New Jersey’s Breakout Half
Andrew Mason
Saturday May 12, 2001
With that inauspicious opening act, the frustration began to get under the Gladiators’ shields.
“This team never doubted itself,” Gladiators head coach Lary Kuharich said. “But they just wondered, ‘Why can’t we get a win?’”
By halftime of their game with the Detroit Fury, that question was moot, and the only zero that mattered was the one on the scoreboard under the word “Fury.” That encapsulated the dominance of the Gladiators, who hadn’t scored more than 28 points in a game this season before notching an astounding 44 in the first 30 minutes of their 57-20 win over Detroit.
Taking a 44-point lead into the locker room is something one expects from the University of Nebraska against a Division I-AA opponent – not from a team that has added seven new players since its season-opening loss to the Carolina Cobras.
“I can’t say I sensed what we saw tonight (in practice this week),” Kuharich said. “But I sensed victory. We put ourselves in position to win games the last few weeks but we didn’t. And I sensed that we would win a game this week; I really did.”
For a half, perfection, a typically unattainable fantasy, was something very real to the Gladiators. They outgained Detroit 182 yards to 48, sacked quarterback Scott Semptimphelter for a second-quarter safety, limited Detroit to just 2.1 yards per play and forced five Fury turnovers -- scoring on one.
New Jersey’s defensive stoutness was foreseen; the team came into the game ranked No. 4 in the league, yielding 39.2 points per game, behind three teams with a collective 9-2 mark heading into Week 5 – Nashville, San Jose and Arizona.
Its offensive explosion, however, was something new, and the result of something simple – time. With new coaching, administration and ownership not falling into place until February, and 2000 linchpins Michael Lewis and Tommy Maddox having moved on, Kuharich and general manager Chris Mara had little time to cobble together a team.
“We started way behind the starting blocks; we had 18 teams on their way by Feb. 12,” Kuharich said. “We’ve caught up now with a victory.”
Through their first four games, the Gladiators followed the historic pattern of new and overhauled teams, with coordinator Rich Ingold’s defense finding its footing before Maynor and the offense.
The offense made its move towards stable ground with narrow losses to Toronto and Nashville. Games that saw Maynor forced to scramble less than in Week 1, when he darted around the backfield in gallant but often vain attempts to keep plays alive. But what helped him most of all was the May 1 addition of WR/LB David Saunders, who helped take pressure off consistent eight-season veteran Lawrence Samuels, giving him another target and boosting the receiving corps as a whole.
“The receivers are getting open quicker,” Kuharich said. “Things are crisper and quicker.”
The emergence of the Samuels/Saunders combo, which collaborated for 13 receptions, 177 yards and three scores, coupled with an offensive line that limited the league’s leading team in sacks per game to just one, allowed Maynor to look more like a classic drop-back quarterback throughout the win.
For the Gladiators, one small step has been taken. Now, comes the giant leap – one which they believe will result in a playoff run, and perhaps an even better performance than the one which resulted in the 44-point halftime lead, which is perhaps unprecedented in AFL annals.
“I think only good things are going to happen,” Kuharich summarized. “Enough frailties happened to where we have things to correct, but the players are building some confidence.”
Andrew Mason was at the Tampa Bay Storm`s first home game on June 1, 1991 and has followed the game ever since. While in college, he served as content editor and co-founder of The Storm Shelter, a Web site which covered the Tampa Bay Storm on the Internet from 1996-99. He also volunteered with the team`s media relations department in 1998 and currently contributes to ColoradoCrush.com. He's covered the NFL for various on-line outlets since 1999.
