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Oskar Ludvig is an exceptional young athlete, coming from a long string of talented football players in his family. While he was born in Norway along with his late older brother, Oskar's family roots in football date all the way back to the now extinct National Football League with the Baltimore Ravens. In terms of a history at the position of defensive back though, that one is a lot shorter. Oskar is the first player in his entire family to play on the defensive side of the ball, with his family members in the past holding rolls at quarterback (his brother), receiver (his cousin) and offensive line (his father and uncles). The football community is deeply rooted in the Ludvig family, and so at every game this season you can expect to see Ludvig joined by his family out on the field. Speaking of the young corner back's season, Ludvig is off to a great start so far, honing his skills in both ball control, vision, on field awareness, and his blistering speed. His performance has been strong, especially for a young defensive back such as himself. Today, we will be covering each of the San Antonio Marshals first four games and looking at, in detail Ludvig's impact on the game.
Game #1 - Palm Beach Solar Bears
The Marshals opened the game extremely quickly as they made four quick rushes down the field utilizing rookie Marquise Brown and veteran Willy Nyquist to power through the Solar Bears highly touted defensive line. The defense's first showing to open the game had been strong, shutting down the Solar Bears effectively and forcing them to play the ground game. In their second appearance though they would get lucky as Palm Beach quarterback MacHahon decided to run a number of pass plays. The Marshals secondary was getting their opportunity. The first ball headed towards Pryor and Ludvig, but Ludvig was able to effectively eliminate the threat. Pryor came back for vengeance on the next play, and caught a mean fifteen yard pass over the shoulder of Ludvig before being tackled. The next pass though, MacHahon fed the bell straight to Marshals star safety Bucky Barnes, who prepared the offense and got them in position for an easy field goal attempt. For the remainder of the first quarter is what a defensive stalemate as the teams traded field goals.
Heading into the second quarter, the Marshals held a comfortable 13-3 lead. MacHahon let up two sacks in a row, which allowed for the Marshals defense to get some adrenaline pumping in their veins. Ludvig made another tackle on Pryor, but allowed the receiver to handle another eleven yard pass with ease. The ball would be turned back and forth once before the Marshals forced another sack on MacHahon, with Ludvig is immediately proceeding it with another tackle on Pryor, this time allowing sixteen yards. It was becoming increasingly evident that while Ludvig possessed a great deal of speed and agility, he was lacking in the strength department and was having trouble bringing down his targets. Ludvig made the final play of the second half, allowing Pryor twenty three yards before finally dragging him down, and would not play a prominent role again through the rest of the game.
Game #2 - Norfolk SeaWolves
The next game, held against the Norfolk Seawolves was a lot less interesting of a match up. The Seawolves got caught in an attempt at a defensive battle, and only were able to score six points total, with the points being combined between two meaningless field goals. While Ludvig didn't have a very high stat line game, he only allowed twenty yards between his two defended passes, compared to the sixty two from his last four. His average yards per catch allowed had been reduced from just over fifteen yards on average, all the way down to only a ten, a feet that was rather impressive for a young player to make in such a short amount of time. The Marshals took the game with a final score of 24-6, and headed into a weekend break where they could regenerate and prepare for the next match up against the Tijuana Luchadores.
Game #3 - Tijuana Luchadores
This game was neck and neck the entire way through and featured some amazing performances both on offense, and defense. The story of the night on offense was fairly obvious, with Marquise Brown of the San Antonio Marshals being a goal line specialist and marching three touchdowns on the night for his team. The Luchadores put together a strong effort, but ultimately they were unable to make the comeback despite being two points ahead with only a few minutes left on the clock. Ludvig opened the game quietly, with very few receptions coming his way despite the Luchadores possessing a quarterback with some good ball moving skills. His first pass defended came against rookie Ricardo Jones during the third quarter, where Ludvig made his first tackle after fifteen yards. He would stay relatively quiet until close to the end of the third where Penner once again fed the ball to Jones who made a fourteen yard play out of it.
The teams head into the final quarter with the score 26-24 for the Luchadores. A big defensive performance was going to be necessary from both teams if they wanted to win, and that's exactly what everyone got. Neither team was able to convert in the final quarter of play, and instead three field goals were scored. Ludvig made three passes defended, but for the first pass he switched to cover Jones' fellow rookie and top prospect Xavier Flash, who burned by him for twenty yards before Ludvig made the tackle. On the last drive of the game, Ludvig almost lost it after allowing the Luchadores new pick-up Metaxas who was replacing Penner for the play to lob another easy twenty yard pass to Jones, but he redeemed himself on the final play. With the ball down in the middle of the Marshals end, the Luchadores chose to go for it instead of take the field goal, for a reason known to none. The ball went up, Flash was on the other end... but after only eight yards, Ludvig shut him down. With five tackles on the night for the young stud, it was a good showing.
Game #4 - Palm Beach Solar Bears
This game was the game that may define Ludvig's entire season and could be a candidate for the best performance of the entire year. It was clear heading into the game that the Marshals offense was exhausted and that they would need help this game from the defense in order to keep them in as they expected a low scoring game while matched up against the high octane Solar Bears roster. It was only half way through the first period when the Marshals got exactly what they needed as Ludvig made an interception mid field and mid drive that gave the Marshals the ball and eventually got them set up for a long field goal. Ludvig returned in the second quarter and, five minutes in made his section interception. This time, he got a perfect block set up by his team mates and ran the ball a whopping fourty seven yards for a defensive touchdown.
Ludvig's monstrous nice was just getting started though, but it was obvious he was tired already, making his endurance a major issue of his game. Gault got out into the open before him, and Ludvig allowed a massive twenty one yard gain for the Bears. He redeemed himself towards the end of the quarter with a seven yard stop on Pryor. To open the third, Ludvig made a clean five yard press on Gault to keep his average yards against per defended pass down at below thirteen, which while high wasn't terrible. Ludvig came out big in the fourth quarter, helping the Marshals clean up the opening drive with two passes defended on Gault for a combined thirty five yards, before making another defense worth nine yards. The Marshals would eventually pull through and win the game over the Solar Bears in a great finale.
As you can see, Oskar Ludvig is a top of the line young prospect who has a number of things going for him. The new and refreshing play style that he brings to the field of high risk reward has worked fantastically, even if it is giving the Marshals management heart attacks during the game. Ludvig continues to address the multiple issues in his game and is quickly building himself into a player that can and should be utilized in many different situations for the San Antonio team this season. With the Marshals having such a fantastic opening four weeks, the pressure will be on them to keep their foot on the gas and return back to the championship game once again to hopefully bring silverware back to the great city of San Antonio.
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