08-11-2023, 05:43 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-12-2023, 09:22 AM by Mojojojo. Edited 2 times in total.)
The London Royals finished last season last in defense and they showed up to say they took it personally. Gameday hyped this up as a battle focused entirely on how the Royals offense would perform, despite a team representative warning the crew about the active and young defense.
Kickoff
Mega Tron starts the game off for the Royals with a decent 30 yard return on the kickoff. Patterson takes the field and drops off a pass to the rookie Avant for his first career reception! Trying to share the ball around, Patterson attempts a throw to another rookie in Orange Julius. He drops the pass, but reassures his teammates that he will make up for it. And the first of many penalties comes from the Kansas City Coyotes front 7 in an unneccesary roughness penalty on Bloodhound. With a fresh set of downs, the Royals hand the ball off to star RB Joe Bazooka who breaks off an 11-yard run to move the chains. The run game kept the ball moving. After another pass to Julius, he makes the catch but had the ball immediately ripped from his hands! Jeers of bust and a wasted pick began to murmur in the stands. The fans clearly weren't happy with the rookie.
Kansas City moved the ball downfield through a variety of medium passes and rushes. Rookie sensation A Waffle made a couple tackles in their own half of the field, and finally stopped the Coyote offense. Both teams finished their opening drives with no points on the board.
The Royals followed up with a similar gameplan. After all, a fumble doesn't negate the play calling upstairs this early into the season. Avant did his best Gronkowski impressions by making some catches up the middle, Bazooka kept the front 7 true and broke out a few good rushes. Just as it seemed the energy was picking back up in London, Tendieman was tackled behind the line and it felt like all of the built up energy was burst. After Patterson hesitated on his next throw, the Royals were forced to punt it away. Thankfully, Royal Punter Rooney hit a whopping 53-yard kick in order to flip the field.
The Coyotes tried to move the ball, but every pass was shut down. Minus a 7-yard run by Skywalker, there was absolutely nothing for the offense to get in this drive. The Royals followed that up with a 3 and out thanks to a pass deflection by the Coyotes.
Once the Coyotes got the ball back, they went to their bread and butter of scrambling QBs. This caught the London defense off guard, and what was supposed to be a touchdown run ended up being saved by Junior after only 19 yards. They targeted the rookie Junior again but he stood up and deflected the pass away from Howl. Afterwards, Quarterback McRobinson had a pancake that ended up being called back for holding on the offensive line. This was followed up by the first sack of the game thanks to Benji! You could feel the momentum start to swing back into the home crowd. Kansas City faced a 3rd and 27 afterwards. The pass to Barber was complete and he had green in front of him! Unfortunetly, Hyman reached out and managed to snag the shoestrings on the reveiver and made the tackle. Now around midfield facing 4th down, Foote sets up his punt and ends up pinning the Royals to the 2-yard line! Easily play of the game for the kicking team. London was too crammed with their backs so close, and go on another 3 and out and the end of the quarter.
2nd Quarter
Following an uncharacteristically alright punt by Rooney, the Coyotes started off with great field position. Skywalker helped to move the chains, but a facemask by Acksalot pushes Kansas City into the redzone for the first time today. First and second down go as incompletions. Facing third and 10, Marshall gets into open space on the left side of the field sees green but is brought down 2 yards short of the yellow line. The Coyotes settle for the 23-yard field goal, but it misses! The kicker can't believe himself and is surely going to be working on the net for the remainder of the half.
Orange Julius finally had enough and broke into open space. After catching the ball it was a foot race that he ended up losing, but not until after a 48 yard gain! Not one to be showed up by the rookie, Tron moved the chains with a 12 yard catch himself. Now in the redzone, quartberback Patterson throws it and gives Orange Julius his first career touchdown!
After the kick and a good return by Skywalker, the Coyotes start the drive on their own 32. Skywalker again moves the chains for his team. After an incompletion to Barber, the guard gets called for a holding and begins a torrent of penalties for the Kansas City team. Foote punts a 50 yard ball, but just 3 plays later Rooney is able to answer with a 57 yarder himself. Then we have a false start on Kansas City Coyotes, followed by a neutral zone infraction on London. Clearly both teams are ready to go. The Royals defense shows off their 'bend, don't break' mantra and stop the Coyotes around midfield.
Avant manages a 15 yards catch, but the Royal offense went couldn't move much further down the field.
After a false start on KCC, the crowd began to cheer the penalties. Feeling the heat of the moment, Roberts managed to poke the ball out from Marshall and recover it himself! This leads to a short field that ends up in a field goal to put the Royals up 10-0.
Rooney manages to kick far enough for a touchback, and Boucher closes out the half with a sack of his own.
Halftime
After a defensive showing for the first half, people were hoping for a more energetic second. Coyotes start with the ball, but Acksalot finally gets his name out in a positive manner with a sack. The Royal defense was knocking the QB around so bad KCC ended up with another penalty, and you could see the Kansas City coaching staff looking around as if to wonder where the calls are coming from. McRobinson manages a 12 yard pass to prevent the safety, but ultimately the team ends up having to punt the ball away.
Koyote Mack immediately decided to let his presence be known this half and started off with a sack on Patterson. After a few short runs, Julius winds up with another long catch and run for 23 yards. The Royals were unable to do anyhting following that catch.
Kansas City ends up with an unsportsmnalike penalty, and everyone on the Coyotes team is showing frustration even in their body language. Facing third down, Barber ends up with a 13 yard catch for the first down but was called back for holding.
London ends up with the ball back and responds with another Orange downfield for 19 yards. The next play Crazy Tomato decided to take things into his own hands and bull rushes the gap that opens up, yanking the ball away from Patterson and giving Kansas City posession back. The Coyotes had a 3 & out following a Boucher tackle for loss. Tron continued his great returns with a 36 yard one to close out the third quarter.
4 Quarter
Kansas City began this quarter with yet another penalty, and even the London fans begin to wonder if their team really has gold somewhere to pay off these referees with. Just as the Royals start to relax does McRobinson throw one over their heads for a 79 yard catch that was only saved thanks to A Waffle. McRobinson ensured that didn't matter tho with a QB sneak to get the Coyotes on the board for the first time today.
Mega Tron again not wanting to be showed up, grabbed a 40 yard catch to respond. And right after that scored a touchdown to lengthen the London lead!
After a 35 yard pass, Kansas City was finally back into enemy territory. A huge penalty on London brought them back into the redzone again. The London defense held strong tho, and held the Coyotes to another 23 yard field goal that was missed. Kansas City can't seem to catch a break today.
Waffle makes a few stops, and Boucher gets yet another sack. After a first down play tho, Kansas City was shut down in the air, and eventually ended their own drive with penalties.
Summary
Overall, both defenses made nothing easy. London seemed to catch breaks due to their WR tandem in Tron and Julius, whereas Kansas City just kept driving down the field just to end up with no points. If this game is any indicator, London will have to rely on the big plays to score. Defense did a good job mitigating the Coyote offense, holding them to just one score. With an active locker room, London looks like it can turn that defense around from last year.
[2x Bonus cause first one didn't meet 1k threshold]