Breaking it Down - 2010 Week Six

Andy Lopusnak
Wednesday May 12, 2010

Week Six was one of the most eventful weeks thus far. It offered the indoor football world the highest scoring game in league history and no team is winless or unbeaten any more. The stats software still has more bugs than any exterminator could handle and of course, the league hasn’t published a record book. This and more AFL information you’ll ever find anywhere awaits you in your Week Six fix…

To honor the AFL’s silly notion of implementing two bye weeks for each team for the first time in league history, I will be going on back-to-back byes starting, well, now (more on that later). Maybe it’s a protest for the crappy stats software or maybe it’s a vacation. I’m sorry that you’ll have to go “cold turkey” without your weekly fix for two whole weeks. So, strap yourself in and soak it all in. This extra-long edition of Breaking it Down will be a wet and wild adventure.

Home team in ALL CAPS

BYE: Utah

WEEK SIX FEATURED….

·      The road team had its first winning week since Week One going 4-3.

·      Chicago lost its first game of the season – no team is undefeated.

·      Orlando wins its first game of the season – all teams have at least one win.

·      The 167 total points from OKC’s win ties an AFL record (or does it?).

·      The league still hasn’t published a record book with the season a third complete.

·      Seven passers went over 300 yards and a weekly-high 21 receivers went over 100 yards.

·      Five teams scored their first points on rushing touchdowns.

·      Five teams scoring 70 or more points (one lost and scored the second most of the entire season).

·      Three games were decided by six or fewer points.

For my weekly rant on the league’s insistence on using a terrible stat program and the numerous erroneous problems it continues to bless us with, you’ll have to read through the real content of Breaking it Down and you’ll find it at the end. This has become such a distraction from what this article is meant to provide you, so I’ve moved it to the end.

ROAD WARRIORS

The road team posted its first winning week since Week One, going 4-3. Home teams posted an 18-5 record (78.3 winning percentage) during the month between road team winning weekends. On the year, the home team is 23-13. Six weeks into the year, two teams have hosted just one game each (Cleveland and Orlando – both lost those contests). Seven teams have already played three home games thus far (Arizona, Iowa, Oklahoma City, Spokane, Tampa Bay, Tulsa and Utah). 

BLOCK PARTY

Week Six featured six blocked kicks – four blocked PATs, two blocked field goals. The most was in the Chicago-Milwaukee game that featured two blocked PATs and a blocked field goal. In Dallas, a blocked field goal bounced out of the back of the end zone for a safety.

WHO LET THE DAWGZ OUT?

The Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz exploded for an AFL season-high 88 points in their 88-79 win over Bossier-Shreveport. Both teams combined for the most points in AFL history (167 is tied with the 2001 NY Dragons-Carolina Cobras game). Additionally, the 88 points by OKC is the third most ever by a home team and the fifth most overall by a single team. However, if the league ever publishes a record book (like that’s going to happen anytime soon) and does combine the records of the AFL and af2, all three of these fall to third, eleventh and fifteenth all-time respectively. Here’s a look at the top for all three marks with and without the af2 included. Come on AFL – this is more embarrassing than the stupid stats software (you didn’t know you’re buying a lemon with DakStats/PointStreak, but you knew the record book was important – shame on you). Sadly, you wouldn’t know any that this was a record (or close to it if the af2 records are stupidly merged) if you visited the AFL, Yard Dawgz’s or BattleWings’ websites. It seems more and more like the people running this league don’t care about the history of this sport.

COMEBACK DAWGZ

Oklahoma City trailed by as many a 19 against Bossier-Shreveport. Entering the final minute of play, OKC was down 79-69 and pulled within four after Anthony Hines caught a two-yard TD with 33 seconds left. Bossier-Shreveport attempted three passes (two incompletions sandwiched between a seven-yard catch) and was forced to attempt a long field goal that was returned 56 yards by Timon Marshall for a score. This gave OKC its first lead (82-79) with four seconds to go. The Yard Dawgz scored another touchdown as time expired the BattleWings fumbled on a lateral that was returned for a touchdown.

