Power @ Sharks Preview

Well...here we go again.  We're into the back half of the season and that means we get to start playing good teams again.  This week, we get a rematch against the Sharks, and this time, we're in their house.  I have mixed feelings about this.  On one hand, the Sharks are still the dangerous team we faced in week #2...but on the other hand, the Power's gotten a taste of them and tends to be slightly better on the road.  Out of the last four games, the Sharks have had three losses and a win against the Preds...by three points  That's not a stunning record, so we might have a chance.

Our win last week against the Gladiators was just what the doctor ordered, but we can't make it more than it was.  Cleveland is a lousy, lousy team.   However, that game was a blast to watch, and there was actual life in Consol for the first time in more than a year.  Plus, it was a division win - so I think that, more important than the victory itself, it was a confidence builder.

So, what are we looking at this week?  Well, it's a road game, as mentioned earlier, which is good and bad, given the Power's history.  The more important part of the team's history is the fact that we've never beaten the Sharks, and we've never ended a game within 20 points of them...and that's something the team CANNOT think about.

The biggest thing that that worked against the Power in the most recent match-up was Jacksonville's defense.  They had six sacks and three picks, and that will kill you every time.  Normal suspects - Swiss cheese line and a rattled QB.  Sheffield is still throwing picks, but he seems to be settling into his role.  Also, the line is giving him more time to think.  That keeps up, we're in a better place.

Other than that, it's business as usual.  There's nothing I can say this time that I didn't say last time we played them specifically, or most weeks in general. 

A few notes:  last week, Chris LeFlore returned a huge kickoff for a TD that helped earn him Week 10 AFL MVP.  Obviously, he's getting more comfortable in his role.  Also, Twitter holds rumblings that Oderick Turner has returned, strengthening the receiver position.  (I didn't see Graves playing last week, so Turner might be filling Graves' shoes.)

It's a road game, but it will air at 7 on ThisTV, this Saturday, June 1st.

Elsewhere in the League

• I am just giddy this week.  Three games are airing in Pittsburgh, and Philly shifted their kickoff, so I get to watch football from 4 until after midnight.  First up is Philly hosting Arizona.  The Ratts have lost one game this season thus far, so I'm really hoping they'll do the Power a solid and take the Soul down.
• The Rush maintains their slim grip on the lead in their division as they travel to Florida to play the Preds.  My money is on the Rush.
• Statistically, the Gladiators are slightly better than the Voodoo.  But, the Voodoo is at home in the Graveyard and has lost 8 in a row...dare we hope for a double smack-down on our division rivals this week?
• Tampa travels to Iowa with hopes of getting back to their winning ways...and Iowa really needs a win as well to keep up with the Joneses in their division.  Too close to call.
• Speaking of the Joneses in that division, San Antonio plays host to the Utah Blaze at 8:30 Monday, and the Talons are sporting their fourth QB of the year - former Power thrower, Xavier Lee.  You never seem to see much of him at any one point or position.  He's a utility player who does a bit of everything, but QB is what he seems to really want to do.  I've always liked him, but I'm not sure he has what it'll take to beat Tommy Grady.
• Finally, the prime time game of the week is the Saberkitties and the Spokane Shock.  It's a division grudge match between two teams that are virtually tied and both riding a winning streak.  The Cats tend to win high-pressure games, but the Shock doesn't just lie down.  I'm just glad we all have the chance to watch this one.

Restoring the Power

...and just like that, it's Arena season again.

After a long off-season and a fairly disappointing Steeler season, I find myself more than ready to switch gears and go back to the indoor game.  The first post of the year is hard in most sports, because you really don't know what the season is going to bring and how new acquisitions are going to work out.  This is even more true for this league.  It's almost impossible to predict what will shake out in the coming weeks, but I can show you the clues.

A few months ago, I talked about the things the team had and the things that they needed.  Specifically, I mentioned that our defense could take care of itself, kicking is killing us, and QB doesn't matter if we can't get anyone up front to protect him.

Well, the biggest moves they made in the off season were...to shore up the defense and snag a promising QB.  *sigh* It's like no one reads these posts...

