Our first matchup of the day is between the Montreal Royal and Chicago Outlaws. The Royal come into today’s game having upset the Las Vegas Bandits last week, and are looking to head to their second consecutive Furbowl with a win against Chicago. The Outlaws finished their regular season on a five game win streak, and despite a close call against California are still a force to be reckoned with. Montreal wins the coin toss, and has elected to defer. Tyler Kim kicks off, and Ellsworth Starr is back for the return. He takes it out of the end zone, down the middle of the field, breaks a tackle, and is finally down after a 35 yard return. A promising start for the Outlaws, and they’re immediately gifted 15 more when cornerback Pat Snow is flagged for taunting after celebrating knocking down Darius Smith’s first pass. Fortunately, the rest of Montreal’s defense bails out their teammate, holding Chicago and forcing a punt.

On Montreal’s first possession, Tyron Appleby drops back on first down, only for J.J. White to come through the line completely untouched and just absolutely level him for an 11 yard loss. After the sack, the Royal get a big chunk of it back when Appleby connects with Ralph Ellison for a 17 yard gain, but they can’t convert on third down and have to punt the ball right back. This time, the Outlaws are pinned at their own 8 yard line. However, that doesn’t mean all that much when you have Smith’s cannon of a throwing arm. He dropped back, and fires an a dime of a pass to Ricky Mitchell for 41 yards, putting them right back to midfield where they’d left off last time. They’d pick up another first down on a pass to Nick Baker, but three straight Tremblay rushes went for a grand total of four yards against the stout Royal run defense, setting up a long field goal attempt. Thalia Perez’s kick hooks wide right, only her second miss at 50+ yards of the season.

The Royal take over at their own 40 yard line, and move into Chicago territory on a facemask penalty. However, Appleby gets sacked by Everett Simms on a safety blitz on second down, leading to a 3rd and 12. They send out plenty of protection for Appleby: two tight ends AND their fullback, with Vito Ligustica on the sidelines. However, they fake out the Chicago defense, handing the ball off to fullback Lee Cooper for a running play. He hits a hole to the right, stiff-arms a defender, and slips past the safety to take it into the end zone. It’s only his second career touchdown, and the 29 yard rush is easily the longest of his career.

After holding Chicago to another three-and-out, Montreal gets the ball on their own 25 yard line. They pick up a first down on a 16-yard catch by Keonte Hughes, his first of the day, and then jump all the way to the Outlaws red zone on a 37 yard weaving Lugistica run. On second down, Appleby finds Hughes wide open in the end zone, but he drops what would have been an easy touchdown. On the next play, they go right back to Hughes, and this time he actually comes down with the ball…only for it to be called back for offensive holding. They have to settle for a field goal, making the score 10-0 heading into the second quarter.

Chicago starts out the second quarter by going three-and-out again. However, Rodger Blackman booms a 65 yard punt that Chicago downs at the 2 yard line. Pinned deep in their own red zone, the Royal elect to run the ball a couple of times to get more space for throwing. And get more space they do, as Ligustica has two consecutive 10-yard-plus runs to bring them all the way out to the 27. Unfortunately, on the next play linebacker Julius Coronado jumps in front of tight end Herbert Blunt for an interception, and takes it all the way in for a pick-six. On their next possession, Montreal decides to give Ligustica a breather and run with backup Kent Struck. However, he’d not able to get anything going, and they have to punt the ball back to the Outlaws. The interception seems to have rattled the Montreal defense somewhat, as they get flagged twice for holding, both times giving Chicago a free first down. Fortunately, the drive stalls out with two straight incompletions, and they have to try for a field goal again. This time, Perez is right on the money from 45 yards to tie the game.

The remainder of the quarter is fairly uneventful, with both teams trading three-and-outs back and forth, until a short punt gives the Outlaws good field position with 48 seconds to go in the half. Smith connects with Nick Baker for 17 yards right off the bat, but they aren’t able to pick up much more than that, forcing Thalia Perez to attempt a 53-yard field goal for the lead, one yard shy of her season high. Once again, she is wide right, and we head to halftime with the score all tied up, 10-10.

The second half doesn’t start particularly auspiciously for the Royal. Lita Stevens gets flagged for offensive holding on the first play from scrimmage, pushing them all the way back to their own 15. However, Ligustica would get it all back and more on the next play, rushing for a 15 yard gain. From there, it was the Tyron Appleby show. He’d connect with Ralph Ellison and Kirklin Shields for three pass plays of 10 or more yards, marching the team right down the field and into the red zone for a first and goal. It’s actually the first time they’ve been in the Chicago red zone all day. They run a TE post play on first down, and Appleby connects with rookie Erik Sulzbach for an easy touchdown.

Once again, the Outlaws take advantage of defensive penalties to keep their drive going. Montreal gets flagged for encroachment, and then get caught with too many players on the field on second down, setting up a third and inches. Knowing that they’d expect a sneak or a rush from Tremblay, the Outlaws run a play-action pass, trying to throw over the middle to Tremblay for a big gain. The pass is broken up, however, and they elect to just punt the ball away instead of trying for it on fourth down.

Both teams end up having to punt on their next possessions. Chicago’s punt, unfortunately, is very short, only 31 yards, giving the Royal their best starting field position of the game so far, already inside Chicago territory. Ligustica gets the drive started with a big 10-yard first down on the ground. Then, it’s Chicago’s turn to gift Montreal some free yardage. Patrice Bush gets flagged for a late hit on Appleby on 2nd down, a fifteen yard penalty that moves the Royal to the Chicago 21 yard line. The Outlaws defend makes an excellent stand, however, forcing two incomplete throws and standing Ligustica up at the line of scrimmage to hold them to just a field goal. With one quarter left to play, Montreal has a ten point lead, 20-10. Does Chicago have enough in them to close a two-score deficit, or are the Royal going to have a chance to defend their Furbowl title?

The fourth quarter opens with, guess what….more punting! There’s only one first down from either team in the first three minutes of the quarter. At the end of one series, Rodger Blackman shanks his punt for the second time. He doesn’t give Montreal quite as good field position as last time – they’re on their own side of midfield, at least – but Chicago really doesn’t need to be giving the Royal short fields when they’re already down. On first down, Appleby lines up under center, takes the snap, and drops back to throw….no! It’s a Statue of Liberty play, and Chicago’s taken the bait! Lee Cooper comes in motion and grabs the ball behind him, and is off to the races! He’s at the 40, the 30…they’re not going to catch him! Touchdown, Royals! It’s a 57 yard run, the longest rush in Montreal playoff history. The extra point kick is good, and Montreal has a three-score lead with 11 minutes to play.

Chicago needs Darius Smith to kick things into overdrive to have a chance to get back into this game. Something seems to be wrong, though. He misses three of his next four throws, and misses them badly. The defense does a good job at stopping Ligustica and preventing the Royal from just running down the clock, but if Smith can’t make his throws then they’re really in trouble. Making things even worse for the Outlaws, Thalia Perez’s kicking issues continue to plague them. They decide to kick a field goal on fourth and five instead of going for it (they need a field goal as well as the touchdowns anyway), and she’s once again off the mark, missing from 45 yards. They get another chance when Patrice Bush picks off Appleby on Montreal’s next possession, and this time Perez puts it through the uprights. But time is quickly running out. Smith starts to finally complete his passes, but they’re not the downfield bombs that the team really needed. Worse, several times the receiver fails to make it out of bounds, forcing them to burn their time outs. It’s all a case of too little, too late for the Outlaws. The buzzer sounds, and Montreal is headed to the Furbowl! Final score: MTL 27, CHI 13

-Write up quarter by quarter by Pythos-