With a very short week for the Power, we will be combining the review and preview into one post.
Let me start by making two things clear:
- It wasn’t as bad as it might seem this weekend and
- I’m never calling a sure-thing game again.
Power/Sharks Recap
Yes, the Power lost another heart-breaker at home Saturday night, but the game honestly unfolded just about as I suspected, and I think that they accomplished some of the objectives that I’d hoped they would.
From the start, the odds were horrendously stacked against them. On our side of the ball, we had a shaky and fairly inexperienced QB. On their side, they had the AFL’s all-time leading passer, totaling more than 26 miles in his long, 17-year history. Experienced team/expansion team. The list goes on.
In my preview, I tried to prepare us for a loss without being blunt about it – but it was my assumption heading into this week. As I had said, I hoped to see us working on team cohesion as well as getting Morelli some confidence behind center, since he might be there awhile, and honestly, I think that we accomplished that.
The game started with a back-and-forth, call-and-response style of scoring. As I said to the spare Mr. Keller attending the game with me, the bad thing about games like that is that usually the team that breaks the pattern first loses. Sure enough, late in the second quarter, the Power broke the pattern.
Up until then, Morelli was looking far, far more confident behind center than I think he has all season. On paper, he had a fantastic game where he held his own against a great quarterback. His completion percentage wasn’t the best, but he threw 290 yards for 5 touchdowns, no interceptions – Garcia only collected 7 more yards and the same number of touchdowns (according to the Arena league’s post-game stats page.)
He seemed a lot less afraid to throw this week. He made 36 attempts, and completed 20 of them. Again, not fantastic, but the yards still added up. He also got a 42 yarder to Willis and a 45 yarder to DeWalt – both for touchdowns. I’m still not super-psyched to have Morelli as our QB, but I’m a lot less worried than I was going into this week.
So, if he was so great, where did it go wrong? Like a lot of games, there were a lot of causes, but in this one, I can pinpoint the exact moment where the team checked out. After that great back-and-forth opening series, there was one drive late in the 2nd where nothing went right for Pittsburgh.
Mathis made a 12-yard return that got called back to the 4 because of a holding call. First pass was incomplete, but Rue was holding – back to the two. Three more incompletes, and then Morelli got lost. Two delay of game calls in a row ensued as he tried to figure out what was going on, and they backed up to the 1. Another incomplete turned the ball over on downs.
This was the first drive that they didn’t score, and they turned it over to Jacksonville on the one-yard line (Note: there is no punting in Arena Football) and let them score. After another set of disjointed downs (one completion in four), Jax had it back and closed out the half with a field-goal. There were bursts of energy in the second half, but the fight was out of them. Even though they almost doubled their score before the end, it was no match for Aaron Garcia and his Sharks.
As I mentioned earlier, on paper Garcia and Morelli had very similar games and the same is also true of the receiving corps. The differences that changed the game were in the spots that the Sharks were able to complete and we failed. Both teams had three 4th-down attempts. Jacksonville converted all three, Power converted none. Jacksonville sacked Morelli 4 times; Power didn’t manage to get to Garcia at all. Jacksonville was 10-10 in the redzone. The Power was 50%.
Morelli and the rest still have a lot to work on moving forward, that much is obvious. For one thing, they were having trouble with the concept of “If it doesn’t work, try something else.” Case and point, on the ill-fated “drive” that took us out of the game, 3 of the 4 passes before the delay-of-game calls were short to Washington on the outside. Now, we can question the wisdom of throwing shortest man on the team three times while balancing on your own goal line all day, but the crux of the matter is that they shouldn’t have run any play that many times in quick succession if it wasn’t working. I assume that we all know the definition of insanity?
Morelli is getting more confident, but he still needs to work on it. I’m not sure if people just need to stop him on the street and tell him he’s awesome, or if Coach Siegfried needs to do some team-building trust exercises or what, but something’s got to happen. I’m not holding my breath that we’re going to see Morris again, and McCabe is gone for the forseeable. This might be our starter, whether we like it or not.
