Thrown Away
Claymores 10-13 Fire
Summary: The Rhein Fire inflicted a depressing 13-10 defeat on the Claymores in Dusseldorf on Saturday night. It was a dull game, sprinkled with many false dawns for both teams and just enough hope for a win to keep you watching to the end. Claymores QB Scott Dreisbach led an inept offense to mistake after mistake and it was fitting that his 4th interception of the night finally ended the game. This was also terrifically unjust on the Claymores secondary who had kept Rhein's passing game effectively dead all game (56 net yards on the night). The Fire did run wild on Scotland though, racking up a monstrous 229 yds, with Jamal Robertson gaining 133 yds on 26 carries. Easily the pick of the offense from either team.
Both defenses dominated the game and the number of turnovers and failed passes on either side was at times embarrassing. Rhein controlled the clock through being able to run on the Claymores, although they utterly failed to turn this advantage into points. Scotland could, and maybe should, have won this game. What if the WRs and the QB were on the same page on even one drive? A win. What if the Claymores got field goals off of their turnovers? A win. What if the Claymores Special Teams had creamed the punter at the start of the 4th Quarter rather than giving up a 36-yd gain? A win. 'What if's don't win you matches and that is why Scotland lost. After all 'what if' Rhein hadn't missed two makeable Field Goals and 'what if' Rhein had capitalised on a huge Special Teams break at the end of the first half? In the end what we got was a narrow Rhein win and a game that raised more questions about both teams than it answered.
Best to downgrade the Claymores from 'probable' to 'possible' on making a World Bowl appearance this year.
Game Report: The Claymores started hot as Hurley Tarver creamed Jordan Younger of Rhein on the kick off with London Dunlap snatching the fumbled ball out of the air and rumbling for a short gain of a further 5 yds. So the Claymores Offense took to the field in outstanding position (Rhe 27) but could only come up with a Rob Hart Field Goal. Rhein went three and out and the Claymores marched down the field to the Rhein 21-yd line. Dreisbach then threw his first INT right into the hands of Denver's Greg Brown. WR Jason Byworth was the nearest Claymore and a chance to kill the game off early had passed. A fierce battle of turnovers then ensued as the game moved into the second quarter with each team seeing who could depress their fans quickest. They would gop toe-to-toe like this for the rest of the game: for every Tee Martin fumble there would be a Dreisbach interception. It was painful stuff to watch.
The Fire almost scored but kicker Witzcak was wide left on a 42-yd attempt. The Claymores stalled again (surprise, surprise) and in reply Manny Burgsmuller slotted a 36-yd Field Goal over to tie up the scores at 3 apiece. Just before the half Scotland went three-and-out and on the punt there was a horrible special teams breakdown. Todd Franz (who otherwise had a good game playing at FS) let backup QB/WR DJ Dinkins beat him outside and block Langley's punt. The snap had been too high and Langley had to leap skyward to reel the ball in. The Fire recovered the ball and got to the Claymores 21-yd line. Disaster. However, the defense held firm (roared on by Tomsula and Woodard) and the clock ran out on the Fire after a Tom Tovo sack.
The second half was more of the same. Yes, the unbelievably low standard of offense was somehow maintained! Of note was an awful long snap from Elisara that sailed several feet over Aaron Langley's head. The Fire got the ball on downs at the Claymores 31-yd line and things were looking grim again. Rhein couldn't make any use of it though and Jarrett Procell sacked Tee Martin forcing a fumble with Dunlap recovered at the Scottish 24. The Claymores couldn't do anything with it and remarkably - and fittingly - the game crawled into the 4th Quarter at 3-3. It should be pointed out that the turnover count for each team was higher than the score. Then the game turned.
