Week 1

Fire @ Admirals 10-27

By: Velcro & Teflon

For an explanation of the shovel rating system, head here.

The important game (Fire @ Admirals)
by Velcro

For the first time since 1995 the Admirals are 1-0. And yes I know that that year we went to the World Bowl as well, but its not yet time to celebrate. There are nine games yet to go and we need a few more wins yet.

Quarterback

Kevin Daft had one daft play all day (sorry couldn’t resist). The Interception he threw was not a good pass. It was one of the few times he was under heavy pressure from the Fire Defense and he seemed to hurry the play somewhat. One pass in the first quarter when he was almost on his knees showed that its results that count and not the elegance of style. The two Touchdown passes were things of beauty to behold, even if I did think the second one was going to be picked off by the Rhein Defense until we had the ball in the endzone. The rest of the game he was competent without going over board. I would have liked to see a couple of more TDs in the 2nd half but for week one I’ll take this. Kevin earns a 4 shovel rating, it could have been 5 but not with an interception.

Running Backs

Rafael Cooper ended the 3rd quarter on the sidelines with a sprained MCL in his right knee on his best run of the day to score the TD. Unfortunate as the 4th quarter would have been the place for him to show what he could do. The running game was sporadic, averaging less than 4 yards a carry. The Rhein D was obviously playing run first and not giving him the room to move. However if the pass protection continues to hold up like it did on Saturday then that emphasis will have to change and he will get his chances to break some long runs. Cooper dropped one howler in the 1st Quarter on a screen that was well set up. He would have picked up a bunch of yards if he could have held on. All in all a two shovel performance, brought up to three by the 3rd quarter touchdown.

Receivers

Some good, some average. The receivers were competent on Saturday night catching most of the balls thrown to them. Cooper’s drop was big and a couple of times the receivers weren’t getting to the first down marker. Both Touchdown catches were good, as were some others. The receivers need to work on their blocking on sweeps this week. Ryan Collins was effective at the point of attack a number of times but needs to look the ball all the way into his hands to complete the play. For week one I’ll take the performance in the knowledge that we could put 5 WRs on the field and be able to throw to them all. The National WRs will need to step up at some point. 3 Shovels.

Offensive Line

Two parts to the story. They lost the running game battle but won the war. Daft was consistently getting more than 4 seconds protection to get the ball off which is excellent. The Fire D playing run first did a pretty good job of stunting the running game. The offensive line is the toughest place to get going in NFLE but with the pass protections on Saturday they did well. Also very few penalties which is unusual in Game 1. For the Pass Blocking they easily get a four, but only 1 on the Run Blocking side of things. I’m feeling good as we are 1-0 so we’ll call it an overall three as I felt that there would have been a lot more rushing in the 4th quarter with Cooper still fit in the game. (Don't forget: zero sacks allowed which is pretty rare in this league! Id give them four shovels for it. -Teflon)

Defensive Line

Just as with the offensve line they had two different parts to the night. They were in Tee Martin’s face all night, which contributed heavily to the 4 turnovers we produced. The hit to cause the fumble early on was a crucial play in setting tyhe tione for the night. Nothing but praise for the pass rush. However the Fire running game make good yardage against the middle of the Defensive front, especially on the Admirals Right hand side. The sweeps were not as effective so should have the ability to close the running game down in other games but that was our really biggest weakness on Saturday Night. You cannot allow a lead running back to average 5 yards a carry. Again generosity rules and for forcing turnovers and getting in Martin’s face we got for 4 shovels.

Linebackers

Good Coverage and good tackling. For the first time in a while we had linebackers wrapping people up instead of always trying to knock them into the middle of next week. The coverages were generally effective and the odd blitz kept Martin off balance. They were effective defending the sweep and the short passing game. Although only time will tell if we were stars or the Fire just weren’t very good. There were some runs up the gut that the linebackers failed to make the play on. My view is that the Fire should be one of the stronger running teams again this year so we won’t worry about it just yet. Total effort from these guys 4 shovels.

Defensive Backs

OK I’m impressed by what we had in the Backfield. Jennings the CB had two picks and really looks like a shut down corner out there. He also wins the game MVP award.. Kory Blackwell was always a factor in every facet of the game. For a pretty small guy he sure seems to like putting it about in the running game. The Safeties like the Linebackers were concentrating on wrapping up rather than big hits and one tackle by Blaine Maclmurray saved a TD in the 2nd quarter. I always like to think that there is room for improvement, but if they keep playing like this I’ll be happy. As a footnote to the whole thing #21 (insert name) became the first player in history to play competitive football wearing a Houston Texans logo. I can say nothing other than give this group 5.

Special Teams

The specialists were good. 49 yard punting average from Andrew Baynes was more than acceptable and his hang time help keep the Fire returner reasonably quiet. Joe O’Donnell hit two out of two and looks like he’ll knock over Amsterdam’s first ever 4 pointer before the season is over. If we are vulnerable anywhere its in kick returns where twice the Fire were their own worst enemy with good returns wiped out by holding calls. They still averaged too many yards in this phase of the game. More hang time on the kickoffs would help. Joey Getherall was quiet on punt returns, but where the opposition punter hits one for 70 then the returner is always going to struggle to find rhythm.

Coaching

Good gameplan all round and no obvious mistakes that we noticed. Would have been nice to have Cooper around in the 4th quarter to take the pressure off Daft as we tried to put the game away. The pass first offense and defense was the correct call against the Fire who are traditionally a strong ground game team who sometimes miss fire through the air. Pressure on Tee Martin was outstanding and the pass protection was great. Very few first week penalties so the staff really had a team that was ready to play. 4 shovels.

Around the League
Two other games played this weekend saw the Galaxy beat the Thunder 27-24 in Overtime, after the Thunder missed a last second 49 yard Field Goal that would have won them the game. The Galaxy had been down and out in this game and lost QB Joe Hamilton to bruised ribs and National TE Werner Hippler to a concussion. Maybe, just maybe the Galaxy can be the Kardiac Kids this year and we won’t all age by ten years everytime we take the field.

In Scotland, the Scottish Claymores comprehensively outplayed the Barcelona Dragons 48-10. QB Scott Dreisbach for the Claymores was getting it done and the Claymores had a swarming hard hitting defense that never gave the Dragons a chance. The Dragons seemed determined to maintain their record of being poor in even numbered years as QB Joe Germaine had completed one pass for one yard by the time the game was in the 3rd quarter. He wasn’t helped by receivers would couldn’t hang onto the ball or a running game that just refused to function.

Brief impression on the not so important games
by Teflon

Right, I will attempt to give the sketchiest of impressions I got from the other two games this week. This is purely based on the reports and stats I can gather from the rest of the internet.

Dragons @ Claymores
The Dragons appear to collapse severely in the second half as they were holding their own somewhat in the first half. A big pounding that probably seems more impressive than it is, I can only imagine that the Dragons will use this to psyche themselves up for next week. Look for them to rebound. Scotland brimming with self confidence head for Germany, where they should be able to win again. The Fire did look very bad.

Berlin @ Frankfurt
Lots of missed fieldgoals with the one that should have clinched it with only a few seconds left on the clock, taking the game into overtime. Does this sound like a game we know? But wait, this time it is Frankfurt who drag out a win. However, they lost four players to injury, including their starting qb Hamilton. If they are out for a long time, this could really hurt the team, since the stats appear to indicate that they were not all that impressive to begin with.

Next week in Berlin? No idea. Berlin (and Amsterdam) are still too new for me to tell. If the Admirals can take their unfamiliar week 1 momentum into Berlin and get some sort of a running game going, we have a decent chance!