“Where did the nasty ghoul touch you?

OK, so Coach Valen plays on another level to me, and I think his style perfectly counters my own.

Aggression is off the charts, and I struggle. So, what can I learn?


1. PROTECTION

This was always my fear- sow dwarves facing the fast ghouls. It was actually the Wight who exposed us.

I set up for blitz! protection, and to have free players available to protect deep kick.

The blitz! does happen, and I try to go into contact to fortify the front line, but fail a silly 1db before picking ball up.

LEARNING: Move more players back. Definitely more, to fortify the area. We only had one other + the ball carrier.

In the end, it was a 10% play which came off (or 27% with re roll, so not needed) which allows the wight to score on our offensive drive.


2. 1DB

We made some terrible decisions on 1db. One caused a death to our skilled blitzer. It was not a necessary block.

Another left our ball carrier unprotected and available for blitz, which he was.

We see and hear advice to do these with Norse or Dwarf. To be fair, most did work, with 5 of 9 success. But the two failed ones, I'd say were not necessary to throw. Greedy, and punished.


3. SILLY....

Is the ball safe? I need this tattoo. We allow a wight to base our ball carrier. We did not move it out of range the turn before.

Then, we make a blitz on another target, instead of 1db blitz on the basing Wight. I guess, 3+ dodge is nearly the same. But lucky we got away.


4. WIDE OPEN

Coach Valen mentioned we left ball wide open. In my eyes it was not, but Coach Valen sees things on another level.

In truth, it was two dodges 3+3+, plus two rushes 2+2+, followed by 1db. This is a 10% play, but those have worked before...


SUMMARY

I need to protect better. If the ball can be sacked or touched, in any way requiring dodges or GFI, it must be considered.

Coach Valen is the most entertaining and aggressive coach I have faced, and his style counters mine brilliantly. We were lucky here.”