Looking for the third playoff contender in the Gladiators’ and Dukes’ group, the perfect matchup was the Cowboys’ season opener in Ljubljana — and in it, they crushed the Silverhawks, announcing that another 3-win season is not in their plans.

Losing twice by a combined score of 8-51 to the Dukes in 2008, the Cowboys now come to Novi Sad with different things in mind. For them, it all started between seasons, when they hired an American head coach, and later brought in an import to play quarterback.

“As you know, every team plans to win every game. Certainly we were no different. We were happy with the win, but we made a lot of mistakes”, says the Cowboys’ new coach, Wally English.

English comes to Novi Sad with his new team, but not in Serbia for the first time. As a coach of the Belgrade Blue Dragons last year, he coached in the country for a few months, but it didn’t end well as he and the team parted ways around the midway point of the season. With a fresh start in Budapest, it’s been much better, but the Dukes are going to be a bigger challenge than the Silverhawks, especially because they would resent being 1-2 after the first three games.

“It is very difficult to evaluate the Dukes. They have many good players, and they are well coached. It is also difficult to determine a lot about their team, because of the game tape which we received on their game versus the Vukovi.”

The other part to their good start is the addition of an import quarterback — and after the first game, it made a lot of people following the league realize that in order to be successful, it’s becoming a must to have foreign players. In the game against the Silverhawks, Jack Lydic passed for over 300 yards and 4 touchdowns, which is still rare to see in the CEFL.

“I believe games are won and lost as a team. All of the quarterbacks I coached in the past had good pass protection. I have seen significant improvement in the offensive line and the defense. The receivers and the running backs are also better“, says English.

With the Dukes passing for over 300 yards themselves in their last game, although with two different quarterbacks, the game promises not only to be tense, but also fun to watch. Above all, the game in Novi Sad from 3PM will be much more meaningful than last year’s.