Gunfight in Dallas. Vigilantes and Power review

What. A. Game.

Wow. Words almost can't express how amazing the game was Saturday night – easily the most exciting game of the year. Frankly, after three in a row, if the Power isn't careful, people might mistake them for a top-tier team.

In another stunning upset, the Power handed Dallas their first loss of the season at home in an old-West, no-holds-barred, dirt-street, high-noon shootout that went the full four quarters. Dallas came in with a relentless, nearly flawless aerial attack that, frankly, the Power was completely unprepared for. In response, Morris and company kept their cool remarkably well and methodically answered every punch they took – even if it took a lot longer to accomplish each time. For the first time this season, Pittsburgh broke the 60-point barrier, with the final score being over 150 points total.

This was by no means an easy game, and that is what made it so exciting. There was only one point in the game where either team led by more than 7 points, as nearly every touchdown and PAT (or miss there-of) was matched by the other team. For a time, Dallas lead by 14, but the Power came clawing back to regain the lead.

The real excitement – more so than usual – came in the last minute of the game, which saw five touchdowns scored. Late in the forth, Dallas made its first two of what I consider their three major mistakes of the game. Dallas scored and tied the game up at 55, at which point, their offense did their impression of a bobsled team in the end zone to celebrate, costing them 10 yards on the end of the next kick return. Following this, their kicker booted it past the nets and out of the end zone, placing the ball on the 20 yard line – plus the ten from the previous penalty, giving the Power amazing field position, which they took advantage of.

On the surface, this was just a quick score for the Power, and not much different than the rest of the game. Looking deeper, it was a major psychological victory for them. At this point in the game, Pittsburgh was getting tired, worn down and running out of gas. For every long drive for a score that the Power had, Dallas would come right back on the next one and score in one or two plays. Pittsburgh was holding their own, but at a cost. With this quick score, you could see the weight lifted from their collective shoulders, coupled with some indignant anger at the show-boating that the Vigilantes were displaying over one touchdown.

It turned the tide.

After a few more exchanges of points, it came down to a real nail-biter and the the third mistake. With ten seconds left, Dallas decided to go for 2. Now, a lot of people will argue with me over this being a mistake, but I just frankly don't often agree with them. Maybe this is because I'm not a “Go big or go home” kinda guy. I'm more of a “Go home a winner and look at my face in the mirror the next day” kinda guy. I could count the number of situations where I feel going for two is the right call on one hand, and still be able to thumb a ride. If you're down by two and it's the only way to catch up, so be it – otherwise, go for the tie and take your chances in overtime, especially since Arena Ball gives both teams a possession.

But, I'm not a coach, and Clint Dolezel knows the game a hell of a lot better than I do – it just didn't pan out for him this time. First attempt, Dallas got hit with a false start and had to do it over. Second attempt, they missed, but Pittsburgh interfered on the pass. Third attempt, the pass failed.

You didn't need to be Nostradamus to see the onside kick coming. Dallas recovered it, and I thought I was going to watch this game slip away. The Power hadn't pulled off many stops in this game, and Dallas had scored in less than nine seconds several times in the game already – but the Power D came up big and forced the field-goal attempt. The failed field-goal attempt.

Game over.

This was a game that, on paper, we should not have won. Dirty Dan Raudabaugh was money this whole game. 28 for 36 with well over 400 yards and ten passing touchdowns on the game, along with two rushing. Anthony Jones had almost as many yards receiving as the Power had as a team. Between those two, and DeAndrew Rubin, our defense just plain didn't have an answer for them. There was almost zero coverage on them to begin with, and even less once Gary Butler got himself bounced from the game late in the 2^nd.

What won this game was perseverance. The Power kept struggling against the clock and scoreboard, no matter how much Dallas was putting up, and kept their cool. Also, the pairing of Morris and Mike Washington has been officially cemented as the clutch combo on this team. Joystick hauled in four and ran for a fifth in this game, as well as a very respectable 184 yards.

I think this game really brought Pittsburgh to the spotlight in the league, and we're going to start hearing some talk of being contenders. This marks a three-in-a-row streak that would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the season. Even more importantly, with Cleveland losing in the Snake Pit, we are now – please brace yourselves – tied for first place in the division.

First. Place.

Remember last week when I was talking about Pittsburgh being in a possible position to ruin Cleveland's day? Well, next Saturday is that positional day. We'll see the first match-up (at home, no less) against our rivals down the road in a game that will decide who will be in sole possession of first place in the division.

