Opponent in the Mirror for Fury
Neal Ruhl
Wednesday March 17, 2004
The Fury were beat up in more ways than one last Friday night in New Orleans in a game that saw the Fury trail pretty much the whole time. Detroit lost OS Junior Lord to a separated shoulder, DS Reggie Doster to a sprained MCL in his left knee, and the other DS, John Williams, to a pulled hamstring. Fury head coach Tom Luginbill doesn’t offer any excuses, however.
“The one good thing about the injury situation is that we have some depth to replace those guys,” he said. “Last year we didn’t have the depth to recover from our injuries, but this year we do. David Hill can step in for Junior, and we don’t mind a bit. It does hurt to lose Junior, though, because he is one of the better receivers in this league.”
Luginbill isn’t concerned as much about the Wranglers as much as he is his own squad. “I worry more about what they are going to do than what we are going to do. There are a couple things we have to do to prepare for them schematically, but I just want to focus on what we have to get done. They do have some veteran guys like Kaleo, and they are similar to New Orleans in that fashion.”
The Wranglers enter the contest at 3-2 in the surprising Southern Division that sees perennial favorites Tampa and Orlando looking up at the expansion Wranglers and Voodoo. Wrangler’s QB John Kaleo has thrown for over 300 yards twice this season.
The games start to become more and more important for the Fury as they look to get into playoff position. The Fury start an important stretch of three of the next four games at home that will probably see them as a favorite in all of the contests at the Palace. Detroit travels to Chicago next week in their season debut on NBC.
Unleash the Fury
Look for some turnovers in Thursday’s game; both teams are on the minus side of turnover differential…Andy Kelly’s 375 passing yards in week 5 vs. Colorado still ranks as the highest total in the league this season…Detroit’s defense has surrendered the second fewest yards in the league…
On the Air
Catch Arenafan’s Neal Ruhl on the Detroit Fury pre-game show Thursday night on WXDX 1310 AM…
Neal Ruhl lives in the Metro Detroit Area where he has covered the Detroit Lions as well as the Motor City Bowl.
