Playoffs Round One Recap

Well, if there's anything this weekend's games taught us, it's that A.) anything can happen in the playoffs, and B.) I can't pick playoff games worth a damn. I went 1-3 in these games, and almost went 0-4.

Utah vs Talons
In one of the later games, the announcer pointed out that the Blaze "dismantled" the Talons. At 35-34, this is a bit unfair to Garcia and the Talons. It would be much better said that the Blaze "survived" the Talons. This season, the Talons have averaged 57 pts a game, and the Blaze 63ish, and neither got close to that.

This game was supposed to be a match up between two of the greatest QBs ever to play, but it ended up being all about the defense. The fact that the total score only slightly surpassed these individual averages shows how much of a defensive battle this game was. Both QBs got sacked, both got picked (twice for Grady) and the pressure was on. Also, the Blaze only converted 4 of 10 3rd downs and 1 of 5 4ths. Garcia was comparable. So, again, the defense came up strong.

In the end, it came down to one point. One point between victory and the (likely) end to Garcia's career as a player.

On a side note, as a Power fan, there was one player that had a great night and was fun to watch. The crowd thought so, too:


Voodoo at Soul
Sure, Philly was supposed to win this one, and sure, they did - but they should be ashamed of their play in this one. Down to the end, it was anyone's game, and that should not have been the case between the #1 team in the league and a 4-seed that got into the playoffs by attrition. It was a sloppy game all around, with both teams giving up around 50 yards in penalties. One drive in particular kinda sums this up:

Pictured here: Not how the play was drawn up.

That's a little blurry, but the important part is that, due to penalties, it took seven plays and three negated turnovers to accomplish 10 yards to a touchdown. This was just the most blatant example of a problem that was systemic to the entire game. It got even uglier at the end of the game when two Voodoo players got themselves ejected (I wish I could say it was the first time this season.)

Yes, the blame and sloppy play goes both ways, but the Soul are the much better team. They're better than this, and they can't play that sloppy next week if they want to go to the big game. Another concern is that they lost their kicker to a groin pull late in the game. If they don't get that sorted out before next weekend, there's going to be trouble.

Fun fact: All season, I've been noticing these two nuns that sit in the front row of the endzone section at Wells Fargo. Besides the fact that there is something inherently awesome about a couple of nuns being die-hard Arena fans, these two have caught more balls than have ever even come into my section at Consol. So, either the Lord likes souvenirs, or Dirty Dan is trying to earn points Upstairs. (Except that he pegged one in the face this week.)


Georgia at Jacksonville
So, just like another team farther down this list, the Force learned how hard it is to beat a team three times in a season.

For most of this game, it looked like the Sharks were firmly in the driver's seat. They went into half up, then recovered a botched Force onside kick and stormed into the lead. The Force made a hell of a comeback and closed in on - and then surpassed - the Shark's lead in the fourth. Down to the end, the Sharks had the ball and not much time left and then it happened.

All season, I've found myself missing Bernard Morris here in Pittsburgh until It happens. Regular readers may know that It is a fumble. Either he holds on too long, or just doesn't cover the ball and he gets stripped/drops it. Well, this week was no exception. With seconds left, Bernie Mo got tackled and the ball got away. Luckily, Jacksonville fell on it and kept it, but at a significant loss of yards. Morris's next pass went incomplete, bringing up forth and forever with 6 seconds left.

Remember when we played the Sharks last week and I said that their kicker was frickin' killing us with his distance and accuracy? Well, with the score at 56-55 Force, Capozzoli took the field, looking at 51 yards.

51.

NFL kickers have trouble with that, and their uprights are twice as far apart. Well, I can't adequately describe what happened, so:

From the Arena Football page.

Cats at Ratts
Funny thing is, although this was a hard-fought, entertaining game, there isn't a lot to say about it. Both teams played the game they were supposed to play, and the energy level was what you would expect from from a heated rivalry like this. The Cat's defense intercepted Davila, the Ratts intercepted Greib. Explosive plays happened. Big stops were achieved. It was a great game. In the end, the Cats discovered how hard it is to beat a team three times in one season.

The score was close at 51-48, but it easily could have been a wider gap - and reversed. The Cats managed to pick Davila 4 times to the Rattlers 2. Who says turovers win games? Much like the other games in this review, it was a "survival" game, but it wasn't one were either team failed to play up to their potential. Much like the first game of the weekend, this might have been the end of the road for an aging quarterback. If it is, Greib can know that he went out on a game to be proud of.

