Referat: Uppsala 86ers - Eskilstuna Sharks

Referat från Flagfootballworld.com:
(Flagfootballworld.com skriver om flaggfotboll från hela världen. Under säsongen 2020 följde de SM-serien i Sverige.)

The Finals then stood between the two titans in Swedish flag football; Uppsala 86ers versus Eskilstuna Sharks. Ale Brewers may stake a claim to that title but a disappointing single finals appearance over the years has indicated that the team so far is more flash than bang.

We predicted in our preview article a fairly one-sided win for the 86ers, and man… were we wrong. The game started out with an excellent Eskilstuna drive stopped just outside the end-zone. Although they didn’t score this time around, the drive stood indicative of the level of success Eskilstuna’s offence would have moving the football against the high level defense of the 86ers.

Uppsala’s first drive was all about spreading the wealth as the team scored in four plays with all the four starting receiver having one catch each, caped of with a touchdown pass from Philip Smith to Stefan Borell. A Matas Menkis XP later and the score was 7-0.

The change in tempo between the two teams was noticeable. The Sharks using plenty of clock on it’s drives with Uppsala going up tempo. The Sharks second drive ended in a 4th down heave to the end-zone and an interception by Erik Sigvardsson. At this point we expected the 86ers to pull away, much like in all the other seasons. However, after a sequence of miscommunication between receivers and the 86ers offence had to walk of the field with no points.

The Sharks team jumped on the opportunity and Karl Forsberg scored a TD. Karl who had to take the reigns as Eskilstuna’s All-star centre Linus Linder broke his foot in the semi-finals had a tremendous game. The touchdown was followed by an extraordinary sliding XP grab by Joel Andersson. Rookie, Joel Andersson, has made a name for himself during the season and is someone to keep an eye on in the future.

On the next 86ers’s possession the team used the elite running ability of QB Philip Smith on repeated plays and Eskilstuna’s rusher Björn Jafner had his hands full dealing with the shift QB. Smith was stopped just outside the goal-line and a quick center pitch later and Erik Lagerström had made it 14-7.

The Sharks team then equaled the 86ers, 14-14, by another score by Karl Forsberg on the same route he scored his first points. The 86ers got the ball back with just about a minute and a half left, of the first half, and quickly went down the field, exploiting the high line of the Eskilstuna defence on a ton of hitch concepts featuring Stefan Borell; who quietly had a stellar game.

Once past midfield the team got a tad greedy and tried a deep ball on Sundiata Owens. That pass was picked off by Pontus Råneby who managed to bottle up Owens from any long balls during the entire game. With about 40 seconds left Eskilstuna went down the field and managed to make it 20-14 just before half-time on a third score by Karl Forsberg! This was the first time all season the 86ers went into halftime down and the team would have to rally in the second half.

The 86ers started with the ball in the second half and once again spread the love with a pass to Borell, Owens and Menkis, before Smith finished the job on a QB rush TD. With an XP by Erik Lagerström the entire offence got involved and the 86ers were up 21-20. The Sharks got the ball back and even though they managed a beautiful first down conversion on a great throw by Mikael Andersson in a tight window, they couldn’t capitalized on it and the 86ers defense held strong, partially because of a great sack and hurry by QB turned rusher Linus Hagvall. This was the only stop by either team on defence in the second half.

On the subsequent drive it was Lagerström, Owens, Smith and Lagerström for the score, a common recipe for the last half decade on the receiving end. The 86ers defence pressed the Sharks offence to a forth and short. The sharks got out of it with a short run by Stefan “Dansk” Nilsson, who converted. A few plays later it was Mattias Andersson with a great catch on a ball from Michael Andersson, the score was 27-26 for the 86ers.

The second half adjustment by the 86ers offence became noticeable in the next drive. With the high Sharks defensive line, the 86ers ran a ton of short passing plays gaining an incredible amount of yards after the catch. Non-stand out more than Matas Menkis play in a running back position, from which he slips out and spin moved his way for almost 20 yards. In the no-run zone Eskilstuna applied a man-to-man coverage scheme. The 86ers took notice and repeatedly got a favorable match-ups and Matas Menkis made it 33-26.

However, Eskilstuna didn’t go away and a Stefan Nilsson touchdown later it was 33-32 with the Sharks able to tie with a succesfull XP. On the XP Michael Andersson rolled to his right and threw a pass that was skillfully deflected by Peder Jungstedt and the 86ers got the ball back, up 1 with exactly 2 min left.

The 86ers only had to roll clock to win. Eskilstuna chose not to make any adjustments on its high defensive line, so a quick pitch to center Erik Lagerström results in about 10 yards on first down and a rolling clock. A quick hitch to Stefan Borell for about 6 yards and the 86ers had worked of more than a minute. Owens managed a first down and the clock stopped with 40 sec left. On the first down, a Stefan Borell run-play resulted in about 8 yards and the Sharks took their first time-out, with 33 sec left.

On second down Matas Menkis manages the highlight of the finals with a run that lasted for 13 sec and with that run the Uppsala 86ers had secured its sixth consecutive gold medal finish!

A big congratulation to Uppsala 86ers the Champions of Swedish flag football and bravo to Eskilstuna Sharks for making it a stellar contest. Also a big thank you to the Swedish flag football community. It’s been a treat to cover some excellent football these few months! Thank you!