On September 15th the West Fargo Packers lost 14-40 at Fargo Davies to drop 1-3 putting the Packers 9th in the EDC rankings. The start of this game was an eventful one as Davies muffed the opening kickoff, the Packers were able to jump on the ball taking advantage of the mistake to start their first drive on the opponents 29 yard-line. The Packer offense was able to get down close to the goal line to set up a 4th and goal from the 3, however a linebacker blitz up the middle caused some immediate pressure on Brady Medina who was forced to loft up a pass into double coverage. The Davies defense was able to pick this pass off and take it back for 6, causing the momentum of this game to do a complete 180 as Davies goes up 7-0. Following a few drives from both teams ending in punts, the Packers line up to punt themselves when the snap goes over the punters head, leading to a safety giving Davies a 9-0 lead.
The Packers were able to bounce back early in the second with a Keyton McGregor slant route, making 2 defenders miss on his way to a 20-yard TD catch and run, Jesse Ramirez would catch the 2-point conversion to bring the score to 9-8 with Davies on top. Later in the quarter Davies would get a big gain on a nice rollout pass putting them at the 2-yard line, Davies would punch it in a couple plays later and convert a 2-point conversion of their own to go up 17-8. The Packers had put themselves in a position to answer back, being in the red zone with 30 seconds and 2 timeouts left, however the packers opted to not use a timeout leading to an incompletion and leaving the packers with 10 seconds. Brady Medina was forced to throw to the endzone twice, with the second throw leading to a pick leaving the packers down two scores going into the half.
Davies kept the momentum going coming out of the half getting an interception, Davies offense would capitalize on the field position by taking an option play to the endzone going up 24-8. The Davies Defense continued their performance by getting their 4th interception of the game, Davies again was able to take advantage of the turnover, running for another TD to go up by 22 points going into the 4th quarter.
The Packers were able to get something going in the 4th quarter with Keyton McGregor catching a go route down the sideline for his second of the day, putting the score to 30-14. On the next drive the Packers defense jumped on a fumbled handoff giving the ball back to the offense, the Davies defense was able to stay strong however, forcing a quick punt. Davies got some big chunk runs in the 4th leading to a field goal and one more rushing TD before the horn sounded, giving Davies the 26-point win.
The killer for this game was the Packer’s turnovers, leaving a lot of points on the table while also giving Davies the drivers seat. While the box score makes it look like the defense got dominated, the Packer defense played pretty well. It is hard to keep points off the board when they’re faced with the kind of field position they were. The Packers showed some promise with the receiving core continuing to shine and the defense making some nice stops. If the Packers can limit turnovers, they could definitely string some wins together. It’s still early in the season as the Packers look forward to Thursday September 21st, against the Bismarck Demons.