Wranglers News and Notes: Week 6

Mick Cornett
Sunday May 21, 2000

The Oklahoma Wranglers have now played three games that went down to the wire, and the home team has won each time. The latest nail-biter was Friday night in Hartford, Connecticut where the New England Sea Wolves hit a game-winning 43-yard touchdown with five seconds left and beat Oklahoma 49-42.

The once 4-0 Wranglers are now 4-2, and it won`t get any easier as undefeated Orlando travels to Oklahoma City Friday, May 26. The loss in New England revived some of the Wranglers` season-long patterns: Oklahoma quarterback Ron Lopez played hurt and was inconsistent; plus, the team committed more penalties and turnovers than their opponent. Kicker Daron Alcorn also missed three extra-points. On the positive side, the Wranglers once again played valiantly down the stretch, this time, tying the game with a touchdown and two-point conversion in the final minute.

Lopez completed 30 of 47 passes and threw for 5 touchdowns. His biggest mistake was an opening drive interception that Anthony Derricks took back 39 yards for a touchdown. Lopez tends to hold onto the ball as long as possible, which helped immensely on a 25-yard scoring strike to Carlos Johnson. Lopez had time to point Johnson into an open area of the end-zone. But Lopez`s penchant for holding onto the ball also gets him in trouble when the protection finally breaks down. He takes a lot of hits and, as a result, frequently limps, often doesn`t transfer his weight when he throws and simply `flings` the ball down field with his powerful right arm. Surprisingly, he gets away with it. However, in the last two road losses, the Wranglers` ability to hit the big play has disappeared. Their longest play from scrimmage against the Sea Wolves was 25 yards.

The Wranglers fear no team. It`s a consensus from the head coach on down that they`ve got the talent to win every week but have made too many mistakes to do it on the road against quality opponents.

With an off week ahead, Oklahoma hopes to eliminate its mistakes and stop the two-game slide by defeating Orlando at home next Friday night. With questions-league wide-about how good this Wrangler team really is, they welcome the opportunity to prove they are a playoff contender.

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Kusanti Abdul-Salaam Image courtesy of Jeff Marshall

Wrangler notes-Kusanti Abdul-Salaam made another outstanding one-handed catch in week 6. Just two weeks after making a spectacular touchdown catch in the Myriad against Los Angeles, Abdul-Salaam made a much-shorter, but just as impressive grab against New England. In the final minute, with the game on the line, the Wranglers went for a two-point conversion to tie the score. Lopez` pass was thrown sharply-but behind-Abdul-Salaam who broke open over the middle. He reached back with his right arm and snared it cleanly to tie the score at 42.

The Wranglers had very little success in slowing down the league`s top scorer-New England wide-receiver Damien Harrell. He caught 14 passes for 191 yards and three touchdowns. His combination of speed and size (6`3") caused match-up problems for the Wranglers who tried a variety of different defenders. Harrell even got deep in the final ten-seconds to snare the game-winning 43-yard touchdown that was thrown perfectly from rookie quarterback Chad Salisbury.

 

The opinions expressed in the article above are only those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts, opinions, or official stance of ArenaFan Online or its staff, or the Arena Football League, or any AFL or af2 teams.

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