Scottish Claymores 24 - 21 Frankfurt Galaxy
 Email Gregor |
Oh boy. Where to start with this review of the opening game of the 2001 season? Well, first the facts. The Scottish Claymores got their season off to a winning start against the Frankfurt Galaxy for the ADC Cup at a bright but cool Hampden Park, Glasgow in front of a record regular-season crowd of 16,347. Great news so far.
Plain sailing, however, is not a phrase that you could use to describe this Claymores victory. But despite grumblings by many fans after the game that Frankfurt had been the victims of daylight robbery - and they certainly had the best offensive player on the park in Michael Bishop - it wasn't quite that bad either. For even though Patriots-allocate Bishop put in a gloriously captivating performance - good enough that even the new fans joined in the applause when he was named as MVP -it wasn't enough to claw back the 17-point lead that the Claymores had built up within minutes of the second half starting. That's enough preamble, on with the game and why I think that it would have been a travesty for the Galaxy to have gone home with a win.
 Clint Stoerner leads the Claymores offense versus Frankfurt on Saturday Photo: Jill Smith |
With the Claymores having lost the toss, something that went over the head of Radio Clyde's Gavin Pearson who was announcing the goings-on from the field of play, it was the duty of Chad Holleman to get the 2001 season underway. He hit a fairly long kick and with excellent covering by the special teams - a pleasing feature of play all-day long that went mostly unnoticed by the crowd - Frankfurt began with Michael Bishop under centre deep in their own half. Bishop's first series was a quick three-and-out including a pass that really should have been picked for an interception by Scotland's number 36 Eric Whitfield. Pick it 36!
Still, as Frankfurt were breathing a sigh of relief they went to punt and promptly everything went awry. A bad long-snap - a feature of the Galaxy's play all day as it turned out - left the punter alone in the backfield with London Dunlap (54) who promptly dropped him at the 7-yd line to hand Scotland excellent field position. Note one: racking up yards is one way to win - if you can score at the end of your drives - but making costly mistakes near your own goal will eventually bite you in the backside.
Clint Stoerner (14) took his first snap and quickly threw a pass to the far-right touchline where Dante Hall (1) was waiting with the opposing cornerback a few yards away. Hall jinked one way then the other before darting past the CB to the outside and into the End Zone for his first TD of the season. This may have been called a running play as perhaps the pass was not forward from Stoerner? Rob Hart duly put over his 86th consecutive PAT and the Claymores were 7-0 up with 12:54 of the first quarter still to play. Hall will be a potent weapon for the Claymores this season but I think we will need to find more ways of getting the ball into his hands. He went on to be fairly quiet for the rest of the match - but in fairness he was playing with a sprained ankle.
Scotland kicked off and Frankfurt took over deep in the own territory again. Michael Bishop rolled out to his left and threw a bomb. Far downfield Ricky Hall (82) was running to get under the pass with CB Central McClellion (29) covering and safety Reggie Hunt (45) hot in pursuit. As the ball came down McClellion gambled on playing the ball and he rose up swinging his arms. He neither caught nor batted the pigskin and Hall gratefully snared it in before running off toward the End Zone with Hunt and McClellion some distance behind. Rack up one 80-yd touchdown to Bishop - Scotland in contrast were to get roughly that amount in net yards for the whole game. German kicker Bauer - unperturbed by the Foot and Mouth crisis apparently - put the ball easily over for a 7-7 scoreline. It was a pass reminscent of Dameyune Craig - a player who is said to have the same style as Bishop - and by the end of the game he would more like Craig in the latter half of the 1999 season. A shining player on the losing team.
 The Hounds take the pitch for the first time in 2001 Photo: Jill Smith |
Scotland received a kick-off for the first time with 12:29 left of the first quarter and with the fast scoring I thought my prediction was going to be wildly off! Scotland drove solidly upfield amassing first down after first down under the feet of Anthony Gray (27) and through the hands of wide-out Gerald Williams (15) and Tight End James Whalen (87) - who all had excellent games - before we had a three-and-out which brought on the kicking team. Punter Bard Costello held as Englishman Rob Hart screwed a kick wide-left from 38 yards with 4:35 left before the second quarter. Ahhhh, memories of Frankfurt again! It is worth noting that WR Lonny Mitchell (19) was not on the field owing to a freak practice session shoulder injury - Williams stepped ably up to the plate. Randy Palmer was also contributing at TE.
