Crazy Game, Short Week
Charliy Nash
Thursday May 3, 2001
Saturday night’s game against the Florida Bobcats was anything but routine. Nashville scored 21 points off turnovers in the first half. If you only look at the stats you might get the impression that the Kats’ offense couldn’t move the ball; the fact is they didn’t have to. They began three series in the red zone after the Bobcats turned the ball over. Add an interception return for a touchdown and some decent, though still not spectacular, kick returns and you get a lot of scoring with very little yardage. While the red zone offense is still inconsistent, the Kats scored three rushing touchdowns. The game was unusual in another way: there were no injuries. You would have to go back to last year’s playoffs to find a game in which a Nashville player did not leave the field on crutches with a season-ending injury – up until this last game. Could the swarm of injury bugs finally be departing?
The injury-riddled Kats defense held Florida scoreless in the first and fourth quarters. The Bobcats did manage to make the game interesting in the third, but the Kats would not let up. Steve McLaughlin, leading all AFL kickers in scoring, added four field goals, including a personal best and team-record 55-yarder. With consistent pressure from the defensive line and a new hero each week (welcome back Cliff Green!) in the revolving door secondary, Nashville has the number one scoring defense in the league. The return of X-Men Ron Carpenter this week and Dell McGee next week should help to further solidify the defense.
Primal Themes
Since this week’s game against the NJ Gladiators is Thurday night, competing with the big finale of “Survivor”, the game will have a Survivor theme. I don’t know about anyone else, but I plan to avoid the concession stands and the media buffet. I ate enough strange things when I lived in Japan.
Kat Chat
Y’all are invited to the chat room at katsfan.com every Monday at 7 PM Central time. There will be special guests each week. This past Monday we were joined by Nashville cheerleader (and Miss Kentucky contestant) Tara. Next week Ryan Altizer, the Kats Media Relations Director, will be in the “hot seat”.
Frightening Thought of the Week
Winless Orlando has a bye this week, which means that Jay Gruden has 16 days to prepare for the Predators’ rematch with the Kats next Sunday on TNN.
Charliy Nash has covered both incarnations of the Nashville Kats, and now has make the 2 hour drive to Huntsville for an Arena Football fix. He also covers the Tennessee Titans as a blogger for nfl.com and still hopes this will eventually lead to a paying gig.
