Fantasy World League Forum

Montreal Machine (13-4) at Amsterdam Admirals (14-2)

The Montreal Machine, the most successful team in FWL Bowl history play in their record 6th ever FWL Bowl.  Amsterdam who have never won the final have appeared in FWL Bowl XII, that was a loss to guess who, yes Montreal !  Amsterdam host this game because of their regular season record and division title but in FWL Bowl XII Amsterdam were one of the few teams who lost a game at home in the final as Danny Wuerrfel as he threw for 2 td's, nearly 250 yards
and nearly 50 yards rushing.

AMSTERDAM

Amsterdam offense 4th (3rd rushing, 11th passing)

Amsterdam are led by former Barcelona reject QB Joe Hamilton who has been exceptional for the Admirals.  Hamilton had a great year with 16 td's and 4 ints and led Amsterdam to a 12-2 regular season record.  His last 3 games were against tough opponents in London (Week 14) for the EFC crown, Scotland and then Austria. 

The rushing game is led by Joe Smith who led the league in rushing and who had a huge EFC Championship game with over 200 combined yards.  WR Elijah Thurman is Hamiltons top target but Adam Herzing was a great redzone target for Hamilton.  The offensive line allowed only 38 sacks one of the best totals in the  league.

Amsterdam defense 5th (2nd rushing, 15th passing)

The Admirals defense is one of the best in the league, the last few weeks of the season they did slip down in their ranking but the unit is very strong and had some great games in the playoffs specially against Austria.

DE Randy Garner is the superstar and he led the team with 14 sacks and is the star on the defensive line.  The LB's are a strong unit, young OLB Terrence Robinson was a superstar with 9 sacks and 71 tackles.  Homegrown LB Drew Whalroos chipped in with 72 tackles and 3 sacks.  S Eric Crouch led the team with 97 tackles, made an interception, a fumble recovery and also 2 sacks !

Overall

At one stage it looked like Amsterdam might go undefeated this year, even after two late season defeats the Admirals regrouped and won the EFC crown with a great win over London and have looked good in a tight game over Scotland and a great performance against Austria.  Amsterdam have no injuries in the final and will be raring to win their first ever FWL Bowl specially as they are at home and they were so disappointed 5 years ago.

MONTREAL

Montreal offense (11th overall, 12th rushing, 9th passing)

What can you say about superstar QB Danny Wuerrfel ?   No other QB has taken his team to SIX FWL Bowls !  The closest is just two !  Wuerrfel began his career with 3 FWL Bowl wins in a row but has now lost the last two, he wont want to lose a third.  Wuerrfel in his 12th season has had a great year with some great performances and comebacks.  Without star HB Corey Walker who has developed into a great receiver in the playoffs Wuerrfel could find it tough however.

Because of Corey Walkers devastating injury (One commentator thinks the Aztecs fouled Walker as the FG went through the uprights) the pressure belongs to probably McKenzi Smith who normally plays FB but may get a shot at HB.  Quentin Griffin has potential at HB but his small frame could find it very tough against Admirals great defense.  However Montreal in the past have won despite having a backup RB, many years ago Marvin Welch a 3rd string HB had to start FWL Bowl XI and finished up as MVP !

At WR Marc Lester had a great season, Montreal WR's dont often have 1000 yard seasons but Lester had a great year averaging over 15 yards a catch and had 5 td's.  Carlos Rosado apart from one huge game (over 200 yards) has had a quiet season at WR2 but TE Daniel Wilcox is one of the best in the league.

Montreal defense (18th overall, 8th rushing, 18th overall)

In past championship seasons by Montreal its been stunning to see how low ranked their defense is.  This year is no exception, the unit finished 18th (the year before they were 16th, during one FWL Bowl winning year they were 17th !) but the stat can be very misleading.  With Montreal leading in most games the team puts in their prevent defense and other teams may pass for a lot of yards late on but thats when the game is well and truely over.

Montreals defense features a great d-line with one of the best players and perhaps someone who could finish all time as the top sacker in the league - DT Michael Landry.  Landry along with his partner at DE Paul Spicer have an amazing 180 sacks between them, Landry 14th all time with 93, Spicer 17th all time with 87.    Add in DT Tony Brown who had a team high 12 sacks along with Landry, and you have a great front line.

The LB's have always been strong, Jeremy Cain led the LB's with 75 tackles and made some huge plays in the playoffs.  The Montreal LB's dont really blitz much but prefer to drop back in and let the d-line pressure the QB.

Another devastating injury last week was to S Foad Adjir.  Adjir was the teams S2 for most of the season and finished 5th on the team with 69 tackles.  S Kahlil Carter led the team with 91 tackles and is their best tackler by far.

Overall

The losses of Walker and Adjir really hurt Montreal specially to Walker which is devastating but the team have been here before with a backup HB who surprised everyone and they will keep repeating that story all week long before the game.

Amsterdam with its homefield advantage are 22-4 over the last 3 years including the playoffs.  The Admirals fans badly want an FWL Bowl championship, for years they were the laughing stock of the league but are now one of the strongest.  Tough losses the last few years to Austria (twice) and Scotland have really hurt them but a win here could rectify everything.

Montreal are a living legend in the FWL, 5 FWL Bowl appearances including 3 wins and now this, their 6th appearance.  They have lost the last two finals and this one looks to be another very very tough test.

Danny Wuerrfel has won some amazing games in the past, if here the underdogs can get a win against the odds it could be his greatest win ever.

Prediction

Amsterdam by 7

Can not wait till the FWL bowl is played