As Frankfurt started to move the ball down the field it was noted that Central McClellion was no longer at CB having been replaced by Seahawk Nate Terry (28). Our secondary was now Terry-Hunt-Whitfield-Gray although we did seem to rotate the corners as Renard Cox (38) went on to have playing time later in the game as well as the re-introduction of McClellion. The safeties played every down on defense as well as every punt and kick-off. Tough work! At this point Bishop was looking menacing and only a terrible dropped pass by WR Damon Savage (87) saved Scotland from going behind. On fourth down the Galaxy went for it - they were inches short on third down - and they came up short again. End of the First Quarter. In all Frankfurt were to try on fourth down three times in the match - each time the Claymores held. Not as bad as some might have you believe!
The game degenerated in quality in the second quarter. It was no coincidence that the Galaxy were fielding QB Kevin Thompson (16). He was an utter bust. The quarter was punctuated by penalties, bad snaps in punting situations, a dubious pass intereference call on Dante Hall (the crowd clearly though Hall was the one being interefered with), a Hall fumble and subsequent recovery, the game's first sack on Stoerner (a missed block by number 33 Vaughn Sanders?), and a classy passage of play by linebacker Dusty Renfro - said to have a finger injury but playing as Tony Ortiz (52) had limped off in the first quarter with a knee injury. Renfro intercepted one pass by Thompson and was close to another. McClellion still found time to flap at another pass and was thankful that Reggie Hunt bundled the receiver out of play while still juggling with the ball - correctly ruled an incomplete pass. In the midst of all this Rob Hart put Scotland 10-7 up with a gutsy 30-yd field goal on third down with 16 seconds left in the half. This was a bit confusing, surely we had enough time for a shot at the End Zone? Anyway, Frankfurt received the ensuing kick-off and threw a Hail Mary on the very next play, Reggie Hunt gratefully intercepted deep in Scottish territory to end the half. So far, so good.
As Deacon Blue started Fergus Sings The Blues I headed into the bowels of Hampden for some refreshments. Clearly the Frankfurt coach Doug Graber had taken some stiff coffee at half-time as we didn't see Thompson for the rest of the game. But the Claymores had obviously been given a stiff talking to themselves at half-time as they came out for the second half all-guns blazing.
A pass interference call on the 4-yd line with Williams again looking menacing had the Claymores in excellent field position as soon as the half had started. Stoerner took three down before he patiently waited and waited and still waited for an open reciever. He found Williams (15) in the corner for the TD. Hart made it 87 PATs in a row and Scotland were 17-7 up with 11:07 to play in the third. Frankfurt were taking longer to rise from their shambolic second-quarter display and Chris Ward (99) registered the sole Claymore sack of the game on a third down forcing a punting situation (Ward had tripped Bishop on the previous play - so close to a sack). Now came the defining moment and winning TD
Another woeful long-snap led to Frankfurt's punt being blocked by Jabbar Threats (92) and the ball cannoned towards and then into the End Zone with Threats and London Dunlap in pursuit. For what seemed like an age Dunlap watched the ball roll and I thought he was about to let it go for a safety before dropping on it for a TD. London has a nose for the ball and had promised a TD in this game, and to think I hadn't believed him! Hart again obliged and the Claymores were 24-7 ahead 5:37 into the second half. Could we throw this away? Nearly, but not quite was the answer.
 Deacon Blue performed pre-game and at half time Photo: Jill Smith |
Obviously ticked with this turn of events Bishop then burst loose and there followed a frantic dash to the finish line with Bishop amassing yards of offense through the air and Denvis Manns eating up yardage on the grounds - Rashon Spikes had the majority of carries but Manns was finding all sorts of holes as the Claymores defense started to look shaken. When the Claymores had the ball their offense seemed to have packed up and gone home. Whalen and Hall weren't getting open and Williams had disappeared. Stoerner was sacked several times as there was simply no-one to pass to. But in this white-hot atmosphere Stoerner kept his composure and didn't turn the ball over. Bishop was scrambling on almost every play and with many plays breaking down receivers were becoming more and more open. On one such play Pete Muther grabbed a TD (a holding call having cancelled a TD on the previous play) and the Galaxy were now only 24-14 down with a quarter-and-a-half to go. This play continued into the start of the fourth quarter when with 46 seconds gone Rashon Spikes gratefully took a Bishop pass for a TD wide-open in the End Zone. I'm not sure who should have been covering him, the play was completely broken and there were receivers open everywhere as a group of Hounds vainly chased the fleet-footed Bishop in the backfield.
