Not Exactly the Rematch They Wanted
Charliy Nash
Sunday April 3, 2005
The Rampage had earned the league’s best record, and recorded the fastest sellout in ArenaBowl history. The crowd was the largest to ever pack the Van Andel Arena. Ah, 2001, the good old days.
On Sunday the Kats return to Grand Rapids. No championships are on the line this time, no trophies. The winner gets one step out of the basement; the loser gets the worst record in the league.
Despite the identical 1-7 records these two teams seem to have very different problems. The Rampage seem to be able to score points easily enough, but often let opponents score over 60 points. The Kats, on the other paw, easily limited even the Colorado Crush’s free scoring offense to only 42 points, but their own offense has been unable to break the 50-point barrier.
The big challenge for Nashville’s defense will be slowing down the Rampage’s extremely mobile quarterback, Michael Bishop. "He definitely changes your game plan," admitted line coach Darrin Kenney, "But we’ll try to do what we can to limit him."
Nashville’s QB Leon Murray did not have a good performance in his return from knee surgery last week. The first half went well, but protection seemed to break down in the second half. "I was probably holding the ball a little too long," Murray observed, "It was a bunch of things that happened. In the fourth quarter we kind of fell apart and we can’t do that if we want to be successful.
The Kats worked hard up until the trade deadline to improve their offense. In the last month they’ve added WR/LB Lindsay Fleshman, OS Travis McGriff, FB/LB Rupert Grant, and WR/DB T.T. Toliver. They’ll need these new faces and the players who have been there all season to put a lot of points on the board to come home from Grand Rapids with a win.
This time it’s not about rings; it’s about redemption.
Charliy Nash has covered both incarnations of the Nashville Kats, and now has make the 2 hour drive to Huntsville for an Arena Football fix. He also covers the Tennessee Titans as a blogger for nfl.com and still hopes this will eventually lead to a paying gig.