Now, I'm not going to complain about us making sure to hold on to Chris "Gingabread" LeFlore to keep snagging picks, and I'm really not going to complain about them also getting Alvin Ray Jackson from the Voodoo, who grabs even more picks than LeFlore...but we had the #1 defense last year, and we still couldn't make the playoffs.  This is an offense-driven league and no matter how awesome the D is, we need something up front.

We still have Mike "Joystick" Washington, PJ "Superman" Berry, and Tyree "is he a FB or DL" Young.  This is good, and was what I really hoped we'd be able to pull off.  Fantastic and bully for us - if they stay healthy, we have some solid, experienced targets for our QB-of-the-week.

Yeah, I still really don't feel good about QB.  Why?  I mean, we have Jordan Jefferson starting at QB - an LSU standout who briefly worked out with the Tampa Bay Bucs and did some time in the CFL.  Backing him up is a fairly competent-looking Shane Austin out of Hawaii.  Well, there are multiple concerns here.  For one - Kurt Warner aside - rookies that were at the NFL level have a lot of trouble adjusting to this league.  It's a huge change.  But, even if it wasn't, they're both still green.

More importantly, we've had good QBs before.  Despite the crap the Facebook and Twitter like to heap on our past signal callers, I maintain that most of them could have done a hell of a job if they weren't thinking about how long it'd be before they got freight-trained into the turf.  The #1, no bullshit, buck-stops-here thing that I said we had to do was to shore up the offensive line, and I really don't know if we did that.  Of those four guys, we have two rookies, a guy who's played five games and returning center Beau Elliott.  Hey, maybe these guys are going to be the real deal - I don't know.   With only two years of history to look back on, and about that much combined AFL experience among them, it's a major wild card that concerns me quite a bit.

One way or another, we're going to find out Saturday night when the season starts.  Once again, Pittsburgh gets the honor of playing the first game (though it's not the nationally televised one) and that worked out wonderfully for us last year.  We're also playing one of the best teams from last year, the Utah Blaze.   They've had some turnover, which is to be expected, but they still have Tommy Grady and - frankly - that's all that really matters.

The Power really needs to start out with a solid win at home this season to get things rolling on the right foot, and Utah will make that hard.  I really wish we could have started out against someone like Orlando again - even if they beat us, we have the seeds of a rivalry there...but we're playing the Blaze and that's the card we've been dealt.  Win or lose, it should be a hell of a game.

Remember, it's a home game and tickets are cheap.  Opening night is generally the most festive game of the year with the highest energy and best attendance, so it's a great time to check the sport out for the first time.  Plus, the team is giving away some pretty slick swag this year and are offering $1 hot dogs and sodas.

Come on down, and here's to a great season of Power football!

Elsewhere in the League
While it's hard to gauge what my team is gonna do for the year, it's almost impossible to call the other teams.  But if I had to pick, these are the games to watch (and this year, they've change the viewing options AGAIN!  Now it's through the AFL site):

• Philly at Arizona:  Arena Bowl rematch is always fun.  These two teams kept most of their respective rosters intact in the off-season, so this Game of the Week (on CBS Sports) should be explosive
• San Jose at San Antonio:  Whoooo boy...first the hated 'Cats steal Garcia from the Talons, and then they get matched up right out of the gate.  Hell, the Talons even got Lil Jon for their half time show.  Seriously.

Arena Football Update

Now that the unrestricted free agency period is about to begin in the Arena League, I wanted to take a few moments to give an update on where things stand.  In the AFL, free agency proceeds in two periods.  First, there is the exclusive period, where the teams are only allowed to talk to players that were on their roster the previous season.  This period was set to expire on Monday, however, the weather issues presented by Hurricane Sandy extended this period until the 31st.

With three teams folding (Georgia, KC and Milwaukee), things are going to be interesting.  This is both good and bad.  Bad because this is all that casual fans will hear about this league.  It just makes it seem more and more like the league is in trouble.  I beg to differ.  The league needs to reign it in a bit for a little while.  This will condense the talent pool into the remaining teams, only making them better.  This will also condense the fanbase in so (in theory) each team can get more viewers.  It can go either way, but I'm a blind optimist in this area.

