The Fine Line Between a ‘Blowout’ and a ‘Run-up’
Michael Vergane
Saturday April 14, 2001
All it took was a mismatch against an expansion team and the hues and cries of ‘quit running up the score’ begin to echo throughout the league.
In case you missed the game stories, the Quad City Steamwheelers defeated the Memphis Xplorers 97-7 at the Mark Of The Quad Cities Friday night.
Before I continue, none of these post game accusations came from anyone I spoke to affiliate with the Xplorers.
I’ve had the fortune of being at both of the Steamwheelers biggest wins in their existence. On May 26, 2000, a 103-3 win over Greensboro in Greensboro and now the 97-7 win over Memphis. There are several similarities in the statistics and the way the game flowed that can answer how these games got out of hand.
Turnovers is one key. When your opponent is constantly turning the ball over, how can you help but not blow out your opponent?
In the win over Greensboro, the Prowlers turned the ball over a league record nine times with two interceptions returned for touchdowns. In the win over Memphis, the Xplorers turned the ball over seven times with two of those resulting in TD’s.
Time of possession is another stat that is a common denominator in these two games.
In the 103-3 win at Greensboro, the Prowlers had several drives that ate up the clock and resulted in nothing. When Quad City received the ball, they usually struck quickly on the 1st or 2nd play of the drive. Greensboro had the ball 38:51 and the Steamwheelers 21:09.
In the Memphis game, the time of possession was more pronounced. Memphis had the ball 40:34 to 19:26 for Quad City.
Finally, the most telling reason is the under-prepared opponents. Last year, Greensboro fired their head coach three days before they played undefeated Quad City obviously disrupting any continuity they had established.
Friday night against Memphis, the Steamwheelers played a team that had only one Arena game under their belts with a roster that had no previous Arena experience collectively before this season.
It should also be mentioned that in both games the starting Quad City QB was yanked at halftime. As for the other skill players, a 19-man roster only allows you so much shifting because of the substitution rules.
Head Coach Frank Haege explained it best when he told me after last years win over Greensboro, “There are two guys for each position, except OS. Our wide receiver/linebackers are Jeremy Wilkinson and Scott Hvistendahl. I could have made one of them the OS, but then the other would have had to play both ways the whole game. And that’s just not going to happen.”
That is why OS Craig Cole finished the game Friday with 6 catches for 130 yards and 6 TD’s.
I can certainly understand the leagues’ stance on running up the score. It is not good for any professional league. And I agree. It embarrasses franchises and makes it difficult for a front office to build any kind of fan loyalty. And it makes it impossible for the sales staff to sell corporate sponsorship. After all, who wants their product associated with a losing team?
But ‘running up the score’ is not what happened in these two games.
The way I see it Coach Haege and the team can do one of three things.
They can give in and say ‘next time we get way out in front we’ll just run the fullback up the middle the entire 4th quarter and kill the clock. So what if we alienate our own fans, at least they saw us win’.
Or, they could have a little fun with it. Say, take a page out of the XFL handbook. The players and coaches could have ‘af2 HATE ME’ put in big block letters on their jerseys and coaches shirts.
Or, they could do the sensible thing and continue doing what they are doing. And that is playing good, hard nosed football
Michael Vergane was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2000 to 2002.