Rhein went three-and-out to start the quarter and punter Dirk Johnson went back to kick the ball deep into Scottish territory. The snap was low and he looked up to see Claymores special teamers Yubrenal Isabelle and London Dunlpa bearing down on him. He must have seen his life flash before his eyes. Both Claymores somehow missed him, hands brushing his shoulder pads! The surprised punter stood up and started to run, reeling off a 36-yd gain before Tony Ortiz forced him out of bounds. It brought back memories of Brian Moorman of Berlin. Rhein were now running the ball hard as Hurley Tarver et al. in the secondary had taken away the passing game. Unfortunately the Claymores just couldn't stuff the run. Tee Martin threw a 5-yd TD to Jimmy Robinson (bit of a pick play really) to cap the drive and give Rhein a 10-3 lead. Dreisbach then threw the ball back to the Fire via the hands of safety Deke Cooper (who tacked on a 26-yd gain). Kicker Witzak then extended the lead to 13-3 with a 44-yd kick and the Claymores were down by 10 with 6 minutes to go.
The Claymores sparked into life on a 31-yd run by Goodman and two key grabs by TE Elliott Carson. Why had we not been calling his number before? Scotland almost choked on the goal line but a pass interference call gave the 'Mores another 4 downs. Dreisbach hit Stevan Fontana at the back of the end zone for a 1-yd TD. With 4 minutes left Rhein took over but could only come up with a missed Burgsmuller kick from 31-yds. Scotland rolled the dice one last time with a minute to go but Dreisbach came up snake eyes on an attempted deep pass to Gilliam down the sideline. Cornerback Adrian Sadler picking up Rhein's fourth interception of the night with 16 seconds left.
Player Watch:
Dondre Gilliam (Claymores, WR) 1 catch for 5 yards, I KOR for 0 yds.
Mawuko Tugbenyoh (Claymores, LB) 3 tackles (2 solo) but didn't start in the base defense this week (Willie Gary and London Dunlap started at LB instead of Ortiz and Tugbenyoh?!, and Franz got the nod over Riley at FS).
Tee Martin (Fire, QB) 11/20 for 70 yards, 1 TD (79.2 rating), sacked 3 for 14 yds with a longest completion of 14 yds. Rushed 7 for 27 with a long of 11 yds. Had 3 fumbles (2 lost). NFL career surely dead in the water...
Maugaula Tuitele (Fire, LB) led the Fire with 8 tackles (7 solo), 1 PD and 1 FF.
Number Watch: Junior Robinson leads the team with 13 tackles (7 this week, 3 of which were solo), Todd Franz and Michael Hawkes also had 7 tackles this week (both all solo). No INTs. Hurley Tarver leads with 4 special teams tackles (1 this week and a FF on kick coverage), Keith Heyward-Johnson led the team in Dusseldorf with 2 Special Teams stops. Dunlap, Procell and Flickinger all had a sack each. Scott Shields had the only pass defensed (and it should have been an INT). Moses had 3 punt returns with a 12 avg (season = 19.2 avg), Rooths had 2 KOR for 34 yds (season = 34.5 avg), Moses 1 KOR for 18, Gilliam stepped his KOR out of bounds for no gain. Goodman got 96 yds on the ground after his 97 last week, but no catches out of the backfield. Dreisbach's QB rating slumped to 14.1.
Points To Improve Upon: To hold an opponent to 13 points and lose is absolutely shocking. The pass defense this season has been outstanding and doesn't need tinkered with (more INTs will come in time). The lack of a run defense is highly worrying. Our next opponent Frankfurt scored 4 TDs on the ground in Week 2 action. Three areas need real help quick: regular/long snapping; run defense; QB/WRs and the passing game (which went in the can early in Dusseldorf). Also we gave up 8 for 80 yds in penalties, but some of those were really crucial and kept drives alive for Rhein. We need to be more 'heads up' and cut out the needless stuff.