Playoff Preview, Round One

To close out the season, we've got a few weeks of playoffs that the Power will, sadly, not be participating in. It was a rough season, but they salvaged more than I would have thought they would. Even so, the team set several new franchise records:

From arenafootball.com:

• MIKE "Joystick" WASHINGTON set single-season franchise records for receptions (115), receiving yards (2,142), receiving touchdowns (39) and points (206).
• PJ "Superman" BERRY set single-season franchise records for kickoff return yards (2,024), kickoff return touchdowns (2) and combined kick return yards (2,040).
• DOMINIE "Sack Attack" PITTMAN set the single-season franchise record for sacks (5.5).
• CHRIS "Gingabread" LeFLORE set single-season franchise records for interceptions (9) and missed field goal return yards (25).
• BRYAN "Wasn't that a Beach Boy?" WILLIAMS set the single-season franchise record for tackles (66).
• GEOFF "Our Best Kicker" BOYER set the single-season franchise record for field goals made (4). (This record is sad for so many reasons, I don't know where to start, so I'll move on.)
  

So, yeah. I mean, it might feel like polishing a turd, but records are records. Our record doesn't fairly reflect how hard these guys played their asses off this year. These might not be league records, but they're Power records and they earned them. Besides, the franchise is two seasons old, and we need to start somewhere.

Now, on to the playoffs.

Utah vs Talons
To start the ball rolling, the NFL Network is starting out with one of the best games of the first round - The Blaze trying to finally beat the Talons. They've met up twice so far, and they've been very close games both times. Over the course of two meetings, the Blaze has lost by a total of 9 points. The Talons have won 11 of their last 12 games (and one can hardly blame them for taking it easy last week) and the Blaze have had a late-season surge of their own.

Normally, a 1-4 match-up is kind of a reward to the 1st seed - almost a pass in the first round. Not so here. Arron Garcia is one of the best QBs to ever play the game, and looking to repeat. Tommy Grady is the best of the younger crowd, and the Blaze travels well.

So, how do I call this? Can't just go with the home team, because the Blaze does so well on the road. Can't go with the quarterback, because we have old, tested and experienced. I can't even go with the QB who makes gutsy plays. I'm going to have to have to go with turnovers. The Talons are +5 and the Blaze are -6 on the season, and turnovers were the deciding factor in the last two meetings between them. Based on that, I have to take the Talons - but if I'm down to the turnover battle, it's iffy.


Georgia at Jacksonville
I have not been impressed with the Force all season. They've been streaky at best, losing games they should win (Yay, Power!) and winning games they should lose (Chicago?) However, I think I need to pick them in this game based solely on how they match up with the Sharks.

Jacksonville is defending the title this year, but that means nothing. Even on the NFL level, there's not a lot of back-to-back wins. In the Arena League, every team starts 0-0 on week one, and that's that. I'm not going to deny that they've played hard and earned their place in the post season.

However, the simple fact is that they've gotten crushed in both meetings with the Force this season. If it were close, I'd say there's always the chance of them getting revenge, but they've been outscored by the Force to the tune of 45 points. Georgia might not be the better team, but they've had Jacksonville's number. The only hiccup is that Jacksonville has not yet faced Bryant Moniz at QB yet, and he hasn't seen the post season. Jitters could change things, but I'll still take Georgia.

Voodoo at Soul
New Orleans made a very loud statement this year, coming back from a season like we just lived through to go to the post season. They even beat the Soul week one by a point. However, I just don't see them winning this one. The Soul has set countless records this year and have been nigh unstoppable. They've beaten some of the best teams in the league, and they're going all the way to the big game in my opinion.

The Voodoo, on the other hand, still needs to mature. They've had big games, but also big losses. They made it to the post season in a weak division with a losing record. Finally, Rocco has too much of a habit of blowing games with silly mistakes.

Philly wins, or it's the biggest upset of the season.

Cats at Ratts
This one is just as hard to call as the Talons/Blaze game and for almost the same reasons. Nick Davila is trying to get his team back to the Arena Bowl, whereas Mark Grieb is trying to pull a Garcia and win the big one before he retires - a scene Davila is familiar with.

