The greatest teams....Season 10 Sacramento Surge

I'll compile a list of all the FWL Bowl champs, for now i'll start with a team i know really well as i led them to my only championship...

Sacramento Surge

The Surge finally won the FWL Bowl in Season 10 after a string of playoff defeats the last 3 years. For two years the Surge fell at the final hurdle losing twice to Orlando who beat them in the AFC Championship game, they then lost to Birmingham in Season 9 until everything went right in Season 10.

Offense

The main key for Sacramento this year was the conversion of FB Roel van Teefelen to HB. When the season started Brian Shay was the HB1 and started the first 3 games, Sacramento lost the season opener and then had two close wins but Shay just wasnt getting the job done. It was a bold move but former FB van Teefelen was moved to HB1 for the rest of the year. vanTeefelen had never rushed for more than 400 yards in any season but in the FWL Bowl winning year of Season 10 he had a dream year with over 850 yards rushing and 11 td's on the ground. Later in the year the Surge traded Brian Shay to Ohio and in his place came former Glory starter Kenny Bynum. Bynum was a great backup to vanTeefelen and had nearly 200 yards rushing and over 22 catches at an impressive 15.6 yards including a 96 yarder.

With vanTeeflen the star on the ground and one of the major turning points for Sacramento this year, the other key was QB Todd Bouman. Bouman had been sensational since coming over to Sacramento from Austria where he was an unknown backup. This year was his 3rd year starting for the Surge and he threw a career high 3,797 yards passing and was named All-FWL for the third year in a row.

His main WR was of course Norris Blundin, the two played together for many years in Sacramento and Blundin had a great year with 80 catches for 1308 yards, 5 td's and a great 16.4 average. One of the keys this year for the top passing attack was WR Sami Alalampi who had over 700 yards and gave Sacramento a great number 2 option opposite Blundin. TE Gerald McGlockton had a great year also with 30 catches for nearly 450 yards and became a favourite target of Boumans.

Defense

In the FWL there are many teams who are 'ageist' and anti veterans, the Surge were a great example of youth and experience when they won FWL Bowl X. On defense the team were led by DT Bob Johnson, a great pickup from Amsterdam who had been a good nose tackle but this year was outstanding with 15 sacks and was voted All-FWL. His partner Mike Sutton was also voted All-FWL after amassing 9 sacks and there was also DE Mark Word who would become the all time league sack leader, back in Season 10 Word had 10 sacks and helped the Surge have one of the best d-lines in football. The final starter in the front 4 was Jermaine Benoit who was slowing down at the end of a great Sacramento career but still picked up 5 sacks.

The LB's were one of the strengths of the team and this is where experience really helped. The team were led by speedy young LB Mike Scroggins who had 77 tackles and 2 sacks but the other 3 starters were quality veterans. Former 1st round pick of Ohio, Tim Scharf had a great year for the Surge with 52 tackles and 2 sacks but two quality Surge veterans were the key. Willie Walker was playing his penultimate season and had just 24 tackles and a sack but he helped the young players throughout the season. Jake Dahl was another veteran but he was coming off a huge year with 65 tackles and 8 sacks to lead the team in sacks by a LB.

The secondary featured a young safety star in Earl Riley who had 79 tackles and 2 ints and one of the best CB's of all time, Ernie Short. Short who would retire with the most tackles in the league led the team with 84 and was great all year. His partner Jamaal Alexander was one of the no names of the defense but he had a good season with 53 tackles, the other starting safety was run stopper George Kentucky a quality veteran who had 63 tackles.

Special Teams

David Akers is one of the leagues all time top kickers and he had a fine year with 30 of 39 FG's and won several close games that year for the Surge.

Regular Season

Sacramento opened the season with a loss at Paris thanks to a late Paris rushing touchdown but then scored 10 4Q points to upset Mexico and won on David Akers 29 yard FG with less than 5 minutes remaining. Akers won the game a week later in a battle of FG's with Ohio and won the game with his 40 yarder with less than a minute left to move Sacramento to 2-1.

