Dragons, Browder defeat Brigade
Dwayne Smith
Wednesday March 29, 2006
In his first start in front of the 10,758 home fans, Browder showed he is every bit the quarterback New York needs to make another playoff run in a balanced Conference. Coming into the Friday night contest, five National Conference teams had 4 wins and only Dallas had more in the Eastern Division. This has left the door open for the Dragons to once again make a run for the playoffs, a seemingly unlikely feat for a team that lost their top two quarterbacks for the season.
While New York quarterbacks Aaron Garcia and Juston Wood were in the building, Garcia as a fan and Wood as a commentator for the team’s radio broadcast, it was Browder who electrified the building. After missing on his first pass of the game, Browder finished the half by completing 12 consecutive passes in building a 35-13 first half lead for the Dragons. Browder was aware of the need for him to impress the home crowd early on, "It was fun. You always want to come out and put on a good show for the home crowd"
A plus for a new quarterback in a system is to have the veteran targets New York has in Horacek and OS Kevin Swayne. In fact the second quarter belonged to Horacek with his 6 receptions for 98 Yards and 2 touchdowns. Browder insisted the big quarter for Horacek was unintentional, "It’s pretty much what they’re gonna give you defensively… I just (have to) find the guy and it just happened to be Horacek."
After getting out to the impressive halftime lead, things seemed to slip for New York. Several attempted onside kicks by the Brigade, one successful, and tougher defense allowed Kansas City one last run at the first road victory in franchise history. Helping the Brigade in an even greater way were their two one-play drives for touchdowns, allowing Kansas City to save valuable time.
New York’s defense would eventually create critical turnovers in the second half and leave Kansas City with little hope of victory after their final touchdown with 17 seconds left in the game brought the Brigade to within 6 points at 54-48. Things would then go from comfortably running the clock out to a nearly bizarre ending. With eight seconds left in the game, Browder ran around in an attempt to use every last second of the game. The six-year veteran from Valparaiso made a mistake that even he knew he shouldn’t have done. With the pressure from the Brigade closing in on him, Browder just needed to throw the ball up, up and away to run out the clock and secure victory. FB/LB Jeremy Beutler had other ideas, as he was able to reach the quarterback before he could release the ball and forced a fumble. The remaining Dragons fans that hadn’t left a game they thought was surely over could not believe their eyes as the football bounced on the turf in the open for what seemed like an eternity less than five yards away from the New York end zone. The collective sigh of relief occurred when Swayne found the ball and covered it up, securing the victory.
After the game Browder was more subdued than a quarterback who just won his first home game for his new team usually is. Discussing the near disastrous final play Browder said, "I know better than that… there’s no excuse." In Browder they may have found a solid caretaker for their offense, he finished the game completing 21 of 28 pass attempts for 249 yards and six touchdowns, but most importantly did not throw an interception.
The common thread among the New York players and their head coach was that they allowed an easy victory to become a nail biter by not closing out their opponent. Even with the veteran signal-caller, New York is still searching for the killer instinct that it will take for them to finish off a game and head toward the playoffs. The Dragons remain tied for second place with two teams at 5-4, two games behind the 7-2 Dallas Desperados. With two games at home coming up, this is the time to find a way to get to the caliber of a contender, especially with division rivals from Dallas and Columbus on the horizon after this Saturday’s game against the 3-6 Grand Rapids Rampage, shown locally in the New York City Area on FSN at 7:00 PM.
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.
