Final Score : Scottish Claymores 48 - 14 Berlin Thunder
The Claymores entered Berlin on Thursday hoping to come away with a win against the Thunder in their first ever home game. What they came away with was the largest points total in team history and a league scoring record.
Early in the first quarter QB Dameyune Craig dropped back in the pocket, pump faked which threw off the safety and lobbed a ball to Jesse Haynes who sprinted the rest of the field for an 86 yard score aided by some blocks from Scott Couper. Rob Hart booted the extra point to give the Claymores a 7-0 lead just over 4 minutes into the game.
After stopping Berlin on the succeeding drive, the Claymores under Craig continued to move around the park with freedom capping off their second drive with a 6 yard Jesse Haynes run. With the Rob Hart extra point, the Claymores led 14-0.
Berlin came back. 1989 Heisman winner, quarterback Andrew Ware threw his first NFLEL touchdown to Anthony Rodgers, a 7 yard catch to bring the Thunder to within 8. Axel Kruse' extra point reduced the deficit to a touchdown. However, that was a close as Berlin would ever get as Dameyune Craig opened the floodgates in the second quarter.
The Scottish dominance continued in the 2nd quarter as Craig hit tight end Shon Bell for a 21 yard touchdown and Yo Murphy for 12 yards. Both were converted by Rob Hart who was 8-8 kicking on the day as the Claymores built up a 28-7 lead. The Claymores offense scored on each of it's first 4 drives.
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The 35 points scored by the Claymores marked the most points ever scored by an NFL Europe team in a half topping New York/New Jersey and Frankfurts total of 34.
Rob Hart nailed a 31 yard field goal mid way through the 3rd quarter to extend the Claymores lead to 31 points but by this stage Dameyune Craig has been pulled from the game to give backup Ryan Clement some game time.
Ware threw his 2nd TD pass of the game, a 14 yarder to Marcus Hinton but it was too little far too late as even with the extra point, the score was 38-14.
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With the Thunder driving late in the 4th aiming to salvage some respectability, Claymores cornerback Clifford Ivory snatched the ball on a Chuck Clements pass and returned it 59 yards for another score. The extra point made the score 48-14 to round off the evenings scoring. Claymores fans around the world revelled in the biggest win in club history.
In a classy move, head coach Jim Criner put in third string quarterback Haruhito Tsuji from Japan to take the final snap of the game. Tsuji is the first national quarterback to take a snap in an NFL Europe League game.
Comments
Well, Coach Criner must read Touchdown Claymores, because almost every point I made last week had been addressed in time for this game!
They utilised the pass effect a lot earlier in the game and to good effect with Craig throwing his 4 touchdown passes and hitting 6 of 8 receivers on the roster. I really feel that this is the way the team has to go to be successful and with a talent such as Dameyune Craig who is an obvious leader indicated but his yelling at the camera "2 down, 9 to go!", showing that he intend to go to the World Bowl.
The receiving corps must have been catching balls all week as they looked sharp and dropped few catchable balls - huge improvement on last week. Scott Couper was without a catch but drew a couple of penalties and for the first time double coverage.
The running game too was improved although not fantastic. Jesse Haynes proved he can run the ball averaging 4.5 yards a carry but didn't get too many opportunities as the passing game was so effective. Ben Snell and Emory Smith too proved that they are able backs who are well capable of carrying the ball.
On defense, the secondary had really improved from last week and if there was such a thing, they would win the TDC Award for most improved group. I must point out Denorse Mosley in particular who was all over his man all night knocking balls away and tackling first time.
Ok, I have to criticise one thing and this week that is the kickoff team. I think Rob Hart will be practising his kickoffs this week after a number of shanked kicks and very short kicks. All kickoffs should be inside the 20 yard line or beyond, Hart may have only got 1 inside that annd he had plenty of opportunities. Saying that he did go 8-8 on place kicks so I can't complain too much!
So I lied, I'm going to criticise anther thing! Run Defense. Now I know we only gave up 65 yards, 3 in the first half but those 65 yards came on just 10 carries - a 6.5 yard average. Again, I know most of these were late in the game but still, just hold 'em down!
