Destroyers Look To Strike Down Hammel and the TBears
Tom Ando
Thursday May 17, 2001
The 2-3 ThunderBears are coming off of a big 62-43 victory over the Milwaukee Mustangs in which quarterback Todd Hammel was 18 of 34 for 279 yards with six touchdowns and one interception. Hammel is one of the top quarterbacks in league history, but Destroyers head coach Ray Bentley thinks there are ways to contain the All-Pro quarterback.
“We’ll mix coverages up definitely and we’ll get pressure on him,” said Bentley. “When Todd has his problems is when pressure gets on him and then he has to make quicker decisions than he wanted to and he’ll throw sooner passes than he wanted to, then that will create problems.
“The other thing he does is that his ball will come out a little low sometimes, so we’re going to make sure our guys get their hands up and create some things that way, by knocking the ball up in the air.”
Having been in the league for 10 seasons, Hammel knows what to expect from defenses, including the Destroyers.
“They`re very aggressive in their secondary; they try to be aggressive with the receivers,” said Hammel, who is the league’s all time leading passer. “They run a lot of zones, so we`ll decide whether we want to take advantage of that, it`s just being consistent. If we`re consistent with our offense, we`ll be tough to stop.”
Former Destroyer Wilky Bazile looks to protect Hammel. Bentley is excited about getting the chance to play against his former lineman.
“It’s going to be fun to compete against Wilky,” said Bentley. “I guarantee you, Wilky will be ready to go, because he was always ready to go when he played with us. And Wilky’s the type of guy that when he’s ready, you’ll see other people around him ready.”
As for the Destroyers, their win last week put them back above .500 and re-installed some confidence. “I think any time you win, you re-enforce the good things that you do. And you also get a chance to correct the bad things that you do, without the pressure of a loss hanging over your head,” said Bentley. “With the psyche of my team, I think that’s a good thing that we can improve more off of a win that we can maybe off of a loss.”
This game could possibly determine whether or not the Destroyers are for real this season. Last year, after beating the ThunderBears, Buffalo won three straight to help them make their push into the playoffs.
“This is a very important week for us,” said Destroyers DS Keven Jackson. “We just have to go in and take no prisoners, play hard and do what we’ve been doing the last couple of weeks, which is just playing all four quarters. We need to put it in the game plan that we play all four quarters, because right now, we’re playing the first half, and then coming back in the middle of the third or fourth quarter.”
Hammel expects a shoot out, and the way Buffalo has been playing, it isn’t far fetched. "I think it`s going to be a good game. Buffalo`s playing well,” said Hammel. “We need a win coming into this game. They put up some points. Their offense is doing well. If we just play a full game, I think we have a good chance at winning the ball game."
Kickoff is at 8:00, at the HSBC Arena where the Destroyers have won five straight.
"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.