Turning Point: The game had many turnovers and therefore many potential turning points. Both teams failed to capitalize on their chances. The real turning point of the game was the drive at the start of the fourth quarter. Rhein's punter Dirk Johnson must have thought he was dead for sure. Yubrenal Isabelle and London Dunlap got to him as he was about to punt deep in his own half. The ball had been snapped on a 4th and 10 from the Rhein 28-yd line when Johnson saw numbers 51 and 54 about to get him. He pulled the ball down and prepared for the worst. I guess he was hoping he wasn't going to fumble the ball once the Claymores LBs thumped into him. Instead they missed him on either side. Panicked, he set off and was credited with a 36-yd gain (the run was, of course, much longer as he was well behind the line of scrimmage when he started running for his life). The momentum changed decisively and Rhein went up the field on the reborn drive to get a TD and a 10-3 lead. What if?
MVP: London Dunlap. Made things happen throughout the game: 2 tackles, 1 sack, 2 FR and 1 FF. All we had to show for the turnovers was a solitary FG set up by London's fumble recovery on the opening kick-off. The only down point for London was that both he and Yurenal Isabelle should have mugged the Rhein punter for at least a huge loss, if not a TD. They didn't and the ensuing drive won Rhein the game.
Gregor Hutton, 22 April 2002
FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
CLAYMORES 3 0 0 7 10
RHEIN 0 3 0 10 13 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: SCO - FG, ROB HART 28 YD, 11:41.
CLAYMORES 3-0
2ND QUARTER: RHE - FG, MANFRED BURGSMULLER 36 YD, 1:56.
CLAYMORES 3-3
3RD QUARTER: RHE - TD, JIMMY ROBINSON 5 YD PASS FROM TEE
MARTIN (MANFRED BURGSMULLER KICK),
11:41. RHEIN 10-3
4TH QUARTER: RHE - FG, JASON WITZCAK 44 YD, 6:45. RHEIN
13-3
SCO - TD, STEVAN FONTANA 1 YD PASS FROM SCOTT
DREISBACH (LAWRENCE TYNES KICK),
4:01. RHEIN 13-10
TEAM STATISTICS SCO RHE
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 12 17
Rushing 6 9
Passing 4 5
Penalty 2 3
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 2-10 3-13
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-1 1-1
TOTAL NET YARDS 186 285
Total plays 54 67
Average gain 3.4 4.3
NET YARDS RUSHING 116 229
Rushes 22 44
Average per rush 5.3 5.2
NET YARDS PASSING 70 56
Completed-attempted 11-32 11-20
Yards per pass 2.2 2.8
Sacked-yards lost 0-0 3-14
Had intercepted 4 0
PUNTS-AVERAGE 6-36.2 4-43
RETURN YARDAGE 64 70
Punts-returns 3-12 2--4
Kickoffs-returns 4-52 3-66
Interceptions-returns 0-0 4-8
PENALTIES-YARDS 8-60 8-64
FUMBLES-LOST 1-0 4-3
TIME OF POSSESSION 25:09 34:51
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: None.
CLAYMORES rushing: Herbert Goodman 16-96, Scott Dreisbach 5-41,
Aron Langley 1-MINUS 21.
RHEIN rushing: Jamal Robertson 26-133, Dirk Johnson 1-36, Tony Taylor
9-30, Tee Martin 7-27, Onome Ojo 1-3.
CLAYMORES passing: Scott Dreisbach 11-32 for 70 yards, 4 INT, 1
TD.
RHEIN passing: Tee Martin 11-20 for 70 yards, 0 INT, 1 TD.
CLAYMORES receiving: Elliott Carson 4-26, Scott McCready 2-25,
Kevin McKenzie 1-8, J.J. Moses 2-5, Dondre Gilliam 1-5, Stevan Fontana
1-1.
RHEIN receiving: Scott Cloman 4-27, Jimmy Robinson 2-18, David Newman
2-18, Mark Thomas 1-5, Akahito Amaya 1-2, Tony Taylor 1-0.
Att: 30,117 Time of Game: 2:52