Yes, the Power Outage Continues

I only missed one pick this week, and unfortunately, it was not in the Power/Rattlers game.

Things actually started out much better than I could have expected. Less than 30 seconds into the game, Nick Davila connected with his first pass for a touchdown, but the Power answered right away with a score of their own. The first quarter remained low-scoring, and by the beginning of the 2nd, we were tied up again at 14-14 after a rumbling drive to the end zone by Tyree Young.

The Ratts brought it to 21-14 before our troubles began. In the 2nd quarter, we had a disastrous "drive" that left us 4-and-out, turning it over on downs on our own 2 yard line. Obviously, it didn't take the Ratts long to score with field position like that. The Power kept it competitive by scoring again with Hymes and Tyree, holding the Ratts to a touchdown and field goal and leaving us 38-28 at the half. Honestly, against a team like the Rattlers, that's almost as good as a win right there.

It didn't take long in the second half for it to happen. Actually, it only took until the second play of the 2nd have for "it" to happen. What was "it"? The turnover that completely kills us. We have to have one every game, and it happened on a pass intended for Joystick that Marquis Floyd came up with instead. When that happens to the Power, you can feel the wind go out of their sails.

To their credit, they fought all the way. The most infuriating play of the game was when Boyd pulled off an onside kick that took a lucky bounce, allowing Williams to run all the way to the 1-yard line. Why was that bad? Because Tyree Young was offsides and it all got called back and given to AZ - along with a half the distance penalty to go with it. Now, the Ratts were nice enough to fumble and give it back to us, but it still made me want to punch babies.

In the end, we came within seven with two minutes left in the game and "it" happened again, sealing our fate. Rattlers 55, Power 45.

What do we take out of this? Well, yet another loss, that's for sure. However, once again, the Power lost with style. They played hard against a team that we were almost certainly going to lose to anyway. Stingley didn't make any overly stupid calls, Randall threw for over 300 yards and four touchdowns, and no one let themselves get stripped and/or fumble. That's all really good. The line didn't protect Randall very well, and the Rattlers spotted us a lot by being disjointed and "off" for most of the first three quarters - but that is what it is. We played well and can be proud of it.

But it was still a loss.

Elsewhere in the League

Like I said earlier, I was only off by one pick this week. Still wish Keller would sack up and do a pick 'em in this league so I could win some of my money back.

• I really wanted to watch Cleveland at Iowa, but my Power went out Friday night, and this was the one game of the week I couldn't stream to my cell. Regardless, even without my concern rays, the Barnstormers came out on top.
• The stands were fairly empty down at Gwinnett Center Saturday night when the Force hosted the Voodoo, so there weren't a lot of people there to watch them get soundly beaten. When the Voodoo scored early, intercepted and scored again, it was obvious it wouldn't be a pretty night, and it wasn't. 57-35, Voodoo
• Tampa Bay against the Sharks was a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be, and it stayed competitive all the way through. Several times while watching Bernard Morris, I kinda missed having him as our QB (until he fumbled, that is.) The game started out a runaway with the Sharks going up 20-0 pretty quickly. Coach Ewart decided to switch horses and put Nick Hill - recently released from the Packers - into the game. Had he made that choice at the beginning of the game, things might have been much different, but alas, TB remains winless on the road, 71-61.
• Philly was not a very good host to Orlando, embarrassing them in front of all the other guests at the party. Seeing how fast they surpassed the 70 point mark, I thought that they were going to make a run on that elusive 100 point game. However, they held back in the second half and just let the game play out. Final score: 79-48, Soul.
• My one missed pick of the week was because no one in the world saw San Jose losing to Milwaukee. Mark Grieb played like Mark Grieb, throwing for 435 yards, 10 touchdowns and no INTs...unfortunately, fumbles that were allowed to be run in, penalties, poor defense and all-around sloppy play allowed the Mustangs to have this one firmly in hand from the beginning of the game. It ended 81-68, Mustangs
• In the final game of the weekend, it was proven once again that when great QBs match up, it comes down to who blinks first. After a rocky start, Russ Michna went on to be nearly perfect in this game. He ended 32/38, 412 yards, 9 touchdowns and no INTs. Rowley got picked twice (and, to be fair, Chicago is known for take-aways) and this one ended as I figured - the Rush victorious 73-62

We're reaching that time where the playoff picture is starting to come into focus. In our division, it's Philly's to lose, with them being three games ahead of the Gladiators and five games ahead of the Mustangs. They just need to maintain, and the worst that can probably happen is to get a wildcard if they really screw up down the stretch.

The South Division is going to come down to the wire for everyone but the Predators. Right now, the other teams are 6-5, 6-6, 6-6 and 5-6. The top two spots are Jacksonville and Tampa Bay, and they've split their series this year - hell, if Tampa had been successful on their last push and gone for two, they could have made their loss 71-69. This would have been the same as their win over Jax earlier in the season, bringing them to a coin flip if they end with tied records.


In the Central Division, the Talons aren't quite as comfortable as the Soul is in ours, but a two game lead over the Rush has got to be feeling pretty good. The way they stack up against the West, I think it's going to be first-or-nothing in their division. As such, the Rush need to play catchup if they want to make the post season. They've already lost to the Talons once this season, so it will be tough.

