This One’s For the Unsung Heroes
Charliy Nash
Monday March 27, 2006
Two plays later Clayton made a big block that allowed Dan Alexander to carry that football into the endzone for a touchdown. That block doesn’t show up on the stats, but that’s true of most of the things that these guys do.
Just Walk Away
I had an interesting conversation with Kats’ line coach Darrin Kenney prior to the game. I brought up the fact that Wes Stephens, a former Kat now with San Jose, is a master at baiting opponents into committing personal fouls – and since he knew many of the Nashville players well, he would know what buttons to push. He agreed with me and laughed, "It’s been addressed. I can’t guarantee you how well they’ll respond, but we’ve talked about it." They responded well. For most of the night whenever there was a little pushing and shoving after the play the Kats would just walk away. Twice the SaberCats extended a Nashville drive by committing a personal foul after making a good defensive play. The most glaring example was when Van Brown had sacked Kats QB Leon Murray, setting up what should have been a fourth-and-ten situation – but Brown then reached down and struck Murray in the head. Several flags came flying and when everything was sorted out the Kats had a first down.
There was one minor scuffle in the second quarter, and it happened about three inches away from me. A two-point conversion attempt failed when San Jose backup QB Stony Case was driven into the wall at the one-yard line. When the SaberCats’ Julius Gant then charged into the pack swinging, he was quickly joined by players from both teams. As the action moved into the endzone I found the combatants just inches from my face. "Nothing too much, just regular stuff that goes on during a game," James Baron explained, "Sometimes the refs can’t see everything and guys start doing stuff and you almost have to police things up yourself to a degree."
Ups and Downs
This was a game that the Kats just couldn’t put out of reach. Every time they would be poised to open up a big lead, the SaberCats would find a way to make the score close. "They wouldn’t go away," said Kats’ head coach Pat Sperduto, "They deserve a lot of credit. They were a good football team."
FB/LB Dan Alexander personified the roller coaster nature of the game, scoring two rushing touchdowns and recovering a Sabercats’ fumble, but fumbling a ball through the endzone on a scoring drive. "The game was up and down and I felt like I was part of one of the big downs," he admitted, "But afterwards I just had to thank God, you know you have to thank Him for the good and the bad, and obviously this turned out good."
One of the big ups was a safety scored to open the third quarter. Joe Minucci and Frank Carter combined to take down quarterback Mark Grieb in the endzone on San Jose’s first possession of the second half. Right after the game Minucci wasn’t exactly certain of how it all fell into place. "I don’t know," he confessed, "I came up there and put some ‘Minoocho-pressure’ on him and Frank came in there and cleaned up. I don’t know who’s going to get it. I’m hoping for half, at least."
Carter’s description is a bit more succinct, "It’s just one of those situations where I told myself I’m going to run this guy completely over, and that’s exactly what happened." That was the only sack the Kats recorded for the game, but Grieb was harassed by the Nashville defenders all night. "We did a good job getting to their quarterback and that’s what we knew we had to do to in order to beat San Jose." Carter said.
The real key to this victory was balance. Whether it was the big play or the little block – or not making the stupid penalty – every player on the field contributed for the Kats. "That’s what we talk about every week," Sperduto said, "Everybody’s got to make a play, and when their time comes they do." The win puts Nashville in a very good position going into the second half of the season. "We control our own destiny, that’s all we’re trying to do. We’ll go up to Colorado and see if we can have a chance to beat a good football team next week."
For The Record
During this game Kats’ WR/LB Cory Fleming become only the fifth player in AFL history to reach the 10,000-yard receiving mark. Fleming put the record into perspective, "I’ve had a lot of good quarterbacks, a lot of good coordinators and teams that allow me to do what I do. So it’s not about me, it’s about everybody I’ve been around that allowed me to play this game as successfully as I have."
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.
