Amsterdam Admirals 14-10 Scottish Claymores
 Email Gregor |
Week 2 and already the Scottish Claymores are sending up worrying signs that this season, while only 10 weeks long (surely not 11 for us?), will feel more like an eternity in the Hell of Shocking Football.
One thing before I start - be thankful to Sky Sports, who by placing the game live on Sky Sports 2 have hopefully lessened the number of fans who had to sit through this shoddy display from both teams.
In the preview I wrote that if the Scottish Claymores were to harbour any ambitions of securing a berth in the World Bowl - to be played at the ill-surfaced ArenA on June 30 - then there were some simple things that they must do. And do well. If their offensively impotent display from Saturday night is anything to go by, then I think we can safely discount any notions the Claymores faithful have of their team making a return trip to the ArenA to play Barcelona (who else?) in the World Bowl this year. However, there are eight weeks to go and surely there are twists and turns to come, but who would bet against Barcelona at this stage? So, just how bad were the Claymores? And just how close were they to being 2-0 Baby?
As I settled down beer in hand in the 3/4ers Sports "Cafe" in Edinburgh's Grassmarket to watch the game little did I realise that I was not the only one to have stayed away from Amsterdam - our offense were still at home too. The game came on the screen and I was greeted by the sight of Amsterdam getting ready to receive the kick-off. I presume we had - again - lost the toss.
Chad Holleman starts the game with a kick deep into the Admirals right-hand corner of the field (or left-hand corner as Holleman saw it) where it is caught and run back for a minimal return by the Admirals. Yet again a feature of this game was the excellent kicking, punting and coverage by the Claymores. On the first play of the game the Admirals false start - it is the first of many penalties in a poorly executed game from both sides - but soon Spergon Wynn airs a ball deep where Claymores CB Brian Gray is badly beaten by the Amsterdam number 1 Gerald Harris. However, the Claymores' cornerbacks have come across a cunning ploy to defend against this sort of play. Knowing that wide receivers will probably make these catches under pressure Gray slyly allows the receiver plenty of space and time - and it pays off. Like Galaxy receiver Damon Savage last week Harris drops an easy catch. Or was it just another blown coverage by a CB - you decide. In any case the Admirals are soon three-and-out after Renard Cox (38 - Duane Hawthorne's number) makes a tackle on the next play - remember the name well, as he almost gets my MVP award.
The Amsterdam punter put in a ridiculously low punt that rolls and rolls and gives Scotland poor field position to start their first drive. Interestingly on the punt coverage two Admirals slide to the ground while trying to down the ball and this is just the beginning of footing problems for both sides. The surface looks slick and greasy and was to cause many slips throughout the game. Anyway, on the first play from scrimmage the Claymores try an "inventive" reverse with Stoerner handing off to Dante Hall who runs straight into a tackler some distance behind the line of scrimmage and desperately close to the Claymores' End Zone. Soon Scotland are three-and-out and only an excellent punt by Costello relieves the pressure - London Dunlap makes the tackle on the coverage. However, there is a flag on the play - a 15-yd facemask against Scotland and the defense trots on to the field facing an Amsterdam team with good field position.
Three-and-out is a painful term that is to haunt Scotland throughout the night, the Claymores were 13 and 0 on third-down attempts. That is just absolutely pitiful! Dreadful! Amsterdam are to be only marginally better - 4 of 12 on third down - but enough to just shade this game.
Amsterdam are held - surprise, surprise - and Scotland have the ball back. On a three-and-out we get a break, a late hit on Stoerner yields a roughing the passer call and the game has it's first First Down! 10 minutes into the game! By penalty! The snap is then taken too quickly and the ball rams into Stoerner's facemask and on to the ground where Scotland are lucky to recover it. And so the first half went on-and-on. I will spare you the grim details - suffice to say at half time the score was 0-0 and it was thoroughly depressing. The only points of note of a terrible first-half - from both teams - were the following...
Jabbar Threats put a truly terryfying hit on an Admiral running back. Ward and Dingle combined for the first Claymore sack of the game - Wynn was an easier target than Bishop the week before. Joe Perez got his first catch and then promptly fumbled to turn the ball over - just do what Couper does and drop it before you have control! (Couper is now 3 passes attempted towards him for no receptions.) Earl Riley came into the game in place of Reggie Hunt - who Sky had listed as starting the game (both got playing time at free safety from what I could see). The other saftey Eric Whitfield (c'mon 36!) was not making much of an impact. Amsterdam put together some solid first downs before Robert Flickinger (91) and Cowboy Bryant Shaw (98) put together back-to-back sacks. Rowelle Blenman put in a terrific tackle on a punt coverage. Central McClellion missed another easy tackle. Wynn dropped a snap. Dante Hall caught a pass - at the second attempt (sigh) - for a big gain. And Bryant Shaw had another sack. Otherwise the first half was something best left forgotten.