DOWN PAT

The Yard Dawgz scored their final touchdown as time expired, but weren’t allowed to attempt a PAT because of a new rule the AFL implemented this year that says, “Try for point must be attempted if there is less than 2 point differential on last play." This was not the case for the first 22 years of the AFL. Also, the refs in the OKC-Iowa game allowed a PAT attempt with no time in Week Four despite the fact that the Yard Dawgz trailed by more than two (68-60). Additionally, if the BattleWings beat OKC later this year by ten and the two teams have the same record with the postseason on the line, Bossier-Shreveport goes to the playoffs and OKC sits at home. Right now, both teams are 2-3 and OKC has the head-to-head tiebreaker.

NEW MARSHALL IN TOWN

Oklahoma City WR/KR Timon Marshall, who led the AFL in all-purpose yards from 2006-08, tallied 320 all-purpose yards – the second most in the AFL this season (Bossier-Shreveport’s PJ Berry had 357 in Week Two). Marshall’s 12 kickoff returns tied an AFL record set by Carolina’s Corey Johnson who first reached the feat in the league’s only other 167-point game (July 7, 2001 at New York). Marshall is one of just 27 players ever to compiled 10,000 all-purpose yards. He stands at 10,555, which is 23^rd all-time. Marshall averages 178.9 all-purpose yards per game, which is third most ever behind Steve Papin and Antonio Chatman.

HAPPY RETURNS

Tied at halftime, the Iron scored the game’s next 27 points to blow out the AFL’s last unbeaten team, Chicago, 71-48. Milwaukee was sparked by three straight returns for touchdowns. The first was a nine-yard interception return by Marcus Everett. On the ensuing kickoff, Nate Forse scooped up a fumble and returned it eight yards for another touchdown (FYI, the box score says the yardage was zero not eight). Three plays later Everett picked off Russ Michna a second time and raced 46 yards for touchdown.

HISTORY TO WAIT ANOTHER WEEK

Just 41 receiving yards and 14 catches from becoming the league’s all-time leader in both categories, Milwaukee’s Damian Harrell was a game-time decision and missed this week’s game with a sore hamstring. Therefore, he’ll have to wait until this Friday when the Iron hosts the Utah Blaze on NFL Network to attempt to break both marks.

HARRELL’S AFL RESUME

·         Most Career Receiving Touchdowns

·         Most Career 100-yard Receiving Games (64 – tied with Chris Jackson)

·         Most Consecutive Games with a Reception (136 – tied with Lawrence Samuels)

·         Most Consecutive Games with a  Touchdown (78)

·         2^nd all-time in receptions

·         2^nd all-time in receiving yards

·         4^th all-time in points scored (1992)

·         Two-time AFL Offensive Player of the Year (2005, 2006)

·         Five-time All-Arena selection – all in past five years (two First Team, three Second Team)

·         Eight consecutive seasons with 1,000+ receiving yards (active streak)

·         Eight consecutive seasons with 90+ receptions (active streak)

·         Member of ArenaBowl XIX champion Colorado Crush (2005)

GREISEN THE WHEELS

Milwaukee QB Chris Greisen continued his great start this season and has yet to be intercepted in his 195 passing attempts. This week, he completed 20-of-36 for 339 yards with five touchdowns. Greisen’s last interception was his final pass attempt of 2008 when San Jose’s Clevan Thomas picked him off with 1:09 left to secure the SaberCats’ 68-62 win. No qualifying QB has ever had a season with fewer than two interceptions on the season and only three had an INT percentage less the 1.0 – Jay Gruden in 2003 (2 INT, 0.7 INT%), Raymond Philyaw in 2001 (3 INT, 0.7 INT%) and Mark Grieb in 2000 (3 INT, 0.9 INT%).

Since I haven’t heard anything about an AFL record for consecutive pass attempts without an interception, I’ve compiled an unofficial list of the most consecutive regular season games without an interception (AFL record taking was worse than DakStats/PointStreak  back in the day). There have been plenty of five-game stretches without an INT and even a lot of six-game streaks. Philyaw dominates this list and did so with many AFL teams. If Greisen doesn’t throw an interception this Friday night, then he’ll join Philyaw (seven in 2004) and Tony Graziani (six in 2004) for the most games to start a season without an interception.

