Bentley and Company say Dragons are all Offense
Tom Ando
Friday April 27, 2001
The Buffalo Destroyers are 2-0.
No matter how many times you say that, it`s hard to believe, but it`s entirely true. This week, Ray Bentley and the Destroyers travel to Long Island to take on the New York Dragons, one of Arena Football`s most explosive teams. Last week the Dragons dropped a 68-58 firework display of an offensive game to the Toronto Phantoms. In that contest, 2000 All Arena First Team Quarterback Aaron Garcia threw for 372 yards and seven touchdowns, but two interceptions. Offensive Specialist Kevin Swayne, who came straight from the XFL where he scored the first touchdown in the league`s history, had 12 receptions for 172 yards and three touchdowns. Wide Receiver/Defensive Back Todd Doxzon also had three touchdowns in that game.
"John Gregory knows this league inside and out, and has had a lot of success. His formula is one where he builds his team around offense," explained Destroyers coach Ray Bentley. "You look at them and their wide receiver/dbs are wide receivers that they teach how to play db. Their fullback/linebackers are pretty much fullbacks that they teach how to play linebacker. Their linemen. They`ve got some true offensive lineman, so that they can protect their quarterback, and they just get what they can out of them in the rush. This team is built for offense, so that`s going to present a couple of unique challenges to us. Number one, he (Gregory) wants to turn this into a track meet, basically a scoring contest so we`ve got to answer that bell on offense. We`ve got to score, I would say three out of four times we get the ball, we have to put points on the board. The challenge is on our defense, here`s a team built for offense that rang up 58 points against Toronto, that`s only going to get better. Our challenge is to shut them down."
As for the Destroyers, last week, they shut down Connell Maynor and the New Jersey Gladiators offense highlighted by a Scottie Nicholson sack, which gives him a league high two on the year. Not to mention a Carlos James interception, which gives him three on the year; also tops in the league. Buffalo walked away with a 39-28 victory, but offensively they struggled. Bentley believes that is not necessarily such a terrible thing. "I think that we didn`t play as well as we would have liked to last week, and we still came away with a win, so that`s a good situation. As far as going back in there and look at the film, point out some mistakes -- some errors that were made -- and then go ahead and get better. I think we`ve done that. We had our best practice of the year yesterday. This has been a very good practicing football team, but yesterday, they cranked it up another notch, and I think they`re getting close to putting it all together, and I don`t believe that we`ve done so, yet, but it`s early and you don`t want to peak too early."
In that victory, Buffalo`s Offensive Specialist Bobby Olive went down with a torn ACL, but Wide Receiver/Linebacker Darrick Branch took over at the OS position. Once he got the hang of things, he filled Olive`s place admirably by catching five passes for 62 yards. "At first it was (difficult). It`s a totally different position you`ve got to get used to playing. I think the first couple of plays I was in there thinking (too much), but once I got into the flow of the game, I felt pretty good."
For Olive, this could mean the end of the season, but Bentley still has hope for their number one guy. "Our plan with him is to re-evaluate our situation with him after two weeks. We don`t know yet if this is a season-ending injury for Bobby. There have been guys who have played with torn knee ligaments in the past. His looks like the type of situation where he can actually finish the situation. We`re looking at that possibility."
For the time being, the Destroyers coaching staff is looking for a replacement to jump in for their go to guy. "To replace Bobby, we`re looking at a couple of different guys in that spot. Willie Latta, who has done a good job, in places where we`ve used him so far. He`s one guy under consideration. The other is Reggie Allen. Reggie`s a rookie. He`s very talented, but he`s not very seasoned, he hasn`t played much. He`s a legitimate big time receiver, so it will be between the two of them, as far as who`s going to get that offensive specialist spot, and that decision has yet to be made."
Allen, a rookie from Central Michigan, who has yet to see action in the regular season, had very solid play in the pre season. In two games against Tampa Bay and Oklahoma City, Allen had six receptions for 76 yards and two touchdowns.
Latta, who was last week`s game MVP, has shined this season for Buffalo. In two games he has five receptions for 87 yards and two receiving touchdowns, three rushes for three yards and two touchdowns. He has also put up 105 yards on returns and has 26 points which ranks him seventh in the league. To most, Latta`s performance has been very surprising, but his coach begs to differ. "I expected him to have this type of year, and the only thing he needs is the opportunities. He`s been getting them, and when he gets them, he`s been cashing in."
Another change that the Destroyers are making for this week`s game is offensive coordinator Tony Kimbrough. He will be on the sidelines calling plays instead of manning the booth. "I will continue my job as the defensive coordinator and special teams coach,” said Bentley, “so I`ll be on the field for those, but coach Kimbrough will be on the field when our offense is out there." Buffalo is 7-1 in regular season play since Kimbrough moved to call the plays from upstairs last season.
In order for Buffalo to put up the numbers to run with New York`s offense, Jim Kubiak has to be at the top of his game. "I felt that Jim Kubiak grew up a little bit in the game against New Jersey, and he faced a lot of adversity," said Bentley. "He didn`t face a lot of adversity against Toronto, things pretty much went his way. Against New Jersey he finally had some problems. Things weren`t going his way -- he stumbled a bit. There were five out of six drives in the second and third quarter where we didn`t score, that`s usually impossible to overcome in Arena Football, but Jim hung in there and he got it done in the end. He threw two touchdown passes late in that game, and then ran for one, and that`s going to help his confidence. It`s not always supposed to be easy. You`re going to have some tough times."
Buffalo`s defense struggled a bit in the opener in Toronto, giving up 54 points. "I think we`re going to match up pretty well. I personally think that they are a very tough team, but I don` think they`re anywhere as explosive as Toronto," said Branch. "I don`t think our defense fared very well against Toronto, but we also made a lot of mistakes in the secondary, so I think we pretty much got those mistakes ironed out. We`ve got some good things scheme wise to go against them. Luckily we`ve got guys like John Motten and Carlos James who have played with Garcia before. So they know him pretty well, and they`re going to put their input on things."
"We`ve got to get some pass rush on Garcia, he`s just a great quarterback, so if you let him just sit back there, he`ll pick anybody apart. We`ve got a couple of things we`re going to do to try to confuse him in the secondary, but the main thing is just get a pass rush, that`s the number one thing."
Buffalo`s defense versus New York`s offense seems to be a great matchup and Destroyers` defensive specialist Prentice Taylor agrees. "I just think we have to stick to the game plan Coach is going to put together for us. If we just execute that it`ll be a great match up. We just have to continue to do the things that we`ve been doing in practice, just stay disciplined, and do our jobs. If we do that, we`ll be all right, we can play with anybody."
"Personally, I don`t think it`s going to go into a shootout,” said Branch. “I think we`re going to move the ball at our will. I don`t think secondary-wise, they can stop us. As long as we protect Kubiak, we`ll be fine. As far as our secondary is concerned, we`re going to get a couple of stops, I know that for sure, because we`re going to get pressure on them, and our secondary might get a couple of picks here and there. We`re going to break up some passes and make them kick the ball."
"Touchdown" Tom Ando is a free lance writer from South Buffalo, NY and has been covering the Arena Football League in one capacity or another since the 2000 season, when he was 17 years old. Tom Currently writes for Sports & Leisure Magazine in Buffalo covering the NLL's Buffalo Bandits and NCAA Division I football. In 2001, Tom was the only writer in the country to cover the Houston "Travelin' " Thunderbears, where he befriended his mentor John F. "Hondo" Hahn.
