Flame Wings of Caledor vs Deadmonton Drillers - Week 6

 After playing beastly teams consisting of Nurgle and Skaven, last week the Flame Wings had hope for a more civilized game facing humans. Those hopes were let down with the realization that the supposed honor of the Shoto Samurais did not rise above fouling. But here we are in week 6 facing the Deadmonton Drillers where are the players are elvenkind.

The Flame Wings win the toss and choose to receive. The kick off is made and the ball lands midfield near Yodlam Elran. The Flame Wings make a little progress on the line of scrimmage, but most of the Drillers' are still on their feet. A 3 elf cage is made and Elran picks up the ball and takes his place inside.

The Drillers hold the line and adjust their position looking to halt forward progress until they see an opportunity to make a play at the ball carrier. The elven sophistication of play can already be felt when compared to previous games.

An improvised cage forms near the line of scrimmage and the ball moves a few yards up the field. A few blocks are made, but mostly the game has been about repositioning and trying to find a weakness to exploit.

Deadmonton's blitzer, Methraton, makes a block on Kitro Kreshin who's on the leading corner of the cage knocking him to the ground. Some other small adjustments are made to their position. Both teams are avoiding any commitments as they look for any small advantage they can find.

The Flame Wings think they've found the path to the end zone. Players move to the other side of the field setting up a defensive formation near the sideline. Yodlam Elran moves to a potential hole in the defense and passes the ball to Ruhntinmas who runs to the protection of the others near the sideline. It appears the goal is to get passed the few Drillers on this side and score before the others can get there, but the field is full of nimble elves, so the Flame Wings will have to move fast.

The Drillers reposition to stop the movement in front of the ball carrier. While the Falme Wings have been making slow progress, a time will have to come where a risk must be taken. This game is progressing as a showdown of opposing positional strategies rather than brute force and violence.

The Flame Wings look for a new route and aim to push throught the center. Emsi 'the Guardian' makes a block and moves to find a way to make a pocket for the ball carrier to move into. Ruhntinimas hands off to Nyt Hona who runs through the opening left by Emsi and towards the other side of the field. Nyt is spread out on his own, but other Wings will try to follow. Trondjte tries to dodge through and gets tripped up by a Driller lineman. Turnover.

With Nyt isolated, Deadmonton looks for a way to capitalize on this error. Whelma, the Drillers' Witch Elf, dashes across the field to mark the ball carrier, hoping to assist in a blitz. Methraton makes a block knocking Yodlam Elran to the ground and freeing up Alenyel to make the blitz on Hona. Even with the assist from the Witch Elf, the ball carrier remains on his feet, but the ball has been stripped from his hands and falls on the 8 yard line. A few more positional adjustments are made and Walkelin picks up the ball.

With Deadmonton in possession of the ball, the Flame Wings need to regroup and find a way to score before half time. Blitzer Emsi makes a risky call and dodges past two drillers and rushes to make a block on the ball carrier, but only pushes him. He did push him next to Nyt so that at minimum the two are both marking the ball and maybe Nyt can attempt a block. nyt makes the block and Walkelin is seriously hurt. The ball is free but scatters towards the sideline. The remaining Flame Wings try to reposition to hinder Deadmonton's players and to get to the ball.

A block is thrown at Trondjte, but he sidesteps closer to the ball. Nyt Hona takes a block from Haeth'lui and is knocked out. Whelma makes a block on Emsi who falls to the ground while the Witch Elf was waiting to pounce again. With the path clear of Flame Wings, Zeloran attempts to pick up the ball, but fails and drops it next to the sideline. Turnover.

Kitro Kreshin blitzes the Runner, Zeloran, and knocks him out clearing the ball. Picking up the ball is still risky as it is right on the sideline. There were options to attempt to score. They required dodges, but the coach has opted to try and secure the ball, rather than attempt to score now on turn 6. Yodlam Elran, being the best ball handler in the vicinity, scoops up the ball and rushes away from the sideline. The scramble for the ball has left the position sloppy, but the Flame Wings have a number of players near the ball carrier hoping to maintain possession.

Kyliann dodges away and marks Elran to assist in the blitz coming from Alenyal. Elran is pushed to the sideline, but reamins on his feet. The ball is again stripped from the hands of the Flame Wings and again it rests on the sideline 8 yards from the goal line. Whelma knocks Emsi down again, but also pushes him closer to the ball.

The position is tricky. A block from the wrong direction could push a Driller marking the ball out of play and who knows where it will end up after the crowd has it. It is unlikely that Deadmonton can score before half time, but can the Flame Wings find a way to make this work?

Soi 'Sparrow' Dang blitzes Kyliann off the field. The crowd does their thing, but in the end Kyliann is just sidelined until the next drive. Elran makes a block to get off the sideline. While repositioning Irato Daktirin attempted to dodge away and is tripped up. Turnover. The Flame Wings will have one more turn to try and get the ball into the end zone.

Zeloran blitzes Kitro Kreshin droping him to the ground stunned. Zeloran was unable to push Kitro out of position though during the block. Whether his intention was to push him onto the ball or just get to it himself is unclear. Another block is made by Whelma forcing Emsi to sidestep away from the ball to avoid scattering it or blocking access by his own teammates. Other Deadmonton players have spread out to make impossible to get past them to the goal with out a blitz or multiple dodges.

Looking at the overflow clock, you can tell this game has been taxing on the Flame Wings' coach as there is on 1:36 left before half time. He's going to need to sharpen his instincts if he's going to avoid timing out in the next half.