During Philyaw’s ten games without an interception, he tossed 335 straight pass attempts between INTs – I assume this is the AFL record, but like a Tootsie Pop, “the world may never know.” The first pick was in the second quarter during his Gladiators’ 67-55 win over previously unbeaten Philadelphia in Week Ten of 2008. His next no-no came in the fourth quarter of Week Three this season when Spokane’s Roderick Mosley snagged a pass that was broken up and ran it in for a nine-yard TD as Philyaw’s BattleWings lost 78-70.

* - streak started in Week One of that season

GREISEN’S THE WORD

Milwaukee QB Chris Greisen leads the AFL in passing yards per game and passer rating. He also leads the league in number of games with a passer rating of at least 120.0 (all five games) and 300-yard passing games (four, tied with Philyaw and Davila). Here’s a look at the top players this season in 300-yard games and 120.0-rating games.

FAN INTERFERENCE LEADS TO SHARKS WIN

Jacksonville gained its first lead of its 46-43 win over Tampa Bay thanks to an interception that should’ve never been called. Up 7-6, Storm QB Brett Dietz overthrew receiver DeAndrew Rubin with the ball sailing into the hands of a fan who reached out for the ball. He didn’t catch it and the play should have been called dead. However, the loose ball bounced into the hands of Sharks DB Dee Webb who got the interception that led to a Sharks 12-7 lead. The Storm committed four other turnovers in the three-point loss.

“AARON”ING IT OUT

Jacksonville QB Aaron Garcia moved into second place all-time in career AFL passing yards during the Sharks’ 46-43 win at Tampa Bay (though like most AFL things, you’d never know unless you read it here). He passed Sherdrick Bonner and Andy Kelly in the process and trails all-time leader Clint Dolezel by 2,001 yards. The game was Garcia’s 139th, which is tied for the fourth most in league history (with Clint Dolezel). Next week, Garcia will tie Todd Hammel for third most games played by a QB.

* Active player

PREDATOR DRONES

Down eight entering the final quarter, the Predators used a 26-point fourth quarter to beat Dallas 70-59 thus giving Orlando its first win of the season. Orlando’s defense forced five turnovers on Dallas’ six fourth quarter possessions. In the game Predators WR T.T. Toliver, who caught ten balls for 149 yards with three TDs, moved past Michael Baker for 18^th all-time in all-purpose yards.

RAY OF HOPE

Orlando WR/DB Rayshawn Kizer forced four turnovers in the fourth quarter (three interceptions, one fumble recovery) that propelled the Predators to their first victory of the season.

PHILYAW GOES OVER 500

Bossier-Shreveport’s Raymond Philyaw (who by the way is two years to the day older than years truly) leads the AFL in passing tosses (4) and this past Saturday became just the eighth to reach 500 career passing touchdowns. He joins Clint Dolezel, Aaron Garcia, Sherdrick Bonner, Andy Kelly, Mark Grieb, John Dutton and John Kaleo). Of the eight 500 TD quarterbacks, Philyaw and Garcia are the only ones that have never played in an ArenaBowl (Kelly is the only one of the others that made it and never won). Philyaw will be stuck at eighth most for a while as he trails Kaleo by 77. By the way, Milwaukee’s Chris Greisen, the next closest active QB, went over 250 career TDs this weekend and ranks 21^st all-time and likely will pass Matt D’Orazio next week for 20^th.

DAN THE MAN

Alabama fullback Dan Alexander added three more rushing touchdowns this week and became the sixth player in league history to reach 80 career rushing scores. With me gone the next two weeks, Alexander might pass three more players for third most in all-time rushing touchdowns as well as sixth in rushing yards and fifth in rushing attempts. Alexander’s 18 rushing touchdowns this season rank are tied for twelfth most in single-season AFL history. He has posted at least two rushing scores per game and if he gets two more rushing scores this week, Alexander would be the first player in AFL history with multiple 20 rushing TD seasons. His five straight games with at least two rushing scores is the most in the AFL since 2008 when Tampa Bay’s Torrance Marshall did so in six straight games. Alexander scored a rushing TD in all 16 games in 2007 when he broke the league record, but his longest two TD streak was four games. In the AFL’s first 22 years, only nine players had ever reached 20 rushing scores. If Alexander gets nine more rushing scores, he’d hold the top two single-season rushing marks in league history.