Ah, the West division. The "worst" team in this division has almost the same record as the top team in the South. (6-4 vs 6-5.) With the win totals being 9, 8, 7, 6, it's not as tight as the South division, but it is still highly competitive. I wouldn't be surprised to see the top three teams all go to the playoffs this year. This bodes very well for the Cats, as they've swept the Ratts this year, split with the Blaze and won once against the Shock thus far.

Mustangs Get Revenge.

Three games in, and the Power already finds itself in a deep, deep hole. Now with Philly (somehow) falling to the Gladiators, everyone in our division has won a divisional game except us - we've lost two. We now find ourselves among the five teams that are 1-2 or worse.

I know that there are still 15 games left for the season, but the point needs to be made that the Power is already at a come-to-Jesus point. The team needs to look closely at their tactics, training and game-planning if they want to stop this slide. This week wasn't just a loss, it was another drubbing (63-40), and that needs to stop now.

Thursday night, we traveled back to Milwaukee to battle a team that is greatly changed over the one that we beat twice last season. Bill Stull was our starter, and he was shaky from the beginning. Before he was pulled, he only went 13/31 with a lost fumble and a pick. Now, it came out later that he dislocated his shoulder in the 1st half and tried to fight through it, but the fact remains that he didn't seem to have much confidence before that.

In the 3rd quarter, he was slammed into the boards and finally had to bow out to Andrico Hines. Hines' first drive was after Milwaukee's Marcuss Everett fumbled right around the goal line. I'm sure I wasn't alone in thinking, "Okay! Fresh QB, played well week one - maybe the game turns around here!" Not so. Everett redeemed himself by perfectly picking Hines' first pass and running it in. He ended the night with two picks, a fumble recovery and a touchdown.

After that auspicious start, Hines actually looked pretty good the rest of the game. 10/16, 124 yards and a touchdown. Not too shabby. Also, considering that the game had thoroughly spiraled out of control at that point, it is also impressive that he maintained a sense of optimism. With a dislocated shoulder, I'm thinking that it's likely that Stull sits next week, giving Hines another chance against the Barnstormers.

Washington, Hymes and Berry were all pretty much shut down this week. Some of that was because of our QB situation, but a lot of it was because of the Mustangs' solid defense - especially Everett. On the subject of Berry...I just don't know. He was Iron Man of the Year last year, and was very good - but so far, I just haven't seen it. Offense is one thing, but we brought him in to handle returns, and they haven't been that impressive yet. This week, he averaged only about 14 yards a return, but that average was skewed by one 25 yarder. (To be fair, he had a 58 yard return-for-score that was called back on a hold.) I'm not saying that he's bad, but only that he's the main non-QB position that I know the Power can improve at. Here's hoping he steps up soon.

The stand-out star of the evening was Tyree Young. I love watching this guy play. It's easy to invoke the name of Bettis in this town, but this guy rolls like The Bus himself. 41 yards and two TDs this week, he out rushed all of Milwaukee's players combined. The only player who rushed for more TDs than him in the game that night was Gino Guidugli, and that's because he's one of those crazy QBs who can move when he needs to. One more comparison: Young rushed for only three less yards than WR Jared Jenkins, whom the Power said ahead of this game that they had to prepare for.

Finally, I really like our kicker Wagner. After those two poor spots by Hines last week, Wagner has been money every time. I have a feeling that's going to be important going forward.

What do we take away from this game? I know I had a bummer of an opening to this post, but we really are only three games in. There's a lot of football left to play, and we can hope our division rivals screw up along the way while we find our sea legs. This game was a brutal follow-up to our loss to Philly, but hopefully we can move past it.

Besides - we were the first team this season to hold the Mustangs to less than 65 points. I'll take the the victories where I can find them.

Elsewhere in the league

• Orlando starts 0-3 as they lose at home to Garcia and the Talons. It's nice to know someone's in a deeper hole than us, but Colin Drafts is still looking good, and the team really is playing well together - and they're going to want our blood in a few weeks.
• Arizona destroyed the Command in a why-even-show-up game, 56-28.
• Jacksonville/Tampa Bay - I could write a whole post on just the last quarter of this game. After exchanging scores the whole game, it came down to the wire. Former Power QB Bernard Morris had the start, and was up to his old tricks of holding the ball too long when he shouldn't, and then couldn't hold onto it when he should. Then Terrance Smith ran for a Sharks touchdown - but started dancing before the end zone! The ball got stripped, and he luckily held onto it, but this stupid, stupid, stupid play left 4 seconds on the clock for a Tampa Hail Mary. Stephen Wasil bombed it end zone to end zone and missed - but the Sharks committed an intentional foul in the end zone. Normally, this would be a 10-yard penalty and another shot, but since it was determined to be intentional, Tampa got the ball at the one-yard line. The score was a gimmie, and it ended with Tampa 71, Jax 69.
• Sabercats annihilated the Shock 69-35. Of note, San Jose coach Darren Arbet earned my respect in this game. The play was to fall on the one yard line and run the clock out - But Mark Lewis ran it in. Arbet chewed him out for running up the score, and I respect that.
• Chicago struggled heavily in PATs (or more specifically, the snaps right before them) but managed to get the money kick in OT to remain the only undefeated team in the league - 62-61.
• New Orleans remained strong this week, and finally have a win over the Blaze to show for it.
• Why, oh why did I not watch the Philly/Cleveland game? Why? It was a long day of yard work, Game of Thrones was on and I was tired. I just couldn't get it up for football tonight, and I didn't really need to see Dirty Dan and his boys roll over another division team. However, somehow the game ended with the Gladiators on the right side of 68-62 score.