South Americanastan Matchup Does Not Disappoint! Krauts Defense Stands Strong To Make It A 3-0 Start
The Kraut defense swarms Abram Fairbanks after a 4th quarter sack to force a 57 yard field goal
Well, Jabyess Hawkins and the media had predicted it - this offense ran a lot of concepts that left defenders scratching their heads, and after a decent drive pushed them inside the 30, quarterback Jimmy Echavaria handed it off to wideout Tanner Wesco on a jet sweep. When that got bottled up, Wesco pitched it back to a waiting Jan Halmion, who'd been trailing behind him. It looked like a triple-option type run, and when Gideon Kearse finally launched to secure a massive loss, Halmion let the ball rip. It was admittedly a bit of a duck, but Alexander Ackermann didn't have the speed to make up lost ground, and it would be running back Sean Forrester who caught the opening touchdown of this game. It's only the second time Ranoria's trailed now through three games, but no one was too worried with the lineup we boast.
John Garrett marched his way down the field with that lethal precision that made him a terror, but it wasn't without setbacks. The Bears defensive line was smaller, but they were fast. And with a pair of massive tackles on Ranoria's side, well, there was a bit of a mismatch. Bill Wisniewski in particular cooked left tackle Vince Vermillion on a first down and brought Garrett down just as he was getting through with his drop steps for a big loss, and Walter Olzmauer would come away with one against an aging Tyler Williams. Garrett responded with a dart of a touchdown to none other than Johnny Farmer over Pat Larson. Larson had baited the throw to an extent, and it likely would have worked against most teams. But when he closed the distance and went to rip the ball away from Farmer, the tight end simply clutched the ball to his chest, locking the DB's arms in, and then tossed Larson aside like a ragdoll with a flip of his hips before trotting into the end zone.
But alas, Barry Chlorid missed his first kick of the tournament. He may be the best placekicker in RFL history, but he's still a Ranorian kicker. The Bears would retain a 7-6 lead in this bout.
Now, as with the other side of the ball, there's a massive size discrepancy between these two units up front. Ranoria's smallest starting defensive lineman ever comes in at 230 pounds in Abram Fairbanks, and they don't field anyone else under 270. And besides Ron Irleaman getting away with holding calls, donkey punches, and even facemasks left and right (it's amazing what you can do if you know where the officials are at), that front five was battered all day. South Americanastan totaled just 31 rushing yards on the day, under 2 yards per attempt, and most of that came on wrinkles in their playbook like jet sweeps. Skilled as their front five were, the sheer brawn and talent of Ranoria's front four was the defining factor of this game as they would combine for 7 sacks and 6 tackles for loss alone.
And hell, props to Jimmy Echavaria for making anything happen while being hit as often as he was. The young passer made sure not to test the Kraut secondary with many deep balls and instead diced them up underneath when he could.
On that note, their next two drives ended in punts. Robert Malone placed the second inside the fifteen, and when Garrett dropped back on first down, his timing was just a hair off. Again, it would be Wisniewski who hit him as he threw, and Red Matrikan was fast enough to snatch it right out of the air. And with a quick drag-slant combo that left the underneath man with a downfield blocker, Jimmy Echavaria only needed two attempts to let his second touchdown strike of the day go, and suddenly Ranoria was down 14-6.
"Yeah, we decided we didn't like that very much," admitted head coach Raul Nieler at the post-game presser, "Those Bears have a tricky offense, and they were giving us trouble. Our bread and butter was struggling just because of their damn speed rushers, so...we ran the ball.
Vice Jackson III had 3 carries for 21 yards in the first half. In the second, he'd get 14 totes and make them good for another 94 with a touchdown to go along with 6 carries and 41 yards for Apollo Esther. The offense was far from consistent - the Bears defensive line came in with plenty of stunts to get their smaller four through and got a few fortunate flags their way after the two teams tussled a bit - but ultimately, on Ranoria's next three drives, they sapped away 16 minutes of gameclock and put up 10 points to take their first lead of the game with just minutes to go.
Jimmy Echavaria had a little over four on the clock to get into field goal range. The implications of Barry Chlorid's missed PAT in the first quarter became very real as he drove his squad downfield, and with a timeout and twenty two seconds left, they had a 51 yard field goal available.
Of course, they decided to take one more play to make things a bit easier on Allan Shepherd. The closer they got, the more margin for error he'd have with his foot placement, and the less time Ranoria would have to try and pull a miracle out their ass in the closing seconds.
Only, disaster struck. Abram Fairbanks was normally a burner off the edge, and he'd been going that route all game long. This time, he took one step to Ron Irleaman's outside, planted, and then came right back in. Irleaman had no chance to react when Fairbanks's arm was thrust up under his armpit and he unceremoniously dumped the lineman onto the ground in a classic hump move. Echavaria's reaction was quick, stepping up to try and preserve what yardage he could, but he couldn't escape the shoulder-to-rib impact that nearly knocked the ball loose.
Fairbanks immedietely got to his feet and celebrated, if you can call whatever primal scream came out a celebration, as the defense flocked around him. The Bears called their last timeout with just four seconds on the clock, and Allan Shepherd took the field.
He had the leg for it, and the kick got past the hurdling mass of Ranorian defenders. Spin looked good, and with the lack of wind in the superdome, it was hard to tell if the angle was right until the last instant when the ball spun harmlessly a foot to the right of the crossbars.
You can imagine that the capacity-crowd in a closed dome sounded like a thunderstorm when the officials gave their signal. The Ranorian sideline celebrated while Shepherd unclipped his helmet and pressed his lips together, frustrated of course at the ending. Jimmy Echavaria - face hidden by a towel - let his shoulder sag a little more when the noise revealed who had won. He'd done just enough to give his team a chance, but in the end they'd needed more.
"Incredible performance by those guys," said John Garrett after the win, "We knew we'd be in for a dogfight, and that's what we got. I've got to give props to our boys up front on both sides, they won that game for us." Garrett, despite his praise, was sacked five times in this outing. With his injury history, beatings like that are unacceptable.
"Sloppy," was all left tackle Vince Vermillion had to say about his play, "We've got a lot of cleaning up to do up front. Can't let our brother get hit like that."
Despite their misgivings, they have a chance to right their wrongs with a rematch against Lisander in what will be the second match of a 3-game home stand for the Krauts.
