Tampa Bay’s Stafford Better Than Last Play
Joe Kauffman
Tuesday February 17, 2004
“I saw [Adderson] coming,” Stafford said after the game. “I’d been side-stepping him all day. The guys had been doing a good job of pushing him by me. He got his hand in there and hit my hand. It happened so fast.”
Georgia’s Stacy Evans recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown that put the Force up 70-62, the final score of the game.
“[Georgia] was in a certain coverage and [Stafford] should have gotten the ball out of his hand, right in the middle,” said Storm coach Tim Marcum.
“It’s so frustrating,” Stafford said. “You’ve got to learn from it. Protect the ball; throw it away. We had 21 seconds left, three timeouts. Throw it away. In this game, one big play and you’re halfway down the field. All we needed was a field goal. What did I do? Fumble the ball.”
Week 1 against Orlando, Stafford’s game was average, but the Storm won convincingly. Against the Force one week later, he had one of the best games of his Arena Football career, completing 25 passes in 34 attempts for 304 yards with a Storm record-tying eight touchdown passes. He also ran for a score.
“You’re out there to win. It’s not numbers. It’s not touchdowns. I don’t care if I don’t get playing time if we win.”
Stafford shouldn’t be so hard on himself. The Storm made numerous mistakes throughout the game that put him in that difficult situation at the end of the game. Kicker Ian Howfield missed a pair of extra points and missed the net on a kickoff, after having an excellent game the week before.
The Storm kickoff team gave up a Markeith Cooper 55-yard return for a touchdown just before halftime that allowed Georgia to tie the game before heading for the locker room. The Storm’s defensive line could not get pressure or containment on Force quarterback Leon Murray, allowing him to find open receivers for 5 touchdowns and giving him time to score a pair on the ground, including the go ahead touchdown with 24 seconds left in the game.
In his mind, Stafford doesn’t see those other mistakes made by his teammates as relevant. His only thought is of the one error he committed that cost his team an opportunity to win.
“It’s my responsibility to take care of the ball. I touch the ball every play.”
The good news is, Stafford is developing a short memory, and has taken the proper mentality in order to get over the fumble and move on.
“That’s the good thing about football,” said Stafford. “You have a bad performance, then next week you show up and play hard. You’re only as good as your last play.”
Joe Kauffman is President and Editor in Chief of Arenafan Online, having joined the staff in 2000. He graduated from Florida State University in 1998 with a degree in communications andbuilds ecommerce sites for a day job. Joe has enjoyed Arena Football since 1991 and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1995. Prior to Joining Arenafan, he was a co-founder and Technical Editor of the Storm Shelter, which covered the Tampa Bay Storm from 1996-99. Joe and his wife Erika live in Hackettstown, New Jersey with their two daughters.
