Final Score:
Claymores 20 - 24 Thunder
The Claymores headed into Berlin on a high after defeating Frankfurt on the road. For the second part of their German road trip, they travelled to another team on a high; Peter Vaas' Thunder side. The Thunder had defeated Barcelona 28-21 on Monday night for their first win of the year.
| CLAYMORESPOLL |
Quarterback Kevin Daft took a big hit from the Berlin defense and sat out a few plays. His backup, Chiefs allocate Marcus Crandell came on and continued the drive right into the endzone where he hit H-back Tremayne Allen from two yards out. Rob Hart kicked the extra point which gave the Claymores a 7-4 lead.
The Thunder did not enjoy being behind and 22 seconds into the second quarter send Homes on to attempt a 33 yard field goal which he made.
Rob Hart gave the Claymores the lead again with a 27 yard field goal, a cheeky one which bounced off the left upright before falling through. Backup Thunder QB Scott Milanovich hit Anthony Ladd from 4 yards out for the go-ahead score and Axel Krause hit the extra point to give Berlin a 14-10 lead.
With Kevin Daft back at the helm, the Claymores offense moved down the field and into a position where Daft could hit Sulecio Sanford from 5 yards. Sanford sprinted past the coverage and popped into the endzone infront of the corner marker on the left side of the field. At half time the Claymores led 17-14.
The third quarter saw RB Ben Snell fumble the ball after a good gain deep in Thunder territory. Thunder national Richard Yancy recovered and the play appeared to stop but there was no whistle. Yancy climbed up and ran the 78 yards to the endzone. More on this later - believe me! It gave the Thunder a 21-17 lead.
Jaret Homes extended the Berlin lead to 7 on a 33 yard field goal midway through the third quarter. In the fourth, Rob Hart booted a 25 yarder to bring the Scots within striking distance.
With time for one final drive, the Claymores began moving up the field hitting recievers with ease and getting out of bounds to stop the clock. Aaron Stecker caught a pass on the hash mark and shot of towards the sideline but was caught just inches short. The clock ran out with Berlin the winners 24-20.
In the comment section this week there is just too much to say! I'll try to be brief otherwise I'll be sitting typing here all night!
Starting on defense, the amount of turnovers the Claymores gained is encouraging. Three interceptions, two by safety Blaine McElmurry and one from CB Central McClellion were certainly key amongst the five turnovers forced by the Scots.
I felt that the DB's played off their men too much. Berlin seemed to be able to hit receivers for 10 or 15 yards gains with remarkable ease and far too often. One replay showed Duane Hawthorne completely miss the cut by the receiver which resulted in a big gain.
The line managed to get a fair amount of pressure on Kresser and Milanovich but frequently had him in their sights but couldn't finish him off. Kresser does have a lightning fast release but the line still missed out on at least three sacks which they should have converted.
In the first half they were devastating against the run allowing only 1 single yard. However, towards the end of the game, they obviously tired and Thunder RB Ben Shay took advantage racking up some decent yardage. They did manage a key stop inside the final two minutes that gave the Claymores one final chance at victory.
The linebackers appears solid. Matt Finkes had a busy night making tackles all over the field. Brian Smith forced a fumble which he recovered himself which led to a momentum shift in the third quarter after the dodgy call.
Moving to offense, the running game is looking very good. Stecker has all the moves to fool would-be tacklers and the speed to accelerate past defenders as he showed on one long run he broke which would have been a touchdown but for a foot just on the line. Ben Snell is an effective change of pace from Stecker. He has the ability to pile up the tough yards and despite the fumble gained some good yards and blocked well.
The Quarterbacks looked good and generally made smart decisions. They were let down by their receivers who dropped a number of easy balls which would have kept drives alive. Deon Mitchell in particular had a straight-forward catch when he was wide open past the first down marker. The ball went straight through his hands.
The O line gave Stecker and Snell some good holes to run through but the inexperience of converted D lineman Jason Tenner showed. Tenner who played only his second ever game as an offensive tackle was often caught off-balance allowing the Berlin pass rush free reign at Daft. Scott Curry is scheduled to return to the Claymores this week after the birth of his child. This should allow Tenner to return to defense where he is more comfortable.
That call
Those who saw the game witnessed yet another in a series of bad calls by the officials. Ben Snell ran left and was gaining good yardage when he was popped from behind and fumbled the ball. Fair enough, we can live with that, these things happen. Richard Yancy recovered for Berlin falling over a Claymores player who held on as he went down.
Yancy was on the ground and the television replay clearly showed a Scottish hand on his leg - down by contact right? WRONG! The official who was standing right beside the action, possibly line judge number 132 (I'll have to watch it again to id the guy) did not blow hiw whistle to signal the end of the play.
Yancy climbed back up and ran 70 odd yards into the endzone. The talent level of players in this league is rising quickly but is being matched by an equal decrease inthe competency of the referees. The official was standing right on the play but did not see the Claymores hand on his leg.
It was not the only dodgy call in the game and they went against both teams.
Oh look, that pretty yellow flag again
Penalties were the other thing that killed the Claymores. The team got called for 11 or 12 penalties through the game, many of which were stupid, after the play incidents which are unforgivable.