Both times they met this season - and these teams hate each other - the Cats won, but only by a total of 8 points. The Ratts are perfectly capable of beating them, they just haven't this year. Same thing with what I said about the Sharks - the Sabercats just have their number....barely. This is the pick that I'm most unsure of, but I'm going to go with my gut feeling a few months ago and take the Cats.

Now, I was all ready to put a bracket picture here. I'm sure about my picks in the American Conference -Georgia and Philly will advance, Philly will rout Georgia and it's on to New Orleans. The National Conference, however, is just too hard to call. I'm confident on my calls, but even then, next week would be just as hard to tell between the Talons and the Cats. Talons and Ratts (which the odds are probably on) is equally hard. Blaze and Ratts...eeeeh. The only way to be sure is the Blaze and Sabercats - I'd call the Blaze in that, but it's the least likely outcome.

So, we'll see come Monday.

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.

Power in the Graveyard

That right there is an awesome name for a band.

I have long said that some teams just have better marketing than others. The Voodoo, with their Voodoo Doll dance team, playing in the Graveyard...you just can't compete with that. (Rattlers/Sidewinders/Snake Pit comes damn close.) For a long time, this marketing was needed simply because no one was showing up to see a football team that can't win at home. (I'm not trying to be subtle there - I'm trying to be damned obvious.)

At the beginning of the season, my look forward was essentially,
Predators - AAAAAAAAAAH!
Philly - Hmmm...
Mustangs - HA!
Barnstormers - Meh
Predators - AAAAAAAAAAH!: The Return
Voodoo - Gimme

Unfortunately, a lot has changed since then. Just a couple of weeks ago, no matter how good or bad the Power were playing, I could say, "Well, at least we're playing the Voodoo at home." Until they tangled with the Storm on the 6th, they had not won in the Graveyard in 4 whole years. Even though that time included a league suspension and a year in Shreveport, the fact remains that this was a lot of home games to lose.

Right now, both teams are sitting on an ugly 2-3 record and are looking to bring their season around. However, their losses (and the way they lost) speaks volumes. They've also lost to Philly and the Mustangs, so that's a wash. Last week, they lost to the Talons because they got cocky and forgot that Garcia can never be counted out. The Power's third loss was a game we should have won at home against the Barnstormers.

Where we've only been able to win against the hapless and winless Predators, the Voodoo have put up wins against both the Storm (3-2) and Blaze (3-2), both pretty strong teams in tough divisions.

Coach has said that Cassidy will be starting this week, even though we've signed Bryan Randall (Practice squad for the Falcons, Bucs and Steelers before bouncing around the other indoor leagues.) I'm not super excited about it, but he's what we've got. If he's calmed down and gotten in the groove more since last week, fantastic. If not, we're frickin' doomed.

The main thing that the Voodoo have going for them is the fact that they don't like to share. Someone else has the ball, they're going to take it away. They are one of the league leaders in takeaways, averaging about 3 a game. Alvin Ray Jacksonhas got four in the last three games, and Jeremy Kellem has one every game. Given the fact that our QBs throw picks like it's their job, and Cassidy threw 4 last week alone, this is the scariest thing about the game this weekend.

PJ Berry is continuing to come into his own, and is making waves in the league once again as a return man. Randy Hymes has been looking good at fulfilling the DeWalt role (all signs and rumors point to him having officially left the team), Joystick is all over the place and newcomer Christian Wise making the game-winner last week are all good things, but I still think that our offense has a few more levels they can climb to.

Honestly, the Power need to do what they did last week at home, and that's play even harder in the second half than the first. The Voodoo blew a halftime lead against the Talons last week because they lost focus in the second half. Yes, I still think the crowd was at least 35% of the reason we made that comeback, but now the Power remembers that it's not over until it's over.

Anything else to say would be rehashing things I've been saying for six weeks. We all know what the Power has to do, the only question is will they? Articles around the net are already writing them off - not just in the standings, but in the league as a whole. Attendance is half of what it was last year, and they need some big wins to get some viewers back. Once again, it's up to us, the fans to make it happen.

The game is on Ustream at 8, and rebroadcast on the CW Saturday at 7:30.

Elsewhere in the league

• The Predators return home to face the Force Friday night. Playoffs are pretty damn much out of the picture for them for the first time in 19 years, but they still need a win for pride. That being said, the Force have been getting better each week and should have this one.
• Tampa Bay matches up with Philly on the road. Chances are, Philly will continue to dominate.
• I'm picking the Blaze in the next one over the Barnstormers only because they have home-field advantage. It's going to be a tough one either way.
• I'd love to say that Jacksonville is going to stroll into Cleveland and hand their asses to them...I'd love to, but I can't.
  