A week later the Surge had a great win against Montreal thanks to limiting the Montreal rushing attack to just 89 total yards. The switch to van Teefelen looked great as he had 82 and helped the Surge run the clock. A week later David Akers kicked a FG on the last play to take the game against Birmingham to overtime but the Fire won in OT and pushed Sacramento back to 3-2.

A huge game against Scotland was won 26-24 thanks to Akers 25 yard FG with 10 seconds left which gave Sacramento a 4-2 record instead of 3-3, it was a huge kick by Akers and gave Sacramento momentum.

Sacramento would go onto win 3 games in a row, a nice win over NY 24-17, a surprisingly easy win over arch rivals Orlando 27-10 as they again stuffed the run and limited Orlando to 45 yards on the ground, then a tight 20-14 win over Raleigh thanks to two 4Q Aker FG's to take the lead.

A week later Orlando would gain revenge at home by defeating and snapping the Surges winning streak as they won 24-17. Akers was the hero a week later though as he kicked a 34 yard FG late in the 4Q to give them a close 20-19 win over New York. A huge AFC West clash with San Antonio gave the Surge a close win in overtime 23-17, as ever K Akers was the hero with 34 yard FG with 11 seconds left and then van Teefelen won the game in OT with his 5 yard run.

A week later the team were crowned AFC West champions despite a defeat to Ohio. Former Surge HB Brian Shay gained revenge with a huge game with 140 yards and 2 td's against his former team as they won in overtime. In the final week of the regular season the Surge won 20-17 over Birmingham thanks as always to David Akers who kicked a late winning 4Q FG with 8 seconds left.

The Playoffs

A 10-4 record gave the #1 seed in the AFC to Sacramento and they would face the surprising Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks in their first ever playoff game at home in the wildcard round.

Sacramento dominated and led 24-0 until a late Raleigh touchdown, they rushed for over 100 yards, Todd Bouman had a quiet game passing the ball but was effective and the Surges dominating run defense stopped Raleigh cold.

A week later and in the AFC Championship game they faced old foes Orlando who had beaten them twice in two previous AFC Championship games. A 3rd meeting in 4 years finally gave Sacramento the win. Todd Bouman threw 3 touchdowns and opened up a 26-0 lead, Orlando came back with a touchdown but vanTeefelen put the game out of reach with a career high 77 yard run for a touchdown, Orlando scored a consolation td but Sacramento won 33-15 and went to their first ever FWL Bowl. 9 sacks by Sacramentos defense, an interception , 2 fumbles recovered and the Surge limited Orlando to 28 yards on the ground in a dominating defensive showing.

FWL Bowl X was against Frankfurt who was the team of the decade in the FWL. It was a last hurrah for Frankfurt as Stoney Case announced it would be his last ever game and Bobby Phillips started for the last time before becoming a backup for one final season the following year.

The game was all Sacramento, they outgained Frankfurt by over 100 yards, despite being shocked 2 plays into the game when veteran Phillips ran for a 74 yard touchdown to surprise the Surge. Sacramento came back with a touchdown strike but Frankfurt responded with another touchdown run and led 14-7. Sacramento then scored 2 straight td's and now led 21-14 until a late safety in the first half gave Sacramento a 21-16 lead.

The second half however was all Sacramento, Todd Bouman threw his 4th touchdown pass (An FWL Bowl record) and Stoney Case was sacked for a safety and the Galaxy held scoreless in the second half as Sacramento won 30-16. The Surge had 7 sacks compared to Frankfurts 2 and Case was rocked all day in his final ever start in the FWL and threw for just 187 yards.

The Surge were finally FWL Bowl champs and had a great year thanks to their dominating defense, a new found rushing attack with van Teefelen and a great display all year by Todd Bouman and of course clutch kicking by David Akers. A great champion