Ranting by Velcro, Drinking by Velcro, Anything that went wrong by Velcro

Up Front

Well I hope we all took our Heart Pills after that performance on Saturday Night. When Rhein Fire went up 14-17 with just over two minutes to play I really thought that we'd be just like last year and fold up and go home with the loss, but some great play by the Offense got us up the field and tied it up with a Field Goal. In overtime, you just never felt like our Offense could do anything other than win the game. After the disaster of week one we are back on track with a real morale boosting win.

Offense

The offense won it and damn near lost it for us. The fumble on a sweep pitch out by Ralph Dawkins was what started the Fire comeback. Apart from that the offense played reasonably well at the end of the game but there was too much stuff going wrong early on. Start with the good points, Frank Leatherwood looks like a real class act as the TE and in Jason Shelley, LC Stevens & Junior Lord we have a potent receiving threat for Jim Kubiak to aim at. Jim Kubiak was given much more time this week as Derrick LeVake starred at Left Tackle for the whole game. He was also quick to release downfield after the pass was complete and it certainly welcome back in the line after missing week 1. The Offensive line really did a good job of slowing down the Fire pass rush, to give Kubiak the time to throw. Kubiak was very composed in the pocket, preferring to sit there and wait for a receiver to get open rather than take off running at the first hint of trouble, there being only two sacks showed that he had good awareness of where the pressure in the pocket is coming from. The running game however sucks. Al Luginbill warned that this year the quality of the Running Backs was lower than in previous years and so it appears to be for all the teams this year. Everytime Dawkins gets the ball he might get a couple, but that is all. The good news though is that no one else seems to have a running game either so the league is going to be very pass happy this year. The last thing to mention for the offense was the poise they showed on the last two drives, especially the alertness of Shelley & Lord to come up with the catch on 4th down when the ball bounced off of the Fire Defensive Back's helmet. However the play calling on offense leaves something to be desired I feel. The 6-7 yard passes the offense seems to prefer were not the best calls always to make against this defense. The two touchdowns, and the almost TD right at the end of regulation time suggested that throwing the ball down the field more often would be a good idea. Our receivers have speed and size so trying more often and maybe we get more points more quickly and we can all leave the heart pills at home.

Defense

Undoubted winners of the game for the Admirals. They conceeded only 3 points in the first three quarters and then came back strong in overtime to limit the Fire to a Field Goal to set us up towin with the TD. Don't mistake the pressure they took off the offense in keeping that down to a field goal so the Offense needed only three to stay in the game. Four Interceptions of Wuerffell & Lytle is always good to have, but even better is the complete stuffing of the Fire running game. Unlike most teams in the League the Fire are a run first team. Even with former Heiseman Trophy Winner Danny Wuerffel they are a run first team so big credit for the boys up front. However a couple of very silly penalties didn't help us in the long run, especially when #92 David Sanders was ejected in the second quarter. Poise, Poise, Poise. The secondary was much improved reducing the Pass Interference calls and like I said Interceptions are always good. On the two drives where the Admirals conceded the TDs it looked like they were only rushing the 4 down linemen whereas the times they were getting excellent pressure on the QB they were usually rushing a fifth player - sometimes a Linebacker and sometimes one of the Safeties. It worked well as pressure was often making Wueffell wither throw the ball away or attempt to force a completion - and that was when he was getting picked off. All in all an excellent day's work for the defensive unit, especially when you count 6 points for the TD by Levingston.

Special Teams

Some was very very good, some was mediocre and some was just plain bad. Silvio Diliberto hasn't missed this year and he looks to be in great form. Francesco Biancamano had a good game, coming back after a horrendous roughing the kicker call on one punt attempt. Francesco goes down as a great holder as the snap on the last field goal in regulation time skipped off the ground twice before he got it - and then he set it up perfectly and Silvio did what all good kickers do - assume the ball will be there. If that had been Manny Burgsmuller of the Fire that would have been a miss guaranteed. The Punting and the Kicking off by Biancamano and Cortez was more that good enough, but a little more hang time might have helped some kick coverage that was frankly shocking. A punt return average of 10 yards and a Kick Off Return average of 20 is way too much. This unit has to get much more motivated quickly. Our own kick off return team was fairly good, except for the return during overtime. The Punt Returning was non-existant, Levingston getting 10 yards on the only real return he had. More blocking needed as he has the speed to be an electric returner who can make things happen, especially as shown by the Interception return he had.

Summary

Two weeks gone now and and we are 1-1. We have a good Defense coming together and the Offensive with the ball in the air could become a potent weapon. However the lack of a running game is worrying - especially if we are going to run the ball on third and short. The FG unit are working well, but I'm sure the long snapper will be getting plenty of practise this week, and someone has got to figure out a running play that actually works. A win is a win and if we get another one next week we could be set up to go deep into the year in good position.

See you all next week Sunday 7:00pm in the ArenA for the visit of Jack Bicknell's Barcelona Dragons.

Party story and pictures can be found here.