Season begins for Storm
Adam J Locascio
Monday May 26, 2008
What? It started in March?
It seems that year in and year out the Storm come to life in the last half of the season AND when their backs are against the wall. And since 2003, it usually means a first round playoff exit.
Going back to 2001, the Storm are 36-20 (.643) in the last eight games of the season. They are an anemic 23-28 (.451) in the first half of each season since 2001 (in 2001 and 2002, the Storm played a 14 game season).
This season looks to be more of the same. After starting the season 3-5, the Storm have ripped off back-to-back wins and won three of their last 4 to climb back into the playoff picture in the National Conference. It is entirely feasible that the Storm could finish the season with exactly one in-conference loss.
My question is, why?
Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist here, but the Storm’s late regular season charge is getting to be pretty predictable. For almost a decade, head coach Tim Marcum seems completely prepared to have his team sleepwalk through the first half of the year, only to make the charge in the last half of the season to make the playoffs. If you really want to get Oliver Stone in the mix, one could even suggest that, possibly, just possibly, that Coach Marcum is… sandbagging?
Could it be that Coach Marcum, who practically invented the sport of Arena football and has forgotten more about coaching than most current coaches can remember knows exactly what it takes to get to the playoffs?
Of course, there’s absolutely no proof to this in any regard what so ever. No one says it’s even happening. This isn’t the New England Patriots and Spygate. But the last few seasons in the AFL have shown us that you don’t have to be a high seed in the playoffs in order to have playoff success.
Maybe you hold back a little during the early part of the season. Get healthy. Then charge through the playoffs, firing on all cylinders. Impossible, right?
Despite the conspiracy theory, the Storm seem to have (predictably) found their way. After winning the first two games of the year, the Storm went into hibernation and lost five in a row – a span that set an AFL record for lack of forced turnovers.
Now, the Storm have won four of the past five games. The defense is forcing turnovers and quarterback Brett Dietz cut down on his touchdown/interception ratio from last season. Their record stands at an even 6-6 with four games left (Orlando and Los Angeles at home, San Jose and Georgia on the road). Currently the Storm are one game behind New Orleans. At 5-1 in the division, if they finish with the same record as the VooDoo, they would win the tie-breaker since New Orleans has two inter-division losses. Beating Georgia and Orlando would leave the Storm at 5-1 in the division. In short, in four weeks, the Storm can go from the bottom to the top of the division standings.
Just like last season. And the season before. A late season charge when the Storm’s backs are forced against the wall.
Why does every season have to be like this? If you’re a season ticket holder, you pretty much want to put the first four games into the shredder.
And what about the team? Stress and agitation can’t be a good thing and the Storm seem to be making this an annual habit. It makes you wonder if the Gatorade bottles on the sideline are filled with Pepto Bismol.
And it can’t be good for a team to be forced to start the playoffs in Week 8 after a mediocre start, forcing every game to be a must-win. The real shame is that Storm teams of the recent past have shown they are capable of winning four, five, six games in a row under intense pressure. But since the Storm’s fifth Arena Bowl title in 2003, they have yet to escape the first round of the playoffs.
For all the late season heroics, they just don’t seem to be coming late enough in the season.
Adam J. Locascio is a financial advisor in the Tampa Bay area and a Board Member of the Tampa Bay Storm Surge Fan Club. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Phoenix and is a six-year season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Storm.
