Week 8 will be remembered as the week where the luster lost by Feit and Pray was transferred to Rabin and Yaron. An undefeated QB and the reigning MVP tooks Ls from a QB with a losing record and one who squandered his starting role, respectively.  Now, of course there is more to it than that, but…this is a packed week short on time, and the recaps are many. I ask for your understanding over the Bowl Game season since….there are only so many words. And now with TBI in the mix, the themes of the day can get redundant.
I will begin with an apology. First to Feit and then to my team Sunday morning and then to Yaron’s team. I blew it. I made one sided teams. Yes, admittedly, I wanted to test Feit. I wanted to see if he could pull another W out of his ass against all odds, but I absolutely did not give him the personnel to do it. Even with Maor needing a replacement and Colors picking up a speed player in Benj, there was just not enough talent on Colors to cover or adjust to what Yaron and Dark were bringing on Sunday. This isn’t about Colors playing badly or making excuses, this is about a balance of the skillsets on the field. We have proven that when we Draft, we Draft well. The League games have been, are, and will be competitive until the end. The other weeks, I need to bring my A Game in making sure every team has a chance if they play their best. Colors did not play its best, but even if they did, they couldn’t win that game. That’s on me. And the shame is not just that Feit took an L and there goes the streak, but that Yaron and his team played an incredible game. They would have beaten a team much better than Colors. But we will never know. What we do know is they took advantage of Feit being a bit off and very much under pressure. They took advantage of a Singer injury. They took advantage of a vast disparity at line. And they took advantage of a team with 3 rooks learning the zone play. Trick plays, sure. Non trick plays, of course. Again, everyone on Dark looked really really good. I wish we could say it was surely them and not us, but I really don’t know. In the end, it was a thumping. No need to relive the details. 9-1 win. Irv gets the old gaudy stat line Jewball. 3 score, 3 picks.
As much as I deserve blame for Game 1, I got Game 2 right. With Rabin at QB, my aim is to give him what he needs to win, but without leaving the other QB’s cupboard bare. I think the teams were spot on and the game played was exciting once the scoring got going. It did take a while. Rabin and Solo did a very nice job pressuring Pray and a defense sporting guys like Dobs, MK, Zada, and Ross is handsy and formidable. That is not to say Pray didn’t have his shots. Beast did not have a beast of a game by any means and almosted his way into the early storyline of this game by getting spun around by a nice pass over the top that could have gone for points and then missed a flag on Zada which lead to Rabin’s first score. That right there is a 2 point swing. We await the return of the animal version of Beast. Zada needed bodying.
Pray got the game tied up by simplifying his play calling. Screen to Prime….welcome to Stiff Arm City. Jack is getting married in a few weeks and he doesn’t want to show up with Prime’s hand print on his eyeballs. So he didn’t go all out shoving Prime to the sideline. All good for Prime. He churns and burns 67 yards and knots this one.
Rabin then pulled out a play which was used very effectively by Yaron and Gronk in Game 1, but had actually failed for Rabin and MK earlier in the game. It did not fail this time. Swing out sideline pass to MK behind the line…..fake screen! There is Dobs cutting a post through the heart of the Pray defense, splitting the safety and the corner. MK unloads a 43 yard heat seeker that Dobs expertly hauls in (what doesn’t he do expertly?) while running full steam. Celebration for Rabin as they take the lead with a half hour to go.
The revelry was short lived. On the next possession, Pray drives the field and pulls out a miracle escape from Sacktown and finds Effie for the 23 yard strike 1st Down pass. Two plays later, Kut breaks free from the line and shows what a properly used TE can do. Catch and scramble, 45 yards to pay dirt. Game is once again evened up.
For Rabin, in a way, if the game ended in a tie, it would have been a nice showing. What really is expected of him at this stage in his career? How many times can one man be killed off and come back from the dead? Well, with Rabin, over the past 15 years, the answer seems to always be….apparently one more. With 20 minutes left, Rabin uses Zada to move the ball down field. Together they pick up 2 first downs. Now, with a 2nd and Goal and 10 minutes on the clock, the unlikeliest of occurrences transpires. The kind of thing that no betting man would bet on. The kind of moment that breaks every rule of logic and predictability. The kind of Jewball event that keeps us coming back for more, week after week, year after year, dare I say, decade after decade. It’s a simple play. If Yaron and Irv did it in the morning game 3 times, no one would have blinked or scratched their head. But there was Rabin – master of the gofer ball – ambassador of the flying duck – launching as pretty a deep ball as you will ever see. And to who? Is there anyone that had the legs and stamina this late in the game to get all the way behind the defenders to the back of the endzone to meet that ball? I mean that ball is not going to do what we have seen Rabin’s passes do a thousand times and come up short of their intended. This one is hitting someone in the back of the endzone or its flying out of bounds. Rabin happened to have done a professional job of making that the hallmark of his day. And it made all the difference. Instead of picks, we had incompletions. Harmless ones. So, does that spiraling heave land inbounds? And if so, does someone catch it? Yes and yes. Friggin Pops! Is over the top and perfectly placed behind all others to welcome that oblong leather baby into its new home. Rabin to Eddie punctuates the game! That’s almost 100 years of life experience! They get it done. Rabin and his defense hold on and Rabin gets the surprising win. Pray gets another head shaking loss. Jewball goes to someone who I didn’t mention that much but he was definitely the X Factor in the game !and did most of the heavy lifting for Rabin’s squad. Zada was slashing the defense and picking up 1st downs every time one was needed. Smothering defense as well. He added the score which gave Rabin his first lead and set the tone. Basically contributed from wire to wire and seemed to be the kind of weapon that Rabin needs to compete nowadays. A receiver with good hands that can create a lot of yards after the catch. And there you have it. Week 8 in the books, Turkey Bowl tomorrow with some incredible returns.
When some people say….life is a blessing, I totally get it when the response is….well, maybe your life is a blessing because it’s good. My life sucks, so I don’t want to hear it. I don’t know….I can’t argue with that person, but I believe – and belief is subjective – that we can also earn our blessings. And we do so by appreciating everything. Its not an exact science of course or any kind of science for that matter, but its a philosophy that pays off, even if its completely fabricated. So, on this Thanksgiving eve….let’s be sincere about our appreciation. Look at what you have – even if all you have is us! 

 – and say….damn…I am lucky, I am blessed – thank you! A lot of people don’t have a crew like this or the ability to play football or a chat to make them laugh or smile. A lot of people weren’t made with the kind of psychological components that would permit them to tolerate us and this – and I think they are missing something. It is not my job to understand why they don’t get it or convince them that they are crazy. But it is my job – without a doubt – to appreciate and say thank you that for whatever reason, I do get it. So…simple magic trick – appreciate everything you have and are…and earn blessings. Happy Thanksgiving, Jewball.