No pressure.

Elsewhere in the league

• Just a reminder – Cleveland lost a tough one against the Rattlers, leaving us tied with them for first place.
• The Sabercats dropped their forth in a row, lowering them to bottom half of their division.
• The Sharks continued their march of death across the league by winning their ninth game in a row. I'd say that the playoffs are all but written in stone for them.

Over the hump and back to football

Greetings, all. Due to some circumstances beyond my control, I was unavailable for any football viewing this past weekend, as well as being unable to write a column. It worked out that it was a bye-week, then.

We now find ourselves at the half-way point of the season, with the Power in a surprisingly respectable position for an expansion team. While some teams like the Rush and the Sharks are already talking playoff locks, other teams like the Gladiators actually have to say, “...but Pittsburgh is in a position to screw that up.” This is because we are second in the division, and we still have two games to play against them. If we somehow manage to take the pair, things will be solidly shaken up.

If the playoffs were held today, assuming the same 8-team system the AFL did last year (4 divisional leaders, 4 wild cards), we'd see Cleveland and Jacksonville heading up our conference with Pittsburgh and Orlando making up the wildcards. In the National, it would be the Rattlers, Rush, Dallas and Utah. I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but in this case we'd be saying, “Well, it's an honor just to be nominated...”

However, 5-4 is a good place to be at this point, and not one I'd expect. Only 8 teams have a winning record right now, and we're one of them. We haven't gotten here easily, of course, because we've had a lot of growing pains along the way. Procedural errors still plague us, and our quarterback situation is still anything but stable. Now, we enter the hardest chunk of the season.

From here on out, we only have 3 home games left, with the Gladiators and Rattlers making up two of them. Other than that, it's all road, and all really tough teams. Dallas, twice against Cleveland, the Preds, the Rattlers and a rematch against a crappy team who already beat us.

If I had to pick, though, I'm glad it's the second half of the season that this happened. This way, we had time at home and weaker opponents to work the kinks out – and we needed it. We're in a good place right now. A winning record, a team that's gelling and a huge win over San Jose. I'm a little concerned about the fact that we went into the bye right after it, as I would have preferred to keep the momentum, but you can't have everything.

The Power can't even pretend to be a lock for anything right now, but we can dream. If we take the lessons learned the first half of the season and apply it to the big boys – coupled with the fact that we're pretty good on the road – we might pull it off.

The first step is Dallas this Saturday at 8:30, on the road.

Right now, they're only one game better than us, but are undefeated on their home turf. They're also really, really good. Unlike us, they are set at quarterback with “Dirty” Dan Raudabaugh (My nickname. Western history. Google it, or watch Young Guns II) who is the only recorded QB for them this season. This right here tells us that he is tough, resilient and isn't going to give up. Pressuring him will be difficult at best.

On the ground, it's all behind Derrick Ross, who has averaged more than 2 touchdowns a game thus far this season. We didn't do that well against the run last game against the Cats, so this is something that we're going to have to watch for.

Finally, Dallas is one of those teams with defined receivers that they don't stray from often. Jones, Rubin and Fields are the go-to guys for the Vigilantes, they all average at least 12 yards a catch and have 48 touchdowns among them.

By the numbers, they're pretty even between what they score each game and what they allow, with the edge towards scoring. Much like with the Cats, the Power is going to need to get the attack on early and get a lead as fast as they can if they want to get out of this while avoiding a slugfest. Before the last game, I wouldn't have had great faith in this, but now I'm thinking that this is something that we can do.

Rushing, they run the board. Generally, they out-rush their opponents 2-1, so I'm not thinking that this is going to be a game for Rue. That's okay, because we're getting our passing game into solid gear. Another 2-1 stat is their sacking ability, which is really scary, given that I don't want to see Morris broken again.

Bottom line is that we need to keep on keepin' on. This is a tough team without a lot of easy-to-exploit weaknesses. They also haven't lost at home yet. Now is not the time to get fancy – the Power needs to stick with what has been working the last few games and just try to bring the hammer down fast and hard on Dallas.

After all – this is the first game of the rest of their season.

