A Day To 4-Get
Claymores 9–16 Galaxy
Summary: The Claymores sent themselves spiralling earthward (much like many of their attempted passes) to another defeat on German soil, hot on the heels of the bitter loss to Rhein. The Frankfurt Galaxy, who managed to score the game's lone touchdown, ran out uncomfortable 16-9 winners as the Claymores threw in another inept offensive performance on the road. Claymores QB Scott Dreisbach completed only 3 passes and looked to be struggling at times with a rib injury. He sat out the 4th Quarter in pain and despite some lively scrambling by QB James Brown, the backup was unable to lead the team to a come-from-behind victory. Brown only completed 1 pass, and the total of 4 complete passes is the lowest total for a game since the league reformed in 1995 (although Brown did also throw an interception so the truly ghoulish could count that as an extra completed pass). In any case it was more of the same from last week: great Defense and shocking on Offense. A pleasant surprise was our run Defense which held out on a few goal-line stands although our secondary did give up some long gains for the first time this season. Oh, and we had 11 passes completed last week, TE Elliott Carson had 4 on his own last week but none this week... A National player has yet to catch a pass too...
Claymores still 'possible' on making a World Bowl appearance this year.
Game Report: The Claymores started with a 35-yd return on the opening kick off by JJ Moses. Then it was all downhill as the 1st Quarter became a real punter's paradise – 5 in all to close out the quarter. Earl Riley missed an easy pick in there too. 0-0 but we had dominated the clock by about 10 minutes to 5, this was not to be repeated for the rest of the game, where once again Scotland ended up with about 10 minutes less possession than the hometown Galaxy. At the start of the 2nd Quarter Frankfurt were driving and picked up a big gain of 36 yds to Jimi Redmond over James Rooths on a crucial 3rd and 12 on the Claymores 40. Tom Tovo's roughing the passer had kept the drive alive on a 2nd and 15 at the Frankfurt 33. Two Curtis Alexander runs were all it needed from there for the game's only TD – a diving effort over a pile of bodies. Kimrin made it 7-0 with the PAT.
James Rooths took the ensuing kick off 56 yards and only kicker Ola Kimrin stopped him going the distance along the sideline. Surely Scotland would hit back quickly as the drive began on the Frankfurt 29-yd line. 10 plays and 5 yards (yes, f-i-v-e yards) later we saw Lawrence Tynes kick his first Claymores FG to reduce the deficit to 7-3. (We had got more than 5 yards but Corey Nelson's chop block had killed the drive at the Frankfurt 13-yd line.) Punts then followed from both sides through a dull second quarter before Tynes put over another FG with time expiring. 7-6 half-time score.
The second half was more of the same, i.e like last week with fewer complete passes. Yes, the unbelievably low standard of offense was somehow maintained! (Note how I copied that from last week's report...) At the start of the half Hurley Tarver intercepted Joe Hamilton and looked to have given the Claymores the upper hand. It was not to be. Goodman ran on the next play and while trying to get another half-yard (he was losing heavy yardage on the run and had tried to slip two tackles) was hit again and fumbled the ball. Dreisbach who had been struggling with bruised ribs tried to cover the bouncing pigskin but overshot it and was buried for his troubles. We had the ball on our 45 on the snap and at the end of all this the ball was on our 18-yd line in Frankfurt's possession. Frankfurt couldn't punch it in and had to settle for a Kimrin FG again to put the score at 10-6. After the Claymores punted on their next possession Frankfurt moved down the field again (9 plays, 55 yds). The D held out including a fantastic sack on Hamilton by Michael Hawkes with the ball on the Scotland 3. The Touchdown Claymores player came up good when we really needed it. Kimrin put over a FG to stretch the Frankfurt lead to 13-6. On the possession before Kimrin's kick Dreisbach had been sacked heavily and would take no further part in the game.
In the 4th Quarter James Brown came in at QB but couldn't spark the passing game. He was able to scramble for some very useful yardage (2 for 43, with a long of 29) but still we could only come up with a Rob Hart FG. The Galaxy responded with another Kimrin kick – after a supposed TD was rightly hauled back for an Offensive Holding penalty. Galaxy QB Joe Hamilton also had an Intentional Grounding penalty trying to avoid a sack on that drive. Grrrr. We were still in the game with 3:41 to go (amazing!) and needing a TD to tie when Brown threw an INT to Corey Ivy while aiming for Dondre Gilliam. We almost held them to a punt to get the ball back but a personal foul on Yubrenal Isabelle after the 2-minute warning killed the game for good.
16-9 final score. Galaxy win and go 3-0. Claymores now 1-2.
Player Watch:
Scott Dreisbach (Claymores, QB) 3/16 for 55 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT (41.4 rating), sacked 1 for 9 yds with a longest completion of 40 yds. Rushed 2 for 12 with a long of 6 yds.
Jarrett Procell (Claymores, DE) 4 tackles (3 solo).
Joe Hamilton (Galaxy, QB) 18/32 for 237 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT (66.8 rating), sacked 1 for 8 yds with a longest completion of 39 yds. Rushed 3 for 2 with a long of 4 yds.
