*Wide receiver Carlton Brewster is one of a handful of Green Bay Packers allocated to NFL Europa this spring.
Brewster is a starter for the Berlin Thunder, and after seven games he currently leads the league in receiving yards with 485, on 30 receptions. His statistics have dropped off from a fast start, and as Berlin lost to Frankfurt and Hamburg the past two weeks, Brewster had just two catches in each game, for 113 total yards.
Berlin hosts Frankfurt on Saturday, and the game will be televised live on NFL Network at 11 a.m. (CT).
Packers.com will post periodic diary entries from Brewster about his experiences in Europe with his "springtime" team. Here is the fourth installment:*
It's very frustrating to lose these games just because a lot of guys here are very competitive, and this is a league where this could be the opportunity for us to get a taste of something close to the Super Bowl with the World Bowl. Last week was a real close game, 17-7. The week before we got dominated, really, and it was very frustrating coming into Frankfurt and losing 35-7. Last week's loss hurt too because we know we should have won.
We came out against Hamburg and were playing well, but the momentum shifted and we couldn't come back. We were winning early when they ran a bubble screen, but instead of a bubble screen, the guy who was blocking our corner just went upfield, so it was like a fake bubble screen-fade, and they scored on that fluke play. After that, we couldn't get it back in our hands, we couldn't bounce back from that play.
As far as off-the-field things, when we were in Frankfurt we just walked around downtown and went to different stores. But we don't shop much. It's so expensive here. You'll pay 90 or 100 euros for a pair of shoes, and 100 euros here is like $130 at home. Everything is expensive.
Last week we went to a concentration camp, and that really touched everybody on the team, to go where that history was. Growing up in elementary and middle school, and high school, you always heard about concentration camps and how so many people suffered over here during those times. And going there I learned there were a lot of different people who suffered. It wasn't only Jews, but a lot of different ethnicities, others from around Europe. We saw some of the bunk beds, and there was this room, no bigger than my hotel room, and they said up to 400 people had to bathe and shower and use the restrooms in 30 minutes. Up to 400 people would be going in and out of that room. That was crazy.
{sportsad300}We're home this week, we play Frankfurt again. Hopefully we can come out with a win. The last few weeks, the catches and yards I've been disappointed, because every week I feel like I could have an eight-catch, 150-yard game with two touchdowns. I feel like I could do that every week.
What's been different is the first four games we were going about 60-40 pass-run, now all of a sudden we've changed and shifted. It's more 65 run, 35 pass. I don't know if it's our quarterbacks, our O-line, or just the coach seeing something else. I don't know what it is. It's not in my hands. I just have to go out there and play.
I'm such a competitor I want the ball all the time, but I have no control over that, and it's hard, especially when we're losing ballgames. I feel if I can have the ball more in my hands, I can help this team out. So it's no change of defensive schemes or anything like that. We shifted our play-calling, and we're running the ball way, way more than we did at the beginning of the season.
I'd like to finish the season leading the league in yards, and also block well as a receiver in these last three games.
