By Tanner Vinski, Fourth Down Fiasco
The Munich Ravens handed the Barcelona Dragons another embarrassing defeat this past weekend as the European League of Football rolled past its 12th week of play. This time however they managed to play a full game.
Munich bulldozed the Dragons 90-0 in Munich. Back in Week #7, the Ravens led Barcelona 54-0 after two quarters in Barcelona at which point the Dragons conceded defeat and did not finish the game.
So this more recent humiliation should not come as a surprise. The Dragons have had a masterclass in disaster during their 2024 season.
Under a cloud of financial issues and player drama not to mention the aforementioned forfeit, the Dragons unfortunately find themselves once again at the center of misfortune in the game.
When Barcelona conceded back in week 7, many fans and analysts speculated as to whether Munich could break the scoring record if an entire game was played. Unfortunately, the entire ELF community saw that Munich was more than capable of breaking this record. The Ravens started the rout with 8:32 left in the first quarter. A throw by Munich quarterback Chad Jeffries deflected off a Barcelona defender straight into the hands of Ravens wideout Marvin Rutsch in the end zone for the first score of the game.
After this “stroke of luck”, any hope for a close game vanished. Jefferies threw a screen pass TD to Malik Stanley with four minutes left to go in the first and the lowest scoring quarter of the game was completed. Munich then proceeded to score 21 points in both the second and third quarters, and then a whopping 34 points in the fourth. To help put this scoring domination into perspective, 34 points in a quarter has only been achieved once in the NFL. That was back in 2007 when the Detroit Lions outscored the Chicago Bears 34-14 in the fourth quarter to defeat them 37-27. Previously, the most points scored in a quarter was 31 back on September 13, 1981 by the Atlanta Falcons.
Not surprisingly, Munich ended the game with outstanding statistical performances across the board. Jefferies completed 13 out of his 20 attempts for 251 yards and five touchdowns giving himself a 65% completion percentage and a 147.92 passer rating. Backup Levin Adrom completed all three of his attempts for 84 yards and a touchdown giving himself a perfect passer rating.
Photo: Munich Ravens
The Ravens ground game was diverse and dangerous. Justin Rodney rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns on 12 attempts, Benedikt Pohler rushed for 74 yards and three touchdowns on six carries while Toimiwa Oyewo only had two carries but made the most out of these opportunities to get 53 yards and a touchdown. Stanley had a phenomenal day receiving; he ended up racking 140 yards and two touchdowns on five catches. Rutsch also came away with two touchdowns and 70 yards on three catches. The final two touchdowns came from Oyewo as well with who had three catches for 38 yards.
The defense completely dominated recording five total sacks and 81 tackles. The 81 tackles would break the NFL record of 80 tackles in game produced by the Houston Texans in 2003. The standouts on defense were Junior Nkembi who had nine tackles and a sack, as well as Johannes Zirngibl who had six tackles and three sacks.
Barcelona had almost nothing work in their favor during the game. Grant Beucler ended the day 23 of 42 for 199 yards and zero touchdowns and interceptions, putting himself at a 54% completion percentage and a 61.78 passer rating. This trend of suboptimal performance followed through in all facets of Barcelona’s game. The rushing attack ended at an abysmal total of six rushing yards between seven different running backs with the most yardage coming off of Tony Williams Jr. 20 yards on seven carries. The defense had even less to show with only 1 TFL, 1 sack, and 1 PBU combined across all players. The only player who could walk away holding his head high was Lluís Sagué with his six catches for 71 yards.
Barcelona’s Future
Although the ELF had a good weekend with some absolutely exhilarating games, including the Surge vs Raiders thriller, the Barcelona-Munich game left a lot to be desired for the league. The talent disparity is more apparent than ever. How will this impact the ELF as a whole? And what happens to the Dragons ? This is a legacy franchise, one of the original NFL Europe teams. Can they be allowed to continue to operate? Will they be able to continue?
Meanwhile, after losing three of their first five games, the Ravens are on a tear and have won five straight with the top offense in the league. With two games left they have a shot at the playoffs. They play the Helvetic Mercenaries who have one win and then the Raiders Tirol who just knocked off the previously undefeated Stuttgart Surge.
That will be the true test.