Good Friday Bad for Kats
Charliy Nash
Monday April 17, 2006
The game started out well for Nashville. They stopped the Soul on their first possession, then Clint Stoerner threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to T.T. Toliver on the Kats’ second play. Then things got a little ugly. Toliver held the football into the face of a Philadelphia defender, setting off a chain reaction of pushing and shoving. Even Stoerner found himself in the middle of the scuffle just one week after coming off injured reserve. "I didn’t play with a level head," he admitted, "I probably shouldn’t have done that."
After that, things settled down. The Soul defense did a good job of frustrating the Kats’ receivers, and Stoerner kept cool and threw the ball away when nobody was open, rather than trying to force a pass and risk a turnover. The game stayed pretty even until the end of the first half. The half ended with the Kats attempting a field goal. The snap evaded holder Glenn Gauntt then bounced free to the left side off the field. Kicker Jason Ball snatched up the ball and tried to run with it, but was tackled hard into the wall. As the buzzer sounded everyone else headed into the locker rooms while Ball continued to lie on the floor.
Without a kicker, the Kats had their options limited in the second half. They scored a two-point conversion on their first possession, tying the score. Kickoffs became the newest line on the growing resume of the amazingly versatile WR/DB/LB/KR/KH/K Jarrick Hillery, kicking for the first time since high school. "I do it all, man," Hillery joked, "You name it, I do it."
Another injury in the fourth quarter took Nashville’s defensive leader, Monty Montgomery, out of the game. Rober’ Freeman filled in and almost immediately forced and recovered a fumble, giving the Kats a much needed stop. "I did," Freeman remarked, "But it wasn’t good enough."
In the end, as Freeman said, it wasn’t good enough. The game was close most of the way, but with no kicker the Kats did not have the option of attempting field goals of fourth downs. Hillery tried one onside kick, but the Soul easily recovered the ball and then quickly scored on the short field. With time running out the Kats took more chances, which resulted in turnovers. The home winning streak is over. Clinching the playoffs will have to wait. "I think it really hurts," said Dan Alexander, "We didn’t want to let down our fans. We played as hard as we could – this is actually my first loss too. Every game I’ve played I’ve been undefeated so far, so this is hard for me too."
Still, Arena Football requires both fans and players to have short memories. The playoffs are still in reach and there’s a game to prepare for next Friday. It was summed up perfectly by Ryan Roth as we were walking off the field, "We’ll bounce back."
Catch-22
I had a very pleasant conversation with some of the officials (who are regular Arenafan readers) before the game, which makes this a little difficult. In the second half the Kats snapped the ball for a two-point conversion and were immediately flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct because the umpire was still "in the zone." Well ump, I have two words for you: Play Clock. I don’t know what zone you were in, but in the one where the game was being played the Kats would have been called for delay of game if they hadn’t snapped the ball within two seconds. This might have been a good time to take an official time out, but penalizing them because you stayed "in the zone" too long – this is just a prime example of why so many fans criticize the quality of officiating in the league.
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.
