Viper Bite not Effective in Second Half
Andrew Mason
Monday May 21, 2001
The league’s second season won’t see an undefeated champion as 6-0 standouts Augusta, Tulsa and Tennessee Valley all fell for the first time in 2001 during Week 8.
But of the three vanquished kingpins, it was Tennessee Valley whose defeat sounded with the most resonance. The loss itself might have been predictable – the Vipers’ fourth in as many games the Quad City Steamwheelers, including their only two losses at the Von Braun Center in 13 home games.
But the magnitude – 30 points, the most lopsided defeat in team history – and the fact that Tennessee Valley lost control of a game it seemed to have in hand, leading the Steamwheelers through most of the first half before Quad City went on a 44-7 run.
Following the 77-47 loss, it would seem that the Wheelers are destined to be the white whale to the Vipers’ Captain Ahab. But even after the Saturday smashing that eventually saw Quad City’s Xavier Patterson nab one of the “Kiss My Asp” placards circulating through the stands and hold it up to the fans by the fourth quarter, the Vipers had a common vow – the loss can be overcome.
“I don’t think it’s a big letdown. We look at it and we know that we’re better,” Tennessee Valley quarterback Matt Sauk assessed. “I watched them [on film] and I played them and I know that we’re better.”
But the on-field results betrayed Sauk’s film review, in large part due to a ceaseless Steamwheelers pass rush that did not post a sack, but knocked Sauk to the turf repeatedly, especially in the third quarter as game control transferred from the Vipers to Quad City. A fourth-quarter sack – which would have been just the second allowed by the Vipers thus far in 2001 – was negated by an illegal defense penalty.
Quad City’s pressure proved sufficient enough to slightly disrupt the timing on pass patterns. That circumstance, coupled with self-inflicted wounds – an end-zone interception and a fumbled snap less than a minute before halftime that set up the touchdown that put the Wheelers ahead for good -- ensured the Vipers’ first setback since the ArenaCup clash last August.
“Real champions know how to bounce back,” Vipers lineman Andy Fuller added. “We’ve got to show everybody in Huntsville, Tennessee Valley and af2 that we’re going to bounce back.”
That won’t be difficult. Week 8 aside, the Vipers appear blessed with a team even more talented and balanced than last year’s edition. The defense entered the game ranked No. 2 in af2.
And don’t be fooled by the 77-point total scored by the Steamwheelers. Four of their touchdowns came on drives of 15 yards or less – two of which were set up by on-side kicks called for in the final quarter. Another Quad City score came on a fourth-quarter interception return.
The defeat was less a sign that the Vipers’ venom has lost its lethal quality, and more a product of what 50-yard, eight-on-eight football provides – the possibility for one mistake to engender another and another, something that championship-caliber clubs in the AFL can relate to in recent years.
Besides, the season is just seven games old.
“We’re 6-1,” Fuller concluded. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Absolutely not, considering that the Vipers left the weekend in the same spot they opened it – in a tie for the best record in af2.
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.