OFF THE NETS

Tampa Bay rookie linebacker Eric Ortiz was just signed this week and made an immediate impact for the Storm. In back-to-back series, Ortiz grabbed two balls that bounced off the net structure. The first on a two-point conversion pass attempt from Sharks QB Aaron Garcia and the other two Jacksonville plays later when he picked off Garcia on a pass that hit the nets and fell into Ortiz’s hands. In the game, Ortiz also had a bone-charring hit that wowed the crowd in his first career AFL game.

SIAHA’S STREAK ENDS

Arizona’s Siaha Burley, who was signed earlier this week, had a streak of 50 straight games with at least a touchdown – good for third all-time in league history. That streak ended after Burley caught seven balls for 83 yards and had a rush for no yards. Burley can pass Cory Fleming for seventh all-time in receptions with four catches in his next game. He is also fourth all-time in all-purpose yards, sixth in overall scoring (needs 18 to pass kicker Steve Videtich for fifth), sixth in receiving TDs (needs six more to pass Mike Horacek) and seventh in receiving yards.

ACTIN’ LIKE A FOOL WITH YOUR FLAGS ON THE GROUND

As mentioned in my last three articles, the officials have been calling more penalties and dishing out more penalty yards than the last AFL season by a significant number (on pace for more number and penalty yards per game than any year in league history). Since the AFL adopted the regionalization of officials from the af2, it’s easy to track which crews are calling the most (and least) penalties and yards. Of the 15 teams only four have had more penalty yards at home than their opponents (Bossier-Shreveport, Milwaukee, Orlando, Tampa Bay).

The officiating crew in Oklahoma City has had the most accepted penalties and yardage (25.7 per game for an average of 182.3 total penalty yards). Additionally, OKC opponents have been called for the most penalties and yards in the league (13.3 for 107.7 per game). The most penalized individual home team is Tampa Bay which averages 12.3 flags for 85 yards per game (OKC also averages 12.3 penalties at home, but for 74.7 yards per game).

Tulsa’s officiating crew has called just 4.3 penalties for 24.7 yards per game against the Talons (if you eliminate Orlando and Cleveland that have played just one home game each, the Talons are the least penalized home team). The Talons’ opponents at home have been called for almost seven more flags for almost 50 more yards per game than Tulsa – this is by far the biggest disparity between a home and road team.

Jacksonville’s officiating crew has been the closest to calling penalties equally. The Sharks’ opponents have been called for the same number of total penalties as the home team (25) for just five more yards (138 to 133). In the list below, Jacksonville’s crew is in the middle of the pack in penalties accepted per game.

ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS BABY

This week 21 receivers posted games with at least 100-yards receiving, which are the most in a single week since Breaking it Down began in 2008. The closest to this week’s 21 was from 19 done twice in 2008 (Week Eight and Week 16). In those two weeks, there were eight games played compared to just seven this week.

ALPHA DAWG

Just for fun…The Yard Dawgz-BattleWings game featured the two teams with that have the longest names, in terms of number of letters, in the AFL this season (49 total letters: B-S, 28; OKC, 21 – this doesn’t include the BattleWings’ hyphen). In fact, the 49 total letters of these two long-winded clubs add up to the most ever for a game in league history. Including these teams, the AFL has had just seven teams with at least 21 or more letters in their names.

The previous five teams with at least 21 letters combined for a record of 36-78 (31.6 winning percentage) in nine total seasons. This doesn’t bide well for either of these two squads. Only the 1994 Massachusetts Marauders posted a winning record (8-4) before folding after their one AFL season. That team eventually became the Grand Rapids Rampage, another team with a long-lettered name four years later. Including the af2, the BattleWings would still hold the “Arena Football” mark because the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers would have the second most with 27. However, if hyphens and slashes were included, then both teams would have the most with 29 total characters. The shortest AFL team name of all-time is held by the Utah Blaze (nine).