• Hopefully Milwaukee continues to slide in the standings when they visit Chicago Saturday. The Rush should beat them, but despite their record, it seems like luck has been their best player.
• Kansas City is the only other winless team in the league and they need to play the Cats on their own turf. It is to laugh.
• Sunday night, the Talons travel to the Snake Pit to let Garcia and Nick Davila have a rematch. Should be exciting, but should be a win for the Ratts.
  

Bye Week Spotlight: The Soul at Voodoo

I wanted to address this week's final game, as we will be playing both teams in the coming weeks and there was a lot to see in this match-up. Sunday afternoon, the Soul traveled to the Graveyard - the AFL's best-named arena, followed by the Rattlers' Snakepit and the Preds' Jungle - to start their season. Coming in, I was expecting a fairly lopsided game given the Soul's roster and the Voodoo's lack of one - but it came right down to the wire.

The Soul absorbed a fair amount of talent from the now defunct Dallas Vigilantes, including QB "Dirty" Dan Raudabaugh (yes, I'm still pushing that moniker), RB Derrick Ross and former head coach (now offensive coordinator) Clint Dozel. Returning this year is deep threat Donovan Morgan (who was gone, then back, then maybe gone, then re-signed last season) and new acquisition, Jeff Hughley from the Sharks (Note: I am so glad he's not a lineman, because I'm already mentally calling him D.L. Hughley, which is a whole other Hughley.) Also, they're rolling with some brutal defense that doesn't seem to care about such niceties as not roughing the passer or kicker.

On the other side of the field, the Voodoo were returning from a pretty crappy season, with a new head coach and mostly new players. That's "new to Arena Football" not just new to the team. There's only about 5 veterans on the team, including former Cleveland Gladiator rival, Kurt Rocco and Josh Bush (whom you might remember from my past Predator coverage.) Their strength is really in their coaching, with former Preds coach Pat O'Hara and AFL legend Tim Marcum as his assistant. With these two at the head and the performance I saw today, I expect some impressive stuff out of New Orleans this year.

Philly started the game looking like they were just going to crush the Voodoo after putting up two rather quick scores, but the Voodoo got in it and they went back and forth the rest of the game. The Voodoo missed a key PAT, and they spent most of the game staying one point behind. Even though they capitalized on a turnover in the second, the Soul were able to make up the ground and finish it out one point ahead at the end (63 - 62) due to a missed field goal by New Orleans.

When we face the Voodoo in a few weeks, they're going to be a tougher than we've dealt with in the past, despite their lack of experience. Kurt Rocco was fairly solid in Cleveland, and he has matured a lot. With the help of some top-flight coaching and some solid, solid receivers in Josh Bush and Quorey Payne, they have a lot of potential. When Bush had less on the day of these two and still got almost 100 yards in the indoor game, we're seeing solid performance.

Rocco is strong in the passing game and this week went 25/29 for 314 yards 6 TDs. On the other hand, they are not afraid of the rushing game, putting up almost 50 yards on the ground and three TDs. Were it not for their kicking woes and some standout performances from Philly, this game is a win in most situations.

Next week, we face the Philly Soul once again in our home opener and. they. scare me. Seriously. Dirty Dan is a great QB who took the Vigilantes to the postseason last year. Today, he went 23 for 30, 310 yards, 7 TDs and no interceptions. He also has some phenomenal targets in Tiger Jones, Donovan Morgan and Jeff Hughley. All three of them are good at getting open down field and making catches. Both Hughley and Jones had receptions of 29 yards or more in this game and it only took three receivers for Dirty Dan to break the 300 yard barrier.

Morgan was viewed to be good enough to get picked up by the UFL last season, but it only took about a week for him to make it back to this league, whether he didn't like it or didn't work out, and that's the AFL's gain. He "only" had 86 yards receiving today, caught 2 touchdowns and also rushed for another 24 yards. He's highly mobile and can move in the open field.

Hughley is the big threat. As a receiver, he's deadly. Last year under the great Aaron Garcia, he had almost 1200 yards and 22 touchdowns. Today, he already tacked up almost 100 yards and two TDs as a receiver. He was also the only kick returner for Philly, and he averaged 26.5 yards on 10 returns and ran one aaaaaaall the way back for a score. Seriously, I don't want him coming into the Consol next week.

