Another Shootout, Another Win - Pigskin11's Blog

Pigskin11's Blog

Another Shootout, Another Win

Posted on March 22, 2009 at 10:41 PM.

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It seems high scoring games and the Fargo Fisherman go hand in hand. The Fisherman came out on top in a 42-35 shootout win over Baltimore. But on the first drive Baltimore actually forced Fargo to punt only to have there return man muff the kick. It was scooped up by Fargo for the first touchdown of the game. The Fisherman would not punt or turn the ball over again. Simpson was simply unstoppable the entire game finishing with 216 yards rushing and 146 yards receiving. Brodie had a perfect QB rating of 158.3 while only needing to throw 8 passes, 3 for touchdowns. Asked why such a focus on running Brodie replied "When you have a team like Baltimore with a gold and two silver corners we decided the only way to beat them was with Simpson on the ground. I thought we did a nice job of sprinkling in big pass plays to keep them from stacking the box." But for the second week in a row the Fisherman D was nearly non existent letting Stabler spread the ball around all game and allowing Means to break off huge junks of yards. Stabler completed 20 of 26 passes, an unacceptably high percentage for a defense to allow. It wasn't until mid way through the 3rd that Fargo even offered some sort of resistance. We asked Coach Pigskin what adjustments the team made, "After halftime I decided we couldn't let there wideouts get a free release and we needed to get in there face and bump em, we got burned on the first play of the half when Means took a run up the gut. I decided to stick with the press and I think it payed off." Jim Marshall used that extra time thanks to the press to capture 3 second half sacks and pressure Stabler into throwing a game sealing interception to Free Safety Cromwell.

STATS
Brodie: 158.3 Rating, 220 Yards, 3 TDs
Simpson: 216 Rush Yds, 13.5 avg, 146 Rec Yds, 4 Total TDs
Marshall: 3 Sacks
Cromwell: 5 Tackles, 1 Int