Dragons Prepare to Battle Crush
Dwayne Smith
Friday April 16, 2004
Last week, New York shocked the league with the signing of former New York Jet and Dragon Kevin Swayne. The Wayne State graduate had one of the great seasons in league history in 2001 with 1890 yards and 43 receiving touchdowns. In his first game back since that season, after being with the team for only 2 days, Swayne caught 7 passes for 107 yards and a touchdown as offensive specialist. One can only imagine what he’ll do with a full week of practice and a return to the Nassau Coliseum.
With Swayne starting at OS, Will Holder moves back to wide receiver/defensive back. Holder was the team’s breakthrough star before Swayne’s signing, and they will now form as deadly a pair of weapons as any team has. The ripple effect continues as Lincoln Dupree is listed as the backup to Holder. As a starter, Dupree was the Ironman of the Week, but then again, so was Holder when he started at this position.
No discussion of the Dragons can be made without the mention of Aaron Garcia and his assault on the league’s record books. With four touchdown passes this Sunday, Garcia becomes the first quarterback in all of professional football to throw for 600 touchdowns in his career. Garcia had a huge chunk last weekend (eight) and may be called upon for even more with the playoffs in view.
The Crush head into New York after holding off the Los Angeles Avengers, 57-55, which kept them within half a game of first place Chicago. The Crush are led by the electric combo of quarterback John Dutton and offensive specialist Damian Harrell. Dutton has an amazing 45 touchdown passes and only five picks. In fact, he’s thrown only two interceptions in the last seven games, while hitting 35 touchdown passes.
Dutton’s primary target is Harrell, who has caught 28 of those 45 touchdown passes. Harrell is on a run where he hasn’t scored less than 3 times in each of the last 6 games. In fact, the Florida State product has scored in every game this season. WR/DB Kevin McKenzie is a solid Ironman and kick returner, with more of an impact defensively thus far, but comes off a three-touchdown game and is the current U.S. Army Ironman of the Week.
Missing from the Crush attack is fullback/linebacker Chad Dukes. In his fifth season of Arena Football, Dukes finds himself fourth on the AFL all-time rushing leader list. This is Dukes’ first season with Colorado and he is currently on the injured reserve with a sprained ankle.
There is no doubt that this is a big game for both of these teams as they battle for the leadership of their respective divisions and playoff positioning. Although this is not a must win game for the Dragons, at 5-4 a win gets them back on solid playoff footing before back to back road games in Philadelphia and Dallas. The game will be the featured broadcast on NBC this Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
Dwayne Smith covers Arena Football and the NFL for different web outlets along with providing a fantasy column to FantasyGMs.com. Dwayne has also been a contributor to other online and print outlets, including the Dallas Morning News. In 2003, he covered the NFL Draft from the Headquarters of the New York Jets.
