Shocking! Orlando in Disarray After McEntyre's "Spokane" Word
Adam Markowitz
Monday June 14, 2010
The Orlando Predators are in disarray, and something needs to be done and done right this very moment, or the 2010 season for the squad is absolutely going to fall apart and the franchise is going to miss the postseason for the time since 1991.
This quote from longtime Predator and Arena Football League veteran DB Kenny McEntyre says a heck of a lot more than a 53-52 loss to the Spokane Shock on Saturday night did. "There's no excuse to get beat by a bunch of Arena [League] 2 players. Our quarterback has got to get a lot better. Not the offense, the quarterback. One [person] can't hold up the show." (courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel)
Hey Kenny Mac: I've got two words for you...
Shut Up.
McEntyre is a vocal leader and a veteran presence for a team that is chalk full of guys that are brand new to this league that aren't necessarily sure how to play the indoor game. Along with fellow defensive back Damon Mason, he is the only player on this team that can actually say that he was playing at the same time that head coach Pat O'Hara was still quarterbacking for this team. He should know better than this. You don't throw your quarterback under the bus and call out one player in the media for the mistakes that the entire team has made.
Look, I know that I've been hard on PO and quarterback Nick Hill over the course of this season, but in this case, I'm going to defend both of them. Yes, the Predators should have absolutely beaten the Shock on Saturday night. There are definitely no two ways around that. It would've been a fantastic, season changing victory for a team that has never felt what it's like to be above .500 over the course of the year and would've taken the squad out of the cellar in the Southern Division for the first time all season.
However, McEntyre needs to get one thing straight first. This Spokane team isn't one that is full of "a bunch of Arena 2 players." The Shock are as good as it gets in the AFL. I have this team ranked #1 in all of my polls by virtue of the fact that it beat the Jacksonville Sharks at home a few weeks ago. Truth be told, Spokane is probably the second or third best team that I have seen all season long in this league, and is certainly a Top 5 squad.
As far as the comment about Hill... No, the guy doesn't have the best statistics in the world for the season. Completing 67 percent of your passes for an average of 282.7 yards per game with 38 touchdowns and 12 INTs isn't anything to write home about. Yes, he made an absolutely horrifying throw when he was picked off by DB Antwan Marsh in the fourth quarter on Saturday in a play that really put the Preds behind the 8-Ball.
However, we'll say that Hill just throws that ball to the stands instead and Orlando survives to kick a field goal to go up nine points. Odds have it, his final stats on the day read 17 for 32 with 202 yards, two touchdowns, and no picks, plus a rushing touchdown. Are those numbers fantastic? Absolutely not. Are they good enough to win games? I'd deem that to be possible.
However, if Kenny Mac wants to pin this game on his signal caller, I'm going to find a whole bunch of instances in which perhaps some other players on the team could have stepped up and salvaged that other point which proved to be the margin of victory on the night.
Maybe someone should have defended Raul Vijil a bit better after he caught 11 passes for 134 yards and four touchdowns (which, by the way Kenny, was quite often the guy that you were trying to cover). Maybe taking care of Huey Whittaker would've been a bit better as well after he caught 11 balls for 122 yards and two scores. Perhaps kicker Carlos Martinez shouldn't have missed that 39 yard field goal in the first half. Maybe not getting the final kick of the game blocked would've been a great idea as well. Mason had an interception in his hands that could've ended what ended up being a Spokane touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
In this writer's opinion, the offense had a decent game that was good enough and worthy of victory. Yes, Hill's first drive was about as ugly as it got; he went 2/5 for 14 yards and was sacked once, and the Preds ultimately missed a field goal. However, after that, the unit proceeded to score touchdowns on five out of its next six drives, with the one failure coming on a three play drive right before the end of the half. By the way, Hill delivered a ball right on the money to receiver TT Toliver that should've resulted in a touchdown on the final pass of the first half. Toliver dropped the ball, and instead, Orlando settled for the Martinez field goal at the gun.
Orlando took over the ball with six minutes to play in the game ahead by six points, and O'Hara generated an absolutely perfect game plan for the situation. He ran eight great plays that brought the clock down to just one minute to play, knowing that even a field goal would most likely ice the game. Hill did a fantastic job on the last snap before the one minute warning, getting flushed out of the pocket and throwing the ball into the stands instead of forcing anything. You could even see O'Hara point at Hill immediately after that play and utter the words, "Smart play!"
Then the blunder...
However, instead of doing something to pick the team and their quarterback up, the Predators let down Hill, O'Hara, and the 10,346 in attendance at Amway Arena on Saturday, as the defense allowed the Shock to march 32 yards in just 20 seconds to win the game.
Once upon a time, the Orlando Predators used to win games as a team. The offense would never put anything near 52.6 points per game on the board as it is averaging this year. The defense wouldn't allow 54.8 points in a single game let alone on the average night. Guys would make the big hit, create the timely play, pick up after mistakes made by others... That's what made the black and red winners in the past. Heck, O'Hara won us an ArenaBowl in a game in which he threw a grand total of one touchdown pass in 1998!
Instead of players taking accountability in Orlando, all that we are seeing right now is a bunch of finger pointing. That won't make the playoffs. That won't win games. Now, the Sharks, a team that has already knocked off the Preds 57-31 earlier this year, are coming to town on Friday night in a game that will most likely be the defining one in Orlando's season.
The Preds are 4-5 through nine games. Hill didn't point the finger at the defense for allowing 73 points to the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings, nor did he do so when the Tampa Bay Storm marched into the Jungle and scored 62 points. Kenny Mac shouldn't have pointed the finger at him this weekend either.
Contrary to popular belief, it isn't going to be a better effort from Hill that is required for the Predators to win the game. It is going to take a better effort by all 20 guys in black and red.
