Defense Dominates As Blaze Roll
Josh Fisher
Wednesday June 6, 2007
All season the Utah Blaze have fell victim to the struggles of its defense. Monday night against the Colorado Crush the defense took out its frustration.
After the Crush took the game’s opening drive 45 yards for a touchdown in just 3 minutes and 13 seconds the Blaze defense took over. Utah put together six consecutive stops, plus one net recovery, en route to 37 straight points. They held Colorado scoreless for 44 minutes and 16 seconds in total.
In total Colorado only scored on two of 11 possessions. Utah’s defense forced four interceptions and one fumble. Entering the game the Blaze hadn’t recorded an interception in six straight games. The streak eventually hit 221 attempts without a pick. That streak finally ended on Colorado’s second possession when Leroy Smith caught a John Dutton pass off the wall for his first interception since joining the Blaze.
“We practiced defense all week,” Head Coach Danny White stated.
Utah’s defensive backs also did a good job of containing Damian Harrell. The longest reception of the night for Harrell was 21 yards. He finished with nine receptions for 90 yards. Utah also kept him out of the end zone for the first time in 78 games.
White was asked about halting the streak and replied with, “I know that it is disappointing for him. He’s a great player. He’s one of the best in the league and I think everybody know (that).”
Dahnel Singfield spent most of the night covering Harrell and finished with eight total tackles, three pass break-ups, and one interception. He also recovered a kickoff that bounced off the net on his way to being named the ADT Defensive Player of the Game. This was just the second game that Singfield had played since joining the Blaze.
“Those young guys in the secondary just played smart all night,” White said. “They played a lot of man-to-man and just covered their guys. Between that and our pass rush, it was a banner night for our defense.”
Dutton never seemed on track with his receivers after the first drive. On that first drive he was four-of-six, but at halftime he was 10-of-25. The Blaze never sacked Dutton, but he was pressured into several throws.
Although they didn’t record a sack the presence of Steve Konopka and Frank Carter made a difference for the Blaze. Konopka was in his second game back from injury while Carter was playing in his first game in six weeks. It was the first time since week six that the two free agent acquisitions had played together.
“I think having Frank (Carter) and (Steve) Konopka back sparked our defense,” White commented.
The Blaze offense wasn’t spectacular as they had been all season. After scoring touchdowns on their first three drives, the offense only managed three more over the final eight possessions. However, they were only held without points on two possessions.
“51 points is pretty good against the defense they have,” Blaze quarterback Joe Germaine said. “Obviously we missed some opportunities, especially in the red zone. We’re pretty disappointed about that, but we’ll take the win.”
The average starting yard line for Utah was the Colorado 22 compared to the Crush who started on their own seven.
The win puts the Blaze within one game of the Crush in the race for the fourth seed in the American Conference. The fourth seed gets a home game in the first round of the playoffs, so that is an important position to be in.
