Bandits down Rebels, retain Key to the City Trophy

Bandits 49, Rebels 40

The Bandits used a dominating 14-minute stretch spanning the final two quarters to pull away from the Raleigh Rebels and take sole possession of second place in the AIFL South. Trailing by six, Robbie Jenkins threw three straight touchdown passes sandwiching two defensive stops. Bryan Still and Redd Thompson made some incredibly athletic catches, and the Bandits’ defense, which allowed Raleigh to score 13 straight points to take the lead in the third quarter, got a fumble forced by Shannon Davis and an interception from Shernard Newby at their one yard line to crush the Rebels’ hopes of a comeback. The defense actually played well throughout the game as they made a goal-line stand in the first quarter and as the game wore on got consistent pressure on Rebel QB David Malino. Shannon Davis returned a missed field goal 54 yards for the Bandits’ first TD.

Player of the Game: Redd Thompson, with seven catches for 150 yards and three touchdowns. One of his scores came on a beautifully run hitch-and-go pattern and another was plucked out of midair as Redd outjumped everyone in the end zone.

Offensive Stars: Brandon Isaiah had 12 carries for 31 yards and a score and was able to get big chunks of yardage on the ground; Al Ford played his first game of the season on the offensive line and kept the Bandits’ final, clock-killing drive alive when he hustled down the field on a Bryan Still reception and recovered Still’s fumble.

Defensive Stars: Shannon Davis, with the forced fumble and a couple of good kick returns, including the TD; linebackers Tim Jones and Kevin Coles, who made their presence known in the offensive backfield and were each in on a sack.

Other Links:	Times-Dispatch "coverage"
	Dave's Football Blog (with pictures of legendary Dorton Arena)
	AIFL recap

Next: at Chattahoochee Valley Vipers, Saturday 7pm

Bandits lose a heartbreaker

Renegades 47, Bandits 44

In a battle for sole possession of first place in the AIFL Southern Conference, the Bandits fell behind the Rome Renegades by 16 points in the first half. But a Chris Segaar field goal and a Robbie Jenkins to Redd Thompson touchdown pass with 3 seconds left in the half brought the Bandits within five points. They continued riding the momentum for the first 90 seconds of the third quarter, recording an interception which was turned into a 46 yard scoring strike from Jenkins to Bryan Still. After the teams exchanged the lead a couple of times, the Bandits pulled ahead by nine with 3:37 to go when Jenkins found Thompson for the duo's third touchdown. But a Marcus Brady touchdown pass and a Brady two-point run brought Rome within a point, and Danny Marshall knocked the ensuing kickoff through the uprights to tie the game. The Renegade defense stiffened, sacking Jenkins once and forcing Segaar to kick a field goal from two yards deep in his own end zone, which he hit hard enough but pulled to the right. The Renegades took over at their own 10 yard line, and with three seconds left in the game, called on Marshall, who had gone 2-for-4 kicking extra points and 1-for-5 on field goals, for the game winner. From 47 yards, Marshall's kick was true, and the Renegades escaped with a 47-44 win.

Player of the Game: Redd Thompson, who caught nine passes for 123 yards and three touchdowns. He consistently got open against Jermaine Collins, and when Jenkins wasn't under pressure from Rome's front four, Redd was an easy target.

Offensive Stars: Robbie Jenkins, with 279 passing yards and five touchdowns; Bryan Still made a diving catch and alertly got up and ran into the end zone when no defender touched him.

Defensive Stars: Bishlar Penson grabbed his fifth interception of the season; Shannon Davis intercepted a two-point pass attempt and ran it back for two Bandits points.

Other Links:	Times-Dispatch blurb
	Rome News-Tribune writeup

Next: at Raleigh Rebels, Thursday 7:00 pm

We want to be you're consultants

I received a letter today that began like this:

Dear Sir or Madam,

This letter and the enclosed information are intended to introduce our organization to a potential customer like you. As well as, inform you of our eVA participation.

[Company] works in several business intelligence verticals. [Company] provides your business with quality consultants, strategic focus, proven methodology and the delivery of quality solutions.

Business intelligence verticals! I was just wondering yesterday how to better manage my business intelligence verticals!! Whatever the hell that means!