Would the second half be any better? Surely it would! The kick-off by Amsterdam was angled away from Dante Hall and was fielded by Reggie Hunt (or was it Hall? The stats say Hall but my notes say Hunt?) who gained 9 yards before disappearing under a mound of tacklers - our return game is yet to get going in both our games so far. I lost count of the number of fair catches Dante Hall made...
A three-and-out later and Scotland were punting again. Step up London Dunlap! The Admiral punt returner inexplicably spilled the ball and a number of players from both sides made vain attempts to snap up the pigskin. Eventually last-week's special teams hero London Dunlap (54) arrived on the scene and scooped the ball away from the crowd and gathered it in on the 1-yd line. It would have been fitting for him to have got a TD here. Really. Vaughn Sanders barely ran the ball in soon after for a TD and Rob Hart duly converted the PAT for a 7-0 lead to Scotland. The Claymores running game was as miserable as the passing game this week - but Sanders had the better of what there was of it - our average gain was 2.0 yds on rushing plays and 2.4 on passes!
Amsterdam came straight back at Scotland on their next possession and Wynn was now moving the chains effectively. On this drive Renard Cox was starting to get himself noticed before going out injured - he was to come back later. Central McClellion was then badly beaten by Chris Coleman on a TD pass from Wynn and the score was level again - this time at 7 apiece with 5:50 left in the third quarter.
Reggie Hunt fielded the kick-off again and slipped on the return. This was a signal for the game to degenerate in quality yet again. The offensive line of Scotland was looking increasingly ragged by this point and Amsterdam's Sean Powell (91) got himself a sack - the Admirals were to outsack the Claymores 7-to-5 over the length of the game. It is also worth noting that throughout the game the headsets for Scotland were not working and the plays were being ferried into the huddle by exchanging Tight Ends on every play. Rumours that Whalen was calling the plays are false, he along with Fontana and Randy Palmer were bringing in the calls from the sidelines. Not that it made much difference, the blocking and QB protection was really, really poor and Stoerner was soon getting sacked again and again.
In between some terrible play from both sides the punters were duelling for field position and Renard Cox was coming on to a good game at cornerback - or so I thought! Amsterdam had the first chance to take a lead - first as Anthony Tucker missed a TD catch in the End Zone - and then as kicker Justin Skinner put a kick wide left at the start of the fourth quarter.
The game now entered the endgame and the game was there for the taking - the question was: who wanted it more? Yet more punts were exchanged again and then Earl Riley got a terrific sack on Wynn forcing Amsterdam to punt. Dante Hall put in a sparkling return and then limped off with some sort of leg injury (hamstring? cramp? - he was to return) BUT there was a flag on the play - against the Claymores. The punt was retaken and Nate Terry fielded it before falling over and dropping the ball in the tackle, fortunately he was down by contact and it wasn't a fumble. It was here that Couper dropped his third pass of the season and we were forced to punt. This game was turning into a real stinker.
However, on the following punt the Claymores' coverage was superb (and Costello's punt seemed to hang for an age in the dark sky). As the Admiral return man gathered the ball in he was instantly cut in two by Stephen Hutchinson one of three Claymores quickly on the scene. With the ferocity of the hit the ball had popped out and Jamal Brooks (55) recovered for the Claymores in the red zone! At last the momentum switch we had all been looking for. Still, we could do nothing with the field position and it was up to Rob Hart to cooly put the kick over. Wait - FLAG - delay of game! Rob had to rekick from 37-yds out but again put it over for a 10-7 lead with 5:24 left. Could we lose from here? Oh yes!
At this point I should note that the penalty count was Scotland 8 for 50 yds and Amsterdam 10 for 89. Just terrible football. But we had a real chance to win, unfortunately Amsterdam had Wynn.
On Amsterdam's next possession Wynn threw an interception collected in by Nate Terry on Amsterdam's 49-yd line, surely the game was in the bag. The Claymores engineered a short drive (by penalty) but were soon faced with a third and 15 with 2:55 left in the game. Stoerner then threw an interception that was gathered at the 5-yd line by the Admiral's Smith and so Wynn would have one last chance to move the ball 95-yds to deny a woeful Scottish offense a 2 and 0 start.
