Salisbury Out at QB
David Grimes
Wednesday February 16, 2005
When Columbus Destroyers head coach Chris Spielman said turnovers "were not going to be tolerated" during his "Sitting Down with Spielman" piece on ColumbusDestroyers.com, he was not kidding.
After Salisbury’s second poor outing in as many games, Spielman decided to let go of his new, highly praised quarterback. He brought back last season’s starter who was cut this year before the season began. QB Matt D’Orazio will get the nod for the upcoming game against the Chicago Rush and the newly acquired Vena will serve as the backup.
Salisbury blew one too many chances after he beat out D’Orazio and Vena during training camp. In the first game against the expansion Nashville Kats, Salisbury threw three interceptions and only completed 17 of his 32 passes.
Just like in week one, Salisbury was a big factor in the loss for Columbus against the Dallas Desperados in week three. He had a chance to gain momentum right before the half when Columbus was threatening on the Dallas four yard line, but Salisbury coughed up the ball when he was hit in the backfield, leaving a big zero on the second quarter score column. He also threw a fourth quarter interception that led to the game-winning touchdown for the Desperados.
During his stint with the Destroyers, Salisbury commanded the worst scoring offense in the league with only 69 points. The bye week skews the numbers a bit, but after the results against Dallas, which resembled an outdoor football game score, something is not clicking for the Destroyers. He ended his two-game career with a 64.25 quarterback rating. Salisbury had only completed just over fifty percent of this passes and has thrown only one more touchdown pass than interceptions.
It seemed like it was all or nothing for Salisbury, who threw a 35-yard touchdown pass on the first offensive play of the season for the Destroyers. He also threw touchdowns of 45, 13, and 30 yards during the game against the Kats. Of course, almost 25% of his passes were to guys on the other team however. After the bye week, Salisbury completed 16 of his 31 passes and couldn’t lead his offensive unit to more than one touchdown in the final three quarters of the game.
Salisbury could rarely capitalize during the entire game against Dallas. The drives ended with costly turnovers by Salisbury himself. On the Destroyers’ first drive of the second quarter, Salisbury fumbled the ball on a third and one. The second fumble in the quarter allowed the Desperados to hold off a Columbus touchdown in the final seconds before the half.
In the second half, it was much of the same lack of production from Salisbury. An interception and a turnover on downs helped stall the Columbus offensive in the fourth quarter.
Everyone can look at the league leaders in passing and see Salisbury at the bottom of the pile. His rating is a full 13.3% lower than the next quarterback. League passing leader New Orleans Voodoo QB Andy Kelly has just about double the rating of Salisbury at 128.5. On the field and on paper Salisbury looks bad with his lack of production.
Spielman and the coaches had enough and decided to release Salisbury after his chance with the Destroyers. "Big Country" has been set out to pasture.
David Grimes has worked as a sports reporter for the Viking Views (North Canton), an editor for The Lantern (The Ohio State University) and was a columnist for the Destroyers here at ArenaFan. After he moved to Columbus to attend college, the Destroyers became an expansion team. Now, after moving to Salem, OH, the Mahoning Valley Thunder became an arenafootball2 expansion team. It seems like Arena Football follows David throughout the Buckeye State.
