Playoff Preview: IBM gets big reinforcement for rematch with Lixil

For the third time this year, the X-League’s version of rock ‘em-sock ‘em robots hits the field when the Lixil Deers and IBM BigBlue clash in the featured game of the Japan X Bowl tournament quarterfinals this weekend.

The last time these two explosive teams faced each other, the never-say-die Deers put on the latest and greatest of their miracle comebacks, with Shohei Kato’s sixth touchdown pass of the game with 42 seconds left giving Lixil a 52-48 victory on Oct. 9.

But standing in Kato’s path this time will be IBM defensive end James Brooks, who missed the regular-season game with an undisclosed injury but will return to the lineup Saturday at Yokohama Stadium. It was a lack of pressure in October that allowed Kato to put on his aerial barrage.

“In the pass rush and the run stop, I’m expecting him to make a big impact,” IBM head coach Shinzo Yamada said of Brooks, adding he expects the Deers to make moves to neutralize the big defensive end.

“But they know that James will be playing, so they will think about a lot of things, I’m sure, so it won’t be easy. I expect James to play well, but obviously the Lixil offense will think about how to stop him. It’s going to be a big challenge for us.”

Kato and the Deers are quite familiar with how the 195-cm, 123-kg Brooks can loom large in a game. In the final of the spring Pearl Bowl tournament in June, Brooks batted down a Kato pass when Lixil opted to go for a 2-point conversion after scoring with :48 left, preserving a 21-20 victory for the BigBlue for their first-ever major title.

“We have played so many times, this is going to be the third time we have to play them [this year],” Yamada said. “We know them very well, and they know us very well. So it’s a matter of who plays better.”

Lixil finished the regular season 4-2 to earn the fourth seed in the playoffs, while IBM ended 3-3 and was seeded No. 5. The winner will advance to the semifinals on Nov. 27, when it will face the victor of the clash between the unbeaten Fujitsu Frontiers or the Asahi Soft Drinks Challengers.

“We thought about the possibility [of facing Lixil again],” Yamada said. “We didn’t know for sure, but we were expecting it. I’m happy to get the opportunity to play them again.”

Yamada said that with Brooks back, IBM will have its full cast of characters healthy and available for the first time this season. Another major absence had been quarterback Kevin Craft, who sat out the first three games due to a shoulder injury suffered in the spring.

“Finally we are back to full strength,” Yamada said. “We have everybody in this playoff, finally. We had Kevin banged up, we had James banged up. I’m really glad we have them back for the playoffs, which is the most important thing right now.”

One concern for Yamada this season has been ball security. Craft and rookie quarterback Yuki Masamoto have combined for a league-high 13 interceptions this season. It was an interception when IBM was trying to run out the clock that led to Lixil’s winning touchdown earlier this season.

“I talk to [Craft] a lot about it,” Yamada said. “Sometimes it’s on him, sometimes it’s on the receivers, so I just can’t say that it’s Kevin’s fault or anything. But ball security is the biggest thing that we have to concentrate on. It’s always going to be like that.

“But we can’t play afraid, we have to play aggressive in order to beat Lixil. We can’t just say, hey, ball security every time. We just have to play aggressive and not be afraid of making mistakes.”

IBM topped the league by averaging 418.3 total yards per game, with Lixil second with 402.0. Lixil was the top scoring team, with an average of 40.7 per game, while IBM was second with 33.8. Conversely, IBM gave up 23.2 points per game, which ranked 16th in the 18-team league, while Lixil’s 22.7 put it 14th.

So it comes as no surprise that Yamada expects another high-scoring affair, even though, as a former linebacker himself, he would prefer keeping the points to a minimum.

“I’m a defensive guy, so I don’t want a high-scoring game,” he said. “I don’t know, but it probably will be a high-scoring game. We’d like to keep it low. Either way, those guys always match the opponent in the fourth quarter if they get a chance. Either way, it will be a tough game.”

Kato, against whom no lead seems safe, led all passers by completing 125 of 202 passes for 1,510 yards and 15 touchdowns. He has thrown six interceptions. The Deers had three wide receivers with 20 or more receptions: Kento Suzuki (22), Yasushi Nakagawa (21) and Katsuya Nagakawa (20), and other trio with 10 or more.

Ex-college foes to clash again

While the Lixil-IBM game can be considered a toss-up as far as a favorite, the three other playoff games are a bit more straightforward.

In addition to Fujitsu (6-0) taking on Asahi Soft Drinks (3-4), which advanced with a victory in the wild-card playoff, the Obic Seagulls (6-0) play the other wild-card winner, the Elecom Kobe Finies (3-4), in the opening game of Saturday’s tripleheader at Yokohama Stadium.

The other quarterfinal pits the defending champion Panasonic Impulse (5-1) against the Asahi Beer Silver Star (3-3) on Sunday at Osaka’s Banpaku Stadium.

While the two teams did not face each other during the regular season, Fujitsu quarterback Colby Cameron is acquainted with one member of the Asahi Soft Drinks secondary.

In 2012, Cameron was the star quarterback at Louisiana Tech when the Bulldogs faced a Rice Owls team that included safety Paul Porras, who joined Asahi Soft Drinks this season. Cameron threw for four touchdown passes in leading Louisiana Tech to a 56-37 victory, for which he was named Western Athletic Conference player of the week.

“He is a very good QB with a strong arm,” Porras said. “His knowledge of the game sets him apart from other QBs in the league.

“They are a solid offense overall. Multifaceted and can score at will. Our offense needs to control the clock and keep their offense off the field.”

Porras said the Challengers have the ability to pull off what would be a remarkable upset.

“My team needs to believe in our abilities and know that we can in fact beat Fujitsu if we trust in the coaching and stay focused.”

Elecom and Obic will be playing for the second time in two weeks, as they ended the regular season with the Seagulls notching a harder-than-expected 20-14 victory that should boost Finies’ hopes of pulling a surprise.

“We were given a chance to face Obic again,” Elecom head coach Ryota Kano said after the wild-card win over the As One Black Eagles. “On offense, it will depend on the effectiveness of our quarterback duo [Masato] Kinoshita and [Keijiro] Kasuya, and how the defense plays as a unit centered on linebackers [Hirotoshi] Kayama and [Yuki] Ikeda.”

The Panasonic-Asahi Beer game will be a rematch of a second-stage clash from last season, in which the Impulse broke a 14-14 tie and pulled away for a 38-14 victory.

One of the Impulse’s concerns this season has been its ability to score touchdowns in the red zone. That had led to a league-high 19 field goal attempts, of which Eita Saeki or occasionally his brother Shintaro, made 15, including several from 50 yards and out.

—Ken Marantz for the X-League