Key Additions Help Blaze Strive for First Streak of the Season
Don Eisenbarth
Friday May 27, 2011
The end of the world was supposed to happen right at kickoff of this Saturday's game between the Utah Blaze and the San Jose SaberCats, but for most Blaze fans, the end of the world was on Thursday when it was announced that Aaron Boone and Aaron LeSue were going to be put on the injured reserve list for the next game against San Jose.
Okay, maybe that was a little overdramatic, but the fact is that the Blaze losing two of their most consistent receivers to injuries the week of a big divisional game is not the way that the Blaze wanted things to go. With Boone and LeSue on the IR, the Blaze found themselves having to readjust as they basically lost options 1 and 2 in their receiving core. Add to that the Blaze's 6 game losing streak against the SaberCats and the Blaze disastrous loss to the Milwaukee Mustangs last week and it was easy to imagine that that the Blaze weren’t going to have their first losing streak of the season.
Yet somehow, they won. It only took Tommy Grady to basically have a perfect game and DE Caesar Rayford blocked a crucial extra point for the Blaze to win 76-68.
"It's hard to say it when you gave up 68 points, but I thought our defense played very well today. They played aggressively. We wanted to do some things out of the ordinary and run them out of the building." said Head Coach Ron James. "It's a division opponent; it jumps us up a little bit. It was a game we needed to win. They're a good football team. It's always important to win division games, so we feel good about it.”
Grady was extremely efficient. Grady went 23-32 (including his 3 incompletion where he was just killing time) for 319 yards and 9 touchdowns. Grady seems to be ever to find every open receiver this year as he leads the AFL in nearly every passing statistical category. As the Blaze have reached their season’s halfway point, Grady has thrown for 69 touchdown passes. He is on pace for 138 touchdowns this season which will easily demolish the AFL’s all time record for touchdown passes in a season of 117, held by former Georgia Force QB Chris Greisen.
The strongest reason for the Blaze victory was new acquisition WR Chris Bocage. Bocage was named the new kick returner after Alvance Robinson's disastrous 2 fumbled kickoffs last week. Bocage wasn't the most explosive returner, but he was able to find the seams and follow his blockers all the way to the end zone in one of the most exciting plays of the game. And also he didn't lose the ball, so he had that going for him. Bocage also became a strong number 2 option to Ernie Pierce's number 1 option. Bocage had 6 receptions for 75 yards and 3 touchdowns. That's right half of his receptions were touchdowns.
"Honestly, I expect that. I'm here to make plays," said Bocage after the victory "that's what Coach brought me in to do. Help this team and be more productive. I've had games like that in the past and I expect that. I expect to perform at a high level every week. That's just normal... I just wanted to come out with a chance to compete. Coach gave me an opportunity to come in here and help this team win a championship. That's all I want to do is help the team and make plays. I was able to do that tonight, Tommy got me the ball. I'm just pleased, coming out to compete and have a good time. It was awesome."
Bocage is no newcomer to arena football, having played in the af2 in 2008 and 2009 with the Albany Conquest and the Tennessee Valley Vipers respectively. Players with that much arena experience at hard to come by, so I asked how he found himself in Utah at the exact time that the Blaze needed him.
"I coached football at (Louisville) Junior College in North Carolina. I had a spring ball obligation with my head coach back there; I didn't want to leave him in the blue. I fulfilled my obligation and coached last spring. Then, I sent my film out to every team in the country. (Utah Defensive Coordinator) Coach Hoffman was my head coach in 2008 with Albany. He called me and said 'hey we need a guy' so I was on the next flight." said Bocage. "Funny story, San Jose called me two weeks ago and wanted to bring me out for a workout and I couldn't work out the flights to get out there, but I was able to get here so now I'm here. It's a crazy story, but it is what it is."
"Getting Chris Bocage was big for us." said Coach James. "He had like Aaron LeSue's role. Same kind of guy. Speedy and sure hands. Taking the ball off the net and catching a few balls."
One thing that was not as well published this week was the addition of Andrew Aguila as the kicker. Aguila is the 4th kicker for the Blaze this season after Greg Gunderson left for the CFL. Aguila won in this week’s three kicker try out that included former Boise State kicker Kyle Brotzman. From the headlines he was generating, you would assume that Brotzman had already won the job, but Aguila was out on the field for the Blaze with Brotzman heading for a tryout in the CFL.
"We had three kickers in this week and Andrew Aguila was good all this week at being accurate, which is what we needed. Mentally, he's a kid that adjusts well. He'll be a consistent kicker for us." said Coach James
The Blaze must now turn around and face an Iowa Barnstormer team that's coming off a bye week and are ready to place Utah in the NFL Network game of the week. The Barnstormers are currently last in the Central Division and are going to be led for the first time with former defensive coordinator and current interim head coach J.T. Smith. Even with the bye, the Blaze should be heavily favored in this game; however, the Blaze botched the last game that they were heavily favored in when they lost to Milwaukee at home.
“You can never overlook anyone in this league,” said Head Coach Ron James in a recent Blaze press release. “We’ve already done it this year and it has hurt our season standing. I can promise we won’t be doing that against Iowa.”
As the second half of the season begins that promise will be required if Utah is to make their push to the playoff and also getting their first winning streak of the season.
