The Force was too strong

As it is one of the unofficial "Star Wars Days" today, I might as well stick with the punny headline - and May the fourth be with you

The worst part of being out of town, missing a game live, having to wait until Tuesday to catch the rerun online only to be greeted with a tough loss. So, grab a drink, take a deep breath and sit back while I launch into my normal “it's not as bad as it seems” speech - but first:

It's kind of as bad as it seems.

On the obvious front, we dropped another one, putting us below .500 again. Even if there are a lot of teams in this position, it's not ever a good spot to be in. With that tough second half of the season rapidly approaching, we need every single win that we can get. This was a winnable game that we just weren't able to put to bed.

Things started out pretty strong in the first quarter, but, as per usual, once the opposing team started putting up points on them, the Power panicked and fell apart. In a little bit, I'll talk about what they did right, but as is always the case, everything you do right can be washed away by turnovers, and those happened too much in this game.

Morelli came into this game perfect as a starter with no interceptions, but he made up for lost time. He totaled three interceptions and a lost fumble in this game, which absolutely sunk us. These came off of panicked throws that resulted in blown routes and ended in tears. Worst of these was in the second half and the Power was attempting to stage a comeback with an onside kick. Power recovered it cleanly, only to have Morelli give it back on the first play of the drive.

Edinger continued to be a mediocre-at-best kicker who cost us some key points, which included two missed extra points and a shanked 38-yard-fieldgoal. Missing at that distance is almost excusable, but when the points matter as much as they did here, he should be able to come through. At two-for-six on the season in field goal attempts, he's proving to be a big hole in our attack.

Finally, we allowed three of their players to rack up more than 260 yards. The Power had 6 receivers on the books in this game and didn't manage to reach that. Also, those three guys put up 8 TD's. There was just no stopping them in the air.

Now that you're all on the ledge:

Well, it's not as bad as it seems.

Sure, we dropped one, but our division didn't change at all this week. Everyone else won, but Philly and Milwaukee are far enough behind that their wins didn't help them. Cleveland is still far enough ahead of us that one game isn't going to make a difference.

For another thing, the rushing game took advantage of the weaknesses I pointed out in the Force. The Power racked up an impressive 101 yards to the Force's 2. I would like to repeat that: 101yards to 2. That is a great game on the ground for any team.

Branching from that are two other great things about this game, and those are Morelli and Rue. Morelli was still confident in his own mobility this game – but really needs to learn to slide – earning to the top rushing spot with 42 yards. Rue returned to the scene in this game, averaging 3.8 yards on 9 carries with a touchdown. As I was hoping, they saw the weakness on the run and decided to give the Rue-train another trip down the tracks - and to great effect.

In the air, Willis continued to be Morelli's favorite target this week, with a respectable 79 yards and a touchdown. These two continue to gel and should continue to be a tandem to watch out for in the league.

A new face this week was Craig Fulton on special teams. He amassed 131 return yards, as well as showing up for offense to run a fairly successful reverse and a touchdown. He was all over the place on a lot of plays, and I hope to see him utilized more.

A final highlight note for the offense was Xavier Lee. Officially listed as the backup quarterback (Morris didn't even make the trip, which might be telling us something), Lee was a very effective “where the hell did that come from” weapon. He was on the board with a receiving TD, a couple of rushing TD's and even a few passes late in the game. While he's the third stringer at QB and can't expect to be kept in that capacity, it is an almost foregone conclusion that he will be kept for utility purposes.

Another so-so showing was that, even though we couldn't stop their passing game, we at least made an attempt to contain it. Before things fell apart, the Power did a fairly good job of getting in Purify's way on the field, keeping him to second place on their team in yards. It's not anything to write home about, but it should be commended.

The bottom line:

We can't rely on Philly and Milwaukee to keep screwing up to get us into the playoffs. I will take it any way we can get it, but being in second place because the rest of our division sucks is not good. Also, with us having an evil schedule coming up, who knows what's going to happen. If we start tanking and Coach Ho gets his act together out in Philly, we could be screwed.

In the meantime, we're continuing to grow as a team and learning what works. Morelli and Willis are syncing their moves, Lee is a surprise gadget guy, and Rue might still have a few tricks up his sleeve. Time will tell, and we have the right to be hopeful.

Elsewhere in the league

• The formerly unstoppable Rattlers were finally stopped by the Shock, who gave them their first loss by one point.
• Every other team in our division won this week, but again, it didn’t change the standings at all.
• Aaron Garcia had his game jersey and ball sent to Canton after Saturday’s win over the Predators. This honor was bestowed because of his god-like achievement of making his 1000^th touchdown pass – a feat not matched by any other professional football-player in the AFL or NFL.