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: