Defense Powers Force
Jason Lucas
Friday June 10, 2005
Head Coach Doug Plank is entering an Arena Bowl for the fourth straight season, the previous three with the Arizona Rattlers. This season in Georgia Plank has molded together a great group of guys to form the league’s best scoring defense.
Plank has instilled in his defense that they must do whatever it takes whether it be one stop or five stops they have to get enough stops to win the game. As the Southern division champions (aka the defense division) the Georgia Force have proven themselves to be the top team in the league up to this point.
The Southern division was without a doubt the toughest division to come out of this season most especially but mostly every season this is the premiere division in the league and just coming out of this division says something about your team. This was the only division to have three teams make the playoffs with the Orlando Predators and Tampa Bay Storm both finishing 10-6 on the season.
"We might not score the most points in this league but you don’t feel good after playing a game in the Southern division," Plank said at media day today.
The Force took down the Storm in the first round of the playoffs with a great defensive effort where forcing turnovers and special teams returns made the difference. Last week the Force made big plays on defense to overcome a 13-point deficit to defeat the Predators and advance to the ArenaBowl. On two separate occasions the Force defense got to Orlando quarterback Joe Hamilton and forced safeties the second of which provided the winning margin of 60-58.
"We weren’t planning on having two safeties against Orlando last week but we have to do whatever it takes to win," Plank said. "Whatever it takes is sometimes two stops, sometimes in Arizona we had no stops and just had the ball last to win."
This week with the Colorado Crush the Force defense will face the daunting task of stopping secondary killer Damian Harrell. Harrell, a former Florida State Seminole, made all the right plays last week to push the Crush over the Chicago Rush to advance to ArenaBowl. The Crush like to get the ball to Harrell as often as they can. Not to say they do not have other weapons like Willis Marshall, but Harrell has been the guy for the Crush offense this season.
The Force will not key on Harrell as much as one would think. Harrell will definitely get his touchdowns and big plays as he always does but you will not see Crush QB John Dutton getting many passes off with the pressure.
Welcome to Las Vegas
I am in Las Vegas so I will go ahead and tell you that my money is on the Georgia Force to win this game by at the very least three points and cover the spread. After watching Southern division football since I was 8 years old I think I may be the most qualified person to make a safe bet on the Force in this one. The Force have shown no noticeable chinks in their armor in these AFL playoffs so why should they start now? Doug Plank will take the Georgia Force to the top on Sunday and you can take that to….. your nearest casino!
Jason Lucas is a part-time freelance writer based in the Orlando, Florida area. A former director of media relations with the Orlando Predators, Jason is making his return to Arenafan.com after a short stint as a public relations assistant with the UFL‘s Florida Tuskers in 2010. Lucas has followed the AFL since 1992 and began covering the Predators for Arenafan during the 2004 season. He held that position until being picked up by the Preds front office after the 2007 season. Jason‘s knowledge of arena football and love of the game is what drives him to continue covering the sport.
