The high flying Dresden Monarchs, 9-2, winners of five of their last six games, will host the slumping Cologne Crocodiles (5-5-1) on Saturday, August 25 at Heinz-Steyer Stadion in Dresden.
The Monarchs sit second in the GFL North division while Cologne is struggling to hold onto the fourth and final playoff spot. Dresden’s only two losses came at the hands of the Berlin Rebels and the Braunschweig New Yorker Lions. Meanwhile, Cologne has lost twice to both of those teams to go along with a loss to the Monarchs. In fact, the Crocodiles have not beaten a team with a +.500 record.
The Monarchs have won their last three games and looked impressive so far in 2018. They have the third highest scoring offense in Germany averaging 37.7 points a game and the defense is fifth allowing 22.6.
Trenton Norvell of the Dresden Monarchs is the 2nd leading passer in Germany with 3,158 yards and 37 TDs. His leading receiver is Mitchell Paige who leads all receivers in Germany and has caught 97 passes for 1,530 yards and a league-leading 19 TDs.
AJ Wentland of the Dresden Monarchs is a tackling machine and in the last three games he has recorded 41 tackles. He tops the GFL by a wide margin with 149 tackles in 11 games. He has had 3 games of 20+ tackles.
The Crocodiles have lost five games in a row,including a 58-27 drubbing at the hands of the Monarchs.
In latest loss, to the Lions, Cologne quarterback Bradley Strauss threw for a mere 43 yards and has now fallen to eighth among all quarterbacks in Germany with 2,123 yards passing and 20 TDs.
Cologne running back Shayeen Edwards is the second leading rusher in the GFL with 925 yards and 8 TDs but he was held to 34 yards in the loss to Monarchs. In other words, as Edwards goes, so goes the Crocodiles offense and in those five losses, he gained a total of 241 yards or an average of 48 yards a game. Strauss is averaging 193 yards passing a game and has thrown 20 touchdown passes in 11 games. However, he has only thrown seven interceptions so far this year in 282 pass attempts.
With three games left, Cologne needs a win badly to salvage a season which opened with such promise. Dresden is playing the best football of their season so far and will be tough to dislodge.