With the pressure on, Scotland met the challenge. Satomi and Blenman - who had shone on special teams were coming up with tackles and pressures on punts and eventually the defense had a solution to Bishop. He had been rolling out of the pocket at will and finding men downfield. Now when he rolled out he faced a wall of Hounds hemming him in and making him pass into linebackers and DBs covering deep. Swedish kicker Ola Kimrin put a kick for the Galaxy wide-left with 6:20 left and the Claymores were still struggling to hold on. Somehow it all worked out and Frankfurt's final drive fizzled out with 1:20 to go as a fourth-and-long fell incomplete. A relieved Stoerner ran the clock out and Coach Dahlquist accepted the ADC cup at the end of the match. The Claymores will have to improve for next week, but it's better that we got the win - scrappy as it was - after all would we rather have played better and lost by a point like the Frankfurt home game last year? Frankfurt will look to improve and I'm sure when the teams meet again (and for a third time?) they will both have made strides forward in their execution of plays.
FRA 21, SCO 24
Game begins at 12:00PM ET
Scoring
1ST QUARTER
SCO - TD, DANTE HALL 6 YD RUN (ROB HART KICK), 2:06. CLAYMORES 7-0
FRA - TD, RICKY HALL 80 YD PASS FROM MICHAEL BISHOP
(STEPHAN BAUER KICK), 2:31. FRANKFURT 7, CLAYMORES 7
2ND QUARTER
SCO - FG, ROB HART 30 YD, 14:48. CLAYMORES 10-7
3RD QUARTER
SCO - TD, GERALD WILLIAMS 5 YD PASS FROM CLINT STOERNER
(ROB HART KICK), 3:53. CLAYMORES 17-7
SCO - TD, LONDON DUNLAP RECOVERED BLOCKED PUNT IN END
ZONE (ROB HART KICK), 5:37. CLAYMORES 24-7
FRA - TD, PETE MUTHER 16 YD PASS FROM MICHAEL BISHOP
(STEPHAN BAUER KICK), 8:36. CLAYMORES 24-14
4TH QUARTER
FRA - TD, RASHON SPIKES 15 YD PASS FROM MICHAEL BISHOP
(STEPHAN BAUER KICK), 0:46. CLAYMORES 24-21
| TEAM STATISTICS | FRA | SCO |
| FIRST DOWNS | 17 | 13 |
| Rushing | 5 | 5 |
| Passing | 12 | 6 |
| Penalty | 0 | 2 |
| 3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY | 8-16 | 3-11 |
| 4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY | 0-3 | 0-0 |
| TOTAL NET YARDS | 368 | 168 |
| Total plays | 67 | 50 |
| Average gain | 5.5 | 3.4 |
| NET YARDS RUSHING | 112 | 104 |
| Rushes | 32 | 27 |
| Average per rush | 3.5 | 3.9 |
| NET YARDS PASSING | 256 | 64 |
| Completed-attempted | 15-34 | 12-19 |
| Yards per pass | 7.3 | 2.8 |
| Sacked-yards lost | 1-9 | 4-27 |
| Had intercepted | 2 | 0 |
| PUNTS-AVERAGE | 4-31.0 | 7-36.7 |
| RETURN YARDAGE | 99 | 104 |
| Punts-returns | 4-21 | 1-18 |
| Kickoffs-returns | 5-78 | 4-78 |
| Interceptions-returns | 0-0 | 2-8 |
| PENALTIES-YARDS | 7-82 | 4-30 |
| FUMBLES-LOST | 0-0 | 1-0 |
| TIME OF POSSESSION | 27:52 | 32:08 |
The MVP was Michael Bishop although he can thank very few of his fellow players for helping him. As bad as parts of Scotland's team were on occasion they did enough in the first few minutes of the second half to earn victory. The Galaxy made too many key errors and committed too many penalties. While it might be fashionable to say the Galaxy were robbed, they only have themselves to blame. With better execution they will feel they should have won this game but they didn't get the points on the board and that is how teams are judged. Chalk up a Win for Coach Dahlquist. Claymores MVP? Easily London Dunlap (54) for a solid linebacking job and stellar special teams play.
Agree? Disagree? Talk about it in the forum.
Result: Claymores 24-21 Frankfurt (Prediction: Claymores 24-20 Frankfurt)
Grade: C+