Reasons for the loss can be spread wide

Rob Hammersmith
Sunday April 29, 2007

Before this Sunday’s afternoon game I was concerned that the Columbus Destroyers (4-4) were coming off of a Monday night game and having to play less than six days later, when their opponent, the Tampa Bay Storm (2-6), had a bye last week to prepare for this game. After a 34-32 loss, the concerns proved to be true. Columbus played like they were unprepared, making numerous mental mistakes, including one big blunder by the coaching staff. The struggling Storm was far more prepared to play this game than Columbus.

The coaching blunder occurred when Tampa Bay was inside the Columbus ten yard line as the one minute warning for the first half hit. During the warning break the coaching staff should have told their players to call time out after any play that doesn’t stop the clock. On the first play Tampa Bay completed a pass and the Destroyers made the tackle in bounds, but instead of calling timeout they just let more than 30 seconds tick off the clock before the Storm ran the next play. 

The Destroyers defense did step up and keep the Storm out of the end zone on 3rd down. But by the time Tampa Bay was lining up for a field goal the clock was down to 11 seconds (from 60 seconds just three plays earlier). By the time Columbus received the kickoff after the converted field goal, it was down to seven. And the kickoff return by Columbus ended up running out the clock. 

Had Columbus attempted to manage the clock in the last minute to get the last possession, Columbus could have at the very least attempted a field goal before the half ended, let alone have 20 seconds or more to have a few chances to score a touchdown. 

But even a last second first half field goal attempt may have not saved this game, as the kicking for the Destroyers is equally to blame for the loss as the time mismanagement is. Peter Martinez missed 2 of his 4 PAT attempts. Had he made those attempts, the game would have been tied 34-34 after the Destroyers scored their last TD, with the PAT still to come. Martinez would have been kicking a PAT attempt for the win. Instead, the Destroyers were forced to go for two to make up for Martinez’s prior PAT failures. Had he made 3 of his 4 PAT attempts, the Destroyers would have had the option to go for a tie or go for the win after the last touchdown. Missing those PATs took away a lot of options for the Destroyers in this game.

It got even worse for Martinez. Due to the failure to convert the game tying two point conversion attempt, the Destroyers needed an on-side kick recovery to save the game. Martinez made what one the worst on-side kick attempts I’ve ever seen. It literally looked like he pooched it into the stands almost to midfield. Even the Storm players didn’t have a chance to catch it. You’ve got to wonder if any kickers down in the af2 will be ringing the Destroyers’ front office phones this week as Martinez hasn’t accomplished much at all this year. 

But the coaches and Martinez weren’t alone in their mistakes. Down 31-26 in the fourth quarter, on a third -and-one at midfield, Destroyers quarterback Matt Nagy decided to throw deep into the end zone and was picked off. The play was supposed to go to Marcus Knight for a couple yards, but he was covered well. Nagy should have thrown the ball out of bounds, as the Destroyers likely would have gone for it again on fourth down. But Nagy decided to throw an unnecessary pass up for grabs in the end zone and lost.

In each of the Destroyers four losses Nagy has turned over the ball in the fourth quarter with the game on the line. In the New Orleans loss, Nagy threw an interception with the game tied 38-38. In the Chicago loss, Nagy lost a fumble when the Destroyers were down 48-40. And in the Dallas loss, Nagy threw in interception when the Destroyers were up 44-42. It seems Nagy tries too hard with the game on the line. He is not composed under pressure, and these critical turnovers are proof of it. 

He did however lead the Destroyers in their come from behind win over Georgia, but he was a big reason they squandered a half time lead in that game of 14 points and possession of the ball in the second half. His offense went 0-for-4 on second half possessions while Georgia battled back to gain the lead, and put the Destroyers down six and without possession of the ball. 

Perhaps composure under pressure is something he can learn. The Georgia comeback may be a sign of that. He is young, but how long can we wait for him to learn to compose himself under pressure? Let’s not forget that Georgia was willing to let him go after last season despite leading the league in passing efficiency. I’m beginning to see comparisons between him and the old Detroit Lions quarterback Scott Mitchell. Scott was a guy who could put up a ton of offensive stats, but collapsed when the game was on the line. The Lions didn’t put up with that for long. 

Perhaps instead of paying franchise salaries to these “experienced” quarterbacks like Nagy and John Kaleo who have numerous times for the Destroyers turned over the ball at critical times in games, Columbus should sign a rookie like Tampa Bay did in Brett Deitz. Brett led the Storm to scores on each of the four drives he began (three touchdowns and one field goal) after taking over for Tampa Bay’s starter John Kaleo (yes, the same former Destroyers QB) who was injured by a Ken Jones sack. Dietz was the af2 Rookie of the Year least year, and was available to any AFL team before Tampa Bay signed him just last Tuesday. He played so awesome under pressure in this game that he made me forget that the Destroyers already tried the strategy of signing a rookie quarterback from the af2 when they did it with Ryan Vena.

But back to the game, the reasons for this loss can be spread out even more. The Destroyers defense kept giving the Tampa Bay offense second chances with inopportune penalties. This was a problem that occurred frequently earlier in the season, but appeared to be corrected in the past few games. Is it just a coincidence that the problem came back with BJ Barre’s return from injured reserve? Barre was called numerous times for illegal defense in this loss. 

But Barre wasn’t alone in being called for penalties. Despite putting a ton of pressure on Kaleo (which eventually led to an injury), Ken Jones kept getting called for unnecessary roughness. He got so frustrated by the calls that he pulled himself from the game in the second quarter just to calm down. 

And that’s what this game was for the entire team, coaches and fans… so ugly you just wanted to walk away from it, but yet so close in score that you just couldn’t let it go. 

It would have been nice to see what these two teams would do in a clean game. And by clean I mean one that wasn’t riddled with so many penalties. So many penalties were called in this game that numerous plays were wiped from the books, yet the time that ran off the clock during those penalty plays disappeared. The result was both teams were limited to seven possessions each for the entire game. Despite holding Columbus to 32 points, Tampa Bay produced only two stops. But with the limited possessions and bad kicking by Columbus, that was enough to win. 

Oh what I wouldn’t give for just one more possession in this game. Thanks coaches for letting one just tick off the clock for us. Ugh!