Week 4

Berlin @ Admirals 9 - 28

By: Velcro & Teflon

For an explanation of the shovel rating system, head here.
The important game
by Velcro

Looking at the standings coming in Berlin looked like easy meat for the Admirals as they were 0-3. That is until you remember that they lost one game in overtime and the other by a combined total of 5 points (Admirals 2, Fire 3). This is not an 0-3 team.

The game was decided in the third quarter. At half time the score was 0-7 for Berlin on an Interception Return. By the end of the third quarter it was 21-7. Some of the play by the Admirals was absolutely diabolical, but there is no need to write the season off just yet.


Offense
We sucked big time. 2 interceptions, and 6 sacks are way too many big plays to give up. The two picks cost us a good 14 points (one returned for a TD and the other cost us a TD). 29 yards rushing is very poor, even if we only ran 9 times.


Quarterback

Our offense sits squarely on the shoulders of Kevin Daft, and as the offense goes so does his rating. The offense ran the ball very sparingly on Friday night increasing the pressure of Daft to win the game for us. Whilst he wasn't helped be several drops and 6 sacks, he must do something to get a struggling offense moving. Even when a running lane opens up he tends to hang around and prefers to throw the ball away rather than take off. Most of the sacks though were due to blocking problems or covered receivers. The first pick was due to Marcus Knight falling down, although he was pretty well covered. The second pick was much worse - especially as it was in the Thunder Endzone. When the Offensive Line is under this amount of pressure then Daft simply has to get rid of the ball quicker. He can't expect to take 4 to 6 seconds to make a decision; he must make it within three. Much as I'd like to say otherwise this is the poorest performance for Daft this season - one shovel. (I disagree: with the amount of pressure that our o-line was letting through as well as the receivers simply not opening up, there was not that much Daft could do. I give him two shovels, bordering on three. - Telfon).

Running Backs

Rafael Cooper ran the ball only 8 times on Friday Night, 6 in the first half and twice in the second. 27 Yards at 4.5 in the first half and a total of 29 yards by the end of the game. He had two carries wiped out by penalties. Caught 3 passes for 11 yards as well. Several incompletes of passes thrown in his direction, so he must continue to work on his catching ability. Really a very quiet game, and for someone whose praises were sung highly before the season started was woefully underused. To compare we passed 21 times in the first half. Not really a rateable performance - his biggest contributions came on Special Teams, see below. A one shovel rating is aimed more at the lack of use than the contribution.

Tight Ends

Big drop off this week from Ryan Collins at TE. Only one catch for 6 yards, two other balls failed to reach him. Not much to report on the run blocking side as we didn't run the ball much. Seemed to be getting very frustrated on the sidelines with the performance. As with Cooper, he simply must be more involved in the offense to make it work. 2 shovels for effort, and quality of slamming his helmet on the turf.

Receivers

Cooper and Collins were quiet in the passing game so it was up to the Wide Receivers to step up and make plays this week. Unfortunately that didn't happen. Pick of the bunch was Joey Getherall and Marcus Knight (87 and 75 yards respectively). The first pick was when Marcus Knight fell down, unfortunate but it does happen. There were too many drops from these guys to be an acceptable performance. The seemed to take forever to get open on some plays leading to at least two sacks that I credit as coverage sacks. I'd say give them two, but we didn't score a TD on offense when we played a passing game so its one for them as well.

Offensive Line

Absolutely shocking. The biggest reason for this disaster rests with this group. There run blocking, their pass blocking and their discipline were atrocious. Daft was sacked way too often and the left side of the O-Line collapsed at will. The line still isn't opening any holes for the running game, but that said we might have been leading at half time if it hadn't been for the discipline. We were penalised 10 times in all during the game. 2 Holding Penalties killed the first drive, especially on 3rd and 6 that Daft completed a 10-yard pass for a first down in Field Goal range. Even worse was to follow, in the second 2 personal foul penalties on Tupe Peko gave us third and 32 after a 1st down of the Berlin 12. This sort of behaviour is simply unacceptable. Guys you must keep your poise if you are going to win games. On that drive David Nivens nearly killed it with another Holding Penalty that was fortunately for him wiped out later by a roughing the passer call on Berlin. In the second half the discipline improved but the pass blocking deteriorated to the point where Daft had no choice but to throw balls away to avoid even more sacks than the 6 we gave up. Two of the sacks I regard as coverage sacks, but the other 4 are squarely on the Offensive Line. For this performance I cannot award them any shovels at all. (Sorry Velcro, there is no such thing as a zero shovel rating. Well, not yet anyway. So I am going to have to give them 1 as the lowest we can go. -Teflon).

Defense
Again the Run Defense was diabolical, and the pass defense was victimised in the 2nd half by Berlin's quick drops. Heads went down for a while in the third quarter and a few tackles were missed as well. They were victimised by a couple of referee's calls that could have ended drives.