Elsewhere in the league

• The NFL Game of the Week is the Blaze vs Barnstormers. Iowa has pretty much nothing to play for at this point, being nearly dead-last in the league, and the Blaze is looking for a playoff berth. However, I generally find the 'Stormers fun to watch.
• Barnstormers aren't last in the league, but the Voodoo is, and this Friday, they meet the Soul, who are only a game ahead of them. Given the option, the NFL game is the much better option.
• After the Power finishes up, switch your NiFTy feed over to the Rattlers channel to catch what I'd say is the best game of the week: Cleveland travels to the Snake Pit for a brawl that should be lots of fun to watch.
• Because you were all so patient with me not posting last week, here's a blurry picture the Sparks were nice enough to pose for:

Power Defangs the Sabercats

First off, let me state that this post won't be edited as well as it usually is, as Keller is in Sacramento, in what I can only assume is a poorly planned victory tour celebrating our win over the San Jose Sabercats.

Wow. What a game. I gotta be honest: I put on a brave face in my preview, but never actually thought that we'd win. I certainly didn't expect to see how the rankings turned out after this weekend's games. However, to pat my own back, most of my predictions on what needed to happen in order for the Power to win actually did.

First off, I had stated that the first team to jump out to a good lead was going to win this one – however, this didn't play out exactly how I expected. Early on, the Power jumped out to a 14 point lead, which is good, but not exactly decisive, lead-wise. Before we knew it, the Cats were able to catch up, then pull ahead, making it 21-14. Not to be deterred, the Power got back in the end-zone and the PAT was...no good. Ugh. Edingered.

This one-point deficit would haunt the team the rest of the first half. Not only that, but San Jose was nice enough to miss one themselves, giving the Power a chance to even it up on the next score – before Edinger missed another one. Honestly, missed PATs aren't uncommon in the AFL and going into the half only down by one to the Cats was better than I'd expected, but our kicker's consistency (or lack of it) is disturbing and frustrating. Also, in the forefront of my mind, I knew that missed extra points nearly always come back to the team that have them.

The half ended with another key to victory that I mentioned that we needed: Goal line stops. San Jose had the ball last and were going to come out of the half with it first, so they had a very good chance to get more than one point ahead of us. It was not to be, however, as the Cats went 4 and out on the goal line when our defense refused to budge, mainly because of Dewalt and Royce Adams.

Coming out of the half, Adams returns to the field to force a fumble, which Pittsburgh recovered. Unbelievably, the Power had denied the all-offense Sabercats two scoring drives in a row. This was very important as San Jose went on to score 14 points to our 7 in the 3^rd. This kept the deficit to something manageable going into the final fifteen minutes of the game.

The only way to describe the 4^th quarter is “brutal.” Our first drive ended in Morris's second interception of the game. San Jose's first drive ends with a 4^th down stop, giving us a mid-field turnover on downs. Next, they returned the favor. Then – we did it again. Three 4th-down stops in a row. The crowd was screaming for blood.

This crowd fervor was rewarded when the Power scored on their next drive. Trying to make up for Edinger's earlier mistakes, Morris went for two instead of kicking an extra point. Unfortunately, it did not pan out, and the Power was down by two with 46 seconds left on the clock. Obviously, an on-side kick was in order, and Edinger drilled it right into the head of a Sabercat player, bouncing it right to our special teams players – who were not able to recover it.

Remarkably, the Power was able to make yet another 4^th down stop when the Cats started on the four-yard line. Getting the ball back with 41 seconds on the clock, they were able to drive it down the field, score and come up with the two-point conversion. All that stood between them and an upset victory was 27 seconds. Edinger booted it deep, and four plays later, it was over.

Power 54, Sabercats 48.

The Good, Bad and Ugly

I'll start with the Bad, just to get it out of the way. The Power actually had a lot of trouble holding onto the ball, which made me very nervous during the game. The final tally was two interceptions and three fumbles. By comparison, San Jose only threw one INT and only dropped the ball once. Normally, stats like this would tell you who lost the game, but the rest of the Power game up big in a lot of plays.

Very surprisingly to me, Chad Cook was the star for San Jose, and they ran it a lot during this game. All told, they rushed twice as much as we did, and scored 3 rushing TD's, where we had none. I didn't see that coming. Obviously, the Power had anticipated an aerial attack and didn't really have an answer for Chad Cook.

Semi-bad was that the return of Josh Lay meant that Xavier Lee has been put on “Recallable Reassignment.” Don't get me wrong: Lay is a hell of a player and had some seriously clutch plays in this outing – but I wish he didn't cost us the Swiss-Army knife that is Lee.