The Clown of the Week award goes to Noel Scarlett. Blaine McElmurry intercepts Thunder QB Scott Milanovich and returns it close to midfield giving the Scots good field position. A flag comes in and DT Noel Scarlett gets called for unsportsmanlike conduct after the pick. This means he committed the foul after the Claymores had won the ball back and off the play. The result was that instead of 1st and 10 in good field position, they started with 1st and 25.
Make the tackle
The Claymores open field tackling was atricious. There are few other words for it. If a rusher can get past the line of scrimmage he has the run of the field. We are missing tackles right, left and centre and this needs to be fixed and fast. The pursuit is getting to the ball-carried but is unable to make the tackle.
Defenders sometimes look more concerned about stripping the ball than making the tackle. Make the tackle first and if the ball comes loose that's a bonus.
Oh-no, Turnover!
The Claymores turned the ball over twice against the Thunder, more than in the other two games combined. The fumbles haven't been seen before and hopefully were a one-off aberation. However, they did prove costly see the dodgy call above.
In Conclusion
For a team that did not play well, got called for a ridiculous number of penalties and got screwed by the refs for what turned out to be the winning score, the Claymores did well to only lose by 4 points.
Without half of those penalties the Claymores would have won this game. The stupid penalties need to go however psyched up the defensive line is, fouls after the whistle are just not on.
Next week the Thunder make the return trip to Scotland and the Scots need to improve on their tackling and the coverage needs to be tighter. Cutting the penalties will also be essential to a win at Murrayfield.
Ok, I'm off to calm down now. Rant mode off (you'll be glad to hear!)
FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
CLAYMORES 7 10 0 3 20
BERLIN 4 10 10 0 24 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: BER - FG, JARET HOLMES 50 YD, 6:32. BERLIN 4-0
SCO - TD, TREMAYNE ALLEN 2 YD PASS FROM MARCUS CRANDELL
(ROB HART KICK), 11:10. SCOT CLAYMORES 7-4
2ND QUARTER: BER - FG, JARET HOLMES 33 YD, 0:30. SCOT CLAYMORES 7,
BERLIN 7
SCO - FG, ROB HART 27 YD, 3:13. SCOT CLAYMORES 10-7
BER - TD, ANTHONY LADD 4 YD PASS FROM SCOTT MILANOVICH
(AXEL KRUSE KICK), 6:36. BERLIN 14-10
SCO - TD, SULECIO SANFORD 5 YD PASS FROM KEVIN DAFT (ROB
HART KICK), 8:07. SCOT CLAYMORES 17-14
3RD QUARTER: BER - TD, RICHARD YANCY 80 YD FUMBLE RETURN (AXEL KRUSE
KICK), 4:15. BERLIN 21-17
BER - FG, JARET HOLMES 33 YD, 9:49. BERLIN 24-17
4TH QUARTER: SCO - FG, ROB HART 25 YD, 2:05. BERLIN 24-20
TEAM STATISTICS
SCO BER
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 16 18
Rushing 7 2
Passing 7 13
Penalty 2 3
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 1-10 4-13
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0 1-2
TOTAL NET YARDS 271 263
Total plays 53 66
Average gain 5.1 4.0
NET YARDS RUSHING 171 53
Rushes 23 29
Average per rush 7.4 1.8
NET YARDS PASSING 100 210
Completed-attempted 15-26 18-33
Yards per pass 3.3 5.7
Sacked-yards lost 4-19 4-16
Had intercepted 0 3
PUNTS-AVERAGE 7-45.4 2-47.5
RETURN YARDAGE 152 65
Punts-returns 2-21 4-36
Kickoffs-returns 4-93 2-29
Interceptions-returns 3-38 0-0
PENALTIES-YARDS 11-75 8-115
FUMBLES-LOST 3-2 3-2
TIME OF POSSESSION 25:15 34:45
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: None.
Claymores rushing: Aaron Stecker 15-127, Ben Snell 5-23, Kevin
Daft 3-21.
Berlin rushing: Brian Shay 20-59, Eric Kresser 1-2, Vershan Jackson
7-minus 8, Team 1-0.
Claymores passing: Kevin Daft 13-24 for 103 yards, 0 INT, 1 TD,
Marcus Crandell 2-2 for 16 yards, 0 INT, 1 TD.
Berlin passing: Eric Kresser 13-25 for 163 yards, 1 INT, 0 TD, Scott
Milanovich 5-8 for 63 yards, 2 INT, 1 TD.
Claymores receiving: Rickey Brady 3-33, Aaron Stecker 3-20,
Damon Gibson 3-16, G Samford 2-12, Deon Mitchell 1-14, Scott Couper
1-11, Willy Tate 1-11, Tremayne Allen 1-2.
Berlin receiving: Robert Scott 3-61, Thabiti Davis 3-47, Damon Dunn
3-36, Tywan Mitchell 3-26, Anthony Ladd 2-13, Vershan Jackson 2-4,
Jason Freeman 1-25, Brian Shay 1-14.
Attendance: 7,900.