Typical of a consulting company, they send me a letter whose goal is to get me to hire their company, and they immediately waste time by starting with two paragraphs that tell me absolutely nothing about what they do. They mention "eVA participation" in the very first paragraph -- which tells me that it is pretty important to them -- but never mention eVA the rest of the letter! I have no idea what eVA is. Maybe if I did I would be impressed with these guys' experience in strategic focus. And the second paragraph is nothing but empty corporo-babble that is certainly meaningless to everyone below the executive level.

Finally, people, please, master 10th grade grammar. The sentence fragment hurts my eyes. There is no way I would ever hire a company that puts something like that anywhere in the first thing I ever read about them -- let alone the most important place on the page. I pity the people who think this is really their best effort at a direct mail campaign -- but not as much as I pity those who would take the time to read past the second paragraph, let alone hire these guys.

Oh, and did I mention that the return address and my address on the envelope were hand written? Impressive.

Bandits win fifth straight, sweep Phantoms

Bandits 77, Phantoms 35

Richmond's defense pitched a first half shutout, and the offense scored on 11 of 12 possessions as the Bandits beat the Phantoms for the second time this season. Florence threw an interception on their first play, which Robbie Jenkins immediately converted into seven points. Neither Steven Chester, who left the game with an injury, nor Nick Lurty were effective at QB for the Phantoms, combining to go 3 for 9 passing with two interceptions and four sacks! In the second half, Brian Scott stepped in and performed admirably for the Florence offense, but the Bandits' offense never relented. Jenkins threw for 316 yards and seven touchdowns and scrambled for another. Brandon Isaiah, who had his coming out party against Florence March 4, had two backbreaking runs of 31 and 33 yards in the fourth quarter. He had three rushing TDs as the Bandits outgained the Phantoms by 215 yards (406-191).

Player of the Game: Redd Thompson, who caught eight passes for 161 yards and four scores. His 47 yard TD reception in the first quarter tied a league record for the longest play from scrimmage. In the two games against Florence, Redd registered 347 receiving yards and 9 touchdowns!

Offensive Stars: Robbie Jenkins, who again showed a determination to keep plays alive and check through his progressions; Bryan Still, who contributed 134 receiving yards and three scores.

Defensive Stars: Tim Jones, Bishlar Penson, Shannon Davis, and Nate Daniels had an interception each.

Other Links: Times-Dispatch writeup

Next: at Rome Renegades, Friday 7:00 pm

Ain't it wonderful to be alive when the rock 'n roll plays

It's the sign of a great performer when you pretty much know what the performance will involve, your expectations are met with few surprises, yet the show is still tremendously entertaining and a great time. Such was the case Friday when I decided to head up to DC and go to the Billy Joel concert. After a manageable drive and Metro ride to the MCI Verizon Center "civic acoustic nightmare," I found a great ticket (section 228, right at the front edge of the stage) from a scalper for cheap. As I was making my way through the concourse I saw the lights go down and I got to my seat right as he was hitting the opening notes to Prelude/Angry Young Man.

I didn't see Billy Joel live for the first time until five years after his last studio album, and I've seen him a handful of times since. So I knew he'd play most of his big hits and fill out the setlist with other recognizable songs. I was pleasantly surprised, then, when he did Everybody Loves You Now, The Ballad of Billy the Kid, The Entertainer, Downeaster Alexa, Keeping the Faith, and Zanzibar, none of which I'd heard live before. He did, of course, play the hits, and gave his usual stage banter ("Thanks for buying the shitty seats...I really need the money; it's all about car insurance" and "This song is from an album that came out in 1976 called Turnstiles..." He even made the same bald jokes about himself that I've heard three times already), but also talked at length about the inspiration for some of the songs. "I made a lot of stuff up for that song [Ballad of Billy the Kid]. Some people think it's about me -- Billy, hey Billy, it's about himself. No, it's actually about Billy the Kid even though I made most of it up. He's not buried under a boothill grave, I don't know where he's buried. He wasn't hung, he was shot. Well, we don't know if he was hung. East and west of the Rio Grande, the Rio Grande runs east and west." Later, he talked about moving to California and trying to make it in the music business. "A lot of people think that this song [The Entertainer] is me bitching about my job. Believe me, I love my job. It's the best job I've ever had. It's just my take on the music industry."