Finally - and this is is just based on their first game of the season - the Soul has got some brutal defensive players. There were several unsportsmanlike calls for Philly today, include a late, hard hit on Rocco, and hard hit to the kicker's leg. I hope they get that under control before they risk our players next week.

So, two weeks in, and we already have a good idea what we're going to be facing in three out of our next five games.

Elsewhere in the league

• Right now, Philly is at the top of the division with 1 win and more points than us. Next week will show only one of the four of us with 2 wins.
• Milwaukee put up a good fight against Arizona, but lost by a touchdown
• The Kansas City Command started out strong against the Garcia-less Sharks Friday night, but just got throttled in the second half. Looks like the Sharks might still be a tough contender.
• Utah lost this week, leaving both them and the Blaze 1-1.
• Speaking of Garcia, the Talons lost a close one to the Shock 63-60.
• The Game of the Week on the NFL network wasn't boring, but it wasn't that exciting either. Tampa Bay started out strong, and the Force did their best to catch up. 50-47 Tampa.
  

Power at New Orleans Review

Boy is it nice to start a review with something other than, “Well, the important part is that we made good progress.” We did, but more importantly, we won. That's a fantastic change of pace. It was a short week, we were on the road and we were up against a team that just knocked off the top team in our division – but we won.

Morelli seemed worlds more comfortable behind center. He was 23 for 35, with 232 yards, 6 passing touchdowns, one rushing and no interceptions. He may be finally finding his groove out there, right in time for Morris to get off of IR. Will they give Morris his job back, or stick with the man who now has the most on-field experience for the team? I don't know, but it warrants some careful thought as to what they should do. My feeling is to leave Morelli in, as one should not change horses midstream.

Right now, he seems to be settling in on Willis and Washington as his “go-to” receivers, except for in short-yardage situations. Twice in the short field, he chose to got to Powertool DeWalt for these and come up with a score. The first half of the game was mainly Willis, but they seemed to rest him in the second in favor of Washington. This change-up got the job done.

In the rushing game, I'm sorry to see Josh Rue become less and less of a factor each week. It's not that he has lost a step, but more that the tactic of using him is becoming less effective. Perhaps the other teams are catching on. On the other hand, to return to Morelli's comfort-level, he is stepping up to be what is fairly common in AFL teams: QB's that are also the team's top rusher. This week, he was not afraid to scramble and go for it, picking up good yardage in the process. To me, this is a sign of a quarterback that is developing into an effective player in this league. Deciding to just go for it shows that he's no longer thinking, “Gotta throw, gotta throw, please don't let this be a pick!” Now, he's thinking, “nothing doing – might as well see what I can make of it.” Again, this is common in this league and not necessarily a sign of an offense that can't make plays in the air.

The defense also stepped up big this week. The yards and plays for both teams stayed very even, which is a change over the last few weeks. They kept the Voodoo contained and on the same level, made big stops and pulled out the win, even though New Orleans drew first blood. Also, the defense forced three fumbles and recovered them all – a feat the Voodoo was not able to accomplish once.

However, it was not all rainbows and happiness this week.

Not pictured here: Penalties. Lots and lots of penalties

The way the game started, I never would have imagined that Pittsburgh would pull off a win. It started like so many others, with blown calls, penalties and ineffective plays. Thankfully, they woke up after that.

However, the Power is having continued problems on the line. They are regularly getting called for offsides, false starts and delay of game. This is a costly problem that needs to be addressed quickly. This week alone, it helped account for eleven penalties totaling a brutal 66 yards. That's bad on the full field, but in the league, it's almost a field and a half that they gave up in this game.

Although this can be chalked up to inexperience, it is still a large concern. They're largely silly mistakes that professionals should not be making this often. Overcoming this tendency is the next big step towards becoming a first-rate team - and a change that won't happen overnight.

We can't make too much about this win. The Voodoo is a fairly poor team with only one win on the season. Beating them isn't like we just whooped up on the Rattlers or the Sabercats – but it is a win, something that we badly needed. This brings the Power to 3-3 on the season and 2-0 on the road. In a strange twist, we're actually playing better in other peoples' houses than in our own. In addition to not making stupid procedural penalties, it sure would be nice if the Power can start rewarding their loyal fans at home who are still bringing in crowds bigger than most in the league by winning some games.

