The quest for World Bowl XV began with the Wildcard Round this morning. We had 3 teams go wild and 1 close game, let's see how it all went down.
Showboats 29 Sun 0
We'll start with two time defending champion Memphis on the road at Southern California. We all know the strange journey for Memphis in 1988, but IOT is back trying for a threepeat. A 1st qtr interception by Willie Lawhon set the Showboats up with the ball at the Sun 36. Nine plays later, Howard Aguirre caught a 7 yard TD pass from David Allen. The two point conversion was good for an early 8-0 lead. Following a three and out by the Sun offense, Memphis pushed the lead to 16-0, thanks to Donut Mogul Tim Horton and the second two point conversion by James Nash. The Showboats would add a FG for a halftime lead of 19-0.
Memphis saw the return of RB Mark Lambert and he put the icing on the cake with his 5 yard TD run to extend the Showboats lead to 26-0. Lambert rushed for 93 yards and added another 40 receiving to lead the Memphis offense.
Memphis didn't display video game offensive numbers, but their defense made sure the offense didn't have to. They held Southern California to just 145 yards of total offense, and made life miserable for Sun QB Wilmer Kimble. Kimble was sacked 4 times and threw 2 interceptions as part of his 20/37 for 112 yard performance.
Gold 58 Thunderbolts 10
Cleveland traveled to the Rocky Mountains to take on the Denver Gold and got hit with an avalanche of points. The 58 that Denver put up is not a playoff record, off the top of my head I know Birmingham put up 77 on my Generals a few seasons back. Regardless, the Thunderbolts clearly had no answer for the trio of Denver QB Andrew Brewer (28/39 507 yds 7 TD 0 INT), WR Richard Funkhouser (19 rushes 79 yards, 10 receptions 171 yards 4 TD) and WR Jose Buford (9 receptions 269 yards 3 TD).
The game featured 5 TDs of 60+ yards with Cleveland getting the first one. That came early and cut the Denver lead to 13-7, before the Gold ran off 17 unanswered points. In the middle of that run came halftime, with the score 23-7 Gold. Denver got the ball to start the 3rd and hit it big on the first offensive play. Later in the 3rd, Funkhouser matched Buford with a long TD of his own. Buford struck again late 3rd qtr to make the score 44-13. With the game well in hand, Funkhouser threw salt on the wounds with his second long TD.
Cleveland put up some yards but they dug themselves too big of a hole and never could climb out.
Renegades 17 Bandits 14
The National Conference featured two intradivision games where the teams split in the regular season. Orlando took a short trip to Tampa for a 3rd game against the Bandits. Tampa Bay QB Melvin Driggers had been tossing INTs lately but he only had one today but failed to toss a TD pass.
The game began as a defensive struggle and it was 6-3 Bandits midway through the 2nd quarter. Following a punt that pinned Orlando at their 1 yard line, Tampa Bay scored with their defense. A short dump pass in the end zone never made it out and the safety gave the Bandits a baseball like 8-3 lead. While the Bandits offense did not cross the goal line all day, Orlando was able to twice. The first one went for 30 yards from Elwood Savage to Daniel Carter, enabling the Renegades to take the lead into halftime, 10-8.
In the 3rd qtr, Tampa Bay blocked a punt, which was legal btw, that led to another FG and an 11-10 Bandits lead. It was 14-10 midway through the final quarter when Orlando's Jose Rush ran it in from 2 yards out to give Orlando the late 17-14 lead. Tampa Bay got the ball back with 5:01 left and ran just 4 plays before the 2 minute warning. The slowdown tactic did not work as the Bandits turned it over on downs just inside Orlando territory. They never got the ball back as the Renegades ran the clock to 0:00.
Stars 48 Federals 10
This is the 4th time these division rivals have met in the playoffs and Washington has to be hoping it's the last. Just like the previous 3, Baltimore wins and advances. Baltimore QB Jon Snow threw INTs on the Stars first 2 possessions but the Federals could only get 3 points out of it. Baltimore used a little trickery for their first TD. Using the 3-1-1 personnel set, the Stars had C Randall Swink lined up as a FB. Jon Snow found him for the short TD pass to give Baltimore a 7-3 lead. Washington would get the lead back briefly, thanks to Scott Bieber finding James Dunn for a 30 yard TD.
It was all Jon Snow from that point as he fired 5 more TD passes to give him 6 total. Three of those were to Timothy Harmon who caught 11 for 174 yards with 17 more rushing. Jose Gough chipped in with 7-139-1 while Knob Creek had a combined 185 yards. Baltimore's defense held Washington to 227 total yards with a sack and forcing 2 turnovers.
