Final Score : Scottish Claymores 42 - 35 Frankfurt Galaxy
WE RULE AGAIN! Just one week after sucking so badly against the Rhein Fire, the Claymores bounce back and courtesy of Dameyune Craig (from here on known as Sir Dameyune!), unleashed the greatest passing display this league and quite possible many others have ever seen.
Sir Dameyune finished the day with stats which are better than some QB's season stats. 27 of 37 for 611 yards and 5 touchdowns! That is more touchdowns than Jim Ballard threw in 8 games last season! QB rating for the game was 154.56. The most awesome performance by a QB ever. To put this into perspective, Spence Fischer who started 4 games for the Claymores in '97 and played in various others, finised the season with 839 yards, only 228 more than Craig managed in a single game!
Ok, enough about Craig. With this sort of performance from a QB, the receivers must have had a blockbuster day too right? Right! Donald Sellers, the league's leading receiver caught 9 balls for a league record 264 yards, 3 for touchdowns tying another record. Yo Murphy, with 8 catches for 149 yards and touchdowns; Shon Bell 5 catches for 96 yards and a touchdown and also Jamie Reader with only 1 catch but for 50 yards!
Well, I guess I'd better actually write about the game since it was quite close!
Frankfurt actually started the scoring with a 23 yard strike from Pat Barnes to Andy McCullogh for an early 7-0 lead just 5 minutes into the game.
Only 3 minutes later, after a long 83 yard drive, Dameyune Craig hit Donald Sellers for a 5 yard score to which Rob Hart added the extra point to tie the game at 7.
Early in the 2nd quarter, the Claymores failed to score on 4th and inches from the 1 leaving Frankfurt with the unenviable task of a 99 yard drive. To their credit though, they capitalised, scoring on Pat Barnes' 43 bomb to Andy McCullough again. A Kleinmann extra point extended lead to 14-7.
It took Craig and the Claymores 24 seconds to reply as Craig hit a steaking Yo Murphy who won a footrace for a 75 yard score to level score at 14.
6 minutes later after a Frankfurt punt, the Claymores once again drove into Frankfurt territory. Once again it was Craig who was the inspiration, hitting Shon Bell for a 24 yard score. 21-14 Claymores after Hart's extra point.
By half time, Craig had already racked up 313 yards and was heading for the league record. He completed his first 13 passes.
In the third quarter, Scotland extended their 7 point lead when Donald Sellers caught one of his game high 9 balls for a 44 yard pass and his second touchdown of the day. With the Hart PAT, the score was 28-14
During the third quarter, Craig threw a 71 yard bomb to Donald Sellers. This was enough to give him the league record, putting him past the 435 yards Paul Justin put up for Frankfurt in 1995.
Less than 2 minutes into the final quarter, the Claymores non-existent running game scored when Jesse Haynes pushed into the endzone from a yard out to make the score 35-14 and, normally, ending the game.
The Galaxy though, were not about to give up as Jake Delhomme hit McCullough for a 4 yard score and Todd Floyd for a 7 yard score in quick succession to bring the German team within a touchdown of the Claymores seemingly unsurmountable lead.
With only 3 minutes left on the clock and overtime seeming a real possibility, Craig masterfully drove the Scots into the Galaxy half where he lobbed a pass to Donald Sellers who caught the 41 yard ball for a score to give the Claymores a 14 point lead.
Still Frankfurt would not give up when Mario Bailey caught a touchdown pass from Jake Delhomme from 6 yards - his record setting 20th career TD catch. However, time ran out for the Germans as the clock expired and Scotland emerged victorious by exactly the same scoreline as at Murrayfield 3 weeks ago, just reversed!
Comments
What in the world is going on with the Claymores? Week 4 they played superb against the Dragons, week 5 they stink up the joint against the Fire and in week 6, an offensive explosion in Frankfurt. Inconsistency seems to be the name of the game for the Claymores this year. Next week, it will be interesting to see if they can play well two weeks in a row for the first time this season.
Somehow I don't think I really need to say much about Craig, Sellers et al. However, I will say this : where is Scott Couper on the scoresheet? Is he injured or just out of favour with Sir Dameyune?
OK, so, I can still critisise. Where was our running game? With Craig it may not be necesssary all the time but it is nice to know you can fall back on it if the scenario presents itself. 29 yards on 26 carries is not impressive by any means. In fact it's downright terrible. So the O line can pass block, that's great but run blocking is part of the game too you know. This must be one of the worst rushing games ever for the Claymores.
On defense too, we did not play well. When Craig is on fire, great. But when he's not? We can't afford to give up 35 points to anybody win or lose.
I hate to place blame but it must lie with the Claymores secondary who seem more keen to try to intercept the ball every play than cover the receiver. Admitedly they intercepted the Barnes/Delhomme duo three times but they also got scored on 5 times through the air. At the end of the day we allowed 2 100 yard receivers and 5 touchdowns from the pass. Not acceptable.