The Good is a lot more fun to talk about. “Joystick” Washington continued to be Morris's favorite target in this meeting and had a huge game this week, totaling 120 yards and 4 touchdowns. (Seriously – I didn't have a yardstick with me, but I'm fairly sure Joystick is shorter than the waterboy, yet Morris loves to throw to him.) He was followed closely by Jason Willis with an additional 3 touchdowns.

The defense did exactly what I said that they needed to do. As I pointed out in my preview, the Sabercats rely on scoring on nearly every drive, and we needed to hand them a few big stops to keep them off the board – and the Power accomplished this handily. The Cats only converted 3 of 7 3^rd downs, and none of their forth-down attempts. “Powertool” DeWalt continued to be a huge force on defense, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this be his permanent home.

The Ugly. Oh, man...I'm still laughing about this. People always say that Arena Football is a fan participation sport, and Keller proved it. We sit in the forth row near the end-zone, and he likes to mess with the opposing offense by yelling, “Huthuthuthike!!!” to see if he can draw them off-sides. The most it has ever done was really torque off Kyle Rowley last week (he glared at us the whole game.) This week, it actually worked...on the Power defense. Carlo Campbell flinched and the yellow flag went out.

I bet Keller's not gonna do that again. (Regardless, I'll never let him forget it.)

Final thoughts

This was a great way to end the first half of the season, with two solid wins in a row at home. Also, we are now only a game behind Cleveland in our division, and actually have a tied record with Sabercats. Now, we're in a weak division, and the people out front in the league look at us and say, “Aww...aren't they cute...” but – we're still second in our division, and that's all that matters.

Over at the NFL Network, Big Ant released his mid-season awards, and he has Coach Siegfried as the runner-up for coach of the year. This is pretty big, and I can't say I fault his logic. He's been making ballsy decisions the last few weeks, and has managed a hell of a record as an expansion-team coach with 3 starting QB's at the half-way point of the season.

My only concern at this point, is that we've built up some great momentum in these last few games, and now we've got a bye-week. On one hand, a dead-center bye is a good way to recharge the batteries. On the other, we might lose that momentum that we've built up. I will have more on these issues in my mid-season Bye-Week Spotlight later this week.

Elsewhere in the League

• Both Philly and Milwaukee won their games this week, improving to 3-6 on the season. Good for them, but they're still not a concern.
  
  
• Cleveland was destroyed by Orlando, losing by 30 points. Ouch.
  
  
• The Rush beat the Rattlers in a last-second field-goal that was nothing short of a miracle, as their kicker has a worse record than ours. This bumps Chicago back up to top of their division, a gnat's wing ahead of Dallas.
  
  
• The Sharks hold their 8-game winning streak, with only one loss on their record for the season. Garcia is having a fairytale season that could very well end up at the Arena Bowl. If the Power isn't there, I'll be rooting for them.

San Jose Sabercats come to town

Okay, did everyone enjoy that feeling of a win at home last week? Good – cause it’s
time for the next game, and it’s going to be a tough opponent. For the second week in a
row, we get a team right after the Rattlers are through with them. The big difference is,
unlike the Shock, the San Jose Sabercats got shellacked out in Arizona, and I’m betting
that they’re not going to take that lying down.

This is the game that ends the first half of our season, and really sets the tone for the
second. From the moment I saw this game on the schedule, I was worried about it.
Technically, the Sabercats are an expansion team, just like we are. However, they
are a recreated team like the Soul, who came back with new faces and old traditions.
Currently, they’re number 5 in the league power-rankings and always looking to move
up. (By comparison, our win against Spokane got us the #10 spot this week, but only
just.)

Last week, I talked about the difference between our division and National West, in
particular that 3-4 was second place in ours and last place in theirs. This week, it’s
slightly more heartening that the ‘Cats are also in second place and only have one more
win than us. This means that they can bleed, etc.

Make no mistake: They are a tough team and strong competitors. Around the league,
you will hear a lot of talk about their defense, and how it’s possibly the worst in the
league – and that might very well be true. They are letting up almost 60 points a game
this season. On the other hand, they average around 60 points a game on offense as well.