Now, there hasn't been a lot of news out of the Power camp during this period, which is both unsurprising and a little disturbing.  Now that teams are allowed to sign players for more than one season, players are probably thinking a lot harder about where they want to be and giving a lot more thought to seeing where offers will be made - meaning that they'll wait for the unrestricted period to begin.  So far, we've re-signed Chris "Gingabread" LeFlore and Mike "the Joystick" Washington.  This is great news, but it's still a long way from a  complete team.

Skuttlebutt said that the Power was going to release a "big" statement Monday, but that didn't happen, probably because of the weather.  The options are limited to what this could have been, as they can only technically talk to people from their 2012 roster.  Now, I suppose they could have skirted that and been ready to announce someone as soon as open free agency began...but I don't think so.  The only player aside from the above that would have been that exciting is Superman.  (Though, I suppose, they could still be over-estimating his popularity and continued to beat the Bill Stull drum.)  So, it's not a done deal, but it's my gut feeling.

So, what can we expect in the coming phase?  More specifically, what should the Power do?

Well, assuming we have Superman in addition to Joystick, we've got a start on the receiver corps.   That's it for sure.  Frankly, I think that our receivers will take care of themselves.  LeFlore was the star on defense, and we know he's back.  They say defense is underrated in this league - and, to a degree, this is true.  However, you look at teams like the Rattlers last year that had great offense and defense that stopped their opponents in their tracks.  It's important.  However, it's useless without offense.  You need to score fast and often in this league, and the Power didn't.  We had great D, but our offense couldn't get it done.

So, having said that, you're going to start screaming at me when I say that our top three concerns should be - in this order - Offensive line, Kicker, QB.  "What the hell are you talking about, Weidman?" you might be yelling.  "You said we needed offense!  Nick Davila and Tommy Grady are free agents!  At very least, how about some more receivers and some running backs?"  Calm down, hypothetical reader.  'Tis madness, but there is method to it.

I'd love to see guys like Christian Wise and Tyree Young back, but they're not crucial.  We've got some stars locked up, and frankly, the Power hasn't had a lot of trouble getting quality people out front - we've had problems getting the ball to them.  ("So, yeah!  A quarterback!"  Quiet, you.)  We've been through a lot of QBs over the last two seasons.  Why is that?  Well, aside from Rowley, we've lost every single one of them to injuries at one point or another.  This goes back to the O line.  They have not been able to offer the protection needed.  I firmly believe that most of the QBs we've had could have done a lot better if they had more time to think in the pocket, or at very least, didn't have that voice in their head screaming "OH MY FRICKIN' GOD, THEY'RE GOING TO MURDER ME!"  Case and point is Bernard Morris.  He goes to Jacksonville and makes the playoffs.

Connected to this is how the league works.  Every team pays the same amount for their players (I'm pretending that non-pay extras don't happen.)  This means that the players have to look at intangibles - especially quarterbacks.  They're going to want to go somewhere with a lot of exposure, a great fanbase and some place that won't end their career early.  Pittsburgh has none of those things right now.  Sure, the fans that show up are into it, but the following hasn't gained the traction of old-market teams like Orlando, Arizona and San Jose.  Because of this, they won't get a lot of exposure.  This leaves protection.  If we can shore up that line, we can either get someone of higher caliber, or at least let our guy play up to his ability.

As for free agents like Davila and Grady, don't get your hopes up.  Grady went to U of U and went far with the Blaze last year.  I don't see him leaving there any time soon, unless it's to the NFL.  Likewise, Davila has two Arena Bowls, one ring and his family in Arizona.  The fact that he isn't signed is probably just a matter of paperwork.

So....yeah.  That's why I think focusing on a QB is a waste of time.   Why did I pick kicker next?  I've hammered this point in over and over again - the kicker is key in the AFL.  How many games have the Power lost based on shoddy kicking?  When you score 6-7 TDs a game, a lousy kicker can swing that final score by 6-7 points.  Along with the QB carousel last year, we had  kicker hot-potato.  That needs to stop (Though, I'd like to bring the Vampire back on defense and special teams for his tackling ability.)

After all this is done, we can think about the QB situation...but only if there aren't any good receivers/backs out there.  If we're "stuck" with Hines or Stull, I can deal with it.  Like I said - they had more to offer, they just kept getting steamrollered.


