Final Score : Amsterdam Admirals 29 - 20 Scottish Claymores
Amsterdam had nothing but pride to play for coming into Scotland in Week 9 but pride is often the most dangerous weapon in the book, more so when your coach is Al Luginbill. This was not a team that was about to lie down and die. If they had, Luginbill might very well have put a good few of them in the ER!
Things started well for the Claymores with Jesse Haynes catching a 52 yard pass from Dameyune Craig and avoiding blockers into the endzone to open the scoring. Rob Hart booted his record setting 29th consecutive extra point and the Scots lead 7-0.
They may be bottom of the league but the Admirals can still play as they showed on their next drive. 80 yards after it began, QB Jim Kubiak plunged in from a yard out. The extra point hit the post and bouced out - no good, the Claymores lead is preserved but cut to a single point.
However, Rob Hart extended the lead to 4 by booting a 32 yard field goal later in the 2nd. Again though Amsterdam came back scoring on David Thompson's 1 yard run with just 14 seconds left in the half. Luginbill sent in his offense to go for the two pointer but Jason Shelley could not hold on to the pass which fell incomplete. The Admirals still had their first lead of the game : 12-10
The teams traded field goals in the 3rd quarter, 37 yards from Amsterdams Francesco Biancamono and then Rob Hart from 27 yards. 15-13 Admirals.
Jim Kubiak extended the Dutch teams lead early in the fourth quarter with a 47 yard strike to Jason Shelley who ran to paydirt. For once, the Admirals extra point was good making the score 22-13.
Craig was not about to end there. He lead the Claymores up the field finally hitting Jesse Haynes again, this time for 15 yards and the touchdown. Hart's PAT made it a 2 point ball game - 22-20.
Midway through the Claymores next drive, deep in Amsterdam territory, Craig dropped back to pass, threw but a D lineman tipped the ball which rocketed staight up in the air. Waiting underneath were 3 lineman, two from the Admirals and one Scot. Inevitably, the Admirals came down with the ball to kill off the Claymores chances.
They added another touchdown, a 19 yard catch by Joe Douglass from Jim Kubiak to round out the afternoons scoring and condemn Scotland to yet another losing season at home.
Comments
Well, that's it. Our World Bowl dreams are over for yet another year. But was it entirely our fault in week 9? I would have to say now. I believe the referees had a good deal to do with it. Now, I'm not one to criticise the zebra's for my teams bad play but looking at replays of certain plays makes me wonder if these are refs or trainee clowns they are sending over here.
Take one Claymores drive in the 3rd quarter for example. Right down on the Amsterdam 10 yard line. Dameyune Craig takes off rushing towards the endzone and is ruled out of bounds at the one. That's fine. Yes, it was until they showed the replay. It was quite clear to anyone with half a brain that Craig was inbounds and the ball was half a yard in the endzone. It obviously demoralised the Claymores who went on to get the ball picked off to finish the drive.
Another example. Jason Shelley brings down a huge catch, 40 something yards. Again, looking at the replay, he clearly gets just one foot inbounds.
These, along with a couple of dodgy looking pass interference calls on both teams do make you wonder what in the world is going on in Refland.
Craig has picked up the nasty habit of throwing INT's all of a sudden. Another two against Amsterdam following 3 last week. Looking positively though, Craig needs 328 yards passing next week, again against the Admirals to surpass Sacramento's Dave Archer for the single season passing yardage record (2964) and 364 to become the first man in NFL Europe to pass for 3000 yards in a season.
Well, next week is just an exhibition game really and is pretty much irrelevant for both teams. It will be interesting to see how coaches Luginbill and Criner manage to motivate their squads for such a game.
It is time to start concentrating on the World Bowl and before that the final week of the World Bowl race. Frankfurt has clinched a spot but the other is still to be decided. Barcelona can clinch with a win. Rhein can clinch with a win and a Barcelona loss. Rhein plays on Saturday next week so the Dragons will know before their game whether they have to win or not.
Here's to the Millenium season! Claymores '00 - This has gotta be OUR Year Baby!
FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
AMSTERDAM 0 12 3 14 29
CLAYMORES 7 3 3 7 20 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: SCO - TD, JESSE HAYNES 52 YD PASS FROM DAMEYUNE CRAIG
(ROB HART KICK), 10:50. CLAYMORES 7-0
2ND QUARTER: AMS - TD, JIM KUBIAK 1 YD RUN (PAT FAILED), 2:58.
CLAYMORES 7-6
SCO - FG, ROB HART 32 YD, 10:02. CLAYMORES 10-6
AMS - TD, DAVID THOMPSON 1 YD RUN (TWO-POINT CONVERSION
FAILED), 14:46. AMSTERDAM 12-10
3RD QUARTER: AMS - FG, FRANCESCO BIANCAMONO 37 YD, 5:09. AMSTERDAM 15-10
SCO - FG, ROB HART 27 YD, 8:55. AMSTERDAM 15-13
4TH QUARTER: AMS - TD, J SHELLEY 47 YD PASS FROM JIM KUBIAK (FRANCESCO
BIANCAMONO KICK), 2:50. AMSTERDAM 22-13
SCO - TD, JESSE HAYNES 15 YD PASS FROM DAMEYUNE CRAIG
(ROB HART KICK), 6:29. AMSTERDAM 22-20
AMS - TD, JOE DOUGLASS 19 YD PASS FROM JIM KUBIAK
(FRANCESCO BIANCAMONO KICK), 12:48. AMSTERDAM 29-20
TEAM STATISTICS
AMS SCO
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 20 20
Rushing 6 2
Passing 10 13
Penalty 4 5
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 6-17 2-10
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 3-4 1-1
TOTAL NET YARDS 291 372
Total plays 72 60
Average gain 4.0 6.2
NET YARDS RUSHING 100 60
Rushes 34 14
Average per rush 2.9 4.3
NET YARDS PASSING 191 312
Completed-attempted 18-35 26-41
Yards per pass 5.0 6.8
Sacked-yards lost 3-22 5-50
Had intercepted 1 2
PUNTS-AVERAGE 5-40.4 4-42.0
RETURN YARDAGE 59 124
Punts-returns 3-28 3-15
Kickoffs-returns 4-31 6-109
Interceptions-returns 2-0 1-0
PENALTIES-YARDS 12-102 11-101
FUMBLES-LOST 1-0 3-2
TIME OF POSSESSION 30:45 29:15
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: None.
Amsterdam rushing: David Thompson 21-65, Frank Temming 8-20, Jim
Kubiak 5-15.
Claymores rushing: Jesse Haynes 4-42, Dameyune Craig 4-19,
Turner 5-2, Jamie Reader 1-minus 3.
Amsterdam passing: Jim Kubiak 14-25 for 150 yards, 0 INT, 2 TD, Dan
Gonzalez 4-10 for 63 yards, 1 INT, 0 TD.
Claymores passing: Dameyune Craig 26-41 for 362 yards, 2 INT, 2 TD.
Amsterdam receiving: J Shelley 6-85, Joe Douglass 5-55, Shawn
Mcwashington 3-21, David Thompson 3-19, James Kidd 1-33.
Claymores receiving: Yo Murphy 11-191, Donald Sellers 5-36,
Michael Jenkins 4-30, Jesse Haynes 3-76, Jamie Reader 2-12, Scott
Couper 1-17.