We played the Flash last Saturday night at 8pm. Saturday night lights! It's always fun playing a night game and this was our chance to make history. A chance for redemption. The whole week Dino our running back was intense. He has some friends who play for the Flash, some really good friends and you could tell he wanted nothing more then to beat them. The Flash recently returning from their Russian victory had a new attitude and quite literally a new looking team.
I think they must have gotten 8 or so new players, some of which had experience with the NFL Europe. It was going to be a tough test. We came out and chose to recieve the ball. The inspired running back, Dino led us down the field in one of our best looking drives so far in the season. We ran left, right, and up the middle on the back of Dino's will. He ran hard and after Michel's pass that got us to the 5, Dino ran in for a Touchdown. As soon as we started celebrating, it was as if Lee Corso himself pulled a "Not So Fast My Friend"... of course holding. Finally we plunged the touchdown in on a Quarterback sneak. Matt and I went on to the line and Matt told me he wanted a silent snap. We rushed to the line and only me and him where moving as we caught them off guard for the touchdown. Where up 7-0 in the makings of what appeared to be a great match. Unfortunately though Dino twisted his ankle on one of the runs and was in pain for the rest of the game.
With a confidence and enthusiasm we kicked off the ball to the Flash. They returned it to the 40 and their offense took the field. I'm not kidding you, their Offensive line was as big as Georgia Tech's starting line, but with one key advantage that you don't find much of in college football... Man Strength! Knowing they liked to run the ball to the tightend side and often on first down, they made a brilliant play call with the play action and scored on the first pass. 60 yards to Number 9, who would turn out to be frog picking flies out of the air. The guy had hands, normally you have guys who drop a ball here or their in France, but not sticky fingers. I wasn't surprised to learn he had almost made the Bengals team.
The rest of the match would look like a bigger brother holding down a little brother. We couldn't seem to get anything going on offense, and as soon as we'd get to 3rd down on defense they'd find a way to make things happen. They ran quite a bit behind their massive line. 21-0 at half. We seemed out of it going into the locker room. That first play touchdown had swept the wind right out from under us and some of the guys looked asleep.
The second half as we walked out of the locker room the Flash were chanting and yelling as we walked through the tiny tunnel out to the field. See their locker room was right upon entering the hallway, while ours was left. As we walked to the field, they were waiting chanting together as a team and it seemed eager to beat up little brother some more. Personally it fired me up because I love playing the cocky arogant teams/players, who think they're God's gift to life. However they would pick up right where they left off. They scored twice more in the 2nd half to go up 34- 7. They didn't even play their americans either, I guess figuring they didn't have to, or giving them a break and the younger guys a chance to compete. As they went to kick the extra point to go up 35-7, I broke through the line with Ludo and Nyda and blocked the extra point.
I was pissed and we needed to come together as a team. After we got the ball back I said we were going to score regardless. The offense needed it, the Cougars needed it, I needed it. With time winding down we made it into the endzone on some good quarterback keepers and hard earned yards. It seemed that we were going to stall on the 4 yard line but then got some good breaks from stupid mistakes/ penalties by the Flash. We finally punched in a touchdown with 0 on the play clock. I was proud. It's what I've learned about the Cougars, about my teamates, about my friends. They didn't quit. They didn't give up. They played til the end. Even when we were physically outmatched they left it all on the field.
After the game I got to talk to the Americans on the Flash, and talk a little bit about our experiences. Seems like they were having a good time and some of the same things when it comes to football. I also noticed that the Spartiates head coach was at the game, kind of different because they should have been playing. He came and said hello to me and is a nice guy. Apparently the Meteores where not able to produce a 2nd ref for the match so they would automatically lose. Instead of going to play the game for pride, their coach decided it was better to just not go at all. A 5,000 Euro penalty for this. So the Spartiates got the win without even stepping a foot on the field.
4 more games to go and in a must win situation, we still have a shot at the playoffs if everything goes our way.
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