Elsewhere in the league

• Now that Clint Dozel in the coach's seat, he seems to be trying to meld his dreams into reality.  When he came up east from the Vigilantes, he brought as many of his favorites with him as he could  From there, he molded the D in his image.  He and Dirty Dan are now signed for two years, so I think he's going to hold on tight to as much of his creation as he can and see if he can get that ring this year.
• Bernard Morris is returning to the Sharks.
• Kurt Rocco looks to take the Voodoo even farther this coming season.  New Orleans is one of the teams with the most activity during this period.  They seem to know what they want.
• Despite some serious ups and downs,  Steve Wasil is returning to Tampa Bay
• The Talons are getting both Fred Shaw and Robert Quiroga back

There are a lot of big names unaccounted for - Davila, Grady, Ship, Brackins, Morgan, Jones, Armstrong, etc - so once the floodgates are thrown open, anything can happen.  Stay tuned!

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.

Don't Call It a Comeback, the Power's Been Here For (2) years!

Happy 500th post, everyone! I'm hoping that this milestone will inspire yinz guys to reach 500 comments in response to our posts. Thanks for reading!

I have spent the last couple of days trying to process the Power's insane, history-making OT win against the Predators Saturday night. We won, and no one can take it away from us - not even the refs (more on that, later) - but there are still some very troubling things about the state of our team that have me concerned.

But for the game itself....oh, mama...the game. "A Tale of Two Halves" doesn't really cut it, and "A Tale of Three Quarters and Oh-Yeah-We're-Supposed-To-Play-Four" is a bit wordy. Let's just say, the game that we saw for most of 45 minutes was vastly different than the one we saw for the final 15.

As feared, Bobby Sippio got the start for Orlando, and proving that they have more trickery up their sleeve, they decided at the last minute to start Justin Roper at QB instead of Colin Drafts, throwing all planning out the window. We had no answer for Sippio, and Roper sure enjoyed throwing to him.

The Power started with the ball when Orlando deferred and then went 4-and-out. The Preds started their drive from near their own twenty, passed once to Eley Jr, and then aired it out to Sippio for the score. This set the tone for most of the evening right there. Roper was about 50% with 245 yards and six touchdowns, spreading the ball around to Forse, Sippio, Toliver and Eley Jr. Sippio counted for half the touchdowns scored by the Predator offense that night, and proved that he was a solid pickup for the team.

Our offense in the first half was just not going anywhere, and we ended the first half with 17 points (to Orlando's 41), no real pressure on the Predator offense, no interceptions, and an injured QB, yet again. Actually, to be technical, Hines went out at the end of the 1st quarter, and he hadn't looked that good while he was in. He didn't get picked at all, but he wasn't getting much done, and then he was out and we were left with Cassidy.

I'm really having a hard time deciding how to score Cassidy's performance. Sure, he threw for 5 touchdowns, looked more comfortable than Hines and we won the game...but damn, was he ever unimpressive. 12/22, 148 yards and 4 picks (AND ONE OF THOSE SHOULDN'T COUNT! Ahem...more later), he actually had a better time of it last year in his one game for the Voodoo. Sure, he's our (counts off fingers) 4th QB on the roster in five games, was an emergency pick-up and was only meant to be there if the human excrement hit the rotary blades of the air-moving appliance - and in that, he accomplished all we could have asked of him. However, depending on how bad Hines is hurt, we could be stuck with him until Stull gets better.

There is so much depressing about that statement that I just need to pretend that I didn't type it and just move on.

The second half looked like it was going to be more of the same. Down by 31 &^%*'n points, it would be an AFL league record if we were somehow able to come back from it. Uninspired offense, lackluster defense, scared silly QB and crowd that just couldn't be bothered to cheer (or show up, for the most part), it just wasn't looking like it was going to happen. I'm going to take a slight personal aside here, because it's where my mind was at the time.

To get to our seats, Keller and I enter through the swank-ass Captain Morgan club. For those who haven't been in there, there are nice concession stands on both sides. This week, only one was open. The stands were mostly empty. The Beer Guy only walked down through our section once the entire game. The Power was 1-3 on the season in a second (probably more like 3rd)-tier sport. One guy I passed heading up the aisle at one point was complaining that the commercials promise "Half the field, twice the excitement" but in reality, it's nothing exciting at all. Folks, these are not good things at all. This all seems to say that not only have the fans given up on the sport in Pittsburgh (again) but the venue is cutting its losses as well.