Quarterback Mark Grieb is not afraid to air it out, and has three solid, solid receivers in
Goodson, Flowers and Toler. Flowers is one of those guys that I’ve loved to hate this
season – the type that will flip over the wall in the end-zone multiple times in a game,
just to thrust the ball up in the air to show he had it the whole time. Goodson is generally
in-your-face and not afraid to take a hit. Think of an evil Hines Ward. Toler rounds it
out for yardage over touchdowns.

Rushing (comparatively) is not much of a focus. Chad Cook has only 110 yards on the
season, but is mainly used in goal line and 3rd/4th down situations. That having been said,
he also has 17 touchdowns on the season – our team doesn’t have that many rushing TDs.
What we do have, however, is twice as many yards on the ground.

What does all of this mean when taken together? I’ll tell you what: It means that we
have a chance.

The style of play that the new Sabercats employ – and to generally good effect – is
very similar to what I do in war-simulation games: Don’t puss around with figuring
out defensive tactics and fancy cover mechanics – just fill the air with as much lead as
possible until everything stops moving.

They’re all offense. They just keep hammering down the field and managing the clock,
banking on themselves having the ball last. It’s gutsy, and a fine tactic when it works

(which, statistics say, better than 50% of the time, it does for them) but risky at the same
time

Last week, we saw two equally as ballsy choices from Coach Siegfried. One, he put
Bernard Morris back in the game his first week off of IR, and two, he put Powertool in as
a linebacker instead of a receiver. This gamble paid off. Once Morris regained his sea-
legs, he started giving the Shock what-for. “Powertool” DeWalt grew about 4 feet, cloned
himself and placed himself everywhere on the field, breaking up plays. Honorable
mention goes to the decision to let Zeck have the ball and go murder a few defenders.

If DeWalt stays on defense to just generally befuddle the opposition, I think we can rely
on the likes of Stevenson, Butler and “Total Chaos” Carter to put up a wall. The Power
made some outstanding stops last week in 3rd and 4th down situations, as well as on the
goal line. Dewalt will be key as the Sabercats do little on the ground…until 3rd and 4th
situations and the goal line.

On our side, if Morris comes in to the game the way he ended the last one, then hopefully
he’ll come out shooting down the field and putting points up. If that doesn’t work, get
Rue out there and maybe put some fear into them by unleashing Zeck.

The main concern is going to be the battle of wills. More so than most games, this one
is going to be decided by whoever gets up to the first major lead – possibly the first
lead, period. Last week against Arizona, once the Rattlers got in Greib’s head, it was
over. When Arizona started pulling in front, and the scoring war of attrition started to
backfire on the ‘Cats, Grieb started panicking and ended the game with four interceptions
. It wasn’t just him – the rest of the team freaked out and started missing routes and
coverages as well.

Problem is – that all sounds really, really familiar.

Interesting note: I fully realize that correlation does not equal causation – but I love
symmetry. The only game this season at home that the Power can say that they out-in-
out destroyed another team and salted the earth was against the Barnstormers. So far this
season, the Barnstormers have only won two games, and they were back-to-back:

The Spokane Shock, and then the San Jose Sabercats.

I’m just gonna put that out there and let it sink in for a moment. The more I think about
it, the more I think last week was a dress rehearsal for this game, and maybe – just maybe
– we’ve underestimated Siegfried.

Game airs on the CW at 7:30, but there should be plenty of seats down at the Arena to see
it in person.

Elsewhere in the league:

• Not a lot to write home about this week on Friday. The Game of the Week is another snorefest, but it’s the only AFL a lot of people are going to get. For those willing to watch online instead, the Force @Philly looks like the best bet
• The Gladiators at the Orlando Predators looks like it should be a brutal game. After the Power finishes up, tune in to NiFTy TV online, and the rebroadcast should be beginning.
• Late game is a tossup between Rush @Arizona, which would be my preferred game to watch, but seeing how the Vigilantes stack up against the Shock isn’t a bad call either, since we’ve got them in a few weeks.

Shocking Upset:: Keller's Take

As Weidman pointed out in his review, we were both a little worried on Saturday night when we heard the announcement that Bernard Morris was going to be starting.  Actually, it was less "a little worried" and more "ah, crap, now we're sure to lose."  As it turns out, Morris played an excellent game.