Rashidi Barnes (Galaxy, LB) led the Galaxy with 6 tackles (5 solo), 1 PD.
Number Watch: 4 passes completed. Brown's QB rating was 0. Dreisbach's was 41.4. All 4 catches went for First Downs though... 19 incomplete passes. Dreadful.
Points To Improve Upon: To hold an opponent to 16 points and lose is absolutely shocking. The defense is outstanding. We stopped the run this week but still only got one sack (from a LB and TDC player Michael Hawkes). We must throw to the TEs, we must complete passes. Period. National receivers need to stand up, run proper routes and catch balls. Goodman has to stop coughing up the ball, injured or not (maybe he's exposed by the lack of a FB?). Dreisbach needs to get healthy and find a rhythym. Brown needs to just forget his INT and get ready for the next game, he will surely get playing time if Dreisbach is nicked up. We need to regroup. Don't tinker with the returners: Rooths and Moses are doing fine.
Turning Point: There was no turning point. We started lacklustre and never got in gear on Offense. The D held us in the game – all game – and it is a real tribute to them that we could have still won it at the end. Our return game even gave us good field position, while limiting Frankfurt on kick coverage - to no avail. We looked out of our depth from the first missed pass and never turned it around. Hurley's INT was a key moment. We gained the momentum and then fumbled it straight back to Frankfurt on the next play from scrimmage...
MVP: James Rooths and his kick returns (3 for 98, leading yardage for Scotland on the day). Rooths gets the nod after another big day on returns – his 56-yder deserved more than the 5-yd "drive" and FG that followed it. Rooths and Moses lead the league in Kick and Punt returns and are getting yardage despite attempts to hem them in. Honourable mentions: Shields had a very good game in Defense, Moses chipped in with a few decent returns on kick-offs too and Hurley Tarver had another very good game at CB with an INT, 2 PD and 4 tackles. Todd Franz looks more like a starting Safety than either Riley (dropped INT!) or Gary. Tynes had a good day at the office with 2 FGs and decent kick offs.
Gregor Hutton, 22 April 2002
FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
CLAYMORES 0 6 0 3 9
FRANKFURT 0 7 6 3 16 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: NONE
2ND QUARTER: FRA - TD, CURTIS ALEXANDER 1 YD RUN (OLA
KIMRIN KICK), 9:28. FRANKFURT 7-0
SCO - FG, LAWRENCE TYNES 42 YD, 4:54.
FRANKFURT 7-3
SCO - FG, LAWRENCE TYNES 37 YD, 0:00.
FRANKFURT 7-6
3RD QUARTER: FRA - FG, OLA KIMRIN 24 YD, 8:38. FRANKFURT
10-6
FRA - FG, OLA KIMRIN 27 YD, 2:20. FRANKFURT
13-6
4TH QUARTER: SCO - FG, STUART HARE 3 YD, 7:29. FRANKFURT
13-9
FRA - FG, OLA KIMRIN 37 YD, 3:41. FRANKFURT
16-9
TEAM STATISTICS SCO FRA
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 12 17
Rushing 6 4
Passing 4 11
Penalty 2 2
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 3-11 6-14
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0 0-0
TOTAL NET YARDS 184 321
Total plays 46 64
Average gain 4 5
NET YARDS RUSHING 119 92
Rushes 22 31
Average per rush 5.4 3
NET YARDS PASSING 65 229
Completed-attempted 4-23 18-32
Yards per pass 2.8 7.2
Sacked-yards lost 1-9 1-8
Had intercepted 1 1
PUNTS-AVERAGE 6-43.3 5-43
RETURN YARDAGE 157 83
Punts-returns 1-11 2-34
Kickoffs-returns 5-157 3-49
Interceptions-returns 1--11 1-0
PENALTIES-YARDS 5-59 8-62
FUMBLES-LOST 1-1 1-0
TIME OF POSSESSION 24:28 35:32
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: None.
CLAYMORES rushing: Herbert Goodman 15-58, James Brown 2-43, Scott
Dreisbach 2-12, Robert Arnaud 3-6.
FRANKFURT rushing: Curtis Alexander 19-75, Marlion Jackson 9-15, Joe
Hamilton 3-2.
CLAYMORES passing: Scott Dreisbach 3-16 for 55 yards, 0 INT, 0
TD. James Brown 1-7 for 19 yards, 1 INT, 0 TD.
FRANKFURT passing: Joe Hamilton 18-32 for 237 yards, 1 INT, 0 TD.
CLAYMORES receiving: Dondre Gilliam 2-59, Herbert Goodman 1-12,
Scott McCready 1-3.
FRANKFURT receiving: Jimi Redmond 6-124, Brian McDonald 1-32, Chris
Eitzmann 4-29, Jamaal Fobbs 2-28, Joey Dozier 2-17, Curtis Alexander
1-8, Marlion Jackson 2-MINUS 1.
Att: 31,215 Time of Game: 3:48