Brown and Firebirds Finish Right This Time
Matthew Pickut
Wednesday April 16, 2003
“I told you that I’d make that catch,” said Brown after making the game winning catch Sunday against Dallas. “It means a lot. I mean they’ve got me playing a different position and I’m still playing hard, not complaining, doing what I need to do to help us win and we’re winning.”
Brown’s catch capped off an offensive exhibition from the Firebirds that had them scoring on every possession. Head coach Mike Dailey knew the win was big for the struggling Firebirds. “You finally get to see me with a smile, I bet you thought I didn’t have one anymore,” Dailey said as he entered the post game interview room. “It was a great game,” he continued, “a great Arena Football game. We’ve had a few of them, but we haven’t come out on the right side of them.”
Even with the return of Philyaw, who looks to have returned to form, the game came down to defensive stops by the Firebirds. In the first half the defense managed to pull down the only interception of the day to put the Firebirds ahead and with three seconds left they came up with a sack to end the game.
“Sikora [OL/DL John Sikora] flushed him to me,” said OL/DL Chris Snyder who recorded the final sack. “I just kept coming and he [Dallas QB Jim Kubiack] had to step out of Sikora’s ways to keep from getting hit, but I wouldn’t have gotten him if it weren’t for John. It’s good because I was playing nose guard all day and I was struggling. They were blocking well, so I was just trying to move around and get something done.”
Brown, who hauled in his 300th AFL touchdown, saw increased time at LB, a position he finds therapeutic. “I like hitting,” said Brown. “ I get to relieve some frustrations.” Brown’s move to being a two-way player has allowed the team to work speed players into the rotation at OS giving the team more weapons.
“[WR/LB] Shaun Foreman was subbed out there at the end, but I am defiantly comfortable with Eddie at that position,” said Dailey. “He’s a competitor, and every week he comes up with a big play for us.”
The biggest defensive stand however may have been one that didn’t happen. With Dallas in possession of the ball with under a minute left, Dailey knew the game would come down to who had the ball last and called a series of high risk defenses designed to either come up with a big play or make sure there was time left for the Firebirds to score. Dallas scored to go up by 3, but left the Firebirds 22 seconds left on the clock. “You’re going to leave yourself enough time; anybody who’s coached in this league knows that it’s a possession game. If you can get a stop, a turnover or something early, that’s great, but you want to leave yourself enough time for another possession,” said Dailey.
This was just the position Dailey had prepared his team for. “Every week, you can ask any of our players, we practice the one minute drill with 22-25 seconds left. They scored with 22 seconds left; that’s exactly what we practice. You have to get it done offensively. You’re counting on the fact that you can get it done offensively.
``So when there is 65-55 seconds left you’re thinking that maybe you can play a high-risk defense and they will force one and you can get a pick, but once they get down there close… that’s why you take the time outs on defense. This is the only league in the world were the offense has the ball and the defense is taking time outs You want to have 22-25, 30 seconds or whatever left so you can play give up or a high risk defense and they hit you for one. It’s ok because they aren’t going to have the last possession; they aren’t going to win on the last play. It was the same situation last week, but we didn’t get it done last week.”
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.