Next up: The Georgia Force.

Elsewhere in the league:

• Philly dropped another one this week in the expansion-team Arena Bowl rematch to the San Jose Sabercats. This time, the Soul didn't have a second-half collapse like they have been – rather, they were just outclassed at every turn. They put up a good fight, but the end was never in doubt.

• The Sharks made up for last week a little bit by knocking off Cleveland in a tight match Saturday night. From start to finish, it was a back-and-forth exchange of touchdowns for these two top-flight teams until late in the forth when Cleveland ran out of gas. Any loss for the Gladiators ultimately helps us.

Power Weekend Review/Easter Week Preview Extravaganza

With a very short week for the Power, we will be combining the review and preview into one post.

Let me start by making two things clear:

1. It wasn’t as bad as it might seem this weekend and
2. I’m never calling a sure-thing game again.

Power/Sharks Recap

Yes, the Power lost another heart-breaker at home Saturday night, but the game honestly unfolded just about as I suspected, and I think that they accomplished some of the objectives that I’d hoped they would.

From the start, the odds were horrendously stacked against them. On our side of the ball, we had a shaky and fairly inexperienced QB. On their side, they had the AFL’s all-time leading passer, totaling more than 26 miles in his long, 17-year history. Experienced team/expansion team. The list goes on.

In my preview, I tried to prepare us for a loss without being blunt about it – but it was my assumption heading into this week. As I had said, I hoped to see us working on team cohesion as well as getting Morelli some confidence behind center, since he might be there awhile, and honestly, I think that we accomplished that.

The game started with a back-and-forth, call-and-response style of scoring. As I said to the spare Mr. Keller attending the game with me, the bad thing about games like that is that usually the team that breaks the pattern first loses. Sure enough, late in the second quarter, the Power broke the pattern.

Up until then, Morelli was looking far, far more confident behind center than I think he has all season. On paper, he had a fantastic game where he held his own against a great quarterback. His completion percentage wasn’t the best, but he threw 290 yards for 5 touchdowns, no interceptions – Garcia only collected 7 more yards and the same number of touchdowns (according to the Arena league’s post-game stats page.)

He seemed a lot less afraid to throw this week. He made 36 attempts, and completed 20 of them. Again, not fantastic, but the yards still added up. He also got a 42 yarder to Willis and a 45 yarder to DeWalt – both for touchdowns. I’m still not super-psyched to have Morelli as our QB, but I’m a lot less worried than I was going into this week.

So, if he was so great, where did it go wrong? Like a lot of games, there were a lot of causes, but in this one, I can pinpoint the exact moment where the team checked out. After that great back-and-forth opening series, there was one drive late in the 2^nd where nothing went right for Pittsburgh.

Mathis made a 12-yard return that got called back to the 4 because of a holding call. First pass was incomplete, but Rue was holding – back to the two. Three more incompletes, and then Morelli got lost. Two delay of game calls in a row ensued as he tried to figure out what was going on, and they backed up to the 1. Another incomplete turned the ball over on downs.

This was the first drive that they didn’t score, and they turned it over to Jacksonville on the one-yard line (Note: there is no punting in Arena Football) and let them score. After another set of disjointed downs (one completion in four), Jax had it back and closed out the half with a field-goal. There were bursts of energy in the second half, but the fight was out of them. Even though they almost doubled their score before the end, it was no match for Aaron Garcia and his Sharks.

As I mentioned earlier, on paper Garcia and Morelli had very similar games and the same is also true of the receiving corps. The differences that changed the game were in the spots that the Sharks were able to complete and we failed. Both teams had three 4th-down attempts. Jacksonville converted all three, Power converted none. Jacksonville sacked Morelli 4 times; Power didn’t manage to get to Garcia at all. Jacksonville was 10-10 in the redzone. The Power was 50%.

Morelli and the rest still have a lot to work on moving forward, that much is obvious. For one thing, they were having trouble with the concept of “If it doesn’t work, try something else.” Case and point, on the ill-fated “drive” that took us out of the game, 3 of the 4 passes before the delay-of-game calls were short to Washington on the outside. Now, we can question the wisdom of throwing shortest man on the team three times while balancing on your own goal line all day, but the crux of the matter is that they shouldn’t have run any play that many times in quick succession if it wasn’t working. I assume that we all know the definition of insanity?