You could tell that his timing was off in the first half.  He was a split-second behind his receivers, which led to a number of early incompletions.  He was at least half a second behind DJ Hall on one errant first half pass, which led to Morris' only interception.  After got settled in, he played lights out in the second half, finishing with seven total touchdowns -- five passing and two rushing.  He was the team's leading rusher with 66 yards on eight carries, including a seriously sweet 31-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

The good news is that I think he's redeemed himself for his early season struggles and I believe that he's a capable quarterback.  He's not holding the ball too long, he's learned to tuck the ball and run when he needs to, he's a more dangerous scrambler than Anthony Morelli, though Morelli has more of a blood thirsty take-no-prisoners approach when he runs with the ball, and he even showed off some arm strength on a 40-yard bomb to Jason Willis on a critical fourth quarter completion.

The bad news is that he's just capable.  He runs a bit better than Morelli and a lot better than McCabe, but there's nothing that really separates him from the pack.  He's a decent quarterback and you can win games with him, but I don't get the sense that he's a great quarterback.  It could be that I'm way off base and that he'll get way better with another week of practice under his belt.  As always when I say something negative about the home team, I hope I'm off base, but I don't think that I am.

Overall, the 11,000 or so fans that didn't show up for the game missed a great show, even if the Sparks didn't come out at halftime to dance.  The offense put up 51 points, Edinger converted a 45-yard field goal, and the defense overcame some early struggles, holding the Shock to 14 points in the second half.  More importantly, they made the big plays when they needed to.  There's the aforementioned bomb to Willis, which came on third and ten from the Power three yard line.  LaRi Stevenson intercepted a pass when Spokane was driving for the game-tying touchdown with under a minute remaining.  Edinger made the aforementioned field goal, which would have changed the complexion of the game had he missed and salted the game away given that he made it.  They avoided critical mistakes and came through with clutch plays when they needed them.  With a capable quarterback and a decent defense, they can win more than they lose if they keep that up.

Other thoughts:

1. As Weidman also mentioned, Shock receiver Greg Orton was destroying the Power secondary in the first half.  This was a direct result of the defense they were playing, which basically involved placing two members of the secondary 20 yards off the line of scrimmage and having them stand there until Orton caught the ball.  In the second half, Coach Siegfried made the adjustment of realizing that Lonnell Dewalt is very tall.  Siegfried placed Dewalt at Jack linebacker and told him to follow the quarterback's eyes.  Wherever the quarterback's eyes ended up when he started to throw, Dewalt headed quickly in that direction and jumped.  He broke up a pass early in the second half and came down with a great pass break-up that was called back for Illegal Defense.  With the secondary covering things deep and Dewalt jumping around like a mad man in the intermediate area, Spokane had to dink and dunk their way down the field until they reached the red zone, which is where the Power defense tends to step up.  This is not a fool-proof defensive strategy, but they may want to roll it out every now and again.
2. The good news is that Josh Lay should be back against the Sabercats.  He's been suspended for the past two games, according to the AFL's transactions page.  He's their best cover guy and they'll need all the help they can get against San Jose.
3. The bad news about the Lay suspension being lifted is that the Power cut Xavier Lee to make room for Lay on the roster.  Now, I'm not sure that they cut him.  The transactions page says that he was placed on something called "recallable reassignment"... which sounds downright Orwellian.  I'm not sure if that term means that he's basically been placed on waivers and will be back, or if it means that he'll be gone for two weeks and come back saying that fumbles are "double un-plus good".  My hope is that it means he'll be back without any kind of re-education.  Lee is an explosive, versatile player and the Power need him on the roster.  In fact, he should replace DJ Hall as the third receiver until Jerome Mathis gets off injured reserve.  Which brings me to my other observations...
4. First of all, this team misses Mathis and Eddie Thompson.  I found out from the transactions page that Thompson was placed on IR on 4/15 and Mathis on 4/27.  They miss Thompson and Mathis on offense and on special teams.  Willis did his best returning kicks on Saturday, but he's a filler player at best.  Mathis is the team's best deep threat and Thompson is a critical player in the red zone.  Hopefully, both players will be good to go soon, but they won't be there to help out against San Jose.
5. I don't like DJ Hall.  He dropped one pass, short-armed another when he heard footsteps, and made just enough of an effort to get to the ball that was behind him (and intercepted) so that he could say that he tried.  If he had made a serious effort to get back to the ball, he may have knocked it down and could have at least tipped it.  Both of those efforts would have avoided the interception.  Basically, put in Lee as the third receiver until Mathis is healthy, then figure out what to do with Lee.  But, cut ties with Hall.  

