Burnt Out
 Email Gregor |
A 10-week season. That's what this bitterly disappointing loss has meant for the year 2001 Scottish Claymores, although they still cling to a faint chance of facing the Dragons for the third time this season at the end of June. To call those chances slim would be being generous at best. Once again an outstanding defensive performance got the Bravehearts within touching distnace of their opponents - but again the Red Zone troubles reared their ugly head and all the Scottish points came from the trusty boot of Rob Hart. Surely Rob is destined to be the first kicker ever in the Claymores Hall Of Fame when he hangs up the helmet (well, he can hardly hang up his boots...).
The league-leading Dragons assured themselves of what everyone watching the games this season has long suspected they would achieve - a place in World Bowl 2001. The key to the Dragons has been - simply - that they can win away from home. It is their ability to convert chances into points and points into wins that ultimately was the biggest difference between the two sides on Sunday. Perhaps that is what is so galling to the Claymores faithful - we weren't that far away from beating them at all. In fact the only game this season where we have been handily outclassed was in Frankfurt on the end of a real beating laid on them by Michael Bishop. Still, for the two Dragons trips to the Red Zone they came away with two scores - touchdowns - and 14 points. The Claymores came away from their travels with three field goals and 9 points. Final score. But that's not the whole story. Read on.
Hampden Park, Glasgow was bathed in glorious sunshine as 14, 483 punters filed in to watch the Claymores face the Dragons in what was a World Bowl decider - Barcelona to clinch a place, Scotland, as a result of scores elsewhere, to be thrust right back into the race. Scotland won the toss and elected to receive. Heady stuff. A good return (38 yds) from Dante Hall got us going and Clint Stoerner was soon moving the troops upfield. We were brimming with confidence. 9 plays later we had moved 41 yards - the key plays were a nice 18-yd pass to Randy Palmer and then an incomplete pass (overthrown) in the direction of returning WR Lonny Mitchell who had gotten som separation in the End Zone. Still, a Rob Hart 28-yd field goal was a formality for the sure-footed Southamptoner. Scotland 3-0 up but - oh - it should have been 7.
Barcelona did nothing on their next possession although Doug Miller gave up his customary 15 yds of penalties all in one go this week on a silly personal foul hitting QB Jarious Jackson out of bounds. You'd think if he was going to give up the 15-yarder he might actually thump the QB, but Miller just layed his hands on him (on a related note the Bon Jovi concert on the previous Friday night hadn't seemed to do the surface as much harm as I thought it might) It is also worth noting that Jackson was going to have a poor day through the air - our secondary was outstanding with special mention of Central McClellion who had two solo tackles, 1 pass defensed and 1 fumble recovery. Nate Terry, who was beaten on a 54-yd throw in the third quarter by Bryan Gilmore, led the secondary with 3 passes defensed and apart from that big gainer had a good game. Safety Reggie Hunt led the team with 5 solo tackles (all in the second half) and a key forced fumble on Mike Green late in the game to keep us in with a chance. Washington Redskins safety Eric Whitfield had three solo and two combined tackles but was also guilty of a game-killing fumble, more of that later...
After the Barcelona possession was punted away for a touchback Clint Stoerner again moved Scotland confidently up the field with a fantastic 47-yard pass to James Whalen - having an outstanding season. But on the next play Anthony Gray, who otherwise was the pick of the two running backs (Sanders has been areal bust), fumbled the ball away. From then on we were always going to lose. Mike Green started to make gains but the drive died when Jacksn tried passing the ball. Barcelona ended the quarter punting possession to the Claymores. A great job by the Dragons special teamers saw us getting the ball on ur own 3-yd line. Great stuff. We really struggled to move the ball and Brad Costello hoofed the ball high for 45 yards to Trevor Insley who could only get a 1-yd return in. Mike Green then started to make us look silly. It looked liek our D line and linebackers would have trouble tackling a fish supper never mind the sure-to-be MVP of the league. In fairness the Magnificent Five of the Dragons O lIne were blowing us off the park. No surprise then when Roderick Robinson (in for Jackson and sparking the offense) hooked up with Bryan Gilmore for a 12-yd TD pass. Jesus Angoy put over the PAT and it was 7-3 Dragons. On the kick off Hall got 32 yards and Scotland ambled on to the aprk again. Stoerner threw a hard ball at Palmer who tipped the ball up in the air and as he fell Samyr Hamoudi gratefully snaffled in the ball. Merci. He made a 22-yd return out of it before Palmer himself got him down at the Barcelona 46-yd line. Mike Green then steamrollered over some shocking missed tackles and it was 14-3 a mere 4 plays later. Jesus. Yes he put the PAT over and we were looking for some divine inspiration. It wasn't to come. Green had 115 yards in the first half and 136 overall.