Morelli is getting more confident, but he still needs to work on it. I’m not sure if people just need to stop him on the street and tell him he’s awesome, or if Coach Siegfried needs to do some team-building trust exercises or what, but something’s got to happen. I’m not holding my breath that we’re going to see Morris again, and McCabe is gone for the forseeable. This might be our starter, whether we like it or not.

In the Tampa Bay game Friday night, Coach Dave Ewart made a comment about a mistake his QB made that was something to the effect of, “Well, the great thing about young guys is that they forget quickly.” Morelli needs to work on forgetting. Yeah, that drive was a total cluster, but it shouldn’t have been the end of the game. He took his finger off the button at that moment, and never managed to get it back on again.

If he can keep his focus and if the defense can, maybe, hold on to a few of the balls thrown right to them by opposing QBs, I think we’ll be in good shape. The receivers are there, Rue is standing by to lumber where he needs to go, and Morelli can throw the bombs when he’s feeling good.

Yes, we lost this week – but with a lot of help from around the league, we stayed definitively in second place in the division. We have another short week this week as we gear up to travel to New Orleans on Thursday for a little Easter Weekend football.

Power at New Orleans

Boy, I’d really like to say that this will be an easy week. Coming into this past weekend, the Voodoo were at the bottom of the Arena League –winless, directionless and hapless. Even firing their offensive coordinator early and bringing in former QB Raymond Philyaw to replace him didn’t seem to be making much of a difference. Forgetting what the winless Mustangs did to the Soul, and what the winless Talons did to us, I called the game against the Gladiators to be a solid loss.

Is it a crime to be wrong?

The Gladiators were one of the only remaining undefeated teams in the league, and the unchallenged leaders in our division. The Voodoo, frankly, seemed unsure how to play football. Could there have been any doubt how that game would end up? Yet, somehow, some way, they beat Cleveland 34-33. On the road. I didn’t get to see the game as it was on while I was in the Consol watching our Pittsburgh Power, so I am just going to go with the assumption that this was a hoax, a fix or a hallucination and move on.

But you know what? I’m glad they won. Now I don’t need to sit here and think about the fact that they’re due for a win, and worry about a repeat of the game against the Talons. Now, I can just look at the two teams on their own.

The Voodoo lost their first two games but kept it competitive, then entered a two game slide with the Sharks and Force that saw them get kicked around good and proper. This woke them up to make a big stand and beat an undefeated team this past weekend.

They obviously have their issues – beating Cleveland or not, they still lost every other game this season – and not much in the way of stand-out players. Their one win was a game where the total score was only two points higher than what Jacksonville scored by themselves against us.

I’m honestly not sure what to expect after Saturday. On one hand, they might be fired up after this huge win and use it as their launching point for the season. On the other hand, it might have been luck, or it might make them cocky and sloppy when they return to the Graveyard to play this week. (This is one of those sentences that I really don’t think came out the way that I’d hoped it would…)

Just like last week, I’m more concerned about our team than theirs. We’ve been very good at beating ourselves thus far, and a 1-4 team shouldn’t be a concern. However, Philly is a 1-4 team, and we’re their “1.” We can’t write them off. That’s the kind of stuff that leads to losses against teams like Philly and Tulsa.

It’s Easter Weekend coming up, and I wouldn’t be surprised if both teams are thinking about a long weekend in The Quarter after playing Thursday night. Hopefully, the Power will be able to focus in and work on everything I’ve been ranting about and pull off a win.

Besides – It’s Easter, and, if nothing else, I’m betting Jesus isn’t a fan of Voodoo.

Elsewhere in the League:

• Did anyone mention that NOLA beat Cleveland? Holy effin’ crap, man! The Gladiators are top of the heap in our division still, but at least we now know they can bleed – and if it bleeds, we can kill it.
• Philly continues their collapse this season, dropping yet another one they should have had Friday night to the Tampa Bay Storm. (Between the Soul and the Pens, TB had a good night in PA.) With the exception of the season opener against us, Philly has followed a very predictable pattern: Control and dominate in the first half, then forget that football games consist of two halves. Coach Ho needs to figure out a way of this cycle, and fast. Look, I like Coach Hohensee a lot. He used to coach my favorite non-Pittsburgh team (in any sport) and won many games – but I don’t think that’s going to matter to Ron Jaworski if this keeps up.
• With the Mustangs off, the Gladiators losing and Philly falling to dead-last and “not scary” territory, the Power remains in second place.