Claymores 10–14 Galaxy
Summary: Abysmal. Shocking. Dire. Useless. Pathetic. Rubbish. Shameful. Spineless. Repugnant. Embarassing. Gutless. Yardless. Catchless. Disgusting. Losers.
Many words can be used to describe the offensive perform of the Offense this week – I've used only some of the words above I heard utterred that day by the shaken crowd of 9,197 at Murrayfield, Edinburgh. The Offense truly plumbed new depths. Never, ever, seen before depths of disgust. Absolutely awful. By any NFLE team. By any standard. Any year. All-time, all-league, record-holding performance. It was that bad. Coach Gene Dahlquist had to admit after the frankly stunning-in-its-awfulness 14-10 defeat to the now 4-0 frankfurt Galaxy that we were "terrible." Tell me about it! The Claymores somehow managed just 14 yards net in the second half (–2 rushing!). Words cannot describe how awful that is. Scott Shields got 4 times that many on his TD-scoring interception return. That made the pathetic 48 yards they got in the first half look majestic. It wasn't. It was pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. Never have I, or anyone else, seen an Offense die so badly. Go in the can from the first failed drive and hold the foot on the straight-to-hell pedal for the rest of the game. Really, believe me, words really can't convey how bad they were. We were humiliated, in the scene of our greatest triumph (Murrayfield) by the team (Frankfurt) we had beaten in 1996 for our only WorldBowl. But the Galaxy fans after the game weren't rejoicing. They were as stunned and embarassed as the Claymores fans. They knew that they had only beaten half a team, and that is no victory at all.
While the Defense weren't superb, they had another good day. For the fourth game running they held an opponent to under 17 points (contributed to by a special teams blocked FG and two other woeful FG efforts missed by the Galaxy's Swedish kicker Ola Kimrin). They even scored 7 themselves on Shields' interception return. The Claymores Offense only scored 3 points – and those were on a long FG by Lawrence Tynes after Dreisbach had gone on a mazy 26-yd run. But looking back, maybe the Defense should have just let it go at half-time and saved us all the bother of caring until Frankfurt finally, mercifully, took the lead again and ran out the clock. But the Defense to their credit didn't. It only served to make the Offense look as bad as they really were.
Claymores now 'highly unlikely' on making a World Bowl appearance this year.
Game Report: The Galaxy started the game with a stuttering drive, kept to only 2 first downs (courtesy of a 12-men on the field penalty by the D) before they punted away possession. Scotland went three and out as things started off badly for the Claymores Offense. Things wouldn't improve. The Galaxy then got a drive that finished in a blocked 33-yd field goal. Yubrenal Isabelle leapt up and the ball speared him in the chest, Hurley Tarver scooped up the ball and ran it back 19 yds to the Scotland 38. The kick was shallow, it could have been two feet higher and Yubrenal would still have blocked it. One German fan (not a Galaxy fan incidentally) suggested we had been lucky to block it. Garbage. Isabelle was in the line of the kick that isn't lucky. Anyway, three-and-out Scotland was followed by a shocking 27-yd Langely punt. At this moment I feared Aaron's kicking had gone in the can too, but he came back very strong. In fact Langley was to have his best day in a Claymores jersey averaging 41.3 yds on 8 punts including 4 inside the 20. After the 27-yd effort that is quite amazing. He also had to deal with a low squirting snap that barrelled along the ground and a wide sanp again. A dull, dull, dull first quarter ended and although the Sun was shining on Murrayfield I knew the footballing Gods had evil intent.
The second quarter started with Frankfurt driving and they picked up first down after first down before Joe Hamilton started taking shots into the end zone. The first effort was somehow incomplete as James Rooths scrambled to cover Jimi Redmond in Scotland's right-hand corner. After a Radell Lockhart encroachment gave Frankfurt anotehr first down on the 13-yd line Hamilton found Brian Macdonald who slipped some poor tackling and fell over the line for the opening score. Kimrin made the extra point, Bart hendricks held. Was he laughing?
Scotland hit straight back and a combination of a really poor kick-off by Kimrin coupled with Dreisbach's run gave us a Tynes 42-yd FG to pull the score abck to 7–3 to Frankfurt. A dull half continued and it was fitting that Kimrin missed a really easy chip-shot FG (23 yds) wide left as he tried to kick with a higher trajectory and pulled it badly. Under pressure for sure. The Claymores got the ball back with 37 seconds left in the half and elected to run the clock out. At the time the crowd booed, but on reflection I was saved 37 seconds of Offensive misery so maybe they were right.
One other note is that Scott McCready didn't have a catch all game. The closest he got was one that bounced straight off the numbers on his chest. He will not be mistaken for James Whalen.
The second half started with a Moses return for 20 yards to the Sco 30 yd line. Coach Dahlquist then bottled pulling Scott Dreisabch when he was murdered on a sack. Frankfurt's McLeary speared the Detroit Lions passer for an 8-yd loss and the crowd immediately looked for James Brown. dresibach lay on the turf on his side, and still we waited. Eventually Brown was sent on. No sooner had he crossed teh whitewash when Dreisbach sent him back off. The crowd booed. The Coach ahs to (i) protect his quarterback, (ii) give the team a chance to win. He did neither. Dreisbach needed a breather – he was to get it as an icomplete pass followed to Moses and Langley had to punt again. Couldn't Brown have done that?