Of course the D Line needs to get more pressure on the quarterback at the line of scrimmage which for the first time it did tonight registering 3 sacks.
Anyway, back to Happysville to round off! The Claymores once again rule and show that they have the potential to beat any team in the league on their day. If they can maintain this level of play for more than one week at a time, World Bowl here we come. If not, then it's back to the drawing board.
It will be interesting to see how Berlin perform after their win next week. They play Barcelona at home Sunday before travelling to Hampden next week to face the Claymores. Incidentally, the Claymores will be the first Scottish national team to play in the newly completed Hampden Stadium in Glasgow.
FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
CLAYMORES 7 14 7 14 42
FRANKFURT 7 7 0 21 35 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: FRA - TD, ANDY MCCULLOGH 23 YD PASS FROM PAT BARNES (RALF
KLEINMANN KICK), 4:49. FRANKFURT 7-0
SCO - TD, DONALD SELLERS 5 YD PASS FROM DAMEYUNE CRAIG
(ROB HART KICK), 8:16. CLAYMORES 7, FRANKFURT 7
2ND QUARTER: FRA - TD, ANDY MCCULLOGH 43 YD PASS FROM PAT BARNES (RALF
KLEINMANN KICK), 2:16. FRANKFURT 14-7
SCO - TD, YO MURPHY 75 YD PASS FROM DAMEYUNE CRAIG (ROB
HART KICK), 2:40. CLAYMORES 14, FRANKFURT 14
SCO - TD, SHON BELL 24 YD PASS FROM DAMEYUNE CRAIG (ROB
HART KICK), 8:24. CLAYMORES 21-14
3RD QUARTER: SCO - TD, DONALD SELLERS 44 YD PASS FROM DAMEYUNE CRAIG
(ROB HART KICK), 3:47. CLAYMORES 28-14
4TH QUARTER: SCO - TD, JESSE HAYNES 1 YD RUN (ROB HART KICK), 1:57.
CLAYMORES 35-14
FRA - TD, ANDY MCCULLOGH 4 YD PASS FROM JAKE DELHOMME
(RALF KLEINMANN KICK), 8:28. CLAYMORES 35-21
FRA - TD, TODD FLOYD 7 YD PASS FROM JAKE DELHOMME (RALF
KLEINMANN KICK), 11:48. CLAYMORES 35-28
SCO - TD, DONALD SELLERS 41 YD PASS FROM DAMEYUNE CRAIG
(ROB HART KICK), 12:06. CLAYMORES 42-28
FRA - TD, MARIO BAILEY 6 YD PASS FROM JAKE DELHOMME (RALF
KLEINMANN KICK), 13:36. CLAYMORES 42-35
TEAM STATISTICS
SCO FRA
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 26 26
Rushing 3 2
Passing 23 23
Penalty 0 1
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 5-9 5-10
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 1-2 1-1
TOTAL NET YARDS 631 442
Total plays 64 64
Average gain 9.9 6.9
NET YARDS RUSHING 29 45
Rushes 26 14
Average per rush 1.1 3.2
NET YARDS PASSING 602 397
Completed-attempted 27-37 34-47
Yards per pass 15.8 7.9
Sacked-yards lost 1-9 3-23
Had intercepted 0 3
PUNTS-AVERAGE 1-44.0 3-34.3
RETURN YARDAGE 56 142
Punts-returns 0-0 0-0
Kickoffs-returns 4-56 7-142
Interceptions-returns 3-0 0-0
PENALTIES-YARDS 10-71 1-2
FUMBLES-LOST 3-2 0-0
TIME OF POSSESSION 29:13 30:47
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: None.
Claymores rushing: Jesse Haynes 11-25, Dameyune Craig 8-8, Jamie
Reader 3-5, Donald Sellers 1-1, Ben Snell 3-minus 10.
Frankfurt rushing: Jermaine Chaney 9-29, Pat Barnes 3-15, Mark
Kacmarynski 2-1.
Claymores passing: Dameyune Craig 27-37 for 611 yards, 0 INT, 5 TD.
Frankfurt passing: Jake Delhomme 20-29 for 221 yards, 1 INT, 3 TD,
Pat Barnes 14-18 for 199 yards, 2 INT, 2 TD.
Claymores receiving: Donald Sellers 9-264, Yo Murphy 8-149, Shon
Bell 5-96, Jesse Haynes 2-33, Jamie Reader 1-50, Kevin Drake 1-17,
Ben Snell 1-2.
Frankfurt receiving: Mario Bailey 11-120, Andy Mccullogh 8-170, Todd
Floyd 5-50, Werner Hippler 3-30, Jermaine Chaney 3-19, Mark
Kacmarynski 3-18, Benjamin Dieplinger 1-13.
Attendance: 33,915.