Fire duo rewarded for efforts in losing cause
Published on May 3, 2005 under National Football League Europa (NFLE) News Release
DESPITE being on the wrong end of a 23-20 scoreline in Frankfurt on Saturday evening, two members of the Rhein Fire have scooped NFL Europe League Player of the Week honors.
Tennessee Titans-allocated running back JOE SMITH was named Offensive Player of Week 5 after he shredded the Galaxy defense for 152 rushing yards on 28 carries, scoring on a 9-yard run to give the Fire a four-point lead midway through the final period.
Smith â who also caught a 3-yard pass last week â leads NFL Europe in rushing with 387 yards on 81 carries (4.8-yard average). In the past two weeks, he has racked up 272 yards and 2 touchdowns in losses to Berlin and Frankfurt.
German safety RICHARD YANCY â who spent the 2004 NFL season on the practice squad of the San Francisco 49ers â was named National Player of the Week after recording 5 tackles against Frankfurt, taking his season tally to 22 stops and 1 forced fumble.
Those figures have Yancy ranked first among national players in NFL Europe and third on the Fire defense.
Defensive Player of the Week honors went to Berlin Thunder cornerback JERMAINE MAYS, of the Indianapolis Colts.
âBig Play' Mays sealed Berlin's 27-16 victory over the Amsterdam Admirals by returning an interception 100 yards for a touchdown with seven seconds remaining to give the Thunder the tiebreaker edge over their Dutch rivals should it be needed in order to determine qualifiers for Yello Strom World Bowl XIII at the end of the 2005 season.
Mays ended the game having recorded 2 tackles, 1 interception, 4 passes defended and also recovering a fumble on special teams.
It marked the third time in the first half of the season that a Mays interception has either clinched victory for the Thunder or put them in position to win the game.
In Week 2, he preserved a 15-13 lead against the Hamburg Sea Devils by picking off Casey Bramlet at Berlin's 30-yard line with 54 seconds remaining. And in Week 4, he intercepted Fire quarterback Scott McBrien to give Berlin possession at Rhein's 12-yard line, from where Kevin Miller kicked a game-winning 31-yard field goal with 1:14 remaining.
Returning veteran Mays, who won a World Bowl ring with the Thunder in 2004 and leads NFL Europe with 3 interceptions, said: "I'm just trying to go out there and help my team. It doesn't matter to me if it's the end of the game or the first play of the game. I just want to make plays to help our defense when I have my opportunity. It just so happens that it has been at the end of some ball games."
TODD FRANCE (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) was named Special Teams Player of the Week for the third time in the season's opening five weeks after he led the Hamburg Sea Devils to a 23-6 defeat of the Cologne Centurions.
France converted 3 of 3 field goals, from 42, 33 and 29 yards, and added 2 of 2 PATs for an 11-point haul. At the season's halfway mark, France leads NFL Europe with 54 points, having converted 14 of 16 field goals, with a long of 54, and 11 of 11 PATs.
He remains on pace to smash the single-season records for points (85), field goal attempts (27) and successful field goals (23) set by former Barcelona Dragons kicker Scott Szeredy in 1995.
NFL EUROPE LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK AWARDS â WEEK 5
OFFENSIVE JOE SMITH RB Rhein
DEFENSIVE JERMAINE MAYS CB Berlin
SPECIAL TEAMS TODD FRANCE K Hamburg
NATIONAL RICHARD YANCY S Rhein
National Football League Europa Stories from May 3, 2005
- World Bowl race set to be a crowded one as season enters second half - NFLE
- Fire duo rewarded for efforts in losing cause - NFLE
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