Ruhntinimas pushes the Witch Elf off the ball, but there is still one Driller marking it. There's no time to get him off and risks need to be made. Trondtje is the only player that has a chance to score, but it will require the ball to be picked up while marked, a dodge out, a hand-off, a dodge, and he will need to push his speed to his limits. Yodlam Elran picks up the ball and dodges out, but there seems to be some miscommunication. The coach's voice can be heard yelling vulgarities as the thrower hangs on to the ball. A few more moves from unmarked Flame Wings and turn 8 ends for the Flame Wings.

With no chance for either team to score, Deadmonton doesn't need to pay attention to the ball carrier. Haeth'lui makes a blitz on Zep Norre and seriously hurts him. Another Driller goes for a block, but both players fall to the ground resulting in a turnover that ends the first half.

Deadmonton started this half with a 1 player advantage. The stress from the previous drive still weighing on the Flame Wings' coach, he mistakenly put his kicker on the line of scrimmage. A high kick is made and the Runner Zeloran moves under the ball, but fails to catch it. Yin Kumaro, the kicker, takes a block from the blitzer Methraton and is badly hurt and sidelined for the rest of the game. Smet Torwat takes a block and falls to the ground. Haeth'lui blitzes Kitro Kreshin and knocks him out. The Flame Wings' line of scrimmage falls to the Drillers' offense. A cage is formed in the middle of the field and the ball carrier moves a few yards from the line of scrimmage. Genamen runs across the field and drops his heel on Smet Torwat. As the heel is coming down on Smet, rage fills his eyes and he yells out, "I'm going to smeggin' kill y...!"

His sentence is left on finished and he falls silent. His body goes limp. Smet is dead. The Flame Wings' apothecary is called out. As he works, he mutters, "Damn, this is ugly." He tries a couple different techniques and has given up. With his head hung down in failure, he drops his arm down on Smet's chest with the soft spoken words, "He's gone." Right then, Smet takes a huge graso and begins coughing violently. He's back and he is angry. The staff pull him back and off to the sideline. As a last resort to calm him down Smet is given plenty of Bloodweiser. It's uncertain what damage he took, but the adrenaline brought on by his rage makes it appear that he can return on the next drive. Nuffle help the Drillers should he get back on the field.

The Flame Wings are down to 7 players against 11. This is becoming typical for the team from Caledor. The best outcome appears to be fighting for the draw. The event of Torwat's death and resuscitation has the coach and team shaken up. Decisions are slow to be made. Emsi makes a blitz a knocks down a corner of the cage. Ruhntinimas and Yodlam Elran, move back to cover in case the ball carrier breaks through.

The Drillers push forward. Whelma makes a blitz on Emsi again. How many times have we seen her target him this game now? Genamen runs over and fouls Emsi, knocking him out. Miscellaneous team staff have to hold back Smet from running on to the pitch as he yells, "I'm going to KILL you GENAMEN!" The ball moves a little farther forward in to another cage formation. Deadmonton appears to be making a slow march across the field and it doesn't appear that the Flame Wings will be able to do much to stop them.

The recent actions of Deadmonton appear to have crushed the spirits of the Flame Wings. The coach is mumbling, "...but these are elves. They're supposed to be better than this. I thought we had an honorable opponent." It is now 6 Flame Wings against 11 Drillers. Flame Wings have 10 seconds left on their overflow clock. Those left on the field try to pull their wits back together. Ruhntinimas makes a blitz to the corner of the cage to mark the ball carrier. It's unlikely to be enough, but the attempt to cause a mistake is the best they have.

Haeth'lui blitz Ruhntinimas and stuns him. The ball is moved forward a few yards. A new cage is formed. The Flame Wings put up the little resistance they can muster, but Deadmonton continues with their slow but steady progress. Soi 'Sparrow' Dang who was trying to cover three Drillers is knocked out. The player balance continues to lean heavier into Deadmonton's favor.

On turn 15, the Flame Wings are all on the ground. Deadmonton just stands there. Trondjte considers the last ditch effort to dodge through 4 different Deadmonton players and make a blitz on the ball carrier, who is now Whelma. The coach signals for him to just stay down, there is no hope.

Whelma crosses the goal line. The score is 0-1 Deadmonton.

The Flame Wings take their final turn which results in a turnover as Jho the Scrubber makes a block and ends up being knocked out on his own block.

MVP's Awarded to Nyt Hona and Cylord'Ann.

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After the game we talked to some of the Flame Wings.

The coach explained that the mishap on turn 8 was partially his fault for not signaling for the hand-off and partially due to this being Yodlam Elran's 2nd game and his lack of confidence to go with his gut. The coach didn't seem to have his normal demeanor. When pressed about this he said, "What do you expect? I had a player die out there. Yes, our apothecary was able to resuscitate him, but he was dead for a minute and a half. I thought we were playing some honorable opponents. We were all elves on the field. Yet they use tactics outside the rules and the ref just let them slide. I'm going to have to reconsider how I approach this sport. It seems every team we play are monsters. While I'd like to stay above that riff raff, I feel the monster starting to rise in me and some on my team."

"I've also heard that when this season is over, I may be with a new team. It's complicated and I'm not able to say much about it yet, but I just don't like the uncertainty. On the other hand, maybe I would welcome a more violent and resilient team. I have grown fond of the Flame Wings of Caledor, but as a coach I have to play the game as it is and not how I think it should be. Ultimately, it's not really my choice, but that's some of the details I am not allowed to talk about yet. Maybe next week."

Smet Torwat was also heard yelling from the locker room. Some of it was unintelligible rage or language that can't be printed here. We were able to gather a bit of what was going on. It sounds like he was trying to convince more of the team that they needed to start fouling for the safety of the team. His perspective is valid considering this is at least the third time he's been fouled in the four games he's played and the second time he's been injured, even if he recovered this time. The loudest statement made was that if teh Flame Wings face the Deadmonton Drillers again, Genamen was his.