Tel Aviv is Shut Out
Saturday night’s IFL game at Maccabi Fields in Kiryat Shalom was, by and large, a one sided affair, producing the league’s first shutout, as the Real Housing Haifa Underdogs trounced the Mike’s Place Tel Aviv Sabres 26-0.
The Sabres (1-4) were not able to mount any type of pressure whatsoever, either offensively or on the defensive side of the ball, and indeed, the total net yards for the game ended in an embarrassingly unbalanced 275-5 in favour of Real Housing.
Haifa (4-2), for their part, played an efficient all-around game, but were never really challenged to make big plays and were satisfied to bide their time and wear out a Sabres’ roster that featured some new personnel, coupled with a number of key players on the sideline.
Tel Aviv sorely missed all-around talent Asaf Katz, out with a separated shoulder, and Raviv Faig, who also missed the game due to illness. They looked out of sync on offence under new quarterback Roi Yair, who never found his bearings in the face of a frenetic Haifa pass-rushing attack.
The Underdogs’ offence continued its transformation into a smash-mouth unit, led by the power running of Niv Medlinger and Leor Subotnik. After watching the passing game get off to another slow start, Haifa began calling more running plays to Medlinger and Subotnik to steady the offense.
While their solid pounding of the line didn’t produce big yardage initially, persistent grinding eventually resulted in three explosive runs in the second half of at least 15 yards. The two backs combined for 121 rushing yards on the day and each scored a touchdown on the ground to boot.
Real Housing’s offence still possesses quick-strike ability, but the steady improvement of their running game has given their offense the necessary punch to win games in inclement weather, when throwing the ball becomes more difficult.
Defensively, credit the Underdogs’ Idan Maor for taking advantage of the Sabres’ depleted offence by utilizing more blitzes. The increased use of four-man pressures allowed Maor to feast off the edge on the way to a monster four-sack day.
As well, the constant harassment of Roi Yair in the pocket resulted in a one-completion, four-total passing yards performance from the quarterback in his season debut. The Underdogs have lived off the sack this season, and the increased use of pressure has been smothering and surely the biggest catalyst in their surge of takeaways in the past few games.
Haifa was able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and this was the key factor in the outcome of the game. They never gave Tel Aviv time to get their offence set up and it seemed as if the second the ball was snapped, the line collapsed and there was immediate pressure on the quarterback, the backfield swarming with Underdogs.
All in all, there was not much positive the Sabres’ can take from this game, and they will have to regroup and come up with a creative game plan going forward to have a chance at emerging from the league’s cellar.
The Underdogs, on the other hand, are playing their best football of the season and seem to be hitting their stride at the right time.
They play again this upcoming Friday, January 25 with a game against the Dancing Camel Hasharon Pioneers (1-4), as the IFL returns at a special venue, the Wingate Institute for Physical Culture and Sport in Netanya with a 12:30 kickoff. It is Haifa’s last game before facing the Big Blue Jerusalem Lions (5-1) for first place on February 7th at Kraft Stadium.
Prepared by Uriel Sturm, IFL League Statistician, who has (objectively) viewed and recorded each and every IFL down and game ever played from the best seat in the house – the field! Please feel free to contact at uesturm@gmail.com. Photo courtesy GameDay
