FRANKFURT, Germany -- Casey Bramlet threw for 347 yards and four touchdowns as the Hamburg Sea Devils held off the Frankfurt Galaxy 37-28 in the highest-scoring World Bowl on Saturday.
| Advertisement |
|||
| |||
Bramlet, allocated by the Washington Redskins, was honored as the MVP in leading Hamburg to its first NFL Europa championship.
He set a record with scoring strikes to wide receivers Justin Jenkins, Marcus Maxwell (twice) and Josh Davis. Maxwell, of the San Francisco 49ers, caught five passes for 127 yards.
"We made some big plays and once we got going we felt like we couldn't be stopped," Bramlet said.
"This is an awesome feeling," Sea Devils head coach Vince Martino added. "It was a battle and it felt like a heavyweight title fight at times. We had to keep on fighting and the Galaxy kept coming back at us."
J.T. O'Sullivan, of the Chicago Bears, threw for 299 yards and two touchdowns for the Galaxy in front of 48,125 mainly hometown fans at Commerzbank Arena.
"We didn't do a good job defensively," Galaxy head coach Mike Jones said. "We couldn't get off the field and Hamburg executed well and made a lot of plays. We weren't able to stop them."
Hamburg jumped ahead 13-0 in the first quarter as Bramlet connected with Jenkins from 3 yards out and with Maxwell on a 35-yard flea-flicker.
The Galaxy's first points came with 12:28 remaining in the first half as O'Sullivan hit wide receiver Robert Ortiz in the corner of the end zone on a 24-yard scoring play.
Bramlet moved the Sea Devils back downfield with three completions for 26 yards, before British running back Jermaine Allen scored on a tackle-breaking 33-yard run.
Frankfurt's response was immediate. O'Sullivan completed a 36-yard pass to running back Sha-ron Edwards before adding a 14-yard scramble to set up a 5-yard touchdown run by New York Giants-allocated running back DeCori Birmingham with 4:28 remaining in the first half.
The Sea Devils led 23-14 at halftime when Shane Andrus of the Indianapolis Colts converted a 24-yard field goal with three seconds to go.
Frankfurt pulled within two points on the opening drive of the second half as O'Sullivan lofted a 24-yard touchdown pass to Ortiz.
Hamburg built its lead as Bramlet faked a reverse to Jenkins before firing a 51-yard touchdown pass to Davis for 30-21. The Galaxy responded with a 2-yard scoring run by Edwards on the final play of the third quarter. Birmingham set up Frankfurt with a 40-yard kickoff return.
Bramlet threw his fourth touchdown pass with 10:59 left, a 10-yarder to Maxwell. Frankfurt had a chance to draw within one score with a little more than six minutes remaining but British kicker Rhys Lloyd's 45-yard field-goal attempt sailed right.
