“Round 3: Beards Stumble to Start, but Recover Amid High Hat Woes

The Beards took on the High Elf Hightown High Hats in round 3, and got away with what easily could’ve been a much different match. The Elves got an early jump on the ball, and were able to send a few players in while the kick sailed through the air, but Belli Bonnlinn was able to recover the kick and set to work mowing into the High Hats. Everything appeared to be going to plan, until the elves exposed a gap and blitzed through to get a hit on Belli. He stumbled and the ball bounced through the scrum into the exposed rear. The Elves had a clean chance at the ball, but couldn’t get a hold as it bounced away, and was recovered by Belli the following round. The Beards were able to re-establish, and set a cage down a sideline aiming to score at the end of the half. The High Hat defense wasn’t going quietly though, and they fought to screen off the endzone. The screen nearly complete, one final dodge was all that was needed, but the elf blitzer couldn’t escape the grasp of a Beard Blocker. Bellis sprinted in for the score.

The second half both teams took the field at full strength, with the Beards kicking off to the High Hats. The kick landed directly at the edge of the field, and the elves struggled to pick it up, needing some extra encouragement from the sidelines. They aligned in a wide formation with the ball in the able hands of a talented catcher. The Beards also stayed wide in their defense patiently waiting for the Hats to commit. The High Hats struggled with small errors though, and found themselves in a position where they needed to play mistake-free, but after moving a screen player to press an edge, a block failed, and the carrier was left exposed. The Beards charged the opening and managed to drop the carrier and recover the loose ball, while aggressively marking any potential pursuit. Blitzer Hurgren Huldek was able to seal the game with the final score 2-0.

Coach Buck Comments:

“We got lucky there, we really did. The score board makes it look like we coasted through that game, but this one easily could’ve gone the other way, and I credit myself for that error. We were confident we could hold the line, but we just didn’t and when I saw that blitzer slip through that exposed corner I knew we were in trouble. You don’t want to win on luck, but that High Hat missing that pick up was huge for us. We were able to recover and get back on track, but that was a close call. For Elves they seemed to be having their own struggles in the things they normally excel at. I wish we could’ve done more with the numbers game. It’s tough to play an elf team 11 on 11, and that’s how it was basically this whole game. We need to do better with that. Next we have the Despoilers, and they’re a real talented crew. I know we’re up to the task, but we have to get better.


Tactical Takeaways-

1. All-In Push Punished

This is maybe my 3rd time in 5 games of Dwarves getting punished with the all-in push. This one was especially bad. I don't know that marking up was the problem, as much as leaving the carrier directly behind the marked up wall. The issue I see is that to progress the offense at some point with Dwarves I feel you need to commit to combat, especially against teams with limited combat skills. So, I just need to be more thoughtful about how to do this correctly. The ball bounced and was luckily still in a tackle zone, and my opponent got diced on the pick up, but not something I should've given up. Need to look into how to do this more effectively.

2. Re-Roll Burn

Interesting that with Dwarves I'm finding that often especially against Elves, much of what I'm trying to do is to force re-roll burn, so that my opponent eventually fails without re-rolls and I can capitalize on those moments. This re-roll burn can come from forcing bad blocks from the marking, but with Elves it is more often about forcing dodges. Now, this assumes that the opponent will roll ones. In this game my opponent unluckily did that at a very high rate. The principle though with Dwarves I believe is that I'm trying win the attrition game in combat, force dodges, and force either 1/9s or my opponent staying in place and me getting a chance to hit them.

3. Blitz Defense

Not sure that it was the most sound anti-blitz defense, but I did consider the blitz as an option, and was in a decent position to defend against it when it happened.

4. AV Break Drought

I would've hoped to have been more effective causing damage in the scrum, but we just didn't, on the contrary, we got pretty beat up ourselves. I'm glad that regardless, we still managed to have things swing our way with marking, but just a few SPPs from Cas's would've been nice. ”