This week we travelled to Sheffield to play the Nottingham Bears and Nottingham Honey Badgers. Again we had some key players missing so we knew we needed to bring in some reinforcements, Richard Keates in at QB for the missing Lewis Jaundrell and Nick Logan in for Jamie Lyness at Blitzer to make their BAFA debuts.

First game of the day saw us come up against a tough Nottingham Bears team. Jake Shaw got the first touch down of the game and followed it up with the extra point. The Bears were straight back into it and scored on their drive but missed the point after. The first half was very back and fourth with both teams struggling to put points on the board. Richard Keates threw to Matt Anderson for the next touch down and extra point. But again the Bears hit right back just before half time with a touch down of their own but again missing the point after. After a half time team talk Danny Meir and Dean Leaver inspired the boys to up their performance in the second half and get the win. With the Bears getting the ball back in the second half it was up to the defense to keep them out of the Revs half and with a sack by Nick Logan on 3rd down meant they had to go long on 4th but our defense did what they needed and the Revs got the ball back. But we were stuck in our own half on 4th down Richard Keates threw a deep ball to Jake Shaw that would have been a certain touch down but it bounced awkwardly off him and he just couldn’t keep hold of it. With frustration setting in we needed another big performance from the defense and that’s what we got with some great tackling from Calvin Strong and then an interception from Adam Gray which then led to a Danny Meir touch down with Jake Shaw getting the PAT. This then led to two more touch downs from Jake Shaw thanks to Dean Leaver and Mathew Pritchard both getting an interception and giving the offense another go at scoring. The game finished 41-19 to the Revs. After a rocky start to the first half the Revs were able to get back into the game and put a great score up against a tough Nottingham Bears team.

The second game of the day was against the newly renamed Nottingham Honey Badgers. We had played the Honey Badgers once before in the NuOla Indian Summer tournament where they just got the better of us (winning by a single point) so we knew just how difficult of a game this could be especially as like us they had gone unbeaten in the previous 2 game days. The game started very much how we expected with both teams turning over on downs. The Revs were the first to get some points on the board with a huge safety by Nick Logan. With the offense back with the ball Jake Shaw, Danny Meir and Dean Leaver helped get us back into the Badgers half. But on 4th down Richard Keates got sacked and the Badgers got the ball back. The Badgers scored but didn’t get the extra point. Our offense just couldn’t break their defense and the Badgers went on to score 2 more touch downs. The Revs needed to score before half time to keep us in the game, Richard Keates found Jake Shaw who ran in and got us the touch down we needed and followed up with the extra point. In the second half the Revs started with the ball, Richard Keates threw a 22 yard pass to Jake Shaw that got us into the Badgers half and lead to a Danny Meir touch down but we couldn’t follow up with the PAT. The Revs were down by 3 points with about 3 minutes left on the clock but the defense doing all they could but just couldn’t stop a good Badgers offense from scoring again but they did manage to stop from getting the PAT again. The offense being back on the ball it was Matt Anderson who went in for the next touch down and Jake Shaw getting the extra point putting us just 2 points behind the Badgers with about a minute left on the clock. The Badgers got the ball back and did what they could to run the clock down but with 30 seconds left there was a huge 4th down tackle by Mathew Pritchard giving the Revs a chance at winning the game. It just wasn’t to be with the Badgers intercepting the ball on 3rd down and that being the last play of the game. The game finished 28-30 to the Nottingham Honey Badgers. Incredible come back from the boys but it just wasn’t enough to beat the Badgers taking us to the first Revs loss of the season.