Minimalist

For these next two posts I don't think I'll have enough time to write complete, coherent posts as I have throughout the summer. So, this week and next week, if I even write next week, I'll only quickly provide descriptions of the games I took part in over the weekends. It's been a long experience, and while I want to follow through on my goal of writing a post a week, I just don't think I can reflect much more than I already have about being over here until it's time to leave.

This weekend we played the Hamburg Huskies for the second time. This is the team that I was ejected against when we played previously, so I was looking forward to having a second chance at playing a good, clean game. We were late to get to the game by almost an hour, which was the first cause of stress. Secondly, due to maintenance work on their normal field, we were forced to play at their practice field. It was the worst field I've ever had a football game on. I understand that we're in Germany, and that this was their practice field, but it was almost to the point of being unacceptable. People paid to watch us play. They deserve to at least see a decent product at a decent venue. Thirdly, field conditions aside, we had to be ready to field another short-handed team, like every other week. I give Mitch and the other decision makers a ton of credit. Week in and week out, we have the least desirable circumstances to play with, week in and week out, we manage to at least compete with other fully rostered teams.

Beforehand

The game started slowly, with an interception by our defense and a stalled drive by our offense on the first two possessions. Then, things sped up. I scored the first touchdown of the game on a long run, and Hamburg began to score as well. By the end of the first quarter, the score was 13-7, them. Then, they scored on consecutive possessions in the second and we fell behind 23-7. It would have been easy to have folded then, and allowed them to continue scoring while only putting up a small fight of our own. But we did not. The entire team rallied and the defense stood firm for the rest of the half while we scored twice more on offense to make the score 23-21 at halftime. We decided that it was put up or shut up time, and that we needed to take control of a game that we needed to win.

The third quarter was tight, and ended with each team scoring a touchdown each. The fourth quarter started with the score 30-28, them. In the fourth quarter we blew the game wide open. We started using a new wrinkle in our offense against Hamburg. All season, I've taken direct snaps and run with them. This week, we added an option for me to either run or throw a quick pass to either side of the field, dependent upon the defense. This worked well for us all game, but it really began to hurt Hamburg in the fourth quarter. We gained big chunks of yards on runs and passes and were able to keep them really off balance. Along with that, the defense had their best late game stand of the season. We scored three touchdowns in the quarter to their zero, and in the last few minutes the game that looked like a Hamburg blowout in the second quarter wasn't even within their grasp. The final score was 49-30, us. What made the win all the more satisfying was that Hamburg was hands down the dirtiest team I've ever played against, which is exactly what my teammates had warned me leading up to the game. I was discussing this with one of my teammates: while football is a tough, violent, confrontational game, there is a certain level of decorum required to its playing. Sure, you talk and posture during the game in between plays, but between the whistles while the action is happening you go about your business. Hamburg's players (minus their American linebacker) lacked that decorum. They were as focused on smack-talking and cheap-shots as they were on playing the game. When they talked as plays were going on, rather than merely between them, I knew they had crossed the line. I would never want to play on a team like that, and beating them validated that we had played the right way while they had not.

Postgame

Final stats for me: 12 rushes for 153 yards and 3 TDs, (65 yds, 2 yds, 20 yds), 3 of 4 passing for 17 yards, 1 reception for 22 yards, 1 punt return for 12 yards, 1 kickoff return for 50 yards. Most diverse list yet.

Next weekend may or may not be our last game; I'll explain when the time comes. Either way, come next Wednesday, Lord willing, I'll be in Dublin, so I might be too busy to post. I promise that I will provide some account of that game before I write my farewell post. Thank you for all of the birthday wishes I received on Tuesday - apparently I'm 23 now, weird, and no, I'm not holding out on you for not describing what I did for my birthday, just a nice dinner and travel planning, no clubbing - and thank you for reading.