Week 1 (Flamers 55, Bills 6)

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The Frankfurt Flamers opened their third season Sunday at home against the Buffalo Bills.  Who would have known that the Flamers could improve upon even last season.  The Flamers defense, which ranked last in the NFL on third down situations, held Doug Flutie and the Bills to only 4 for 19 on 3rd down conversions, and 0 for 2 on 4th down.  The defense also held the Bills to no touchdowns through the entire game.  The closest the Bills came to a TD was late in the 4th quarter down 48-6 when Flutie lobbed a pass into the end zone that was intercepted by now both wide receiver and safety Nelly Sweeney, last year's MVP of the league where in this game, she intercepted two passes on defense and caught 7 passes for 112 yards.  Quarterback Steve Marcucci, with only a small lull early in the second half, continued to barrage the Bills defense with medium to deep passes throughout the game.  He threw 22 completions for a total of 454 yards and 3 touchdowns, all of the touchdowns to second-year WR James DeLuca.  DeLuca was voted the player of the game with 12 catches, a whopping 290 yards and 3 touchdowns, including a 91 yard TD reception, all of those categories he now leads the NFL in.  On defense he intercepted a pitch from Doug Flutie and returned it 61 yards for a touchdown, his 3rd of 4 total scores in the game.  However because it was not a forward pass from Flutie, DeLuca was not credited with an interception, which would have been the first of his NFL career.  He did, however, get his first NFL sack in the third quarter.  Chris Klessens, Kristjan Justesen, Bryce Read, Ben Smith[r](2), James DeLuca, and Tito (3) all recorded sacks in the defensive gem to total 10 sacks on Flutie.  Marcucci was sacked 8 times, but still left the game with a QB rating of 123.2, second in the NFL to Chris Miller of Chicago.  Harold Currier looked promising rushing the ball in his first NFL start at RB, where he rushed 16 times for 45 yards, and 3 touchdowns.  The defensive MVP of the game went to Tito, who made 8 tackles including 3 sacks.  James DeLuca fell short of being the defensive MVP, which would have made him the first NFL player in over 20 years to be named both Offensive and Defensive MVP in the same game.  The Flamers are now ranked 1st in the NFL by 32 points in the Power Poll.