Pearl Bowl XXXIX

In another thrilling championship game among the premier teams in Japan's X-League, the Obic Seagulls defeated IBM Big Blue 29-27. Obic has now won three of the last six Pearl Bowls, the game which culminates the spring season of football in Japan.

The kicking game was a big part of this game's excitement- there were a total of five(!) blocked kicks in the game, and each ran back a kick for a TD, in addition to other long returns that generally gave each team good field position to start their drives.

Both teams were able to keep their opponents running game somewhat in check- IBM could only manage 60 yards on 27 carries. Obic was a little better, with 117 yards on 30 carries, with #43 Asaki Mochizuki accounting for 72 yards on 15 carries himself. #12 Ikaika Woolsey added 24 yards on the ground and 165 yards in the air (12-17) and three TD passes.

 Obic was on the board early, with a good return of the opening kickoff leading to a 37-yard field goal. On the ensuing drive, IBM starting QB #2 Yuhki Masamoto was intercepted by Seagulls DB #27 Yudai Tanaka who returned it to the 15, and Woolsey quickly found #84 Aruto Nishimura on a Post-Corner for a TD and it was 9-0. A two point conversion pass attempt was batted down.

Following the kickoff return to their own 42, IBM started their next drive on the ground, and then Masamoto began finding receivers, connecting with #81 Shouta Matunaga, the second time on a 3-yard pass that put the  Big Blue on the board. Their extra point attempt was blocked. "Big guys in the middle of the line," said IBM head coach Shinzo Yamada simply, referring to Obic's #11 Kevin Jackson who blocked an extra point and one field goal, and IBM's #34 James Brooks, who manage to block two Obic field goal attempts and an extra point, despite having some trouble with cramping.







But in a pattern that would repeat itself throughout the game, whenever the Big Blue would draw close, the Seagulls would pull away again. #83 Taro Mizuno took the next kickoff, found a hole on the left side, and went 98 yards for a touchdown. This extra point conversion was successful, and Obic led 16-6 with four minutes of play remaining in the first quarter.


IBM responded with a 15 play, 66-yard drive bridging the quarters, which ended when Jackson blocked the 33-yard FG attempt. Obic responded with a a 33-yard FG attempt of their own...which was blocked by Brooks.


Masamoto was somewhat off-target throughout the half, and was intercepted on IBM's next drive. QB #3 Kevin Craft, who started last year but has been sitting out most of spring, came in to direct the Big Blue offense on an eight play, 66-yard drive, culminating in threaded pass to #81 Takashi Kurihara in the back of the end zone to bring the score to 16-13.


But Woolsey responded with a six play, 62 yard drive in the waning moments of the half, hitting Mizuno on a 31 yard post, to make the score 23-13 at halftime.


Midway through the half, Obic moved into IBM territory, but #6 Shun Sugawara, in place of Woolsey,
was intercepted by #20 Takato Yabe. Masamoto was back in at the controls for IBM, and he engineered an eleven play, 79 yard drive, running it in from two yards out, to bring the score to 23-20.

Another 33 yard FG attempt by Obic was blocked along the way, but in the final period, Woolsey directed a ten play, 82 yard drive that resulted in a TD, hitting #85 Ryoma Hagiyama from 12 yards out, to make it 29-20. The extra point was no good.

Kurihara took the kickoff at his own seven, and ran it back 93 yards, and suddenly the score was 29-27 midway through the fourth quarter.

At this point Obic began using their running game to chew up time. IBM did get the ball back with under four minutes left, but were hurt badly on a 3rd down intentional grounding by Masamoto, forcing IBM to kick from their own 3.

Obic was able to keep the ball, throwing on fourth down to maintain possession, and run out the clock.


IBM won the Pearl Bowl last year. Obic also won it in 2014 and 2012, as well as in 2005.

The two teams will face each other once again at the Tokyo Dome on September 5th, in the opening week of the fall season.

Untimed Down Chippewa Hail Mary Miracle: What Happened?

In week 2 of the NCAA regular season, Central Michigan stunned #22 Oklahoma State 30-27, on what may have already given us the Play of the Year for the 2016 season.

With no time left on the clock on an "untimed down", Chippewa QB Cooper Rush threw a 42-yard Hail Mary to Jesse Kroll short of the goal line. As Kroll was tackled, he flipped the ball back to trailing receiver Malik Fountain at the 9, who then ran across the field to just inside the opposite pylon for the game-winning touchdown.

If you haven't seen it already, here's the play.


