James Broyles - NFLE Diary
By Rams Nation's George Pate & James Broyles
The actual travelling to Frankfurt actually went OK and we had a bit of time
in the city before the game to catch some of the sights. We had about three
hours free time to wander around the down town area, it was a very interesting
city to visit. Unfortunately my wife couldn’t go on this trip but she
will be with us on the final two road trips of the season.
In the first half of the game we were unstoppable offensively, it was 21-6
at the half and we were in control. We had pretty much done as we had wanted
in the first half, but they are a well coached team and they went in at the
half and made adjustments. They came out in the second half and made some good
drives , but they had some luck too. They picked off a couple of interceptions
that were basically flukes. On the first the D lineman mistimed his jump and
was on the way down when the ball just tipped his fingers and went to another
of their players. The second one , we are driving out from the end zone and
Craig lets go the ball and it’s tipped, the guys hand is lying on the
ground and the ball basically falls into it. It just shouldn’t happen
that you gain 500 yards of offense and put two guys over 100 yards rushing and
still end up losing the game. But I guess that proves that football is a team
sport and that all the parts of the team have to play their part.
I had a chance to catch up with my old team mate Luis Almanzar both before
and after the game on Sunday , he is doing great. We had a great time catching
up on each others stories .
We all had a couple of days off after the road trip and a lot of the guys took
the chance to travel and see some other parts of the country. My fellow Rams
allocate Robbie Robinson went down to London, some guys went to Edinburgh and
FB Mike Malan went to Dublin. My wife and I hired a car and visited a few more
of the wonderful historical sights in Scotland. On Monday we visited Inverary
Castle the home of Clan Campbell and also Inverary Jail which is run as a tourist
attraction . Tuesday we travelled up to Doune Castle which was the location
for a number of scenes in the film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.
I think it did everybody good to get away from football for a couple of days
after a couple of tough losses.
We have been having some problems on the kicking team, it’s nothing I
can put my finger on. We know that Rob is a great kicker and he’s been
doing it for a long time and we know he has kicked well for the team in the
past and he will come through. This week in practice we have been staying on
and doing extra kicking practice and I think things have gone really well.
The team realise that this week is pretty much it, we have to win and do well
otherwise , while the season won’t be over , we know we realistically
that won’t be going to the World Bowl.
I try and keep up with news from the Rams, I talk to the guys back there during
the week and hear what’s been happening . I heard this week that Tackle
Gary Hobbs had been released, he was on the practice squad at the end of the
season but I didn’t know him real well.