Losing to Colorado a Big Kick in the Behind
Matthew Pickut
Monday March 3, 2003
Sunday the starter, QB Craig Whelihan, got a great turn from a defense that came up with three turnovers, one on the Crush three yard line, but its seemed like all the teeth had come off the fly wheel as the offense stuttered through four sloppy quarters and eventually stalled with a Whelihan fumble on Indiana’s final drive.
All game long Whelihan seemed unable to complete passes over 10 yards in the air. Colorado took away the deep pass by walking their DB’s off the line of scrimmage on man coverages and often disguising coverages by having a man jump between receivers at the line. While this allowed for short passes with adequate runs after the catch, inside the 15 it allowed the defense to play more aggressively in the shorter space. This led to two short field goals and failing to score after recovering a fumble at the Crush three-yard line. It wasn’t until late in the game that Whelihan was able to find LB/FB Leroy Thompson out of the backfield for the Firebirds first passing TD.
“I’m really upset about this loss,” said Thompson, “Today was the test of what we should have been able to do even with all the hurt players. It was a chance to prove to our coaches and to our fans that we can play with anybody even with the injuries. This should have been the ultimate game for us but we just didn’t make plays when we needed them. I’m very disappointed in our effort.”
In the locker room after the game, the Firebirds’ frustration was evident as players and coaches seemed despondent. OL/DL Chris Snyder summed up the feeling. “Its bad, its about as bad as it gets right now,” said Snyder. “Some of these guys are playing as hard as they can and we have some people hurt, but we don’t have it together right now.”
The regular starter at QB, Raymond Philyaw, sat on the sideline watching in frustration as his team squandered opportunity after opportunity.
“It’s tougher watching from the outside. I can’t contribute on any of the plays,” said Philyaw. “I know I’m going to be out another week and there is nothing I can do about it.”
With Philyaw and teammate WR/LB Brett Bech now on the IR, the Firebirds’ offense lacked the spark and much of the speed that helped it start the season 3-0. “It’s throbbing a lot,” Philyaw said of his injured finger, “it will probably be painful for a while and it’s swollen. I go for x-rays and hopefully they’ll have good news for me.”
Coach Dailey knows that this week he and his coaching staff will need to find a way to get the offense moving if they hope to win against Orlando. “We have a lot of things to work on this week, that’s for sure.”
This year’s slide and inconsistent play, while reminiscent of last year’s team, isn’t pushing Dailey into panic mode just yet.
“We made a lot of personnel moves last year,” said Dailey when he was asked if last year’s struggles had taught him anything about streaky play and dealing with injuries. “We’ll probably continue to do that. I don’t want to punch the panic button. If you’re going to make changes you need to make them for the right reasons. I think we just need to work on execution and hopefully we have some people here who can get it done and if we don’t, we’ll try and find personnel who can. I know one thing -- our execution was poor.”
On the other side of the ball, Colorado scored its first win as a franchise, making the Firebirds’ poor performance the answer to a Crush trivia question: “When did the Crush win their first game, and who did they beat?” Still Head Coach Bob Beers knew the win will make a difference for his team.
“A win. It’s not 0-5. It’s 1-4, so you have something to build on, and that’s the biggest positive – that our team feels good about itself this week”
Elway’s love for the game showed itself in the locker room as he stood with his team and watched the conclusion of the Dallas/Arizona game. Regardless of the overall record, team owner John Elway enjoyed the win.
“It’s great. It’s better than I though it would be,” said Elway after the game. “We had three games that we could have won and then last week we didn’t play real well – and then we made some great plays at the end, which feels terrific, so hopeful this gets the monkey off our back and we can start making plays.”
The Crush’s victory came one week after losing by 40 points, a fact that may have motivated the team.
“We were down on ourselves,” said Elway. “But being around this game so long, you know you’re going to have those times. Maybe it was our wake-up call and sometimes that has to happen. We had those three close ones we could have won and then last week we say that if you don’t play for 60 minutes you’re going to get beat pretty good.”
Maybe this Firebirds’ loss will do the same for Indiana, or as Snyder told me after the game when I asked him if there was anything positive to take away from the game, “It’s a big kick in the behind. That’s about all you can take away from this.”
Matthew Pickut is a pastor in northern Indiana and a long time AFL fan. He also writes for his own website: The Brown Paper Blog. He graduated from Taylor University in Upland Indiana (class of `96) with degrees in Biblical Literature and Sociology as well as a healthy respect for the medicinal properties of coffee.