Central Michigan was declared the victor. Later it was brought to the attention of the officials that they had made an error in granting CMU the untimed down.  That came after Oklahoma State was called for intentional grounding on their 4th down- on a play where rather than punting, the Cowboys sent NO receivers downfield for the "pass play", as the ball was snapped with 4 seconds left on the clock.

According to Rule 3-2-3 of the NCAA rule-book: "The period is not extended if the foul is by the team in possession and the penalty includes loss of down."

There is currently no mechanism in the NCAA to change the results of a game if such an error is made, even if it falls on the last play of the game. [see Duke-Miami 2015]. Article 3b of the NCAA rule-book states: When the referee declares that the game is ended, the score is final. Many are calling for that rule to be changed to allow for corrections of errors on the last play of the game, and that proposal should be given some consideration.

The MAC officials (on the field) and the Big XII officials (in the booth, who can alert officials on the field in circumstances such as these when significant errors are made) were subsequently given a two game suspension.

Many think Oklahoma State has been cheated out of a win that could become significant if they are in contention for the college football playoffs.

However, what I believe ALSO requires serious consideration is that rule about not extending the game on a loss-of-down penalty, particularly in the case of a change of possession. In other words it seems to me that the officials' ruling, though  it was not a correct interpretation of the rules as they exist, was probably a better, fairer one. The current wording of the rule seems to assume that the team committing the penalty is trying to retain possession of the ball, and does not take into consideration the exact situation which occurred: a loss-of-down penalty AND change of possession.

[Loss-of-down penalties are few, and they only include intentional grounding and some form of illegal touching or kicking the ball.]

Though their ruling was incorrect according to the letter of current  rules, the officials "common sense" decision that a team should not benefit from committing a penalty would seem to hold the higher moral ground, even if there is an appeal process applied to the ending of games.

Allowing CMU an untimed down after the intentional grounding honestly seems like the more reasonable thing to do. As it stands, any team ahead on 4th down, can literally run out the clock, and then intentionally ground the ball (actually throw the ball high and out of bounds) or kick the ball around to run out the clock, leave all their eligible receivers in to block, and the penalty will not count against them.

Many sports have written into their rules an allowance for the officials to interpret the rules and make judgements in any instance not covered by the rules, or when a player or team somehow "makes a mockery" of the rules by exploiting them.

If we really wanted to go down in the weeds, we could say that in such cases the clock should have been reset to the instant the penalty occurred: i.e. as it was an INTENTIONAL grounding penalty when the ball was released from the QB's hands- especially as there were no eligible receivers going downfield for the pass, and the penalty is one of taking a deliberate action, rather than the consequence. I don't have a view of the clock and exactly when that ball was thrown (presumably there was or the QB would have just knelt down as the clock struck 0); but if there was indeed any time left on the clock, the loss-of-down and change of possession should have taken place at that point.

2015 Japan X-Bowl

Over the years, the X-League Championship games have often been filled with excitement and gone down to the end, and this one was certainly no different.

Down 21-10 midway through the 4th Quarter, The Panasonic Impulse rallied, scoring with 1:11 remaining to take the lead, and held on for their first X-League championship since 2008 over the defending champion Fujitsu Frontiers. They were helped out along the way by three costly interceptions thrown by Frontier QB Colby Cameron, two of them coming late in each half leading to scores.


On Fujtsu's first possession QB #3 Colby Cameron engineered a 10-play, 90 yard TD drive for the Frontiers, scoring on an 8 yard pass to #87 Yuji Mizuno.




Both teams then took turns moving into enemy territory before punting, until late in the 2nd Quarter, when Fujitsu tried to move quickly in their 2-minute offense for a possible score. It went well for a couple of throws, until Cameron threw again into the flat, where it was intercepted by #10 Emory Polley, who ran it back 32 yards to make it 7-7 with 23 seconds left in the half.  Polley said he tried to bait Cameron. The QB simply said, "It was just a forced ball, and I wasn't accurate...he's a good corner."




So the game was tied, 7-7 at halftime.

The main feature of the Halftime Show was some singer apparently famous for some famous song or another [not seen].

 And oh, yes. Cheerleaders. Lots of cheerleaders.
 















etc.

Anyway, in the 3rd Quarter both offenses began to establish themselves: the Impulse on the ground, the Frontiers in the air.  Panasonic gained 164 of their 298 yards in the game rushing, led by  #33 Shun Yokota who had 16 carries for 98 yards. Panasonic's first drive of the half ended with a FG, giving them a 10-7 lead.

Fujitsu responded with a 9 play, 76 yard drive, capped by a 16 yard pass from #3 Cameron to #22 Junpei Yoshimoto to retake the lead and make it 14-10.