Quote of the week comes from commentator Bill Maas who said during the Claymores-Thunder game : "Of course, Berlin's next two road games are on the road". Well done Bill!
Frankfurt arrive in Scotland next weekend for a week 3 clash with the undefeated Claymores in a game which should really prove how strong the Claymores are compared to the other league teams.
Until then.....
FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
CLAYMORES 14 21 3 10 48
BERLIN 7 0 7 0 14 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER:
SCO - TD, JESSE HAYNES 86 YD PASS FROM DAMEYUNE CRAIG
(ROB HART KICK), 4:07. CLAYMORES 7-0
SCO - TD, JESSE HAYNES 6 YD RUN (ROB HART KICK), 10:42.
CLAYMORES 14-0
BER - TD, ANTHONY RODGERS 7 YD PASS FROM ANDRE WARE (AXEL
KRUSE KICK), 14:34. CLAYMORES 14-7
2ND QUARTER:
SCO - TD, SHON BELL 21 YD PASS FROM DAMEYUNE CRAIG (ROB
HART KICK), 1:31. CLAYMORES 21-7
SCO - TD, YO MURPHY 13 YD PASS FROM DAMEYUNE CRAIG (ROB
HART KICK), 3:54. CLAYMORES 28-7
SCO - TD, SHON BELL 14 YD PASS FROM DAMEYUNE CRAIG (ROB
HART KICK), 13:02. CLAYMORES 35-7
3RD QUARTER:
SCO - FG, ROB HART 31 YD, 6:43. CLAYMORES 38-7
BER - TD, MARCUS HINTON 15 YD PASS FROM ANDRE WARE (AXEL
KRUSE KICK), 14:17. CLAYMORES 38-14
4TH QUARTER:
SCO - FG, ROB HART 21 YD, 3:57. CLAYMORES 41-14
SCO - TD, CLIFFORD IVORY 49 YD INTERCEPTION RETURN (ROB
HART KICK), 10:30. CLAYMORES 48-14
TEAM STATISTICS
SCO BER
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 19 15
Rushing 6 2
Passing 10 13
Penalty 3 0
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 6-12 3-11
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 1-1 0-0
TOTAL NET YARDS 410 322
Total plays 57 55
Average gain 7.2 5.9
NET YARDS RUSHING 118 65
Rushes 30 10
Average per rush 3.9 6.5
NET YARDS PASSING 292 257
Completed-attempted 17-26 20-45
Yards per pass 10.8 5.7
Sacked-yards lost 1-8 0-0
Had intercepted 0 2
PUNTS-AVERAGE 3-44.7 6-41.0
RETURN YARDAGE 164 106
Punts-returns 2-13 1-14
Kickoffs-returns 2-94 7-92
Interceptions-returns 2-57 0-0
PENALTIES-YARDS 9-71 11-115
FUMBLES-LOST 1-0 1-1
TIME OF POSSESSION 33:26 26:34
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: None.
Claymores rushing: Jesse Haynes 13-59, Ben Snell 8-24, Dameyune
Craig 3-17, Emory Smith 3-13, Donald Sellers 1-3, Jamie Reader 2-2.
Berlin rushing: Justin Watson 4-47, Edwin Watson 6-18.
Claymores passing: Dameyune Craig 16-24 for 290 yards, 0 INT, 4
TD, Ryan Clement 1-2 for 10 yards, 0 INT, 0 TD.
Berlin passing: Chuck Clements 9-24 for 123 yards, 2 INT, 0 TD, Andre
Ware 11-21 for 134 yards, 0 INT, 2 TD.
Claymores receiving: Donald Sellers 6-83, Shon Bell 4-67, Yo
Murphy 3-36, Emory Smith 2-20, Jesse Haynes 1-86, Ben Snell 1-8.
Berlin receiving: Andre Rone 6-60, Tyrone Taylor 3-73, Marcus Hinton
3-47, Mike Bowman 3-26, Rod 2-24, Edwin Watson 2-11, Justin Watson
1-16.
Attendance: 9,817.