Playoffs - time to shine for SaberCats
Andy Lopusnak
Saturday July 5, 2008
The defending ArenaBowl champion San Jose SaberCats begin their postseason run to become the first team since the 1996 Tampa Bay Storm to win back-to-back titles with a rare afternoon tilt against the Colorado Crush in the divisional round of the AFL playoffs today.
After nine games this year, the SaberCats were 4-5, but a seven-game winning streak earned San Jose its third straight Western Division title and a bye during the Wild Card round last week.
Colorado (6-10) slipped into the postseason with two wins in the final two regular season contests after dropping seven of its previous eight games, including a stretch of five straight losses - that includes a 59-42 setback in San Jose. Last week, the Crush beat a fellow 6-10 team, Utah, 49-44 to earn a return trip to Silicon Valley.
This marks the third time in the last four seasons that the SaberCats and Crush have met in the postseason. The winner of the previous two matchups went on to win the ArenaBowl – the Crush in 2005 and the SaberCats last season. Both games were won by the home team. Overall, the SaberCats hold an 8-1 advantage in nine games played and have never lost to the Crush at home.
The game features two of the league’s elite quarterbacks as well as former teammates in San Jose’s Mark Grieb and Colorado’s John Dutton. The pair is the only QBs in league history to post five straight 4,000-yard passing seasons and have guided teams to ArenaBowl victories in four of the past six seasons, including three of the last four titles.
Dutton spent his first three AFL seasons with the SaberCats (2000-01) primarily as Grieb’s backup. He got some experience in 2001 when Grieb was in the XFL for part of the season (1,810 yards and 31 TDs), but was thrust into the forefront in 2002 when Grieb was hurt after the team started 12-0. Dutton shined the remainder of the season and led San Jose to its first ArenaBowl title a month later. He was named ArenaBowl MVP after completing 77% of his passes for 236 yards and five touchdowns in the 52-14 title win over Arizona. That offseason Dutton left Silicon Valley for the Rocky Mountains to become the starting signal caller for the expansion Colorado Crush. Three years later, he led the Crush to an ArenaBowl championship.
San Jose enters with one of the best all around teams in the league. The SaberCats’ defense forced the most turnovers, recorded the most sacks and was the best unit against third downs in the league. San Jose’ special teams unit features the league’s Kicker of the Year (A.J. Haglund) and has the best kickoff unit in the game. Offensively, the SaberCats’ Mark Grieb led the league in passing touchdowns and featured three receivers with 100+ catches and 1,000+ yards. The offense also finished third in the league in scoring.
For the Crush, the offensive line was stellar this past season allowing a league-low six sacks of Dutton, which gave him time to complete 66% of his passes for 4,547 yards and 94 touchdowns (SaberCats’ defensive lineman Alan Harper did have one of those six takedowns). However, Colorado did lose ten games this season including four losses of 17 or more points (includes 17-point loss tom San Jose). Another former SaberCats player was a star for the Crush this season Ben Nelson, who led Colorado with 126 receptions for 1,358 yards and 30 touchdowns.
This will not be the first time that the SaberCats have played a team with a losing record in the postseason. Two years ago, San Jose lost to the 7-9 Chicago Rush, which went on to win ArenaBowl XX. In 2003, the SaberCats beat Tampa Bay (6-8), which was the first AFL team with a losing regular season to win a playoff game when the Storm beat Los Angeles the previous week.
If the SaberCats beat the Crush, San Jose will have to wait until Sunday afternoon to find out if the team will be traveling to Chicago or hosting Grand Rapids in the American Conference championship game with the winner of that advancing to ArenaBowl XXII in New Orleans. The Rush was the SaberCats’ first loss of 2008 (a 70-47 thumping in Week One – also the last time San Jose was on national television) and the Rampage was the team’s first win of 2008 (a 66-58 victory in Grand Rapids in Week Two).
Andy Lopusnak is an 11-year AFL front office veteran, spending time with the Tampa Bay Storm, San Diego Riptide and Grand Rapids Rampage. He works as a statistician for NFL and college sports for CBS Sports and is a freelance photographer. Lopusnak received two Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of South Florida and has been a fan of ArenaBall since its inception.
