Kats Sink the Bismarck Bears
Charliy Nash
Tuesday May 29, 2001
Nashville’s Kelly passed for 223 yards, completing 17 of 26 passes. As he has done most of the season, Kelly spread his passes around more, finding Darryl Hammond, Tyronne Jones, and L.C. Stevens in the endzone. The Kats offense also unveiled a new wrinkle, lining up 240 pound FB/LB Rupert Grant at the wide receiver slot and putting the versatile Jarrick Hillery at fullback. From this unusual formation, Hillery, with Grant blocking, scored on a 31-yard run from scrimmage. The Kats exploited the Thunderbears’ weak run defense, gaining 53 yards and three touchdowns on nine carries.
 Todd Hammel`s 10th season with his 5th team, the Thunderbears Image courtesy of Tom Ando |
The long dormant Kats return game showed signs of revival. Hillery returned one kick to midfield, and Jones took one the length of the field for his first return TD of the year, only to have it negated by a penalty. Once again the Kats were not able to contain their opponents on kickoff returns. In fairness to both cover teams, the facility in Bismarck has a very low ceiling. This forced the kickers to hit flat “line drive” kicks that are often easier to return and harder to defend. Each team’s kicker hit the low-hanging scoreboard once, giving their opponents the ball at the 20 yard line.
The Thunderbears had chances to pull out a victory late in the game, but poor clock management may have cost them. The Kats left the door slightly ajar by scoring too quickly after their “good hands” team fielded an onside kick, but with no time outs left the T’bears could do nothing as the Kats ground game ate the last few seconds off the clock.
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.
