VIENNA HOPING IRONS SHARPENS IRON IN WROCLAW
The Vienna Vikings are anticipating a typically tough trip to Poland to face the Wroclaw Panthers, but believe that one aspect of their game against Paris a week ago could have prepared them more than any other.
The Vikings’ hard-fought win in the French capital came at a price — having seen several players leave the game with injuries that could prove costly down the line — but head coach Chris Calaycay reckons that facing the Musketeers’ American quarterback Jaylon Henderson will have his defense keyed in for the very similar threat posed by Wroclaw’s D.J. Irons.
“Paris ran 18 designed quarterback runs, and we’re expecting the same this week with Wroclaw,” Calaycay told the Vikings’ weekly press gathering. “We know that D.J. Irons is a threat — he’s one of the top rushers in the league — but his completion percentage has been good too, so he’s a weapon. He’s got some physical traits that you just can’t coach, so he’s he’s a great athlete but, facing something similar last week, we are a little bit more prepared than maybe you would normally would be for a quarterback of that style.
“It’s going to be hugely important to the game plan to be able to keep Irons under control, not let him break off any long runs and be able to make some plays in the backfield. You know, as many points as we allowed last week, we still made plays and made life hard on Henderson — even on the Hail Mary pass, we were in the backfield, chasing him down. [Aaron] Donker and the crew did a good job of pressuring him when he had passing opportunities, so we feel good about our defense although, obviously, it’s a new week and a new challenge.”
The 40-33 victory in Paris laid waste to the suggestion that the Week 9 encounter could be all about defense, and Calaycay was equally satisfied that his offense could find holes in the vaunted Musketeers’ D.
“This offense has continued to get better week in and week out and you can see that,” the head coach confirmed. “Having a lot of weapons sounds great and everything, but we also have a lot of different looks to get the ball to different guys in different places.
“I knew that [Paris head coach Jack] Del Rio was heavily involved in the defense as well, so to score 40 points on the number one defense wasn’t just a goal, but a test to see where we’re at. We have different types of players: Noah Touré is a different type of receiver than Yannick Mayr, and Reece Horn is very different than Florian Bierbaumer, so you have all these weapons and we have to be able to use our weapons efficiently. But that gives us a lot of confidence and I’m not sitting here complaining. We’ve just got to continue to get better and make big plays when the matchups provide them.”
Vienna’s air attack might overshadow the run game in the minds of those who watch the spectacular connections QB Bn Holmes is able to make but, on the ground, the Vikings are almost as impressive, with the return of Karri Pajarinen merely adding to the cohort that took the opportunity to emerge while the Finn was on IR. Johannes Schütz and Florian Wegan shouldered much of the burden in Pajarinen’s absence, and continue to get their share of the carries now that Karri is back — even if Coach Calaycay admits he was disappointed to see Wegan score in the waning minutes of the win over Paris.
“Clock management is something we’re very diligent at and, you know, we got down to around the 15-yard line with about two minutes left and said that we were going to run the ball and really control the clock — but then Flo makes this amazing play!” he smiled. “It was a great play call, but I was expecting four or five yards and the clock keep running. But he bounces it outside, gets up the sideline and dives for the pylon…
“You never want to put yourself in that situation but offensive coordinators — and the offense in general — don’t think there’s really a way you can say, ‘Hey, we scored too fast’. Scoring is not easy and, if you see the defenses that we’ve played, whether it’s the Rhein Fire or Prague or Paris — which is the number one ranked defense — you’re not going to complain about being able to put points on the board. Having said that, yes, I would have liked Flo to be tackled. I would have liked to take 40 more seconds off the clock, and maybe scored on the next two plays. In a perfect world, that’s the way you’d like it, but football is one of those games where a lot of things can happen.”