Then the footballing Gods had their fun, at our expense. Joe Hamilton tossed up a hopeful pass across the middle on a third and 14. Scott Shields snaffled it in at the 48-yd line and ran to his right. Reaching the sideline with blockers to hsi left he went across the field and romped in for a stunning 48-yd INT return. Rob Hart put over the extra point and somehow, despite having only the Defense and Special Teams palying football we were ahead 10–7. After exchanging punts Kimrin pun another kick wide left. This time from 43 yards out. The confident kicker of last week had gone to the dogs. Scotland crawled into the fourth quarter after picking up 2 first downs on a "drive." They only had three first downs all day. One of the first downs was a statistical classic. On a 3rd and 9 Herbert Goodman ran for "no gain" and picked up a first down. The Frankfurt D had keyed on Goodman figuring we couldn't pass and they were right. The bizarre thing was that the Galaxy played almost the whole game in a nickel defense as far as I could tell. Their front four just bossed our pitiful O line around. It was a sobering sight for any Claymores fan drunk on the euphoria of our first game.
That "drive" ended in a punt and Frankfurt rolled up the pitch with 5 first downs finishing with a 14-yd tossed ball to Jamal Fobbs in the left-corner of the end zone for a TD. James Rooths tried to get close enough to break it up but without success. Scotland picked up decent field position again (their own 40) and threw it away, before punting. The contoversial call here was that Gilliam may have been pass interefered with. The referees said no and more booing ensued from the surprisingly still-vocal crowd. Keith Heyward-Johnson then had a spectacular over-the-shoulder interception at midfield on a Hamilton bomb to give us back possession with 7:26 left and only 14:10 down. Frankfurt gifted us 5 yards on an encroachment penalty but we turned a 1st-and-5 into a 4th-and-7 before Langley ahd to punt the ball away. Frankfurt ran the ball and the clock out on a now-spent Claymores D.
14–10 final score. Galaxy win and go 4–0. Claymores now 1–3.
Player Watch:
Offensive Line (Claymores) Awful. Dreisbach was sacked 2 for 12. Goodman had 12 rushes for 8 yds, i.e. 0.7 yds a rush with a long of 5. Dreisbach completed 8 of 22 passes. Ian Allen also had a costly 15-yd facemask penalty.
London Dunlap (Claymores, LB) 1 solo tackle.
Curtis Alexander (Galaxy, RB) 22 for 98 yards rushing, 0 TD (4.4 average), long of 18 yds. Caught 1 for 13.
Rashidi Barnes (Galaxy, LB) 1 solo tackle.
Number Watch: 3 first downs for Scotland. 60 yards offense. 33 net yards rushing. 27 net yards passing. 20:32 time of possession. 1 blocked FG. 1 INT return for a TD (48 yds).
Points To Improve Upon: Offense. Get is sorted. Coach Dahlquist is on the brink. If he can't pull this Offense away from the abyss then his future (or lack of it) in Scotland is sealed. They have the talent, Dahlquist has to turn it around or they can all wave goodbye to Scotland. McCready already has from the looks of it.
Turning Point: Again there was no turning point. The offense never left the rock they crawled under in Week 2.
MVP: Aaron Langley has a good shout at this but my MVP was Scott Shields. 6 solo tackles, 1 combined, 1 INT for 48 yds and a TD, 1 pass defensed. Stud.
FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
FRANKFURT 0 7 0 7 14
CLAYMORES 0 3 7 0 10 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: NONE
2ND QUARTER: FRA - TD, BRIAN MCDONALD 13 YD PASS FROM JOE
HAMILTON (OLA KIMRIN KICK), 2:46.
FRANKFURT 7-0
SCO - FG, LAWRENCE TYNES 42 YD, 6:12.
FRANKFURT 7-3
3RD QUARTER: SCO - TD, SCOTT SHIELDS 48 YD INTERCEPTION
RETURN (ROB HART KICK), 2:28.
CLAYMORES 10-7
4TH QUARTER: FRA - TD, JAMAAL FOBBS 14 YD PASS FROM JOE
HAMILTON (OLA KIMRIN KICK), 4:56.
FRANKFURT 14-10
TEAM STATISTICS FRA SCO
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 27 3
Rushing 10 1
Passing 14 2
Penalty 3 0
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 7-16 3-12
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0 0-0
TOTAL NET YARDS 382 60
Total plays 78 37
Average gain 4.9 1.6
NET YARDS RUSHING 191 33
Rushes 41 13
Average per rush 4.7 2.5
NET YARDS PASSING 191 27
Completed-attempted 18-36 8-22
Yards per pass 5.3 1.2
Sacked-yards lost 1-9 2-12
Had intercepted 2 0
PUNTS-AVERAGE 3-41.3 8-41.3
RETURN YARDAGE 77 133
Punts-returns 3-14 2-11
Kickoffs-returns 3-63 3-79
Interceptions-returns 0-0 2-43
PENALTIES-YARDS 1-5 5-40
FUMBLES-LOST 2-0 0-0
TIME OF POSSESSION 39:28 20:32
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: None.
FRANKFURT rushing: Curtis Alexander 22-97, Joe Hamilton 9-51, Marlion
Jackson 10-43.
CLAYMORES rushing: Scott Dreisbach 1-26, Herbert Goodman 12-7.
FRANKFURT passing: Joe Hamilton 18-36 for 200 yards, 2 INT, 2 TD.
CLAYMORES passing: Scott Dreisbach 8-22 for 39 yards, 0 INT, 0
TD.
FRANKFURT receiving: Jimi Redmond 5-60, Brian McDonald 3-42, Marc
Soumah 2-25, Chris Eitzmann 2-21, Ricky Hall 2-15, Jamaal Fobbs 1-14,
Curtis Alexander 1-13, Marlion Jackson 1-6, Werner Hippler 1-4.
CLAYMORES receiving: J.J. Moses 5-25, Kwame Cavil 1-13, Elliott
Carson 1-1, Herbert Goodman 1-0.
Att: 9,197 Time of Game: 2:47