Another game, another win, promotion

I have not done a very good job of keeping this blog updated.  Since my last entry the World Championships have come and gone (USA, USA, USA!) and the Pikes kept on winning by posting a 28-21 win over rival Mainz.  The win pushed us to 8-0 with two games left.  As I said in my last post, we had already been selected for promotion to the 2^nd Bundesliga.  The decision was made a month ago that the top two teams from our league (Regional Center) would automatically ascend to 2^nd Liga, and thus eliminating the playoff series with the teams from Regional South.  Now to this day I still am not sure why this decision was made or why it was made in the middle of the season.  I’ve heard that teams from the Regional South were not happy with the decision as the 2^nd place team in that league won’t even have a shot at promotion, can’t blame them either.  Personally, I’m happy that we are moving up to the next league but I don’t like the idea that they are bypassing the playoffs this year.  Doesn’t seem fair and if I was on the other side of the fence I would be livid. 

The game versus Mainz was a tough one.  We were coming off another 3 week break and faced probably the most physical defense we will see this year.  It was truly a grind it out victory that included a touchdown pass with about a minute left to break the 21-21 tie.  However, the game shouldn’t have come to that as a late turnover on a mental mistake gave the Golden Eagles the ball at our 22.  They would go on to score and tie the game, setting up our own game winning drive.  Though these types of games aren’t anything I hope for before we start, I think it was good experience for our guys as we prepare for two very big games to finish the year.  I can’t think of a situation we haven’t been through yet as we end the season.  I like where we are at as we head into the season’s last two games against Montabauer and Frankfurt, with the latter going to be for the league championship.  I picked up this saying from another coach I used to work with, "you either get better or you get worse but you never stay the same".  He would always say that when talking to his players about practice habits, but the same holds true in a team concept.  There have been points in this season where we could have "peaked", but we haven't.  Not every game has been pretty, but we have gotten better from game to game in one phase or another. We have also digressed in some areas as well, but overall I think we have improved as a team from game to game.  As coaches that is all we can ask for, and luckily for my team that continual improvement has put us in the position to win our league in two weeks.