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Week 7
Fire @ Admirals 14 - 17 (OT)
By: TonVFor an explanation of the shovel rating system, head here.
by TonV
Impressions
Once again, it is up to me to try and dazzle you with a game report. Ross is busy making sure that your bags don't get lost at Schiphol airport, unless you happen to piss him off in which case the next time you pass through, your bags will be rerouted to Siberia by the new luggage system.
First of all: another large and highly entertaining pregame party at Teasers with about two hundred Fire fans, a couple of Monarchs and the Trench Crew. Two other Admirals jerseys were spotted in the bar, but this was unconfirmed. It is now official: the Fire have the best and largest group of fans when it comes to football entertainment. Huge preseason party, power parties that are actually fun, post-game parties at their own pub (open until 5am)...
Then on to the game, where the power party was another boring non-event. Fortunately, we already had Teasered our hearts out for hours.
Then into the stadium.
Then into the hospital's cardiac ward.
The third OT win at the Arena in only two seasons. But what a rush it was! Three field goals blocked, two of which would have been instant game winners. Then Diliberto kicking the winner as time expired in OT. As excitement goes, it doesn't get much better than that.
Offense
The game wasn't perfect, or we'd never had to go to overtime in the first place. The main problem was once again with our inability to move the football consistently. It wasn't horrible like the week before, but it simply won't be good enough to beat the Dragons in the WB.
99 yards rushing for a 4.1 average isn't bad at all, both George and Williams gained some decent yardage, but they never threatened to break free for huge gains.
Wynn was on good form, with 24/36 for 202 yards and one TD. A very respectable completion percentage! Unfortunately, he also threw for one pick that was returned for a score. I don't have the sack score, but I recall that Wynn also had quite a lot of time to throw and didn't end up on his back a lot. Good work by the o-line there.
So why only three shovels? Both passing and rushing were quite good... The problem is that we never managed to put together a long and sustained drive. We always fizzled out and had to punt. In the end, the O only put 10 points on the board and that is not good enough for a WB contender!
Defense
Did very well. Kept the Fire offense to only 8 points, but did allow them to get within range for five fieldgoals. The Fire rushing threat was effectively contained (73 yards total).
Not a spectacular amount of pressure on the Fire qbs, but very acceptable coverage leading to few long passes (the longest being 22 yards) and an average completion percentage. And of course there was Kory Blackwell who intercepted a pass and returned it 95 yards for the score that put us right back into the game. And gained him defensive player of the week honours. A great coup that we managed to nab him away from the Claymores!
Special Teams
Well, what can I say? Three blocked field goals! Fire kicker Tuthil must have thought he was having a very bad dream... Twice the Fire were kicking directly for the game: once with 4 seconds remaining, but LB Al Rice dived in and gave the ArenA cause for celebrating. I won't deny that I had given up on the game right there.
Then in OT, both sides already having had a chance to score meaning that it was sudden death. Tuthil once again lining up to boot a game winner, but Garnett got his hand on it and the ArenA cheered again.
And of course, with time expiring in OT, Diliberto lined up for his own attempt at a game winner. Normally, a 31 yarder should go in 10 out of 10, but with this kind of pressure? He did it though, and the ArenA exploded.
Elsewhere, our punter Malecki seems to be improving each week. A 43.8 yard average on punts is very solid. The coverage guys kept the Fire from gaining much on returns and Williams and George gained about 18 yards on the average kick off return. Solid work.
Coaching
We didn't try to jam the runs up the middle when it didn't work and the team (especially defense and special teams) looked a lot sharper than last week. Although a wooden spoon would have looked sharp compared to the Scottish disaster game...
Final thoughts
Why can't people applaud for injured players? Most everyone just sits on their fat butt and looks bored. These guys put their health on the line to entertain us, lets at least show them some respect.
It was too quiet. The roof was closed, there was a big crowd of Fire fans giving us the right example and still I didn't have ringing ears afterwards. We should have blasted the Fire team off the field in overtime! But the same people sitting on their fat butts when injured players are carried off the field, just look on and stare like zombies. What I can see of sections 120, 121 and 122 is a few enthusiastic supporters (and some lunatics like the Trench Crew), but the rest? Maybe the stadium announcer should explain a bit better that we can use noise on defense. In Dusseldorf and Scotland, they do a great job of getting the crowd into it. Here? Nah.
Brief impression on the not so important games
by TonV
Galaxy @ Dragons
Galaxy don't lose too badly against the powerhouse of the league. Let's not assume a win too easily next week in Frankfurt! These guys still have the number 1 defense and number 2 offense. Hopefully, the fact that they are out of the WB now and Bishops' renewed departure will help us get the win there.
We need the Dragons to crush all opposition and not take it easy now that they are virtually certain of a spot.
Claymores @ Thunder
Thunder do us a big favor by beating one of our rivals. But to be honest, I didn't expect anything else. The Claymores don't look strong on offense at all, and their defense lets them down too much on the road (but then again, we don't win on the road either). It looks very likely that our last two games of the year against the Thunder will decide who gets the second WB spot! Excellent finish of the season.