Impulse foil Deers’ latest comeback with last-second FG

YOKOHAMA (Oct. 30)—A stunned Panasonic had just seen the Lixil Deers pull off what would have been their latest and greatest comeback. Luckily for the Impulse, there was just enough time left to foil the bid.

Eita Saeki kicked a 38-yard field goal as time expired and Panasonic, which squandered a 30-3 lead, came away with a 33-31 victory in a nail-biting regular-season finale before 2,900 at Yokohama Stadium.

The Deers, who have earned a reputation for snatching last-minute  victories from the jaws of defeat, nearly outdid themselves when they struck for three touchdowns in a 3:25 span of the fourth quarter to take a 31-30 lead with 52 seconds left.

But that was enough time for veteran quarterback Tetsuo Takata to move the Impulse 47 yards in six plays and set up the winning kick by Saeki, who had also booted a 26-yarder to end the first half.

“In the second half, the natural thing was to try to use up the clock,” Panasonic head coach Nobuyoshi Araki said. “But the team as a whole went into defending mode. That’s our big regret.

“One thing that was lucky was that they left 52 seconds for us. I knew if there is a minute or so, we would be OK.”

Takata threw two touchdown passes and Shun Yokota ran for two scores in the first half as the Impulse finished 5-1 to earn the third seed in the playoffs. They will face the Asahi Beer Silver Star, while Lixil, which ended 4-2 and is seeded fourth, will take on the IBM BigBlue.

It was three weeks ago that the Deers notched their latest comeback victory, getting an interception and touchdown in the final minute to stun IBM 52-48. That had come after two miraculous finishes had put them into the final of the spring Pearl Bowl tournament.

On Sunday, the Deers dug themselves into a hole that would have seemed inescapable. Three of four Panasonic touchdowns came on drives started deep in Deers territory—two off interceptions and one following a long kickoff return by Emory Polley.

“In the first half, Panasonic’s defense put on a lot of pressure and their defensive backs were so quick,” Lixil head coach Kiyoyuki Mori said. “The offense in general and Kato didn’t stay patient. Even if we didn’t score or get a first down, we needed to stay patient and protect the ball. We didn’t do that.”

While the defense kept the Impulse offense in check in the second half, Yasuhiro Maruta cut the Impulse’s lead to 30-10 with a 1-yard touchdown plunge with 4:08 left in the third quarter.

But when the Deers failed to score on their next two possessions, even the most optimistic could hardly have believed a comeback was possible with only half a quarter remaining. Quarterback Shohei Kato, putting aside a dismal first half, was determined to give it his best shot.

Kato, who completed 27 0f 45 passes for 338 yards and three touchdowns, connected with Naoki Maeda on a 34-yard TD pass with 4:17 left to cap a 6-play, 72-yard drive to make it 30-17.

Panasonic recovered the onside kick, but was forced to punt and Lixil got the ball back on its own 20 with 2:16 left. The miracle really took flight when Kato hit Satoshi Ishige with a 51-yard bomb to put the ball on the Panasonic 29. Four plays after a 24-yard completion to Yasushi Nakagawa, Kato and Tomoya Okabe hooked up on a 2-yard touchdown pass with 1:10 left to make it a one-possession game.

Lixil got that possession when the Deers recovered Daisuke Aoki’s playbook-perfect onside kick at the Panasonic 38. With no timeouts, the Deers had to take whatever opportunity arose, and as fate would have it, they needed just two passes and 18 seconds to get the go-ahead score.

Nakagawa caught the first pass for a 36-yard gain, then took the second on the left side for a 2-yard touchdown that sent the Deers fans into a frenzy.

“I think that we got a little complacent,” said cornerback Polley. “Up 30-3, that’s the last thing you want to do. But I think that’s what happened. And they caught us in some bad situations. It just so happened that we called the wrong defense for a certain play and then we get beat.”

With a chance to pull off a comeback of their own, the Impulse were in good hands with veteran Takata at the helm, as he had led them to victory in the Japan X Bowl last season with a late drive. Center Edmond Davis, who had already started taking off his equipment, said he was confident in the 33-year-old QB.

“I put my stuff back on and I walk to Tetsu and I tell him, ‘Look here, no pressure, let’s drive right here and get into field goal range and win the game,’” Davis said.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Let’s go.’ Once he said that, I saw the look in his eyes, he was ready to play. We get our kicker in range, and we block for him, he can make it from the 40 and in.”

Starting at the 31, Takata ran for 10 yards, then completed five straight passes to put the ball on the Lixil 22. From there Saeki, who had an extra point blocked in the second quarter, put it through the uprights.

“In the second half, we came out and tried to move the ball,” Davis said. “We watched film, expecting them to make more adjustments. They came out and played a different defense. I give those guys kudos, they came out and made the adjustments and was able to keep us to three points in the second half.”

The first half could hardly have gone more the Impluse’s way. Ren Takeuchi’s diving interception of a Kato pass on the second play of the game led to a 4-yard touchdown pass from Takata to Taiji Koyama.

The Deers cut the lead to 7-3 when a blocked punt set up a 28-yard field goal by Aoki. On the previous drive, Impulse linebacker Kenta Saito stuffed Nakagawa on a 4th-and-1 gamble at the Panasonic 7.

Polley, who later had a kickoff return for a touchdown nullified by an illegal use-of-hands penalty, brought the ensuing kickoff back 49 yards to the Lixil 34. Six plays later, Takata threw his second touchdown pass, a 15-yarder to Tatsuya Tonka.

Kato then threw his second interception, this time with Taihei Ikari making the theft, and on the next play, Yokota broke free on a trap up the middle for a 43-yard touchdown run. The blocked PAT made it 20-3 with :21 left in the first quarter.

“We felt that we had a really good scheme coming in, so I would say that’s what happened in the first half,” Polley said. “It was a great showing by the defense in the first half.”

Takata, who finished 16 of 20 for 156 yards with no interceptions, engineered his first sustained drive late in the second quarter when he took the Impulse 80 yards in seven plays, with Yokota going the final 3 yards for his second touchdown.

The Impulse’s final points of the half, on Saeki’s first field goal, came after defensive lineman Makoto Kajiwara stripped Kato of the ball on a scramble and linebacker Shogo Matsunaga recovered at the Lixil 21 with 1:57 left.

Panasonic, whose lone loss was a 20-13 defeat by the unbeaten Fujitsu Frontiers in the fourth week, will now look to put together two good halves in the postseason.

“If we play like we did in the second half, we’re going to lose,” defensive end David Motu said. “But we’ll be ready in two weeks.”

—Ken Marantz for the X-League