After the long Christmas break the UWE Bullets had an early fixture due to a game cancellation against the Swansea Titans. The first game was cancelled due to the pitch being deemed unplayable.

Sunday 29th Janurary was not much different with heavy rain all week, gameday rain, and a icy side wind, made for a old school, helmet to helmet, fight for the inch match up.

Rookie QB JJ Davies Final Whistle Reaction

The day did not start off great when both teams had no changing rooms, and the ambulance turned up late. After the wait the game finally kicked off with both teams having been in the conditions for nearly three hours. This however did not show during the first quarter which set the tone for the rest of the game. With neither team even attempting a pass, and with 9 in the box, the run games were finding it hard to even cross the line of scrimmage!

Captains Coin Toss

The UWE Bullets, however, were having slightly more success with a few first downs, but no drive was able to be sustained with the continued pressure from the ever improving Titans defense making key tackles for a loss to kill the UWE drives around midfield. Neither team got close to the redzone and the quarter ended 0-0.

Leading Tacklers Bateman and Zoheb

The second quarter started with more of the same. With lots of plays being stuffed in the backfield it was going to take something exceptional to break the deadlock. With nine minutes to go in the half that exceptional play came from UWE’s rookie running back Jamiel Tinto playing in his first BUAFL game. He took the hand off on a run right, cut back left to an opening and outran the Titans defense for a massive 68 yard touchdown. The PAT snap was poor and the UWE Kicker tried to make a play of it but his pass fell incomplete. This however did not change the game and the defenses ended the half setting the tone and the half ended 6-0 to the unbeaten UWE Bullets.

Oline and guests

With a short break due to weather and the late kick off the UWE Bullets got the ball to start the second half. This quarter was played in the middle of the field with a few first downs for both teams however neither team could work their way into the redzone for a scoring chance. The Titans defense was really starting to wear down the UWE running game at this point and the UWE defense was dominating the line of scrimmage. The third quarter ended with the same scoreline of 6-0 to the UWE Bullets.

Rookie Jamiel Tinto Winning TD

The fourth quarter started with UWE driving the ball with the best drive of their day. For the first time in the game the UWE Bullet offense managed to work its way just inside the Titans redzone. However after a 30 yard penalty and a player ejection the UWE Bullets found themself punting the ball back to the Titans offense. At this point UWE rookie RB Jamiel Tinto who seemed to be the only back able to handle the pitch conditions was struggling with the weather. The UWE coaching staff decided for his health to send him inside to warm up. With these loses the UWE Bullets turned to two more rookies Matt James (OLine) and Jack Austin (Running back) to see if they could step up in this knife edge game. After another stop by the shut out Bullets defense, the Bullets offense took the field with four minutes left in the game. Jack Austin had three key rushes including two first down runs to take some needed time off the clock, as well as staying in bounds to make the Titans use some of their time outs. The drive ended with a great defensive stop on a 4th down with the game on the line. The Titans got the ball back for one last chance and 65 yards to go. With not one pass having been thrown up to this point, the Swansea coaching staff called two screen plays where Titans QB Chris Aldred tried with two hands to forward pitch the ball which both fell short. The conditions were getting worse and with a 3rd and 10 the Titans QB dropped back and hit a 10 yard out pattern perfectly for the only completion of the day to keep the chains moving. This was to be the Titans final first down, with the UWE defense holding strong to win the game 6-0.

Rookie DE Jason Brooks

The UWE Bullets would like to give a special thank you to Jeff Stanford for coming all the way to take pictures and to the UWE Comet Cheerleaders who were there all game and were as loud at the end as they were at the start.

UWE Comets

The Bullets defense has now not let in any points for 16 quarters of football and the whole team is looking forward to Bristol American Football Varsity on Feb 12th at Beggars Bush, Clifton.