Marcum Rolls 7's Again, Again, and Again

Adam J Locascio
Sunday June 24, 2007

It’s a shame that the ArenaBowl isn’t in Las Vegas this year. 

After the game that Tampa Bay Storm head coach Tim Marcum called last night in the final week of the regular season, you definitely want to be standing next to him at the craps table. 

Every football game has about three or four moments that the outcome of the game hinges on. It’s basically a coin toss: left or right, heads or tails. Guess right, your team may win, guess wrong and it’s a long week at practice.

Rarely, do those decisions have to be made in rapid succession, one right after another in the final minute of the game, where one play just gets you another play. 

In last night’s win over the Austin Wranglers, the Marcum & Co. were faced with a series of decisions in the final 51 seconds of the game. In hindsight, if one decision did not work, the Storm lose. 

With the score tied at 41 in the fourth quarter, the Wranglers returned a kickoff to midfield. Four plays later, Wrangler quarterback Lang Campbell found receiver Otis Amey at the front of the endzone to put the Wranglers up 48-41 with exactly one minute on the clock. 

The chess match begins here.

With nine games under his belt, the term “unflappable” seems to have attached itself like the Alien to Storm quarterback Brett Dietz. It doesn’t seem to matter what the circumstances are. Dietz pretty much approaches the situation from his Lay-Z-Boy with his feet up.

Case in point, from the Wranglers’ five-yard line and down by seven, the Storm home crowd gets loud – really loud. 

“The last thing we wanted on that play was a false start penalty because our own crowd was too loud,” said Dietz after the game. “I’ve got to talk to the PA guy about that.”

Dietz, walks to the line, slowly motioning his arms downward, basically telling the home crowd of 18,244 to take it easy. Often, players say they can’t hear the crowd during a game because their attention is focused on the task at hand, but that’s not the case with Dietz.

“When [the crowd] is roaring, I can hear them. And I could hear them on that play,” said Dietz.

With a hushed crowd obeying his every command, Dietz takes the snap and fires a frozen rope to WR Terril Shaw in the back of the endzone. A Seth Marler extra point ties the game at 48 with :51 on the clock.

Decision #1 for Marcum: kick long and force the Wrangler to go the length of the field or onside kick and try and hold. Even if the Wranglers score a touchdown, the Storm would have the opportunity to tie with a touchdown and an extra point, or go for the win with a successful conversion.

Marcum opts for an onside kick which is recovered by Sakeen Wright of Austin at the Storm nine-yard line. The Storm defense holds Campbell to three straight incompletions and Austin has to settle for a field goal to take a 51-48 lead.

It looks like Marcum rolled 7’s on his first toss.

Austin, inexplicably, onside kicks with :30 on the clock. The Storm recover and it is now 1st and 10 and the Austin 11. The Storm can actually get a first down by reaching the 1. Dietz completes an 8-yard pass to Shaw, who does not score, despite having about two yards of empty real estate between him and the goal line. Austin calls timeout.

Decision #2 for Marcum: go for a first down at the 1 generating another four downs to milk the clock, or go for the endzone, take a four-point lead and try and keep the Wranglers from a desperation touchdown.

In this game of blind AFL referees, no instant replay, and bodies flying around at car-accident speed, Marcum calls a play with so many variables, they cannot be logically counted: he calls a play-action quarterback sneak in which Dietz fakes to his fullback, runs through the line behind the fullback, and then has to drop to the turf at the 1 without letting his momentum carry him into the endzone and while getting positive yardage, thereby forcing the Wranglers to use another timeout. Essentially, Dietz has to run full speed ahead into a pack of about 10 moving players and fall down in an area just three feet wide.

With a hole in the line that you can drive a car through Dietz drops right on the 1, ignoring the instinct to score. Austin calls timeout. It’s 1st and Goal for the Storm at the Austin 1 with :18 on the clock.

“The thing that was important, that was key in the whole deal was that Brett got the first down and got down and didn’t score and he could have scored there,” said Marcum after the game. 

Marcum rolls 7’s again.

Decision #3: waste a down to drain the clock even further or go for the touchdown and turn the game over to the defense.

Marcum calls for a “23-yard drop.” Dietz takes the snap at the 1 and back-peddles almost to mid-field, then fires a souvenir into the corner of the stands. The play uses about eight seconds. On the next play, Storm fullback Torrance Marshall plows into the endzone. Another Marler extra point gives the Storm a 55-51 lead which they would never relinquish.

It’s a shame the Storm doesn’t have a bye week. I’d like to take Marcum to the dog track next weekend. 

“They’ve overcome deaths in the family, bad bus rides, the leading receiver comes in when we’re 5-7 and says he doesn’t want to play anymore and then we win 4. He doesn’t want to play anymore? Bye-bye. See ya.” Storm head coach Tim Marcum about the Storm’s roller-coaster season.