Nagy Sharp in Debut
Rob Hammersmith
Friday March 2, 2007
The question was how would Columbus Destroyers new quarterback Matt Nagy fair with his new team without having Georgia Force wide receivers Derek Lee, Chris Jackson, and Troy Bergeron to throw to. The answer is Nagy made Destroyer wide receivers Damien Groce, David Saunders, and Darcey Levy look like Lee, Jackson and Bergeron.
Nagy threw seven touchdown passes leading his new team to a 58-56 win over the Nashville Kats (0-1) in the Arena Football League’ season opener Thursday night in Nashville. The Columbus Destroyers (1-0) held off a 27 point 4th quarter rally by the Kats to gain a win that they failed to obtain last year. In week 2 of the 2006 AFL season the Destroyers traveled to Nashville and were blown out by the Kats 53-27. Thursday night’s win for the Destroyers is already one mark ahead in improving on last year’s 8-8 season.
And improvement is what we saw in the Destroyers offense. Last year the offense ranked 17th out of 18 AFL teams. They didn’t play like that Thursday night. Overall the passing game was far more dynamic with Nagy than what Destroyers fans have been used to watching over the years. Part of that may have been due to the Nashville Kats having to start rookie defensive backs due to pre-game injuries to vets such as Monty Montgomery. Nagy frequently threw downfield to Levy and Groce who were extending the defense with numerous deep routes, which are plays we saw too few of with QB John Kaleo last year. Levy even showed great strength by catching a pass, getting hit as he turned, and dragging a Kats defender for 10 yards for a score. He now has 10 touchdowns in only 7 games as a Destroyer.
But improvement is what we need to see from the Destroyers defense. Last year the defense ranked 2nd out of 18 AFL teams. They didn’t play like that Thursday night. Columbus would have dominated this game if it weren’t for numerous penalties on the Destroyers defense that kept giving the Kats offense a second chance. In fact, Destroyers new LB Michale Spicer was called for illegal defense three times in the first half alone. In the 2nd half he made up for it though with a sack on Kats’ QB Clint Stoerner. The defense did look good in the pressure it put on the QB. Numerous times in the game Stoerner found Spicer, DL Kelvin Kinney, and DL Ken Jones in his face… or on top of him. But penalties kept giving him and his offense a 2nd chance. Stoerner was intercepted three times by the Destroyers, including one that was returned for a touchdown. However, two of them (including the TD return) were called back due to penalties, one of which was a late hit on Stoerner by DB B.J. Barre.
Destroyers head coach Doug Kay used Barre in an interesting way with the new AFL rules. The defensive back was lining up in the line backer position, which allowed Kay to put Rober Freeman in at the DB spot. That put four pure defensive backs into the game (one of which is restricted by the AFL LB rules). The result was Stoerner frequently depended on hitting WR Cornelius Bonner, who was being covered by the rookie Rober Freeman, at the sidelines for short gains. WR Jason Shelley was also limited to short gain receptions. It will be interesting to see if Kay continues through out the season with four DBs on the field.
Despite the penalties, the coaching staff has to be pleased with what they saw. Problems with penalties can be corrected, especially penalties like illegal defense and late hits on the QB. If the Destroyers can reduce those penalties and still keep the pressure on the QB like they did Thursday night, we could be in for an a very impressive Destroyers season in 2007.
