Power Razed By the Blaze

Well, that game was downright sucktastic.

As Weidman already covered in his review of Saturday's game, there was really nothing positive to take away from the Power's "performance" on Saturday night.

They got down big early, Kevin McCabe coughed the ball up twice in the first three possessions, Chris Wallace stepped in and was thoroughly underwhelming, and the defense allowed 11 touchdown passes.

Injuries were a factor, since the Power only dressed three defensive backs for the game, Neil Purvis was hurt, and Bernard Morris didn't make the trip to Salt Lake City.  Turnovers were a factor, especially early, and they always seemed to strike when the Power were trying to gain some momentum -- not that there's ever a good time to turn the ball over.  Tackling has been an issue at times this season and, on Saturday night, the Power secondary looked like they were trying to show the world what it would be like to tackle without using your arms.  They took bad angles, were generally out of position, and didn't adjust to the fact that the Blaze were running mostly screens and quick hitches by playing closer to the line of scrimmage.  You don't lose a game by 41 points because of just one team.  It takes a village bad play to get blown out this badly.

First and foremost, some work on the fundamentals needs to be done.  The receivers and quarterback (whoever that may be this week) need to work on reading the defense at the line and making adjustments.  The Blaze showed just how effective this can be, as they switched to a more conventional drop-back offense midway through the third quarter after the Power defensive backs finally figured out that they needed to scoot up.  At that point, the secondary was so demoralized and exhausted that Tommy Grady and company were able to pick them apart fairly easily.  The defense needs to work on their recognition skills as well.  Even if the coaches didn't say anything at halftime, Josh Lay and his two counterparts should have known to step up and force the issue before things got out of hand.

At this level, in theory, guys should know how to tackle.  It's like how you can't teach a receiver how to catch by the time he's a pro.  If he catches the ball with his body, he's been catching the ball with his body for about 20 years and there's no way to un-teach it.  You can give him some pointers, try to get him headed in the right direction, but two decades of muscle memory are not changed easily.  Gary Butler is the best tackler on the team by far.  He can give the other guys on the team a crash course and talk about how he approaches it.  He's often brought as a fourth rusher, so the coaches can have him drop back and roam a bit, which will help contain any kind of short passing attack.  And, ultimately, Lonnell Dewalt needs to understand that he should learn how to tackle, since he's going to be playing a lot more defense for the balance of the season.  His current strategy of diving at the feet of the ball carrier is not sustainable.  He did have one solid tackle earlier this year and it was on a crucial goal line stand -- Dewalt is definitely a clutch player with an acute sense of "the moment" -- but one solid tackle in six games isn't a ratio that's going to get these guys to the playoffs.  In addition, Royce Adams -- one of the stars of the secondary -- signed a contract with a UFL team, so he's probably not coming back.  Someone needs to fill his shoes, which will not be an easy task.

Wallace is not the answer at quarterback.  I know that he didn't even have a full week of practice before being thrown into the action on Saturday, but he was horrible.  I re-watched the second half of the game and I could tell that his timing with the receivers was off.  That's understandable, given the fact that he didn't have much of an opportunity to work on it, but timing is usually off by a couple of steps or a few yards.  Wallace was, very frequently, five yards behind a receiver and ten feet over the receiver's head.  At one point in the fourth quarter, announcer Edmund Nelson commented that, "The fans have got a lot of balls tonight."  I'm just going to leave that there.

It could be that he'll improve considerably after a full week as the number one guy.  It could be that he'll have more success against the Mustangs.  To Utah's credit, their secondary did an amazing job in coverage.  (As an aside, the Blaze played extremely well.  It was partly that the Power laid a giant egg and partly that Utah played extremely well, as you don't win by 41 points because of just one thing, either.)  It could be that he's a completely different guy against Milwaukee.  It's possible.  I just think that it's highly unlikely and I can't wait for Morris to come back.  I caught the first half of the game on the radio, so I didn't see McCabe play.  As I understand it, he was worse than Wallace, which I find hard to believe, but I trust Weidman's judgement.

Since Cleveland lost, the biggest development in this game was that Morris has gone from, "He's back?  Ah, crap!" to, "He's hurt?  Ah, crap!" in a hurry.  He's the guy to run this offense and he's the guy that's going to lead this team into the playoffs.  If he's out for a long period of time -- especially if he goes on injured reserve again -- then the Power's chances at the postseason go with him.

The good news -- not a silver lining, just good news -- is that this abomination is now behind us and we can focus on next week.  The AFL is a week-to-week league and last week's blowout loss only counts as one in the "L" column.

The Power need to focus on the next game on the schedule.  As they say in the tow truck business, a wreck is something you leave behind you.  They need to continue to keep pace with/distance themselves from the Cleveland Gladiators.  With only two divisions in each conference, winning your division is Priority Number One.

I think Coach Siegfried will get this team back on track and we'll see a better brand of Power football against the Mustangs this coming Saturday.