JCL Graz Giants 40 - Danube Dragons 21
Not even the home field advantage was enough to spur the Dragons on to victory over mid table rivals the Giants as once again their defence let them down against Alex Good and the Giants offence and their offence were just not able to keep up on the scoreboard.
The difference on the day was that whilst the Giants were able to keep the ball and consistently maintain drives, the Dragons drives seemed to encounter multiple problems either through penalties or turnovers as they got further down field. This lack of execution and boom-or-bust feeling to the Dragons offence has been prevalent all season and is one of the keys to the Danube team improving in the future.
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| © Dragons Media |
The decisive point of the game came at the start of the third quarter with the score standing at 20-7 in favour of the Giants, the Dragons conceded a 62 yard kick return which was immediately turned into a 33 yard Good touchdown pass. The Dragons then put together a 10 play scoring drive of their own before immediately conceding a one play 59 yard touchdown pass that took the score to 33-14 and from there the game seemed dead a buried.
This victory confirms the Giants a playoff spot and a matchup against the Raiders in the first round and amazingly leaves the Dragons still in the lurch with a regular season finale against the Black Panthers to navigate to secure their playoff spot.
Prediction: Called the winner and almost got their points spot on but slightly overestimated how well the Dragons offence would do.
Prague Black Panther 26 - AFC Rangers 12
The struggle between the leagues bottom dwellers turned out to be a fairly even contest but ending with the predicted outcome of the Black Panthers offence managing to outscore the Rangers and in doing so claim their second win of the season and keep their very slim chance of actually making it into the playoffs alive.
The game winning factor on the day was the Black Panthers ability to run the ball and physically dominate the Rangers on both lines of scrimmage. This dominance meant that Craig Maynard was never able to be efficient in the passing and really struggled to crack the Black Panthers on the ground.
As usual quarterback Andrew Shoop delivered most of the points for the Black Panthers as he passed for two scores and ran for another to round out a nice 300+ total yard game. And with that said there's not really much to add on this game, no one was expecting fireworks, and neither side delivered, both teams are still miles away from the standard that they need to be at to compete against any of the other teams in the league and until they catch up, this fixture will remain meaningless to everyone else except the Black Panthers and the Rangers.
Prediction: I imagined it to be a little more high scoring than it actually was but I picked the winner right.
Raiffeisen Vikings 24 - SWARCO Raiders 6
My analysis of this game can only go so far as there was a clear difference in attitude between these two teams towards their future matchups that had a big impact on the scoreboard. If you didn't know already, the Raider rested starting quarterback Kyle Callahan and handed Adrian Platzgummer is AFL debut and also held some of their other starters out of the game. The Vikings on the other hand clearly had the goal of maintaining their undefeated season as they didn't try anything cute with their starters and let them go out and play, resulting in a fairly easy victory on the day.
The twin headed monster of Jesse Lewis and Islaam Amadu was the driving force behind the Vikings offence as they were both able to consistently grind out good yardage and Lewis was able to punch the ball into the endzone on two occasions to take the Vikings clear of the Raiders early on.
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New quarterback Platzgummer really struggled in his debut.
© Kellner Holly Thomas/Gridiron Photography |
New Raider quarterback Platzgummer may have made his AFL debut, but it was largely a day for him to forget as he really struggled against the leagues best defence completing only 7 of 19 passes for 49 yards and 3 interceptions which helped the Vikings keep the ball and the clock under their control.
With these two teams likely to face each other twice more this season there was clearly some gamesmanship at work here as the Raiders decided not to reveal anything new or expose their key players to injuries in what was essentially a meaningless game. When these two teams next meet I am expecting a whole different kind of game to take place.
Prediction: My prediction largely hinged on this being a straight up game, so even though my winner was correct, the score was quite a way off.
Player of the Week
Alex Good, #7 Quarterback, Graz Giants.
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| © Kellner Holly Thomas/Gridiron Photography
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Good's performance really overpowered the Dragons on the day as he accounted for 6 touchdowns on the day with half in the passing game and half in the run game. Combine that with another 300+ total yards and you have this weeks player of the week.
