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.