A Season Once Buried Could Turn Into the Playoffs for the VooDoo
Adam Markowitz
Tuesday July 23, 2013
Pat O'Hara and 24 members of the New Orleans VooDoo stood solemnly on a warm day in May in the Crescent City. They were mourning over a loss that shook the team to its core, a loss the likes that no team should have to sustain. As those men gathered together near the building they call the Graveyard for a funeral, it was clear that the atmosphere was somber.
This wasn't just any normal funeral though, and what was being buried was fortunately not a lost life. The VooDoo were literally and figuratively burying the first half of their 2013 season, one in which they were just 1-8 with the worst record in the league.
"We looked at the first half of the season as dead and buried, and we moved onto season two," said Coach O'Hara on AFL Tonight Episode 18. "The way things were going in our conference, we had the opportunity to potentially make a push for the playoffs."
And alas, in a city full of voodoo magic and witchcraft, O'Hara might have pulled off the trick of the season. Just two and a half months after the mock funeral that brought his team together, New Orleans is on the verge of stealing the last slot in the playoffs in Week 19.
O'Hara admitted, "It got ugly there for a while," referring to the first half of the season. At that point, New Orleans had been outscored by an average margin of defeat of 22.2 points per game. The team had been trashed by at least 30 points four times in that stretch. The franchise suffered its worst home loss ever when it was beaten by the Chicago Rush 84-48, and it suffered its worst loss ever in franchise history when it was beaten 62-16 at the hands of the Iowa Barnstormers on May 11th.
The biggest change of the season came when QB Chris Dixon was acquired from the Orlando Predators, the team on the docket in Week 19. The combination of Kurt Rocco, Bill Stull, and Zach Eskridge only completed 54.1 percent of their passes with 62 TDs against 27 INTs this year. Dixon, in his eight games with the club, the last three of which were starts, has thrown for 998 yards, and 21 TDs against just six picks, and he has rushed for 152 yards, almost as many as every other player on the team combined.
O'Hara made six changes on his roster from the team that was buried following a loss to the Chicago Rush to the one that was reborn with a win against the Cleveland Gladiators at the start of June. The changes have apparently worked out well.
The offense averaged 38.4 points per game in the first half of the campaign, scoring more than 50 points just once. Since then though, the club has averaged 55.6 points per game and has scored at least 50 points in six of the eight games.
The defense too, has stepped things up. The VooDoo averaged allowing 60.7 points per game in their first eight games of the season. That average has dipped to 56.5 points per game in the second half. The team has forced 15 turnovers since the start of the second half. What was buried was a defense that managed just 10 forced turnovers in its first nine games.
It's true that New Orleans has been beaten in its last two games, but the only game since the funeral in which the VooDoo really had no shot to win was on the road against the Arizona Rattlers, a loss there is no shame in whatsoever.
The team had two shots from the nine-yard line against the San Antonio Talons by couldn't convert on what would have been the game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter. New Orleans was ahead of the Philadelphia Soul on the road with just five seconds left to play before giving up the game-winning touchdown and a safety on the last two plays of the game. Even last week's loss against the Jacksonville Sharks, a team that was beating New Orleans 35-0 in a game earlier this year, could have easily gone the other way. The Doo needed to pull out a stop and had great opportunities to do so in the fourth quarter.
The mood in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome had to be somber once again following the loss against Jacksonville. The Predators had a shot to officially bury the VooDoo six feet under for the second time this year. However, whether it be by luck or by voodoo magic, New Orleans has lived to see another day, as Orlando couldn't get the job done, ultimately losing to the then 3-13 Cleveland Gladiators by a field goal.
5-12 isn't a pretty record by any stretch of the imagination, but the VooDoo may as well be 0-0 at this point. They have been given not just a second chance, but a third chance at life this season, and their road to the ArenaBowl gets started on Saturday night in Orlando, where they can have a chance to put together yet another funeral. This time though, Coach O'Hara is hoping that the team he is burying is the one on the other side of the field.
