Back Into The Pack

Brian Beaudry
Friday March 18, 2011

 The Spokane Shock are back in their comfort zone after a game in which they couldn’t seem to get anything going right in San Jose.

“I’m happy, the way that we lost, because our guys are so focused now that they recognize, to win Arena Football games, everything, and every play counts,” said Head Coach Rob Keefe. “Some people, some players, some coaches, myself included, sometimes you get away from [playing like every play matters]. There’s this aura of being Spokane; that you can just put on this jersey and win a championship. That’s just not the way it works.”

The Shock spent their second consecutive season opener getting worked over by a veteran AFL quarterback. In 2010, it was Milwaukee’s Chris Greisen, who completed 30 of 36 passes for nine touchdowns and no interceptions. In the 2011 opener, San Jose’s Mark Grieb cut efficiently through Spokane’s defense, completing 21 of his 25 passes and five touchdowns.

“Our defense couldn’t get started. When one team is working so much harder than the other team, the machine breaks down,” said Keefe. “We were struggling. We were starting on our minus-4 yard line every time, working, working, working to get down. They were starting at midfield almost every time – work, work, touchdown. There’s no contingency plan when you’re down 28 points in the first week of the season.”

Taylor Rowan’s kickoff to start the game hit the hanging scoreboard at HP Pavilion. For the rest of the game, the Sabercats had a special teams advantage as Rowan tried to work kickoffs around the scoreboard while San Jose’s Juan Gamboa pinned returner Terrance Sanders and the Shock deep. The Shock have been unable to practice with the rebound nets due to business at the Spokane Arena, and six months of being away slowed Sanders down aside from one return for a touchdown toward the end of the first half.

Quarterback Kyle Rowley will look to recover from his three-interception performance, his worst since last season in Orlando. After last season’s three-interception game against the Predators, Rowley threw just one interception over the next six games as the Shock went 6-0 in that stretch. He expressed confidence that he could go on a similar run this season.

“I made a couple bad reads. Usually, you can get away with a couple bad reads, and they don’t turn into interceptions for six points. This game, unfortunately, they returned those first two for touchdowns,” said Rowley, discussing what went wrong last week. “We’re not going to change what we do just because things didn’t go right.”