Any Given Thursday

Jason Moyer
Sunday May 25, 2008

In sports we always hear, “any team can beat anybody”.  Last Thursday night at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, the Kansas City Brigade pulled off an improbable victory by defeating the Philadelphia Soul 54-47.  

Philadelphia entered the game with only two losses on the season, while Kansas City had earned only two victories.  So just how did the Brigade manage to defeat the Soul?

“We at times played sloppy and we can’t afford to do that in this league,” stated Soul Head Coach Bret Munsey.  “Any team is capable of beating anyone and we at times didn’t play well.”  

Oh yes, there’s that old cliché.

Not only did Philadelphia not play well, but they seemed to lack the intensity needed to play 60 minutes of football.  The Soul may have been looking ahead going into their bye week and then return to face a pivotal matchup with the Dallas Desperados in Week 15.

Besides not playing well and lacking intensity, the Soul also out thought themselves when it came to time management.  With 12 seconds remaining and trailing by a touchdown, Philadelphia decided to kill time by having quarterback Matt D’Orazio drop back, run around, and then throw the ball out of bounds.

“Ideally, that’s one of the strategies,” explained Coach Munsey.  “We got the ball on the 1-yard line and you want to be careful with the ball.  With 12 seconds left we decided to get two plays and it just didn’t work out.”

The wasted time proved costly as Clifton Smith fumbled the ball on the next play and time apparently ran out before Philadelphia could call a timeout after recovering the football.

“We thought 0.8 seconds was on the clock,” stated Munsey.  “That would have given us one more shot, but the referees did not think so and that’s the name of the game.  The bottom line is they’re in charge of it and felt like time ran out and we got to deal with it.”

“It’s not a way to go out and we have ten days to think about it,” continued Munsey.  “We had every intention to win this game and take a nice break.  We’re still going to do that, but it was a tough loss.  We’re at 10-3 now and still got a great football team we just have to get better.”

After losing three of their last four games including one to a bottom tier team, the Soul not only will have to get better for the stretch run, they will have to get a lot better.

Inside the numbers

Matt D’Orazio (PHI) completed 24 of 34 passes for 268 yards and six touchdowns.

Chris Jackson (PHI) hauled in 11 passes for 130 yards and three scores.

Charles Frederick (KC) caught six passes for 94 yards with two touchdowns.  He also rushed for a four yard score.

The loss was Philadelphia’s first at home this season.

Injury Update

Larry Brackins suffered a concussion during the first quarter of the game.

Mike Brown, Rod Davis, Tony Graziani, and Brian Save are all eligible to come off of injured reserve before the next game.

Will Graziani start against Dallas?

“Let’s see how he feels, that’s the key for me.  If he’s healthy, yeah, but I want to make sure he’s 100 percent healthy before we throw him in there.” – Munsey

Next Game

The Soul will have an opportunity to regain first place in the division when they take on the Desperados June 7 in Dallas.