The drive started badly for the Admirals - Riley layed in a terrific hit on Chris Coleman on an incomplete pass on the sideline (Coleman had strayed out of bounds before re-entering the field of play anyway) to bring up the two-minute warning. Then Wynn came alive and connected wth pass after pass. The Scottish Claymores secondary looked as fragile as it had in the second-half fightback by Michael Bishop the week before and the Admirals were soon upfield. It was no surprise then that CB Renard Cox got badly burned - no MVP award then - by Chris Coleman for the go-ahead score with 1:13 left. Coleman's TD gave Amsterdam a 14-10 lead and with no time-outs left could the Claymores respond?
The answer was no. Scotland couldn't get anything going at all and Stoerner was sacked by Amsterdam's Eskridge (57) as Scotland's Damon Nivens (75) completely failed to protect Stoerner's blindside. Stoerner looked terrible out there but I don't think it was his fault at all. The image of him covered in mud, socks around his ankles trying to make plays as he was chased by defensive linemen and linebackers says it all. Where was the pocket? If they had thrown in the less-mobile Ornstein (a sure-armed pocket passer) it would have been far worse. Still one-and-one is hardly the end of the world and surely the offense will spark into life soon.
1ST QUARTER
NONE
2ND QUARTER
NONE
3RD QUARTER
SCO - TD, VAUGHN SANDERS 1 YD RUN (ROB HART KICK), 3:32.
SCOT CLAYMORES 7-0
AMS - TD, CHRIS COLEMAN 10 YD PASS FROM SPERGON WYNN
(SILVIO DILIBERTO KICK), 9:10. SCOT CLAYMORES
7, AMSTERDAM 7
4TH QUARTER
SCO - FG, ROB HART 37 YD, 9:36. SCOT CLAYMORES 10-7
AMS - TD, CHRIS COLEMAN 30 YD PASS FROM SPERGON WYNN
(SILVIO DILIBERTO KICK), 13:46. AMSTERDAM 14-10
| TEAM STATISTICS | SCO | AMS |
| FIRST DOWNS | 10 | 16 |
| Rushing | 2 | 2 |
| Passing | 5 | 12 |
| Penalty | 3 | 2 |
| 3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY | 0-13 | 4-12 |
| 4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY | 0-1 | 0-0 |
| TOTAL NET YARDS | 125 | 266 |
| Total plays | 56 | 56 |
| Average gain | 2.2 | 4.8 |
| NET YARDS RUSHING | 44 | 53 |
| Rushes | 22 | 17 |
| Average per rush | 2.0 | 3.1 |
| NET YARDS PASSING | 81 | 213 |
| Completed-attempted | 12-27 | 21-34 |
| Yards per pass | 2.4 | 5.5 |
| Sacked-yards lost | 7-41 | 5-37 |
| Had intercepted | 1 | 1 |
| PUNTS-AVERAGE | 9-41.6 | 7-43.6 |
| RETURN YARDAGE | 41 | 86 |
| Punts-returns | 2-3 | 6-13 |
| Kickoffs-returns | 3-31 | 3-73 |
| Interceptions-returns | 1-7 | 1-0 |
| PENALTIES-YARDS | 8-50 | 11-94 |
| FUMBLES-LOST | 2-1 | 3-2 |
| TIME OF POSSESSION | 31:29 | 28:31 |
Back to the drawing board I'm afraid for the Claymores. If they had to improve from week one then goodness knows what they have to do from here. Win ugly - lose uglier. Ughh. The Claymores are going to be rank last in every statistical category at this rate. Still, with results elsewhere the World Bowl race is far from over and while we may end up bottom of the Power Rankings this week we are still not bottom of the league table. But Scotland desperately needs a protective O line - maybe that will be the biggest legacy of Jim Criner no longer being in Scotland. Also please note that all these players are young guys who are far from the finished article (that's why they are in NFL Europe, see?) so what they need is the fans' support more than ever at the next home game. They certainly need it - not sniping from the sidelines (which seems to be as Scottish as Harry Lauder and Irn Bru). Here's hoping they rebound with a much improved display at home next Sunday.
As for MVP, that's a real tough one. Overall I might go for Chris Coleman of the Admirals and I'm afraid there was no-one that really stood out for the Claymores. London Dunlap was again good but I'm going to give the Claymores MVP to Punter Brad Costello. Maybe we should decide to punt on first down more often if the offense is going to splutter along? Here's hoping that Lonny Mitchell is back soon. Real soon.
We really should have won a game where we only gave up 14 points, but the low grading this week reflects the shocking offensive performance this week. Shambolic! Amsterdam were barely better but just did enough in the final two minutes.
Agree? Disagree? Talk about it in the forum.
Result: Amsterdam 14-10 Claymores
(Prediction: Amsterdam 17-27 Claymores)
Grade: E