After a brief punting duel Scotland's 2-minute drill got rewards and after a Corey Allen 16-yarder Rob Hart put over a 22-yard field goal with 14 seconds left in the half. The crowd were thinking that Scotland would go for it on 4th down, but at the time going for 3 was the right thing to do. If we couldn't get it in three tries then the fourth wouldn't be any different - in fact this was to be shown in the second half. Which began with Scotland kicking the ball to Sean Morey who got in a decent 18-yd return before meeting Casey Tisdale and Vaughn Sanders. Barcelona got nothing and punted, in return the Claymores got nothing either but on the ensuing punt we got a lucky break. Brad Costello's punt hit national player Mike Slutsky on the leg and Casey Tisdale recovered it. Woo-hoo, on the Barcelona 26. Even the impotent Scots O could get a TD from there? No. Two consecutive sacks on Stoerner for 8 yards a pop killed the momentum. The beaten-up O line was looking incredibly porous and Stoerner was getting killed. Gutsy Clint did find the amazing Scott Couper for 20 yards to move us back into field goal range and Rob Hart made it three out of three from 29 yards, 14-9 Barcelona. Rob would get this week's National player award - reward for his consistent efforts over the season no doubt rather than simply putting over the three kicks this week. Still, well deserved award for Rob. Punts were exchanged and then Barcelona made an effort to kill of the Bravehearts as the thrid quarter ended and fourth started. Safety Reggie Hunt came to the fore, tackling Green for a mere 2 yard gain then pressuring Jackson as he overthrew Gilmore. Jackson then hit Gilmore for the 54 yarder but hunt then canned Green after a 1 yd rrun. Jackson overthrew Insley and then Green got a big gainer to start the 4th quarter. He scampered 16 yards leaving Claymores in his wake before Hunt flattened him stripping the ball out as he did so. Central McClellion recovered (and I thought he had a chance to take it back for a TD but the referee ruled him down).
Stoerner came alive, completions of 11 yards to Couper and Whalen then 9 yards to Whalen and a Gray 10-yd run had the Scots in Barcelona territory. But we then choked, a fourth down attempt with 7:50 left in the game went nowhere. Barceloan in return got nothing out of an improving Scottish D and after a gerat punt Barcelona had to re-punt for an offensive holding penalty. The next punt was much worse (they had us on our own 1-yd line but now they punted to our 28 and Hall took it to their 48!). We choked again on Offense. On 4th down Stoerner was sacked - the O line was shot by this point -and he fumbled but Sanders recovered - Barcelona ball though, and now there was only 3:05 left in the game. Surely we couldn't get the ball back off them one more time? Oh, yes. Chris Ward sacked Jackson before Hunt tackled Jackson after a mazy scramble which only got 5 yards. Jackson then threw incomplete to Simmons (only 3 catches for 16 yards all game) defensed by Terry. Barcelona punted and we were getting the ball with 1:40 left in the game and our season. Well, almost. The punt was high, the coverage was good and Hall elected to let it bounce. It took a Claymores bounce back up the field to about the Scotland 12-yard line. Several Dragons over-ran the ball and then Eric Whitfield had a rush of blood to the head. Seeing an opportunity he picked the ball and looked to scamper under double-secret probation up the sideline. Ahem, Eric? Behind you! He got thumped and the ball popped out easily. Barcelona recovered on the Scottish 16. Game over. An audible silence descended on the stadium and our season. See ya next year!
| Scoring | ||||
| 1ST QUARTER | ||||
SCO - FG, ROB HART 28 YD, 5:19. SCOT CLAYMORES 3-0 | ||||
| 2ND QUARTER | ||||
BAR - TD, BRYAN GILMORE 12 YD PASS
FROM RODERICK ROBINSON
(JESUS ANGOY KICK), 7:08. BARCELONA 7-3
BAR - TD, MIKE GREEN 9 YD RUN (JESUS ANGOY KICK), 9:35.
BARCELONA 14-3
SCO - FG, ROB HART 22 YD, 14:51. BARCELONA
14-6 | ||||
| 3RD QUARTER | ||||
SCO - FG, ROB HART 29 YD, 8:00. BARCELONA 14-9 | ||||
| 4TH QUARTER | ||||
NONE | ||||
TEAM STATISTICS BAR SCO |
FIRST DOWNS 13 13 Rushing 8 2 Passing 4 11 Penalty 1 0 3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 3-11 4-13 4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0 0-2 TOTAL NET YARDS 233 251 Total plays 49 59 Average gain 4.8 4.3 NET YARDS RUSHING 146 46 Rushes 24 17 Average per rush 6.1 2.7 NET YARDS PASSING 87 205 Completed-attempted 9-22 19-38 Yards per pass 3.5 4.9 Sacked-yards lost 3-17 4-23 Had intercepted 0 1 PUNTS-AVERAGE 7-38.6 4-38.8 RETURN YARDAGE 76 124 Punts-returns 3-1 4-49 Kickoffs-returns 4-53 3-75 Interceptions-returns 1-22 0-0 PENALTIES-YARDS 4-5 2-20 FUMBLES-LOST 2-2 3-2 TIME OF POSSESSION 28:18 31:42
Touchdown Claymores MVP? James Whalen had 8 catches for 115 yards and he deserves it.
Final Score: Dragons 14-9 Claymores (Prediction: Dragons 28-31 Claymores)