Gladiators Look to Work out Kinks Against New York
Marc Viquez
Saturday May 18, 2002
"Our gameplan for next week is to work out the kinks. We just need to have more discipline," said WR/DB Dennison Robinson.
"Carolina did a good job against us on defense. They held us to a season low
28 points, well below our average," said New Jersey Head coach Frank Haege after suffering two losses in the same season for the first time in his Arena career.
"I think I played well but we didn`t execute on offense. We need to have a good week of practice and figure out what we did wrong and go from there," said McDonagh.
The Gladiators only trailed by the score of 24-21 in the first half, but were able to score just once in the second half. The team, which had been averaging in the high 40`s coming into the game, now faces a New York Dragons team that can be hard to describe.
The divisional game is of obvious importance and this could be the perfect opportunity to take care of the Dragons who have been looking for the right man to fill the shoes of former QB Aaron Garcia. There seems to be a new quarterback each week with a carousel of signal callers ranging from Danny Ragsdale, Matt Nagy, and Scott Semptimphelter. This week may see the return of former New York Giants QB Danny Kanell. Whatever the case may be, OS Steve Papin will be in the line up with his league-leading 984 all-purpose yards.
"It is important for us to prepare ourselves for the conference game
next week against New York, " said Jay McDonagh who tossed 3 touchdowns last week.
There is one aspect of the preparation that the Gladiators must work on and that is the reduction of penalties. The team posted ten flags for 80 yards compared to Carolina who had seven penalties for 48 yards.
"We are making way too many selfish penalties that we have to clean up," said Haege.
The Gladiators should be able to definitely improve on the point total and will face a New York team that has dropped two in a row and has not found its groove so far. The Gladiator defense will have to work a bit harder because it seems that no matter who plays QB for New York, they still know how to score. The Dragons tallied 61 points last week against Dallas.
The Gladiators will get to work out the kinks this Saturday at the Meadowlands and try to make it 3-2 on the season.
A fan of the sport since 1990 Marc has covered both the New Jersey Gladiators and Cincinnati Swarm (Af2) for Arenafan Online. Marc now resides in Indianapolis after graduating with a Masters in Sports Management from Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind. When not at a Firebirds game Marc can be found traveling the Midwest covering sports for various Internet and print publications.
