himself a hell of agame on offense and defense, scored the first Crony TD. Gronk has a lot of time and plenty of clear field vision on Sunday. We have to mention that he threw 4 ugly picks, but that seems to be the necessary evil of a Gronk performance. Like a slugger who is good for one home run per game, but is gonna strike out 3 times while getting there. Pray was kinda back to the What’s Wrong With Pray era following a few games where he seemed to reclaim that winning edge. Needless to say, none of those games involved a pass rush of Solo and Munch, with Gronk playing spy. No QB in the league can be their best in that situation. That said, good teams do find a way to make adjustments. BOP made the adjustment – just with twenty minutes left in the game and when it was already surrendered to their opponents. Why surrender? Because the Cronies came to play Sunday. I’m in a tough spot here as I do want to be the objective recapper. This isn’t a PJ’s Perspective. I also don’t want to do a disservice to my team that played so well. I’ll try to be complimentary, but subtle: The Cronies played as if their cosmic bond had been elevated to the dynamic synergy of other wordly supreme beings. Okay…..you know what? They all played very well. Honorable Mention to Goldberg and Munch for the flag grabbing expertise. Logan had a run back of a pick that if I think about for just long enough I will cry because I know what he was battling physically and he’s just the most f***ing inspiring teammate a kid could ask for. Steveo, who scored a TD, is Logan, but even better for me because I’ve actually seen him become Logan. So it’s special and personal. I met Logan and he was already Logan. Less exciting. Klink, I know even longer than Steveo and he’s just pure Klinkness. Did you see how he wears his ski cap?? Pushing down his ears! You can’t fake that purity!! Thrilled he is back in the fold and catching TDs over Tom like a boss. And as for this old commish, all praise to the Jewball Gods for giving me a day like Sunday. With the next generation present, I make a circus catch and throw in a pick and a TD. Jack keeps describing to me when and how he will start dominating Jewball. And of course, he says I suck. Who did I miss? Oh yeah….the man who brought it all together. Sure, he needed a wake up call, but once awake….he brought the house. Solo….how did this man not go first Round?? Between the demeanor that is entirely fierce and entirely placid, he is the ultimate game changer. Just ask Pray. And just as Gronk who outletted to Solo numerous times to evade a sack and to gain yards that lead to scores. Solo gets the Jewball for being the one Crony who actually did it all on Sunday.

So, in short – The Cronies whupped the Birds. Final was 5-2, but it wasn’t close. Birds had some highlight plays. The Rat got his stats. Tom made a splendid one handed pick. But, the team seemed to sag watching Pray struggle. Instead of redoubling their efforts, they appeared at times openly despondent. I give Legs credit for calling people out for it. We gotta train ourselves to motor the whole way through. It’s not easy. At all. But we gotta train ourselves to do it.

And speaking of training, let’s take it upon ourselves right here and right now – to get fit…not for ourselves…F that….for Jewball! To make the games as epic as possible. I usually make this request at the end of the season, but after the let down we’ve had recently, something needs to change. We need to bring IT to the games on Sundays, whatever IT may be. No chat or party or event can make up for football that we are not proud of. Let’s get back to being proud of our football. Week 11…bring IT.