The First Quarter of a Promising Season

Dear MCMers and Titan Nation,

This has been an overdue blog. People been asking me to make one and I am sorry for not putting some up more regularly. Been really busy these few weeks trying to help this team and to get some other personal stuff together. But since we are on the bye week and I am at home, I got a little more time to write! Well try to give a quick overview of the first quarter of the season!

The first game of the season against the Jaguars was a big wake up call. We got physically dominated to say the least. Defensively we missed a lot of tackles and were not too strong at the point of attack. Offensively it took us a little while to get going. I think a little rust and the new players made it difficult this game, but we did have some bright spots. I thought Kenny Britt played awesome as he usually does. He’s just a great talent!

The second game of the year against the ravens was probably our best team effort I feel. I thought defensively we showed up big and I think it helped out that we had Jason Jones and Derrick Morgan return this week. We got pressure on Flacco and made it a tough day for him. We contained ray rice and their receiving corp. Offensively once again another slow start, but when they got going they got going. Nate Washington and Kenny Britt once again just went to work. They made great catches and made the defensive secondary scramble everywhere. Javon also had a nice touchdown as well. This was the game I recorded my first int of the year. Hopefully it will not be the last. Jason also records his first of two ints this game. Overall I thought we played well.

The third game against the Broncos was a close affair that we pulled out at the end. It wasn’t an impressive win, but a win nonetheless. The big plays in the game were the goal line stance, Jason interception, and Craig big catch towards end of the game. It was great seeing my UCLA colleague Rahim Moore during this game. Was like my little bro at UCLA and I was super excited to see him starting for them!

The fourth game was against the Cleveland Browns. The offense made big plays all day, Cook 80 yard something touchdown, Craig makes another big catch for a touchdown. Nate had another big catch to the other end. Then CJ got it going and got over 100 yards rushing. Defensively, we were on the field way too much, we kept the points down, but we needed to get off the field a tad bit more. We did enough for the win and Jordan "Big Play Babs" Babineaux had a great 97 yd interception return for td, which sealed the game. It was a great team win and gave his momentum.

This last game was almost a total embarrassment. We played hard, but we just didn’t come a play the titan way of football. We got controlled up front on both sides and didn’t make enough plays. The Steelers came to play, they had their backs against the wall being 2-2, and you saw the urgency. We will definitely learn from this game and it nowhere close to being a time to panic. We are still in good standing and I am looking forward to see what we can do still in this season.

Overall, I think we have had a strong start to the season. I think Nate Washington been a pleasant surprise, Kenny was on his way to an All-Pro year, but unfortunately slowed by injury. I think Jason and Cortland been playing extremely well. The rookies Karl Klug, Jurrell Casey, and Akeem Ayers have impressed me so far as well. I think we opened some people eyes that we are a contender and this is not a rebuilding year for us. We got to keep working hard and never take anything for granted.

Personally, I have not done too much. I have been going to the movies weekly. I feel reel Steel ahs been one of the best movies I have seen so far this year and I also really liked Money ball. I was able to appear on the coach munch radio show. I was able to attend Apollo Middle School for the Play 60 program. I really enjoyed that experience with the kids and their energy was electric. I have been to go to the dentist, which is never a fun experience for me, but an essential step for my teeth. I have been attending Kairos on Tuesday nights, which always seem to have a great message from Mike Glenn. I also been enjoying going to the Wednesday bible study at Mount Zion with the other dbs and teammates to hear Bishop Walker speak. That has been very inspirational for me as well. Other than that I have been relaxing and playing some video games on occasion. Most of my time is focused on this team and season.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog and I hope it brought you some insight into the team and into my life. I have been enjoying my second season so far and hopefully I continue to improve for this team and help us make this playoff push. I am much appreciative of all of you guys support!

Sincerely,

Alterraun Verner

Twitter: @alvern_1