In the Tampa Bay game Friday night, Coach Dave Ewart made a comment about a mistake his QB made that was something to the effect of, “Well, the great thing about young guys is that they forget quickly.” Morelli needs to work on forgetting. Yeah, that drive was a total cluster, but it shouldn’t have been the end of the game. He took his finger off the button at that moment, and never managed to get it back on again.
If he can keep his focus and if the defense can, maybe, hold on to a few of the balls thrown right to them by opposing QBs, I think we’ll be in good shape. The receivers are there, Rue is standing by to lumber where he needs to go, and Morelli can throw the bombs when he’s feeling good.
Yes, we lost this week – but with a lot of help from around the league, we stayed definitively in second place in the division. We have another short week this week as we gear up to travel to New Orleans on Thursday for a little Easter Weekend football.
Power at New Orleans
Boy, I’d really like to say that this will be an easy week. Coming into this past weekend, the Voodoo were at the bottom of the Arena League –winless, directionless and hapless. Even firing their offensive coordinator early and bringing in former QB Raymond Philyaw to replace him didn’t seem to be making much of a difference. Forgetting what the winless Mustangs did to the Soul, and what the winless Talons did to us, I called the game against the Gladiators to be a solid loss.
Is it a crime to be wrong?
The Gladiators were one of the only remaining undefeated teams in the league, and the unchallenged leaders in our division. The Voodoo, frankly, seemed unsure how to play football. Could there have been any doubt how that game would end up? Yet, somehow, some way, they beat Cleveland 34-33. On the road. I didn’t get to see the game as it was on while I was in the Consol watching our Pittsburgh Power, so I am just going to go with the assumption that this was a hoax, a fix or a hallucination and move on.
But you know what? I’m glad they won. Now I don’t need to sit here and think about the fact that they’re due for a win, and worry about a repeat of the game against the Talons. Now, I can just look at the two teams on their own.
The Voodoo lost their first two games but kept it competitive, then entered a two game slide with the Sharks and Force that saw them get kicked around good and proper. This woke them up to make a big stand and beat an undefeated team this past weekend.
They obviously have their issues – beating Cleveland or not, they still lost every other game this season – and not much in the way of stand-out players. Their one win was a game where the total score was only two points higher than what Jacksonville scored by themselves against us.
I’m honestly not sure what to expect after Saturday. On one hand, they might be fired up after this huge win and use it as their launching point for the season. On the other hand, it might have been luck, or it might make them cocky and sloppy when they return to the Graveyard to play this week. (This is one of those sentences that I really don’t think came out the way that I’d hoped it would…)
Just like last week, I’m more concerned about our team than theirs. We’ve been very good at beating ourselves thus far, and a 1-4 team shouldn’t be a concern. However, Philly is a 1-4 team, and we’re their “1.” We can’t write them off. That’s the kind of stuff that leads to losses against teams like Philly and Tulsa.
It’s Easter Weekend coming up, and I wouldn’t be surprised if both teams are thinking about a long weekend in The Quarter after playing Thursday night. Hopefully, the Power will be able to focus in and work on everything I’ve been ranting about and pull off a win.
Besides – It’s Easter, and, if nothing else, I’m betting Jesus isn’t a fan of Voodoo.
Elsewhere in the League:
- Did anyone mention that NOLA beat Cleveland? Holy effin’ crap, man! The Gladiators are top of the heap in our division still, but at least we now know they can bleed – and if it bleeds, we can kill it.
- Philly continues their collapse this season, dropping yet another one they should have had Friday night to the Tampa Bay Storm. (Between the Soul and the Pens, TB had a good night in PA.) With the exception of the season opener against us, Philly has followed a very predictable pattern: Control and dominate in the first half, then forget that football games consist of two halves. Coach Ho needs to figure out a way of this cycle, and fast. Look, I like Coach Hohensee a lot. He used to coach my favorite non-Pittsburgh team (in any sport) and won many games – but I don’t think that’s going to matter to Ron Jaworski if this keeps up.
- With the Mustangs off, the Gladiators losing and Philly falling to dead-last and “not scary” territory, the Power remains in second place.
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