Final Score : Berlin Thunder 28 - 10 Scottish Claymores
The Claymores appear to be stuck hard in a two week routine. One week they play out of their skins, set all kinds of records, that sort of thing. Then, the next they are absolutely hopeless. This week was a hopeless week. Coming into the game, the Scots led the league with a 4-2 record and appeared to be on track for a second world bowl appearance. Then along came the upstart Berlin Thunder, hot off a two game win streak against Amsterdam and Barcelona, and burst the Scots bubble.
The odd thing is things started well for the Claymores and just fell apart in the second half. Barely 7 minutes into the game, Dameyune Craig hit Scott Couper for a 9 yard touchdown, Scott's first of the year. With Rob Hart's extra point, the Claymores led 7-0.
It wasn't until the second quarter and two missed Thunder field goals that we got anymore scoring. A Berlin drive stalled at the Claymores 33 yards line and Thunder head coach send on David Akers to attempt a 51 yard field goal - worth 4 points in NFLE. The kick was good and Berlin reduced the lead to 3.
The Claymores returned the favour with a 37 yard field goal from Rob Hart to make the scoreline 10-4. That is how the score stood at half time. It also proved to be the final time Scotland scored in the game
Starting in the 3rd quarter, Berlin, under Chris Dittoe at quarterback scored 24 unanswered points.
First, midway through the 3rd quarter, Dittoe threw a 5 yard touchdown rto Isaac Curtis to which Akers added the extra point. 11-10 Thunder.
Justin Watson added a 1 yard scoring run to the Thunder league later in the same quarter and David Akers landed another mammoth field goal, this time from 48 yards.
Berlin's final score was a 6 yard pss from Chris Dittoe to Anthony Rodgers which rounded out the scoring at 28-10 - a good old fashioned thumping for the Claymores.
Comments
What can you say about this team? One week they are fantastic - it was just 7 days ago I was praising this team's offense for an outstanding display - then the next week they are terrible, can't put together a drive.
Perhaps I should rename this site 'Inconsistent Claymores'!
However, having said that, from the statistics, it really didn't look like a bad game; 100+ yards rushing, 5.1 yards per play, there shouldn't be a problem. The problem came in stringing plays together, something which will no doubt not be a problem next week but still needs to be worked on.
The other problem was turnovers believe it or not. Craig who this season had thrown 2 interceptions, threw 2 in this game alone. Also, 3 fumbles is not too impressive even if we only lost one of them, we need to hang on to and protect the ball well.
I feel strange saying this now but the D seems to have played quite well this week allowing only 183 yards passing which is a very respectable total. Also, ths 109 yards on the ground is pretty good too. An all round improvement on this front.
Special teams too had a pretty decent day getting some good yardage on kick returns, some more excellent punting from Chris Dolan, and coverage which was good. Rob Hart did miss his first kick since week 1 but hey, the guy's human. Admittedly though, it would have given the Claymores a nice 13-4 lead which they might have held onto.
The offense had problems stringing together a drive, well putting the final touches on it by scoring each time they got close as they have done in the past. I don't know what the problem was here but it may just be that Craig had an off day, some bad timing by recievers or numerous other minor problems which can be sorted out before the trip to Barcelona next week.
So, in conclusion, not a bad game, just unable to hold on to the ball nd finish off drives effectively. However, it is a bad loss in terms of World Bowl positioning. It allows Barcelona a 1 game lead, which we need to reduce next week, and Frankfurt to pull level with us at 4-3.
1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
BERLIN 0 4 14 10 28
CLAYMORES 7 3 0 0 10 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: SCO - TD, SCOTT COUPER 9 YD PASS FROM DAMEYUNE CRAIG (ROB
HART KICK), 6:51. CLAYMORES 7-0
2ND QUARTER: BER - FG, DAVID AKERS 51 YD, 10:28. CLAYMORES 7-4
SCO - FG, ROB HART 37 YD, 13:50. CLAYMORES 10-4
3RD QUARTER: BER - TD, ISAAC CURTIS 5 YD PASS FROM CHRIS DITTOE (DAVID
AKERS KICK), 8:56. BERLIN 11-10
BER - TD, JUSTIN WATSON 1 YD RUN (DAVID AKERS KICK),
13:11. BERLIN 18-10
4TH QUARTER: BER - FG, DAVID AKERS 48 YD, 6:12. BERLIN 21-10
BER - TD, ANTHONY RODGERS 6 YD PASS FROM CHRIS DITTOE
(DAVID AKERS KICK), 9:41. BERLIN 28-10
TEAM STATISTICS
BER SCO
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 21 14
Rushing 7 7
Passing 9 6
Penalty 5 1
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 6-14 4-11
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0 0-1
TOTAL NET YARDS 300 282
Total plays 63 55
Average gain 4.8 5.1
NET YARDS RUSHING 109 118
Rushes 32 19
Average per rush 3.4 6.2
NET YARDS PASSING 191 164
Completed-attempted 20-30 15-35
Yards per pass 6.2 4.6
Sacked-yards lost 1-8 1-6
Had intercepted 0 2
PUNTS-AVERAGE 3-40.3 3-46.7
RETURN YARDAGE 45 110
Punts-returns 0-0 2-21
Kickoffs-returns 3-40 5-89
Interceptions-returns 2-5 0-0
PENALTIES-YARDS 6-70 13-99
FUMBLES-LOST 0-0 3-1
TIME OF POSSESSION 33:43 26:17
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: Berlin (David Akers 53, 51).
Berlin rushing: Edwin Watson 15-58, Justin Watson 11-29, Kim Kuci
5-23, Ronnie Mcada 1-minus 1.
Claymores rushing: Jesse Haynes 10-54, Dameyune Craig 4-34, Ben
Snell 3-22, Jamie Reader 2-8.
Berlin passing: Chris Dittoe 20-30 for 199 yards, 0 INT, 2 TD.
Claymores passing: Dameyune Craig 15-35 for 170 yards, 2 INT, 1 TD.
Berlin receiving: Anthony Rodgers 5-76, Andre Rone 5-48, Tyrone
Taylor 4-37, Na'il Benjamin 2-21, Isaac Curtis 2-6, Jorg Heckenbach
1-7, Justin Watson 1-4.
Claymores receiving: Donald Sellers 6-72, Shon Bell 2-49, Jamie
Reader 2-9, Yo Murphy 1-12, Kevin Drake 1-10, Scott Couper 1-9, Jesse
Haynes 1-8, Ben Snell 1-1.
Attendance: 9,128.