As you would expect from a band that has been more or less intact for the past ten plus years, every number was pretty tight. Billy was in great voice all night; he even hit the high notes in An Innocent Man. He pretty much went directly from song to song but needed a breather before the usual closing run of We Didn't Start the Fire, Big Shot, It's Still Rock 'n Roll to Me, and You May Be Right: he brought out a roadie to sing Highway to Hell. It was a competent cover but one I certainly could have done without; all Billy did was play a little guitar and wave to the crowd. My only other complaints came during the encore. The intro to Only the Good Die Young was not the riff an octave up that makes girls everywhere scream. Instead he played it around middle C and was singing the first verse before anyone knew what was coming. And I don't have perfect pitch or anything, but I swear that Piano Man was a key or two lower than normal.

Overall it was a great show and I didn't want to miss a single song. Not even the tried and true concert staples like Pressure, Allentown, or River of Dreams disappointed or were even worth missing for a beer run. Personal favorites included My Life (with the Stars and Stripes Forever intro), I Go to Extremes, Movin' Out, and Scenes From an Italian Restaurant. I also saw something I'd never seen at a concert before: a sign language interpreter! She was standing on the floor, signing for the first few rows of the section right below me. If I knew sign language I could have followed along. She knew her limitations though -- during We Didn't Start the Fire, she just held up cue cards for the people to read! Another funny moment came late in the show. The stage had an elevated runway with a couple of keyboards around the back so Billy could play to the people seated behind the stage. During a song he was playing from front and center, the bass player started walking back and forth along the runway trying to get the crowd into his jam. I doubt more than six people even cared. I even thought to myself, buddy, they didn't come here to see you. They're watching the man play the piano.

Watching the man play the piano...a pretty damn good way to spend a Friday night.

Bandits dominate Spartans, tie defensive record

Bandits 59, Spartans 6

Coming off an unexpected bye week, the Bandits showed no signs of rust as they pounced on the Augusta Spartans early, had a 38-0 halftime lead, and tied a league record by only allowing six points. The defense frustrated Spartans QB Anthony Young, who many in the Spartans camp compare to Michael Vick for his quickness and mobility, allowing him to scramble for just 36 yards and sacking him four times and intercepting him once before he left the game with an injury. Spartans coach Bubba Diggs remarked that Young sometimes tried to do too much running and that he'd prefer Young to stay in the pocket more. Diggs also said, upon learning that Will Burch was the Bandits' backup, that Burch could come start for him immediately. For his part, Burch did get into the game for the last two possessions and threw a touchdown pass.

Player of the Game: Robbie Jenkins, who completed 15 of 26 passes for 231 yards and 6 TDs. Jenkins also showed some elusiveness of his own, scrambling for a first down on one occasion and dodging pressure long enough to find Brandon Isaiah open for a short pass that Isaiah took 36 yards for the score.

Offensive Stars: Bryan Still, who caught 7 passes for 117 yards and three scores; Redd Thompson, who also caught 7 passes for 123 yards and three TDs.

Defensive Stars: Lawrence Lewis, who recorded three sacks to bring his total for the season to 9, and also harassed Marvin Stone into an intentional grounding penalty that resulted in a safety; Shannon Davis, who returned an interception 15 yards for a touchdown.

Other Links:	Times-Dispatch writeup
	Bandits website recap

Next: home vs. Florence Phantoms, Saturday 7:00 pm

Opening Day

No, this post is not three days late. I was as excited as anyone on Monday, baseball's Opening Day, which I still believe should be a national holiday. And true to form, the Cubs lit up the scoreboard for a big win. However, "form" also holds that they will go on to lose at least 90 games, many in excruciating fashion. Indeed, the very second game of the season bore that out. Today, though, is Opening Day for the R-Braves and kickball! So in about 15 minutes I'm heading to the Diamond, then this evening will go from the Just the Tip Clubhouse to Byrd Middle School to start the fifth WAKA season in Richmond. Good times!

Bandits highlights updated

I've finally processed the recording of last week's Bandits broadcast and added the highlights to the summary below. The next game is Sunday afternoon vs. the Augusta Spartans at 4:00 at the Hideout.

(For the uninitiated, the Hideout is the nickname for the Richmond Coliseum, because, of course, every group of Bandits needs one. The fans are known as the Accomplices, while the official fan club is called the Posse. I will not get into a Venn diagram here, simply suffice it to say that all Posse members are Accomplices, but not all Accomplices are in the Posse.)