MORE af2 2.0 STUFF

I should have mentioned this in Week One, but the stats fiasco has been a real distraction. From the first year that conferences were introduced into the AFL (in 1993), Arizona was always a member of the American Conference, while Tampa Bay and Orlando have members of the National Conference. However, as Willy Wonka would say, “Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.” In fact, all six former AFL teams have moved from one conference to the other this season (Cleveland, Orlando, Tampa Bay were in the National in 2008, but are now American while Chicago, Arizona and Utah moved to the National this season from the American in 2008). Why was this done? Because this league adopted the conference lineup from the af2 and not the AFL.

In fact, all four division names are brand new ones to the AFL lexicon – the Central, Eastern, Southern and Western, which were used from 1995-2009 have been replaced with the South, Southwest, Midwest and West. The Midwest and Southwest Divisions were just another af2 left over – three former af2 teams in these two divisions also played in the same division last year. Only Tulsa and OKC moved from the af2’s Central to the Southwest. If the Storm, Predators, Rattlers or Rush advances to the ArenaBowl, one or possibly two of the teams will be the first to win conference titles in both conferences.

Additionally, only two previous AFL teams are in the American Conference (Orlando and Tampa Bay). The National Conference has the other four teams (two in each division: Chicago & Cleveland in the Midwest, Arizona & Utah in the West).

WEEK SIX’S STATS LEADERS 

BREAKING IT DOWN MVP OF THE WEEK: Oklahoma City QB Tommy Grady

OKC QB Tommy Grady became the third passer to toss ten touchdowns in a single game and the first to do so in a winning effort. Grady completed 81% of his passes (34-of-42) for 430 yards with ten TDs and an interception for a 139.0 rating. His completions, completion percentage, yardage, touchdowns and passer rating are career highs for Grady. The 34 completions, 430 yards and ten touchdowns are either tied for the most or are the most thrown this season in the AFL.

NOTE: For Week Seven and Eight, I will go through the stats (if they’re correct) and name the esteemed award winners after my European Vacation in Week Nine’s edition of Breaking it Down.

FIX THIS…STAT

A third of the season is done (that’s six of 18 weeks for those of you bad at math like DakStats/PointStreak) and this stats program is a complete waste of time. I could write many volumes on all the problems, bugs and errors in this software (this might still happen). As a fellow statistician, I feel for the stats crews that have to deal with this horrible program – better you than me. Most of the crews have been together for many, many years and never had a fraction of the problems that this software is causing.

I only hark on this because I’m passionate for stats and consider myself one of the foremost historians of this game. I love the AFL and have dedicated almost my professional career to this sport. For those that don’t already know, I spent eleven years in the AFL/af2 in PR and football ops for Tampa Bay, San Diego and Grand Rapids; and did double duty as the StatCrew operator for all three teams (as well as about 30 road games in those years). Additionally, this fall will be my eleventh year working for CBS Sports as a computer stats operator in the TV trucks (I’m on the Greg Gumbel/Dan Dierdorf crew). I know how a stat program should be implemented and operated. This program doesn’t even have options for TV broadcasters to get quick access to team comparisons and individual stats (this isn’t a good first impression with NFL Network at all). With StatCrew, the TV stats person could just go over my shoulder and hit F8 to see these numbers, but there are no quick options. DakStats/PointStreak suggests that any TV broadcaster should just get the stats from the Internet. This is unacceptable even if the connectivity didn’t consistently fail every game. 

It’s hard to historically document this great game with faulty and broken tools like this stats program. I’ve got a great solution for the league…suck up the cost and switch back to StatCrew – you know you’re going to do it anyway next year just like you did after the failed 2003 SportsMedia/NBC debacle. I’m sure that all the stat crews would be willing to input the first six weeks of games (it’s only 36 total games) to get back a program that actually works – hell, I could input these 36 games into StatCrew in a matter of days by myself. Just admit failure, go back to StatCrew and for God’s sake let me stop talking about this stuff week in and week out. I never talked about the stats program in 2008 when I broke down that season like no other. I didn’t need to do so because StatCrew is a legitimate program that is nearly perfect (it has some small miniscul problems that only the hardcore stats geeks even would know about).