The Power finally won another game at home, they're at .500, and they may be starting to come together.  Hopefully they keep it together and use what they learned against the Shock when they play the Sabercats this Saturday.

Pittsburgh Power with a Shocking upset

"...and back after 5 weeks on IR, your quarterback, Bernaaaaaaaaaard Mooor-ris!”

Okay, yeah – I'll be honest here. When I heard words to that effect over the PA in the arena, the bottom of my stomach fell out. Really? The guy who had thrown for a game and a half, leading us against the defending Arena Bowl champs the week after they beat the Arizona Rattlers? Oh, God...

Turns out, this wasn't really a bad thing. Aside from some noticeable jitters on the field after a long absence, the team really seemed to gel with their original QB back behind center. Those jitters manifested in a fairly lack-luster first half where the Shock out-scored us almost 2-1. By half time, things weren't looking too good for the home team.

The second half? Wow. Not only did the tables turn, but the Power outscored the Shock almost three to one.

Now, this isn't to say that the Power were perfect Saturday night, because they were not. Penalties are still a problem, but for once the other team gave up more yards than us – but there are still issues with procedural stuff. Off-sides, false starts, etc. Also, in the first half, their coverage was pretty bad. For example, Greg Orton of the Shock is a good player, but we were helping him to look like a god. I can't count how many plays in the first half he ran out, cut up the field, texted a friend, caught the ball, sat down and ate a sandwich and then realized that there were some defenders actually moving towards him.

A bit of an exaggeration, to be sure, but it was a major problem. Enough of one that I expect Siegfried had a chat about it at the half, because they really locked him down in the second half. Which brings us to a real shining point of the game: The defense. Besides eventually roping in Orton, they pressured Rowley in the pocket to a surprising extent.

The Power D forced three turnovers and the offense only lost two. Also, they made some great stands. The Shock were only able to convert on two of eight 3^rd downs, and only three of six fourth downs.

Additionally, DeWalt was all over the place, breaking up plays. He might not have hauled 'em in, but he got a piece of a number of passes that came near him, denying them to the Shock offense.

As for Morris, he was far more impressive than I was expecting. Remember after week one when I said that Mike “The Joystick” Washington was the man to watch, but it never really materialized because Morelli preferred Willis? Well, he came back strong this week. However, they played it smart and didn't ignore their go-to guy, either. Washington and Willis almost perfectly split receiving duty with 85/87 yards respectively with each scoring a pair of touchdowns. Coming in third was a new face, DJ Hall with a respectable 35 yards and a touchdown. The only head-scratcher was that Xavier Lee barely made an appearance on offense.

Rounding out the offensive detail were Josh Rue and – seriously – offensive lineman, Nick Zeck. Rue only picked up 11 yards, but they were critical yards, accomplishing three first downs. Zeck had a pass thrown to him that he just didn't have the vertical to haul in, but he made up for it a few plays later when he rumbled down the field for 16 yards. He was brought down right in front of me, so I got an accurate count. This beast of a man took 5 players to bring him down – and he carried them for at least two yards before they did so.

The cherry on top of this game's sundae? Okay, I need everyone to sit down for this. Well, I guess, those people that read blogs on their computer standing up need to sit down. The point is...and I can't believe I'm saying this...Paul Edinger nailed a 45 yard field goal with 17 seconds left to put the game out of Spokane's reach.

I'm not sure if it is because it was the day before Mother's Day, or if the home crowds are just getting sick of seeing the Power lose, but the crowd was substantially smaller Saturday. We're talking the difference between 9000+ to just over 6000. That's big shame, because all of these people missed perhaps the most exciting game of the season. The Power reached .500 before the Buccos did, and were looking exceedingly strong this week.

Keller commented that if we play next week like we did this week, we have a chance against the Sabercats. That's a bit pie-in-the-sky, in my opinion, but it's certainly a better chance than I would have given us before this week. But, really, just like everyone else in the house, Keller was blinded by ZOMG-we-won euphoria at the time.

Not pictured here: the guy sleeping next to him. Seriously

It happens. I hope it happens a lot more this season.

Elsewhere in the league

• Mustangs and Soul both lost this week, keeping us in second place without a care
• Sabercats completely fell apart in the second half against the Rattlers in the late game Saturday.
• Jacksonville continues to be a force of nature, and it's just too bad that they aren't playing the Rattlers in the regular season.