Buried in the Graveyard

This is one of those games that's beyond frustrating to write about. Not just because we dropped another one. Not even because we dropped such a close one - but because if we had been doing better this season, we would have almost been able to look on this game with a bit of pride, despite the loss.

All things considered, the Power played a great game, and kept at it until the final whistle. I was pretty worried about Cassidy coming into his old house and playing against a defense that knows him - especially when that defense is known for takeaways, and Cassidy having gotten picked so much last week. Fact is, he threw for 226 yards, five TDs and only one INT. That's really not a bad job at all. By way of comparison, Aaron Garcia - voted the 4th best QB in Arena history - only threw for about 60 more yards Sunday night (with the same TDs and INTs) and he lost by 30 more points. Again, not a bad performance for our 4th QB of the season.

Our defense stood strong and put ups some big stops. Plays were broken up, fumbles recovered, passes intercepted. All of our regular standouts were there: LaRico Stevenson, Bryan Williams, newcomer Sanderson, and of course, Chris "Dodgeball" Le-


...er, okay. "Gingabread." Point is, they did well.

The standout of the evening was "Superman" Berry, returning home to NOLA. He was all over the place. He ended with nearly 300 yards, a kickoff return TD, a receiving TD, hell - he even threw for a touchdown on a trick play. Pouring salt on the wounds, he took it to the next level by slapping a Power sticker right on the Voodoo logo in the end zone on that return.

The down point of the evening was Colin "Money" Wagner, who did not live up to his (me-given) nickname. (You can't tweet me, buddy - I don't do Twitter. Go bug Keller.) Now, before people jump on me about my past post concerning my feelings on kickers being blamed for losses. I never said that a kicker can't be responsible for a loss, just that they are often unfairly hung with that. However, when a kicker misses two PATs, three FGs and his team loses by three points...yeah. That's his fault. Now, one of those PATs was a bad spot and two of the FGs were from extreme ranges (one of which being when the offense committed penalties that kept them from the end zone), but the math majors out there will notice that leaves 4 points out there.

End of the night left us on the wrong side of 51-48, and another loss in our record. Next week is our hands-down, no-bullshit, must-win, do-or-die game against the hated Gladiators.

Elsewhere in the league

• Georgia at Orlando. This was a snore-fest. Orlando finally got a win, but it was 27-24 win. Georgia remains at the top of their division in a 3-way 3-3 tie. Take note, Power - Wildcard is always a possibility in this conference.
• Philly continues their march of burning everything down and quest to be the first team to ever hit 100 points. They made Tampa look like a third-rate team on the NFL Network Friday, winning 83-48.
• Utah wins the rematch against the Barnstormers in one of this week's two nail-biters - 63-62.
• I would like everyone to take a minute to thank Jacksonville for coming up BIG in the last seconds of their game this week and putting Cleveland within reach of us in our division, 54-49.
• The Rush put the Mustangs down for us by one point Saturday, 62-61.
• KC held the Sabercats back more than I thought they'd be able to, but still remain the one winless team in the league, 49-35. I wish I knew how, but the Ustream feed was out.
• Finally, the Arena Bowl rematch between Aaron Garcia and Nick Davila played out a bit differently this time. The Talons were completely routed 68-34 by the Rattlers.