I bring this up because I'm a die-hard Arena fan, and even I was wondering about the possibility of the Power still being in town next season. Even I had to say that the three home games this year were boring. Even I had to admit that absolutely nothing explosive had happened the wh-

HOLY SHIT, LaRICO STEVENSON JUST PICKED ROPER AND RAN BACK 9 YARDS!

Late in the third, things had finally started to turn around! We had the ball, we were close to the end zone and Cassidy was firing for Joystick and, oh damnit he got pick- FUMBLE! Do we have it? Who has it? BERRY HAS IT! SCORE! The crowd was on their feet and they were in it!

The remainder of the game conclusively proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that the crowd in this sport does effect the outcome. Up until this point, the Predators had ruled the field. Sippio and Roper merged with the offense like they'd been there the whole time. They had a 31-point lead, for cryin' out loud! But now the crowd was on their feet and screaming and it started to get in their heads. The next drive, we actually stopped them in their tracks and forced a turnover on downs.

Our next drive, we scored and failed a 2-pt conversion, but there were more points on the board. Here is where many of the fans, including myself, collectively - and I'm using the technical term here -lost our shit and almost rushed the field in sheer zebra-induced blood rage. The official play-reports reads Roper incomplete to Sippio, followed by Roper incomplete to Sippio, followed by Roper intercepted by LeFlore. Major kudos to Dodgeball LeFlore, but he shouldn't have had to do that. The first "incomplete to Sippio" was really an intentional grounding in the end zone and should have been a safety. The next one was a fumble, turnover and score by the Power. The refs just seemed to be watching a different game.

Look, I'm not one of those people who says that the refs lost us the game or only see things when they aren't called on the bad guys or anything, it's just that- INTERCEPTION? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THE BALL BOUNCED OFF THE DAMN GROUND!

I would like to take this moment to publicly apologize for the things that I said at a family venue. I have no idea if the ref's mother has ever even been to Tijuana or if she's even that flexible. I also have no idea what his penis size is, or if in fact he is using Orlando money to rectify a situation that may or may not exist. I will also apologize for using the word "said" and not "scream loud enough that my voice is still raspy."

All of this only stood to put the crowd even more solidly in the Power's corner. Pittsburgh loves an us-vs-the world moment and will take any chance to back a person wearing black and gold in it. The Predators started getting penalty after penalty for false starts, delay of game, illegal defense - you name it. We were in their heads and not going anywhere, and by the end of regulation, with both kickers missing one PAT during the game, the score stood at 51-51.

In OT, we kept the pressure on and held them to a field goal. New Guy Cassidy ended this one (and probably the Predator's season) with a pass to New Guy Wise and the day was ours. Situations like this don't happen every week, but when they do, they're unforgettable. When you're there, not only do you get to see it, but due to the nature of the game, you get to literally be part of it. On the way out, I made sure to point that out to the idiot who was complaining about it being boring.

Next up, NOLA in the Graveyard.

Elsewhere in the league

• Cleveland came up way short against Tampa Bay this weekend. Not sure where the vaunted Gladiator defense was this week, but it sure wasn't in Florida.
• The Sharks lost a heart-breaker, 75-67 at home.
• In the NFL GotW, the Voodoo got beat pretty good by Aaron Garcia and the Talons (I really enjoy watching him pass to Jason Willis.) The scoreboard really didn't tell the whole story, as New Orleans gave Garcia a lot of headaches in the first half and has a brutal defense. We are in a lot of trouble next week.
• I don't want to talk about the Soul/Sabercats game. I really don't. They didn't rebroadcast it, and Philly won by a touchdown. I would have loved to have seen it.
• Another I would have liked to have seen, just to know what went down. The Undefeated Rush are no more, as they got man-handled 70-49 by the Force. Didn't I say I had a bad feeling about this game?
• The Barnstormers squeaked by the Rattlers, leaving the West Division in a three-way tie between the Ratts, Cats and Blaze...whoo-boy, that's going to get ugly.
• Angry that I didn't mention Spokane in that last bullet point, Kyle Rowley and the Shock treated the 2012 Mustangs a lot like the 2011 Mustangs and won 57-26. HOW'S IT FEEL, MILWAUKEE?!