Glasgow Tigers 2 Edinburgh Predators 14.

Comparing the British Senior American Football Leagues alongside the British University Leagues is like night and day.   They are worlds apart in terms of standards and player personnel.

At Senior Level, you can build winning teams over a number of seasons, improve the level of play, where as in the University leagues, Coaches have to constantly deal with a high turnover in their rosters, basically starting a rebuilding process every four years.  

Very often starting with a high percentage of rookie players.

But what the players lack in experience, they more than make up for in enthusiasm.   And there was plenty of that on show last week when Edinburgh Predators travelled to Glasgow’s Garscube Sport Centre to take on the Glasgow Tigers.

Even though there was no let-up in the work rate from both teams, the lack of playing experience was evident as they struggled to get grips with fundamental requirements, like completing passes to stop snapping the ball over the quarterback’s head and into the hands of the running back.

As a result, it provided us with a very dull first quarter, with neither team showing that decisive killer instinct needed to get some points on the board.

Things started to look up late in the second quarter when Edinburgh’s Eric Cain caught the Glasgow rear guard off balance with a text book deep pass to Jonah Siri who had a clear run all the way to endzone for the opening six points.

At the start of the second half, the Tigers rear guard stepped up the intensity but continued to struggle to get the momentum going on offense.   Whereas Edinburgh increased their lead when Robert Bell got in the end of a wayward pass, returning the ball back up field  for a second touchdown, with Darren Baldwin following that up with a successful two point conversion.

The Tigers continued to struggle executing on offense, but they stepped up the pressure through their front line, pushing the visitors towards their goal line.

Even though they could not finish the drive off, the home defense kept up the pressure, making sure that they Predators stayed deep inside their half of the field.

And not surprisingly the nightmares of the high snaps came back to haunt the visitors, when they tried to punt the ball away.  The ball flew over the quarterback’s head and into the endzone for a 2 point safety.

Glasgow kept up the pressure, but could not break through the resolute Edinburgh defense that ensured that the points would be heading east.

Slide Show