Bulldogs Insider #7 - Hope for the future

Each week Bulldogs wide receiver, running back and last week quarterback Matt Gordon will be giving you an insightful look at the North Bay Bulldogs. Enjoy!

After suffering a very humbling loss (50-13) at the hands of the defending National Champion Sault Ste. Marie Steelers, the Bulldogs (1-4) return home to host the Tri-City Outlaws (5-0); game time is 7:00 p.m. at Rollie Fisher Field. Tri-City, who call the Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge area home are the only team to have beaten the Steelers since the middle of the 2007 season, edging them out 25-22 in a week one overtime battle earlier this year. This means it will be another tough task for the Bulldogs this week as they look to put at least one more notch in the “W” column to give themselves a chance at a playoff position.

Although heavily outmatched on paper, the Bulldogs always seem to step their game up when facing the Outlaws. Since Tri-City joined the league in 2003 the all-time series is actually 2-1 in favor of the Bulldogs, including a nail-biting 7-5 victory in 2005, the same year in which the Outlaws went on to win the league championship. Last year the contest between the two teams came down to a last second field goal as Tri-City beat North Bay for the first time 24-21.

The Bulldogs will be in tough on Saturday night as their young defense will look to cool the Outlaws red hot offence. Tri-City boasts the leagues leading passer at QB in Jeff Nosal who has 1000 yards and 10 touchdowns. Nosal is also a threat to run, racking up 312 yards and 2 TD’s on the ground himself so far this season. However, the Outlaws offensive weapons do not stop at the pivot position; slotback Ian Forde leads the league in receiving with 512 yards and 6 TD’s and tailback “Jon-Jon” Nedeljkovic will not go un-noticed as he has over 200 yards this year and has won the league rushing title several times in the past.

The Outlaws defense cannot go without mention either as they boast a league low 49 points against and have picked off opposing Quarterbacks eight times so far in just five games. They will be looking to shut down the Bulldogs offence which seems to slowly finding its groove with improved performances in its last two contests.

The 2008 campaign has been nothing less than a struggle for the Bulldogs, who are fielding their youngest squad in recent memory. With only one win to show for their efforts it would be very easy for the team to hang their heads and doubt their chances of playing in the post season.

However, if you were to attend one of the practices you would see a team that is actually in pretty high spirits. This is normally the point in a bad season where everyone is on edge, people are constantly yelling at one another and everyone is talking about “riding out the storm.”

The Bulldogs locker room is quite the opposite, players are joking with one another and many new friendships have been formed off the field between players. We came into this season with a lot of players that did not know each other as no less than 12 rookies were added to this year’s squad. Because of this the team is just starting to gel together now, when most teams would be falling apart.

Now, don’t get me wrong no team is without their spats; just this week in practice one of our offensive linemen A.J. Wendover and I got into a short yelling match. But A.J. and I both know that it is not personal and these sorts of things will happen when you’re playing an intense sport like football where you have to battle against your own teammates in practice each week. Come game time, the guys you do battle with all week become the people you have to depend on to be successful.

While joking around at practice with rookie standout Kwadwo Adusei, I wondered why everyone was in such a good mood no more than 5 a few days after such a bad loss. I believe it is due to the potential that this team shows for the future. Each week no matter how bad the loss we have shown signs of being competitive.

For instance, no more than a minute after the final whistle of our 41-0 loss to Oshawa, their veteran wide receiver Gifford Rose; a player I was forced to go head to head against in my younger days as a cornerback, came to me with a message. His first words were “I see it”; I must have given him a very puzzled look so he explained to me what he meant. “You have a really young group there with talent to burn,” he said, “stick to it, don’t get down and it will come; maybe not this year, but soon.”

Gifford is one of the really class players in our league who has been around football his entire life. It was nice to have a player of his caliber notice the same thing every veteran player on our squad has been talking about since the beginning of training camp.

If you talk to any good football coach they will tell you the key to winning football games is limiting your mistakes. You have to win the turnover battle and limit your penalties to be successful. Discipline not only in the penalty department but in the execution of your plays it’s the secret to winning football games. Many football teams with lesser talent have won football games simply by being the more discipline squad.

With the Bulldogs, we are in a situation where each week we are facing a team with not only more individual experience than us but in most cases a large portion of their team has played together for years and know how each other function. The best teams in the NFC are typically the ones who can be the most cohesive and everyone has a big head start on us in this category.

If mistakes were statistics that are kept we would usually be the team that commits more of them. This does not fall just on the rookies however, many veterans, like myself have been forced to play new positions which essentially makes us rookies as well. And we have all made our “rookie mistakes” at times this season as my personal quarterback statistics show.

The longer we play together the better each of us will get individually and as a team. The one thing our youth brings us is the luxury of time, if players remain dedicated to the program we can only get better. Nevertheless, the team is not looking to next year, we are taking each week at a time and we know that on the gridiron anything can happen and if we can get into the playoffs we could definitely surprise some people.