Mustangs Find No Shelter From the Storm
John Hoh
Saturday May 5, 2001
The night began with a two bad omens. The wireless microphone failed for the national anthem. Some quick thinking by the referee allowed the songstress to sing the anthem with the aid of the ref’s wireless piece on his shirt. And after receiving the opening kickoff, QB Donnie Davis fumbled the ball on the first snap of the game. Tampa Bay recovered. It seemed liked it might be a long night, but the Mustangs remained in the game—even taking two leads—until falling victim to two turnovers late, 66-47.
A look at the Three P’s that doomed the Mustangs:
Penalties: Milwaukee committed 9 penalties and gave up 44 yards of turf on those penalties, close to a whole field. One reason Tampa Bay still owns the Bradley Center turf.
Big Plays: Four times (although it seemed like more), Kaleo connected with a receiver on the first play of a “series” for a touchdown strike.
Presents: The Mustangs gave the ball, gift-wrapped, to the Storm four times. The opening fumble led to a touchdown. Later in the first quarter, Davis threw an interception at the Tampa Bay 5. This resulted in a field goal. But the back breakers came in the final minutes of the game. First, a scrambling Davis fumbled at midfield, which was recovered by Tampa Bay’s Sir Mawn Wilson and returned 26 yards for a touchdown, making the score 59-47. On the next possession, the Mustangs once again knocked on the Storm door when Davis was intercepted at the Tampa Bay 1. The ball was returned to the Milwaukee 1 and one play later the score became the final, 66-47.
Milwaukee’s offense had more rhythm. For the second straight week, they out-gained their opponent in the air, 313 to 232, and on the ground, 40-8. The rushing yardage included a Les Barley hop for 10 yards into the end zone. Take away the 142 yards on the four big TD plays (25+ yards each) and you get the feeling that Tampa Bay struggled to sustain drives. Take away the two late TDs on turnovers and the outcome is different.
Frazier did sound concerned about his job security at his news conference. He alluded to it three times, saying he recently told team owner Andrew A. Vallozzi to give him until the end of the season to right the Mustangs.
However, Frazier went on to say he couldn`t concern himself with any decisions made on his job by Vallozzi and his son, Mustangs general manager Chris J. Vallozzi.
"The Vallozzis have stuck with me and I believe I have given them seven years of loyal service," he said. "If they decide to make a change . . . I know what business I am in. I hope they give me the season to get it fixed but I can`t worry about that."
Milwaukee next plays “at” the Houston Thunderbears, with the game being staged in Madison, Wisconsin—about a 1000 miles closer to Milwaukee than Houston. Milwaukee hopes to get in the “W” column facing another former Mustang signal caller, Todd Hammel.
John L. Hoh, Jr., is a free-lance writer from Milwaukee who grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, as an avid Dolphins fan. He followed Arena Football since its inception, at one point watching tape-delayed games on low-powered WAV-TV in Waukesha. His happiest day was when Milwaukee was awarded the Mustangs franchise; his saddest when the Mustangs were contracted out of the league. John is married to his wife Maija (13+ years) and has a young son, Matthew. John pines for the return of the Arena Football League to Milwaukee.
