This upcoming Sunday the SWARCO RAIDERS play their last regular season game of the 2015 Austrian Football League (AFL) season. The Oakland Raiders sister-team hosts the Prague Black Panthers in a fight for home-field advantage in the playoffs. Kickoff at Gernot Langes Stadium in Wattens is at 6:00 a.m. PT (3:00 p.m. CET).
"We have never lost at Wattens. And we want to keep it that way", said SWARCO RAIDERS head coach Shuan Fatah. "But we face a really tough task. Prague has given us fits in our first meeting a few weeks ago".
The Black Panthers (4-2) are in third place in the AFL, but have a chance to even jump to first place in the league standings with wins over the SWARCO RAIDERS (5-2) and the Vienna Vikings (5-1) in the upcoming weeks.
The SWARCO RAIDERS sit in second place (5-2) and have won five straight in the AFL after a horrendous start. They beat Graz (51-14) and the Vikings (30-17) at home, then defeated Prague (31-22) and Graz (50-34) on the road and won 58-6 against the Dragons at Wattens.
It was the Tyroleans eighth win in eight games at Wattens. They are a perfect 5-0 in AFL games at Wattens, scoring an average of 47.2 points per contest while giving up only 17 points per game. They played Prague at Wattens only once, beating the Black Panthers 56-14 in the 2012 EFL quarterfinals.
PLAYERS2WATCH:
#84 Clemens Erlsbacher (WR, SWARCO RAIDERS Tirol): In his last two games Clemens Erlsbacher caught 19 balls for 480 yards and 6 touchdowns. He missed the game at Prague due to injury. In that contest his replacement WR Max Tollinger had 6 catches for 113 yards.
#12 Sean Shelton (QB, SWARCO RAIDERS Tirol): Sean Shelton completed 30 of 49 passes for 383 yards with 2 touchdowns in the first game at Prague. On the season he completed 94 of 152 yards for 1,366 yards with 11 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. He also scored one rushing touchdown. His NFL quarterback rating is the best in the league (109.7).
Defensive Backs, SWARCO RAIDERS Tirol: The members of the SWARCO RAIDERS defensive backfield are the top four on the team in tackles. Alexander Achammer leads the team with 28 tackles, followed by Patrick Pilger (25.5), Enrico Martini (21.5) and Markus Krause (21). The foursome has also caught 13 of the team's 16 interceptions. Achammer leads the team with 5 picks, Pilger has 4 while Krause and Martini each have 2 picks.
