Not a Bad Seat in the `House
Matthew Pickut
Sunday April 29, 2001
The first quarter again saw Indiana start slowly at home. It looked as if the long off week had left the team a bit rusty. The Firebirds’ gave up a 55-yard touchdown on the opening kick-off return by KR/OS Siaha Burley. Things again looked bleak when the Firebird’s offense failed to make more than one first down on their opening drive. Orlando quarterback Craig Welihan then connected on a 33-yard pass touchdown pass to Brett Cooper on his first play in the AFL. The Predators’ quick start took the wind out of the Conseco fans.
Once again, special teams hampered the Firebirds all game long. Nelson Garner was perfect on his field goal and extra points but the coverage on kick-offs gave the Predators an advantage early. The team will be dealing with their slow starts this week during practice. “It does concern me and we have to work on it,” said head coach Mike Dailey, “ I think a lot of it has to do with poor special teams play. Our kickoff coverage wasn’t very good tonight and we definitely need to improve in that area. We need to lengthen the field for our opponents because it’s a big difference starting at the 25 instead of the 5 or 10-yard line.”
The biggest play of the game came on a play that wasn’t. Down 14 points twice, the Firebirds tied the score at 31 with 6 seconds left in the first half. Burley then took the kick-off back for what looked like his second return for a touchdown in the game. The ball came back to the Orlando 5 on a holding call on WR/LB Mile Bowman. The Predators managed to go to the half up 3 points after a David Cool kick, but the momentum clearly belonged to the ‘Birds.
Indiana drove 45 yards on their first drive of the second half, scoring on a Raymond Philyaw 4-yard pass to Eddie Brown. “Coach said something at halftime about needing a player to take over the game.” Said OS Eddie Brown “I didn’t say anything but took that to heart”. Brown’s performance (4 TDs, 10 receptions) did all the talking Indiana needed. After taking the lead, Indiana never trailed again getting strong second half stats from WR/LB Greg Hopkins (5 of 7 catches for 62 of 118 yards and 1 INT).
Welihan (18 for 35 -- 5 TD, 2 INT), starting for the Predators after only one day with the team, played well early, but seemed to deal poorly with the quick pressure that is part of the indoor game. The “Big Uglies” scored 6 official QB “hurries”, but they were frequently in the backfield forcing quick and unbalanced throws. By contrast, Philyaw was hurried only 4 times and had his best game of the year (completing 23 of 33 for 299 yards and 6 TD, O INT). “Scoring over 60 points was a great accomplishment tonight keyed by lots of great catches by all of our receivers,” said Philyaw. He did suffer the indignity of being sacked for the first time all season, going down in the 2nd quarter.
In the defensive backfield, DS Cornelius Coe’s eight tackles and Cedrick Walker’s seven tackles led the Firebirds. The team’s second half performance held the Predators to only 16 points. Carl Sacco pitched in with two passes defended and an interception that halted a promising Orlando drive in the fourth quarter. Between the play of the d-line and the backfield Welihan received a introduction to the AFL he won’t soon forget.
Next week the Firebirds face the New York Dragons (1-1) who beat Buffalo last week 70-58. If the Birds can keep the intensity up and limit their mistakes on special teams they stand a good chance of giving every seat in the Conseco Fieldhouse a good view of some pretty good Arena Football.
Matthew Pickut is a pastor in northern Indiana and a long time AFL fan. He also writes for his own website: The Brown Paper Blog. He graduated from Taylor University in Upland Indiana (class of `96) with degrees in Biblical Literature and Sociology as well as a healthy respect for the medicinal properties of coffee.