I’ve heard from various TV broadcasters, newspaper writers and others in the know with this program; and all agree that this is an embarrassment to the AFL. I absolutely hate writing about this, but I love this sport so much that I’m forced to do so. I’m going away for two weeks (I need a break from the DakStats/PointStreak nightmare). That gives the AFL plenty of time to fix this thing (again, your problems will all go away with just a click away).

If the league doesn’t want to spend the $165 renewal licensing fee (I assume this fee would be all 15 teams, so that’s still under $2,500), then you need one of the math-challenged folks over at DakStats/PointStreak do like the King and break into the McDonald’s headquarters and steal the Egg McMuffin recipe if you know what I mean. I have zero confidence that DakSats/PointStreak will ever get this thing right and that’s the only way this is ever going to be properly fixed.

Anyway, here are some of my observations from this pathetic stats program.

DAKSTATS/POINTSTREAK LOWLIGHTS

·         The Storm game featured a 56-yard drive after Eric Ortiz had an INT six-yards in the end zone and was tackled there. This stupid software doesn’t recognize touchbacks and so the drive began at the Storm -6 instead of the five-yard line. 

·         Why did it take until Wednesday to upload the online boxscore for the Spokane-Arizona game – the game was on Friday? Having the game report is nice, but not having the boxscore means, the weekly stats are not updated on your website AFL. Get your stuff together already! This is the fourth straight week the league has had issues like this.

·         The time of possession didn’t add up to 60 minutes in four of the seven games (30 of the 36 games still don’t have the correct possession time).

·         There are plenty of disparities between the boxscore and game report – wrong yardage for TDs).

·         There’s still no net recoveries in the software – they are listed as either a kickoff return or a fumble. For example, in Iowa at 9:28 left in the second, Jason Simpson was credited with a kickoff return for a TD (45-yard onside KOR on game report, 5-yard kickoff return on boxscore), but it was a net recovery.

·         It’s upsetting that when I look at the online stats that it says Chicago’s Nichiren Flowers leads the AFL in passer rating after completing just one pass, a 31-yard TD. How stupid are you DakStats/PointStreak? There are things called minimums for a reason. What does “PG” mean (I assume it means per game) and if all players are listed with 0.0, why even have it?

·         Hey DakStats/PointStreak, assisted tackles should count as 0.5 not 1.0.

·         In the game reports, you might want to get rid of temperature and weather since that doesn’t matter in Arena Football.

·         Punt returns are still on your online stats – really, did your company even read the rules?

·         It’s stupid to have to make the stats crews email DakStats/PointStreak with roster changes as these occur up to an hour before kickoff. In the Alabama-Tulsa game, Jason Geathers led the Vipers with 5.0 tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass breakup. Only thing is that he’s now a member of the Tampa Bay Storm and didn’t play in this game. If you look at the player participation, Geathers, who wore #3, isn’t mentioned and another player is listed as #3.

·         The scoring summary in the game report should look like the same one in the boxscores (too many redundant words in the game report and too many exclamation marks). In addition, you might want to make sure each one is correct (too many mistakes ever single week).

·         The print outs for the media look horrible and unprofessional.

·         Fix the online boxscores so they add up to the correct score (too many scores are missing).

·         AFL passer rating is not the same as the NFL formula.

·         The online boxscores need to have time of possession.

·         The Tulsa stats crew has announced they will no longer be doing game-day stats as of May 22 because of the horrible DakStats/PointStreak software. This stats crew has been with the Talons since the team was an original member of the af2 in 2000. I suspect more will be following their lead.

There’s more, much more, but I have to pack for Europe. Fix this now!

WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR IN WEEK SEVEN

·            Me in London hanging out with the Queen,drinking tea with bad teeth and driving on the wrong side of the road.

·            The stats program will still suck.

WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR IN WEEK EIGHT

·         Me in Paris wearing a raspberry beret, eating cheese and surrendering to the Germans without a fight.

·         The stat program will, you guessed it, still suck. Please prove me wrong AFL – I double dare you! The solution is just a download away – click here for the link in case you forgot what a real stats program looks like.

·         Also, there probably won’t be a record book either.

Au revoir!!!