Defense Saves the Game in Orlando
Dan Ryan
Sunday July 28, 2002
Take the Orlando Predators’ 32-27 playoff victory over the Buffalo Destroyers, please.
Neither your Hall of Fame QB nor your Arena Bowl champion QB can manufacture a scoring drive or even run out the clock. Your kicker is having perhaps the biggest single-day meltdown since Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters. And for the final 18 minutes, the scoreboard’s locked with totals more suitable to a WNBA halftime tally. Ugh.
By the way, ever notice that the game seems longer when the teams aren’t scoring? Go figure.
It sounds ugly, but here’s the deal. The Preds’ defense was tons more fun to watch than the lame resemblance of an offense.
Sure, the crowd of only 9,137 was on the verge of crucifying Matt Simonton after missing his final three PATs, two drop kicks, and three field goal attempts -- the last resembling your worst tee shot and giving the Destroyers yet one more opportunity to win. Even Jay Gruden and Connell Maynor were subject to the “what the hell are you thinking?” variants when four chances to put the game away were squandered.
Instead, the cheers and the shout-outs went to Lamont Moore, Rashad Floyd, B.J. Cohen, Junior Lord and Ernest Allen. Every pass break-up was like a touchdown. Every bone crushing sack just made you feel good to be an American, by God.
Four times the Destroyers had a chance to win. Four times the defensive came back.
In addition to enjoying a career defensive performance with a pick and three break-ups, Moore’s story is great since he spent most of the season recovering from a thumb injury. Floyd came through with a break-up with 47 seconds that everyone thought finally gave the Preds the deal.
However, it wasn’t until the 0.4 second mark that Allen recovered a Destroyer fumble before Orlando finally gave the home fans something to feel good about and kept them alive in the “Who’s Going to upset San Jose Sweepstakes.“
Dan Ryan has been involved with all forms of arena football since 1988, including writing for ArenaFan when Joe Kauffman and Tim Capper aren’t killing his columns because they don’t get his jokes or perspective. His day job is at Bethune-Cookman University, which has produced both an NFL Hall of Famer (Larry Little) and an Arena Football Hall of Famer (Stevie Thomas) and his hobby is tracking how many f-bombs Adam Markowitz drops in the chat room on game nights.
