The Vienna Vikings and Rhein Fire will face each other in the Championship Game 2024 of the European League of Footbal (ELF). On September 22nd in the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, the most dominant teams of the regular season will clash (Kickoff: 15:30 CET).

Rhein Fire were only beaten once, the Vienna Vikings not at all. It is already the second perfect regular season in a row for the Austrians.

But who will come out as a winner? We take a look at both teams and, more importantly, the stats they delivered during the regular season.

Quarterback

Let's start with the quarterbacks. Ben Holmes (Vikings) and Jadrian Clark (Fire) will face here. Both signal callers focus primarily on the pass in their style of play. Holmes threw 301 passes, of which 187 found their target for 2603 yards. An accuracy of 62.1 percent. Clark completed a total of 171 passes and threw 49 fewer passes than Holmes. His accuracy of 67.8 percent is accordingly higher. In total, Clark had 2215 passing yards.

In terms of touchdowns, however, Holmes has the edge. The US import threw a total of 34 touchdowns - the third most in the league. Clark had 27 touchdowns in an offense that is more focused on the run. He also threw eight interceptions, three more than Holmes.

What we should mention in this comparison: During the regular season, Holmes played two fewer games than his opponent.

Watch all ELF highlights here!

Running backs

One name alone is enough for Rhein Fire to win this category: Glen Toonga. The running back is one of the three ELF MVP nominees for good reason. Toonga ran for 1576 yards and an incredible 30 touchdowns this season. This makes him the leading rusher in the ELF. 

But there is still something happening behind Toonga.The Backups Sergej Kendus (427 yards, three touchdowns), Tyrone Alexander (163 yards, one touchdown) and wide receiver Kelvin McKnight Jr. (119 yards) also delivered in the rushing game. Rhein Fire totaled 2419 rushing yards - the league best.

The Vikings are still a top-10 rushing team in the ELF, but they can't keep up with the Rhein Fire's running power. The team ran for a total of 1886 yards. In the focus: Karri Pajarinen, who rushed for 1123 yards and 13 touchdowns.

But attention: Rhein Fire fumbled three balls, the Vikings only one.

Wide Receiver

With Reece Horn and Noah Touré, the Vikings have two of the top 10 receivers in terms of receiving yards in their team. Horn led the league for a long time but finished third in the league with 75 receptions for 1164 yards and 14 touchdowns. Teammate Touré contributed 50 catches for 836 yards and five touchdowns.  Also worth mentioning is Jordan Bouah, who only needed 17 catches for five touchdowns.

The best Rhein Fire receiver by stats is Kelvin McKnight Jr. The 27-year-old caught 49 balls for 691 yards and six touchdowns. He is followed by Halan Kwofie with 20 catches for 374 yards and also six touchdowns.  But again: Rhein Fire is a run focused offense.

Offensive Line

If you have a good rushing game, you either have an extremely good offensive line or a lot of individual quality among the running backs. Well, Rhein Fire has both.  Glen Toonga is a physical monster, but also gets a lot of space blocked. Rhein Fire also manages to protect their quarterback. The O-Line only allowed 13 sacks during the regular season. Only the Raiders Tirol (12) allowed less.

Vikings quarterback Holmes went down 22 times. Ninth place in the league.  The Vikings also look a little weaker in terms of run blocks. Still, a top-10 rushing offense has nothing to hide.

Watch the 2024 Championship Game with the Game Pass!

Pass Rush

Let's take a look at the pass rush. For Rhein Fire, former NFL player Aaron Donkor (8.5 sacks, 14 tackles for loss) and Janek Wenke (8 sacks, 12 tackles for loss) stand out in particular.  Both are top 5 pass rushers in the league. In total, the team has 29 sacks and 102 tackles for loss. 

The Vikings have similar stats, but the power is spread across several shoulders. The team's sack leaders are Nikolaus Terlitza (5.5 sacks, 12.5 tackles for loss) and Marvin Wappl (5.5 sacks, 10.5 tackles for loss).  In total, the Vikings pass rushers collected 43 sacks and 108 tackles for loss.

If we look at the forced fumbles, Rhein Fire is ahead with 11 fumbles. The Vikings defense forced seven.

Secondary

Two top teams also faced each other in the secondary. Rhein Fire allowed the second-fewest yards through the air with 1890 yards. The Vikings landed in 4th place in the league ranking with 1969 allowed yards.

Rhein Fire, together with Stuttgart Surge, allowed the fewest passing touchdowns in the league. The ball found its way into the end zone through a pass on only 10 plays. However, the Vikings only had 14. 

The most dominant players: Rhein Fires Tony Anderson with 14 pass breakups and Vikings Noel Swancar with 13 defended passes.

Rhein Fire also forced 13 interceptions. A total of 24 turnovers.  With 11 interceptions, the Vikings are also among the league top teams for interceptions.

Kicker

Dennis Tasic starts for the Vikings as Kicker. He has an accuracy rate of 64.3 percent for field goals.  In the points after touchdowns even 80.8 percent. Tasic scored a total of 65 points for his team.

Sebastian Van Santen is responsible for Rhein Fire. The kicker converted 80 percent of his field goals and 85.5 percent of his PATs.  He scored a total of 77 points for Fire.

Punter

Van Santen is also the punter for Rhein Fire. 26 punts were good for 913 yards.  That's an average of 35.1. yards per attempt. The longest was for 69 yards in the air. A total of seven went over 50 yards.

In Vienna, Benjamin Straight is responsible for punting. He collected 921 yards in 28 attempts, an average of 32.9 yards.  His longest ball flew 57 yards. Three balls went over 50 yards.

Returner

Both teams have powerful returners in their squads. The Vikings returned 27 punts for 397 yards in the regular season. Best returner was cornerback Exavier Edwards with nine returns for 176 yards. Rhein Fire only returned 21 punts, but still managed impressive 329 yards. The best man here was Kelvin McKnight Jr. who had 13 returns for 235 yards, the second most in the league.

Both are also strong on kickoff returns. The Vikings returned 29 kickoffs for 734 yards. The best returner here is Ken Hike Jr. with nine returns for 347 yards. One of them even went for 97 yards and a touchdown. Rhein Fire had 29 returns for 778 yards. The best returner was Marloshawn Franklin Jr. with twelve returns for 385 yards. Rhein Fire's kick return team is very strong in depth. Three returners ran for over 100 yards.

Coaches

Both coaches are legends of their teams and the ELF. Chris Calaycay has been head coach of the Vikings for over 20 years. Under him, the Vikings have already won the domestic championship 15 times, as well as an ELF title in 2022.

Jim Tomsula is on the sidelines for Rhein Fire. He has been active as a coach since 1989 and has even led the San Francisco 49ers as head coach in the NFL. He has also worked numerous assistant and coordinator jobs in the NFL. 

He has been in charge of Rhein Fire since 2022. Under Tomusla, the team missed the playoffs in the first year and secured the title in the second year.

Get your tickets for the 2024 Championship Game here!

Conclusion

Both teams show strengths in completely different areas of the game. They also bring a lot of individual quality and outstanding coaches to the table. On paper, it looks like an even matchup. "It will be a nailbiter till the last minute", predicted Commissioner Patrick Esume.