Defensive Line

The up field pass rush was there in the first half, but a half time adjustment by Berlin neutralised it in the 2nd half where Berlin would simply take a five step drop and get rid of the ball, thus not giving the rush a chance to get to the Quarterback. The run defense was again truly terrible. The pass first defense is not working, so people are going to run over us until we can stop the running game. Sometimes Mike Sutton looks like he is trying too hard rather than playing the defense as designed and thus leaving a hole for the opposition to exploit. The first half was good, the second half terrible. The second half cost us the game, 1 shovel.

Linebackers

Just like last week this group is struggling to defend the run. Against the pass they had been doing OK up until the second half where they were victimised by the short passes used by Berlin to defeat the pass rush. If they are going to allow completion s there then they must make the tackle before the receiver gets the first down. It's difficult to be too down on this group as they had a big reshuffle after the injuries of a week ago in Barcelona. Legarius Jennings is not a Middle Linebacker, although he saw significant time there this week. He simply not big enough to take on Offensive Linemen and hope to win. He was in a no win situation and now we need to find another LB this week. One Shovel is the result.

Defensive Backs

Too many completed passes for too many yards, 28 completed for 323. If the pass rush isn't getting to the QB then these guys have to stop the completion, and if it is completed keep them behind the first down marker. They are still being relied on to make too many tackles though which is strength sapping on every play. That's not their problem, but in the 2nd half against the Thunder the technique started to slip late on. 2 Shovels.

Special Teams

The only real bright spot of the day was the Kick Off return by Rafael Cooper and the Punt Returns of Joey Getherall. Cooper messed up muffing a kick return, but got away with it. Andy Baynes had another strong showing punting, getting both distance and hang time. In the ArenA he has been good, but is other stadiums less so. Kick Off and Punt Coverage was also good. Diliberto made the only kick of the day; Joe OŽDonnell was unemployed except for one kick off. A mention here also for Ryan Collins who has been doing good work as the long snapper and to the units for keeping the opposition rushes away. This is the lone bright spot on the day 4 shovels. There was one penalty called incorrectly on the Special Teams when Jennings was incorrectly adjudged to have interfered with a fair catch, as no fair catch was signalled. That cost us possession of the ball at the Berlin 31. A big mistake for a team down 21-7 at the time.

Coaching

The coaching staff was totally out coached by the Thunder Staff led by Peter Vaas. The first half was a war of attrition that the Admirals survived at halftime down 7 to 0. The second half opened with adjustments on both sides of the ball by the Thunder that killed the Admirals. They didn't let the pass rush get to the QB and they ran the ball at will. The Admirals Offensive Line was stymied and Daft was marginally effective at best. You do though have to wonder what is happening when the team only runs the ball 6 times in a half of football, when we were making 4.5 yards average per carry. Especially with the Thunder going after the QB. The staff simply has to strive for more balance in the offense. Defensively, the Thunder found all the weak spots in the Defense in the second half and apart from a kick off return they were dominate in all phases of the game. The coaches must absorb a large amount of criticism in this area, now we need to see what Coach Andrus and his men can come up with this week. They must also take some of the blame for the lack of discipline along the Offensive Line. One Shovel only for this group as well..

Fans

Frankly the fans sucked. The ArenA was as quiet as I've ever heard it by half time, and during the second half more and more people were making noise when our offense was on the field. How often do we have to say, when the Admirals Offense are on the field BE QUIET, and when the Defense is on the field Make Noise. Fans earn two shovels, only because most hung around until the end.



Brief impression on the not so important games
by Teflon

Yes! I actually got to see all the other games this weekend, so I can give a much more opinionated... eh, objective view of the other matches.

Dragons @ Fire
Holy cow. The Dragons did a very convincing impression of a bunch of pathetic amateurs who were only interested in going back to their nice warm beach. How we ever lost to this sorry bunch, I will never know. Perhaps Jack had threatened to relocate them to the North Pole if they lost in Barcelona again. Never once gave the impression of wanting to actually play. The Fire gratefully took advantage and ran their way (literally) to a nice victory. I cannot imagine the Dragons being contenders for the WB. The Fire on the other hand look strong.

Galaxy @ Scotland
Contrary to the Dragons, the Claymores did give the impression of wanting to play and giving it their best. Which leads to the depression conclusion that they might actually be this bad. 62 yards total offense, 28 yards of passing and 3 first downs are all ridiculous new records set by the worst offensive performance I had ever seen since Amsterdam in Scotland last year. Their defense kept them in the game, along with a little help from Galaxy receivers and kicker, but this team cannot seriously be considered for a WB spot either. Galaxy happily continue their winning streak and seem to be the most complete team in the league this year. Right now, it looks likely that the WB spots will be battled over by the three German teams.