In the Emirates American Football League’s showcase opener, Dubai Barracudas held on for a 14-7 victory over Dubai Stallions in a mistake-filled game at Dubai Sports City last night.
Both teams accrued several penalties and had trouble hanging on to the ball, but the Barracudas received enough from their offence while the other side of the ball had a strong showing to pull out a win.
“We were sloppy, we have a lot of things we have to clean up, but in terms of heart and these guys digging down and finding that little extra something to hold on to the game and push it for a victory, I’m so proud of them for that,” Barracudas coach Kyle Jordan said.
Quarterback Zavier Cobb added: “We’re going to have those moments in the first game, those first game jitters. It’s a lot of these players first time playing football this year, so hats off to them. We overcame, we adapted and we came out with the victory.”
Cobb, last season’s Most Valuable Player, was magnificent when rolling out of the pocket and found his wide receivers Michael Andersen and Daniel Viranyi for 15 and 29-yard strikes for touchdowns, respectively. The signal caller finished with 167 yards on 10-of-16 throws.
The Barracudas could have had more success, however, had it not been for a number of fumbles, including one when they were trying to wind down the clock and ice the win. The lost possession gave Stallions quarterback Markas Morton one last chance to tie the game, but the Barracudas’ defence stepped up and finished off a strong display.
“Offensively, we put the defence in some bad positions but they responded and shut them down,” Jordan said.
“They were a true asset today and I was happy with the play calling from the coaches and the guys kept fighting. We had a lot of duct tape out there but those guys kept finding a way.”
For the Stallions, despite coming in with the gameplan of containing Cobb, the quarterback slipped through the defences’ fingers.
“We started off slow, typical Stallions style, and then came on strong in the second half,” Stallions player-coach Chris Wentzel said.
“We lost exactly how we could have imagined we could have lost, with Zavier Cobb getting outside the pocket and looking for those pass-run opportunities.”
The offence, meanwhile, struggled taking deep shots down the field all night with Morton completing just 3-of-15 passes for 59 yards.
Wentzel admitted there was too much of a focus on going for big plays and a balanced attack would serve better.
“I think where we can improve from this game is we threw a lot of long passes or low-percentage passes,” Wentzel said. “I think next time around we need to focus on high-percentage passes and the short passing game.”
In knocking off the top team in the early power rankings, the Barracudas won the battle for Dubai and get their season headed in the right direction