Two series later, Fujitsu started from their own 8, and drove all the way to the Panasonic 10, but Cameron was intercepted by in the end zone.

Several times in the game Cameron was able to complete passes deep, including a 30 yard toss to #87 Mizuno, and throws of 59 and 32 yards to #81 Teruaki Clark Nakamura. Cameron finished 25-42 for 322 yards and 3 TDs, but 3 costly INTs severely hurt the Frontiers.  "Trying to make a play, and sometimes you try to make too many plays,"  he said.

Undaunted, after forcing a Panasonic punt, Cameron marched the Frontiers down the field, scoring in 6 plays from the two-yard-line, on a throw to #17 Takeshi Akiyama, and Fujitsu had  what seemed to be comfortable 21-10 lead with just 7 minutes to go. Panasonic failed to convert on 4th down, and the game appeared to be all but over with Fujitsu taking over near midfield with 5:21 to go.

But Fujitsu chose not to play conservative, immediately going to the air. Cameron inexplicably threw an interception over the middle, setting up the Impulse in at the Frontier 42. "You're taught, when you are 8, 9, 10 years old, never to throw the ball late across the middle. That's my fault, and I've just got to learn," said Cameron.

The very next play, #8 Tetsuo Takata found #15 Tatusya Tonka deep, and while the 2-point conversion failed, Panasonic suddenly only trailed 21-16.

A penalty on the kickoff return pushed the Frontiers back to their own 12. Three plays netted 0 yards, so after the punt and return, Panasonic was in business at the Fujitsu 33 with 3:28 left. On the fifth play of the drive, from the Frontier 15, #8 Takata was able to hit #89 Taiji Koyama, and The Impulse was suddenly ahead. Takata then rolled out and ran in the two-point conversion to make it 24-21.

Fujitsu was then in desperation mode. But Cameron lost the ball carrying it on a  4th down scramble, the Impulse took over with 36 seconds left, and the sizable Impulse crowd celebrated.


The Impulse felt they were able to follow their game plans: Polley said the defense wanted to try to get pressure on Cameron and "see what happened". On offense, OG #61 Scott Duffy said, "We wanted to run the ball, and we did. They're a good team." Overall, Futjitsu outgained Panasonic 401-298. Game MVP Tetsuo Takata was 12-17 and 134 yards passing for the Impulse.

Center #65 Edmond Davis said they, "went to the pass a little bit to open up the run, but basically we stuck with the game plan. We had two or three different situations, but we had it. We had everything. We knew they weren't going to play us like they played everybody else this season...The D-Line, instead of trying to fill their gap, they were trying to stalemate, so we were able to take advantage and get one-on-one with the linebacker, and the middle opened wide up."

Clearly disappointed with the result, Cameron said "...it's part of the process, part of the job."
But he praised the Impulse defense, "They did a good job getting pressure, but actually today, they played what was on film. I was shocked.  So many teams try to surprise you. They played base defense, and really good team defense...They do a very good job. They have a safety, #12 [Imaishi], he was comes up in the box, really well, like a mini-Kam Chancellor [Seattle Seahawks]."

X-Bowl 2015 Tokyo Dome (aka The Big EGG) 12/14 19:00

Perennial Kansai powerhouse the Panasonic Impulse return to the Tokyo Dome for Japan X Bowl to face X-League defending champion Fujitsu Frontiers. The Impulse last won the X-League's championship game in 2008, and last appeared in 2010. Kickoff is at 7PM.

Both teams come into the game at 8-0, making it through the First Stage, Second Stage, and then their semi-final games undefeated. Fujitsu beat the Obic Seagulls 27-6 to reach the final, while Panasonic scored four TDs in the 1st quarter en route to a 45-17 victory over the Nojima Sagamihara Rise.

The Frontiers kept the Impulse out of the championship game the last two years (and three of the last four). Fujitsu finally won the title last year after failing five times. 

Panasonic DL David Motu said, “I’m really glad...this is my third year, and we’ve lost to Fujitsu ever since I’ve been here, so we’re ready to get our revenge...We all believe it."


They'll be facing former Louisiana Tech QB #3 Colby Cameron, who is rolling along again this year.  He was 31-47 for 360 yards in the semifinal. But Cameron credits his receivers such as #81 Teruaki Clark Nakamura, #22 Junpei Yoshimoto, and #87 Yuji Mizuno, saying,  "They’re the play-makers, not me.”

Cameron joined the Frontiers last year and threw for 445 yards and four TDs in the 48-24 victory over Panasonic, which ended the Impulse's string of five consecutive West Division titles.

