LIVESTREAM Germany: Munich Cowboys @ Saarland Hurricanes, Aug. 13, 17:00 CET (5 pm, 11 am ET)

The Saarland Hurricanes (3-4) and Munich Cowboys (5-1-1) return to the playing field in the German Football League after a two week layoff in a key matchup with just three weeks left in the 2022 season.

In the first game between these two teams, Munich came away with a 28-21 victory after scoring the winning touchdown with less than a minute remaining in the game.

Saarland is coming off a solid 28-14 win over the Marburg Mercenaries two weeks ago while Munich lost a tough one to the conference leading Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns, 28-6.

The Hurricanes opened the season with a revolving door at quarterback as original starter Jack Lindsey went down with a season-ending injury in the opening game against Schwäbisch Hall and it wasn’t until Daniel Smith (Villanova) arrived in the fifth game against Frankfurt that the problem was solved. In between, three other quarterbacks were used. Smith was superb in the win over Marburg throwing for 354 yards and a touchdown while rushing for another 39. He has definitely given the Hurricanes offense a boost. So far, in three games he has thrown for 679 yards and seven touchdowns and rushed for 215 and another two scores. With that, he has also become Saarland’s leading rusher. His favorite targets in the last three games have been Marian Menden who has 266 yards receiving and two touchdowns on 14 catches most in the last three games, and Marvin Fuchs who leads the team with 35 receptions for 447 yards and six touchdowns.

Under new head coach, Nadine Nurasyid, Munich is having an excellent season and in fact this is their best season start since their 2000 and 2001 seasons where they had back-to-back undefeated regular seasons.

Quarterback Wyatt Smith has been having a good season, throwing for 1,391 yards, 15 touchdowns, completing 73.4 % of his passes, which tops the league. Wide receiver Kai Silbermann has been Smith’s main target with 32 receptions for 332 yards and six touchdowns although he did not see the ball in the loss to the Unicorns. However, it is the team’s pass defense that has stood out, ranked number two in the GFL. Munich has only allowed opposing teams 6.5 yards per pass, 171.9 yards per game, and a total of 10 passing touchdowns while picking off a total of eight passes for the season. Linebacker Patrick Kenney leads the way with two picks, 42 tackles including four tackles for loss and a sack, as well as four pass breakups.

This is a key matchup for both teams. The Hurricanes badly need a win to have any chance at all of securing a playoff berth. Meanwhile, although Munich will make the playoffs, they need to keep pace with the second place Straubing Spiders to have any chance of getting home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Munich Cowboys @ Saarland Hurricanes, Aug. 13, 17:00 CET (5 pm, 11 am ET)