The 3-6 Allgäu Comets will play host to the 6-4 Marburg Mercenaries, Europe #17, at Illerstadion Kempten Sunday, August 11 as the German Football League winds up its 13th weekend of play.
The Comets defeated Stuttgart last week 16-12 and the week before 40-21 to finish off a back-to-back series.
The Comets had fallen 31-21 to the Ingolstadt Dukes in their last game before the home and home series with Stuttgart and were in danger of dropping into the basement of the division.
The Comets had notched their first win of the 2019 season when they downed Ingolstadt 28-26 at home in Kempten. However, Allgäu dropped two in a row after that. They first lost a close one to the Kirchdorf Wildcats 27-25 and then were beaten 34-7 by the Frankfurt Universe. The Cometswere blanked in the opening game of the season 20-0 by the Universe and then dropped two in a row to the Munich Cowboys, 31-16 and 21-18.
The Comets new quarterback Raleigh Yeldell, in his third start, had trouble against the Scorpions, throwing for a mere 31 yards but running back Lennies McFerren made up for it, rushing for 95 yards and one touchdown while Matthias Schaeffeler ran for 88 yards and the other touchdown. As a team, the Comets rushed for 234 yards while holding Stuttgart to just 13. With a passing game that is struggling, Allgäu will need their ground game this week.
The Mercenaries lost their first game in seven last week when they dropped a 42-36 decision to Europe’s number one team, the Schwabisch Hall Unicorns. They scored the most points of any team against the Unicorns this year. They had won six straight going into that game. They had downed the Ingolstadt Dukes 40-33 and the Kirchdorf Wildcats 41-28. They put a walloping on the Stuttgart Scorpions right before the break, beating them 52-14 behind a 377 yards and 5 TD passing game from QB Jake Sullivan. They defeated the Munich Cowboys the week before 41-29 and before that downed the Ingolstadt Dukes 43-14 after notching their first win of the season the week before. It was a big one as they outdueled the Wildcats 55-49. They had dropped their first three games of the year in 2019, losing 52-9 to the defending champion Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns, then 30-21 to the Stuttgart Scorpions and finally 20-14 to the Frankfurt Universe.
Sullivan is playing on a high level and leads the league in passing yardage and average yards per game having thrown for 3.338 yards in nine games, an average of 333.8 yards a game,. Hendrik Schwarz is his leading receiver with 830 yards receiving on 51 receptions. He is averaging 16.3 yards a catch and 83 yards a game. Luke Wildung has 45 receptions for 502 yards while Marvin Rutsch has caught 79 passes for 654 yards following back-to-back 100+ yard games. Against Schwabisch Hall he had 129 yards receiving and against Kirchdorf, 122. Running back Triston McCathem has 625 yards rushing (4th in average with 62.5/game) for the year but he also has 478 yards receiving.
Marburg’s offense is averaging 448.4 yards a game, good for second in the GFL, while the Comets have the fourth stingiest defense giving up 279.6 yards a game.
If Allgäu’s offense can get untracked, this could be a very interesting game.