 Panasonic head coach Nobuyoshi Araki says,“After the big shock last year, we made a lot of changes in our roster. By changing how we approach each day, we’ve made it here today.”

X-League rules now allow up to four foreign players, in addition to foreign players who played for Japanese Universities, such as #17 Motu (Nihon University), and Impulse #61 Scott Duffy (Waseda) from Huntington Beach, CA, who switched from playing DL to OL. Duffy was joined on the OL this year by  #65 Edmond Davis (Alabama State), to open holes for #24 Ben Dupree (The Citadel), a former triple-option QB. On the defensive side of the ball, the Impulse added DB #10 Emory Polley (Brown), and #21 Carlton Jones (Alabama State) to join Motu on the DL.

In addition to Cameron, Fujitsu has DB #40 AL-Rilwan Adeyami (San Diego), and LB #16 Nixon Tra Shoun Oshae (New Mexico). RB #29 Gino Gordon (Harvard), who was last year’s game MVP, has a leg injury that will keep him out of the championship game.

Panasonic will try to pressure Cameron, but that's easier said than done. “He sets up deep and the timing of his passes is so quick, says Araki, " Lixil, Obic or whoever, had a strategy to pressure him, but couldn’t get to him. If you blitz, he soon finds the open spot. He makes it very difficult.”

Cameron this year is 178-256 for 2,350 yards and 28 TDs versus only 3 INTs. He was injured in last year's X-Bowl, and did not play in the second half of that game, nor in the Rice Bowl against Kwansei Gakuin, which Fujitsu also won, with QB #12 Keiya Hiramoto filling in for Cameron.

For their part, Frontiers head coach Satoshi Fujita is concerned about Dupree behind that offensive line, "He is very quick and fast. He has the ability to get into the end zone. All we can do, is just do our job and make tackles.”

The winner will face Ritsumeikan in the Rice Bowl on Sunday, January 3rd (2PM). Ritsumeikan defeated Waseda 28-27 on Sunday at Koshien to win the Japan collegiate championship.

IFAF 2015 World Championship

-Canton, OH

Japan and the US face off once again in the 2015 International Federation of American Football World Championship.  It will be the second time the two teams have played each other this week, and the second time they have met in the IFAF 'World Cup' Gold Medal game.  They are the only two teams who have won the championship, each team has won two each.

The 2015 tournament was originally going to be held in Stockholm, Sweden. However local organizers had to cancel the event due to lack of sponsorship and other financial difficulties. The scheduled twelve team tournament was pared down, and relocated to Canton, OH, home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and "birthplace of professional football". Austria, Germany, and Morocco had to drop out because of the added expense of traveling to the US.


Earlier this week in Round 2, the #1 seed US team defeated #3 seed Japan 43-18 in a game that was actually quite close at the half. Japan had the ball late in the second quarter and was driving, trailing only 8-3.  But the US dominated the Japan team in the second half.  Kevin Burke and Dylan Favre [yes, nephew of THAT Favre ] shared duties at QB for the US, rolling up 580 yards of total offense. Shohei Kato, was 28-of-49 passing for 273 yards and MVP for Team Japan.

Japan rebounded with a strong showing against #4 seed Mexico behind Tetsuo Takata, scoring quickly and harassing QB Roberto Vega all afternoon into four interceptions, as Japan won 35-7.  The US later steamrolled France 82-0 to set up the Gold Medal rematch.


The tournament presents a somewhat punishing schedule of four rounds in eight days, with games three days apart. Japan was the beneficiary of a Round 1 bye in the tournament, as #2 seeded Canada withdrew from the tournament late in April, leaving the tournament with only 7 teams.  Canada cited budgetary and sponsorship difficulties, as well as scheduling conflicts for Canadian players trying out for Canadian Football League rosters.

The 2011 World Cup tournament in Austria, Canada came back late in the 4th Quarter and holding on to defeat Japan 31-27, before losing to the US in the championship game.

International football fans may well remember the 2007 championship held in Japan.  A typhoon nearly postponed or cancelled the championship game, but the US team (coached by John Mackovic) managed to defeat Japan in double overtime, 23-20, in what turned out to be a tremendous game.   It was the first championship for the US, and the first time they participated.  Japan had won the previous two world championships (held in 1999 and 2003).

Japanese defensive lineman Yasuo Wakisaka, at age 46, is the only player to appear in every IFAF world championship tournament since its inception in 1999.


The Gold Medal game will kickoff at 7PM EDT Saturday (8AM Sunday Japan time). 
The Bronze Medal game between Mexico and France will begin at 3:30.