Gladiators consistently inconsistent
Will Burge
Tuesday April 29, 2008
Had Cleveland won that game they would have been a half game up on New York and swept the season series 2-0. Now the Gladiators have dug themselves into a whole with a slew of tough games coming up. The Gladiators’ upcoming schedule is as follows: Philadelphia Soul (8-0) at home, Orlando Predators (6-3) at home, at the Colorado Crush (3-5) who have already won in Cleveland, a seemingly easier game at Tampa Bay (3-5), and the Dallas Desperados (7-0) at home.
This stretch will not only decide whether the Gladiators sink or swim in the playoff race but could ultimately relegate them to a sub .500 finish at the end of their first season in Cleveland. With three of the next five at home and the two road game against below .500 teams this should not be that tough of a stretch for them. On the other hand if this year has taught us anything about the Gladiators it’s to expect the unexpected.
Cleveland is a team that was picked by many to finish with a losing record. They quickly jumped out to 3-0 with a couple of impressive home victories and a tough road win in Columbus. At the time it seemed as though this was a team to be reckoned with in the Eastern division. Looking back now, those three teams have a total of seven wins amongst them.
The Gladiators got a hard dose of reality when they visited the New Orleans VooDoo in week 4. They were embarrassed 63-24 in a game that seemingly stopped the team’s momentum and confidence dead in its tracks. Cleveland learned a cold hard truth that week. No Raymond Philyaw equals no wins. He left the game early with an injured hand and Cleveland was not even competitive the rest of that contest.
After a bye week the Gladiators traveled to face the undefeated Dallas Desperados and played possibly their best all around game of the year. They took the Dallas to the wire in their home arena and came up just short 58-51.
“We saw a lot of mistakes and a lot of plays we left out on the field and we still had an opportunity to beat those guys on the last drive,” quarterback Raymond Philyaw said of the losing effort.
Since that game they have gone 1-2 losing at home to the Colorado Crush, beating the Los Angeles Avengers on the road, and destroyed in New York last weekend. After all this, Cleveland sits at 4-4 and in the thick of the playoff race, but what do we really know about the Gladiators?
After three straight 300+ yard performances and all but one game (week 4 against New Orleans where he was injured and left the game) throwing for at least 200 yards, Raymond Philyaw managed only 179 yards passing on Saturday. Looking a little deeper into it, Philyaw has had three games of at least 315 yards passing and three games where he did not get more than 215 yards.
Philyaw is not the only one though. Wide receiver Otis Amey, who is the go-to guy in the Gladiators’ offense, has been up and down all year too. He has three games of over 100 yards receiving and three games of less than 50. He caught 12 touchdowns combined in weeks seven and eight but just 10 total touchdowns in the other six games.
The inconsistency is not exclusive to the offensive side of the ball either. The defense has forced two interceptions in three separate games this year and has failed to produce a single interception in three others. In fact, the only consistent thing this whole season is that people have thrown deep on the Gladiators and scored in bunches doing so.
Except for giving up only 49 points to the Dragons in the season opener, the Gladiators have allowed teams to score more than 59 points in every game this season. Comparatively speaking, the league average is 55.5 points per game. They have allowed over 60 points in half of their games this year and are allowing 60.5 points per game to their opponents.
One thing has remained quite consistent though, their home attendance. They are third in league averaging 15,745 fans per home game. That number could fall if the poor play we have seen recently continues.
All in all this has not been such a bad year for the Gladiators thus far. If the playoffs were to start today they would be in. They have five of their last eight games at home where they have played well posting a 2-1 mark to date. They have not had many health issues and many of their players are amongst the league leaders in their respective statistical categories.
I don’t know how much more you can ask from a young team who wasn’t even supposed to go 8-8. Except maybe a little consistency.
Will Burge is a journalism student in Cleveland, Ohio. He is currently working at ESPN 850 WKNR which is the flagship station for The Cleveland Gladiators. Will also reports and writes articles for High School Sports in the Greater Cleveland Area. He has been an avid fan of Arena Football for the past four years.
