Macon Defense Stuns Birmingham
Keith Murphy
Sunday April 20, 2003
In the Birmingham press, Steedog coach Bobby Humphrey had accused Porter of ‘sandbagging,’ and while a 35 – 3 lead and the half seemed to bear out Humphrey’s theory, Porter said, “We just had some guys make some plays in the first half. We really didn’t change anything that we were doing. We played the same way we’ve been playing on defense. We’re really just trying to put ourselves in a position to make their offense beat you. We’ve got guys in the secondary who can cover. We’ve got guys up front who can rush the passer. When you’ve got that combination working on defense you’re going to be pretty good.”
Humphrey agreed that the Knights “did a really good job of rushing the passer. They did a great job of keeping pressure on the quarterback. Oh, man, they did an excellent job. I mean they forced us to make some bad throws. A couple of times Jeff [Aaron] was throwing the ball off his back foot or throwing the ball while he was getting hit. Those resulted in interceptions. When you can’t protect the quarterback it’s kind of hard to get down the field in arena football.” Aaron only completed 18 of 34 passes, most in the second half, but he threw for all four Birmingham touchdowns.
Humphrey credited the Steeldog’s performance in that devastating first half to “a number of mental mistakes that really, really hurt us. Then at times we didn’t execute. Then at times we just didn’t make plays. They made some key stops and they were able to get the ball into the endzone. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a game where we only scored three points in one half. That was a little bit frustrating as well.”
Knights’ Offensive Coordinator Tres Sullivan said that the Steeldog turnovers turned this game into an early rout, “We thought it was going to be a prize fight and we were going to go out and trade blows. But we got a couple of early stops and turned them into points. It’s kind of demoralizing when you can’t score and you can’t stop the other team. Once we got them to that point we just had to keep the pressure on them.”
Sullivan says that his offensive unit improved again this week, “Toward the end we started getting a little sloppy. Toward the end we had, I think three turnovers and against a good team, when you are trading punches, turnovers are going to be the difference. We got a little sloppy in the second half. As a coach, you try to not get conservative, you always try to tell yourself that, but you still tend to do it. I’m happy with the way everyone played today. I think we took a step forward.”
Among those who took steps forward tonight was quarterback Sean Peterson, “He’s still not seeing things as good as I would like. He’s getting better.” Sullivan said. Peterson was 23 of 33 for 255 yards, four touchdowns, and only one interception.
Peterson, who was named Game MVP, was pleased with the offensive improvements, “I thought today was a big improvement for the offense. We’re slowly coming along. Hopefully we will continue to improve and keep this winning streak going.” Other game honors went to Rendell Jackson who was named Iron Man and Denario Smalls who picked up the defensive player of the game honors for his two interceptions and nine tackles.
With the win, the Knights are 3 and 0 and are tied, with Tennessee Valley, atop the American South. Next week, Macon hits the road for the first time this season, traveling to Cape Fear to take on the 2-1 Wildcats. This game has a special meaning for Porter as he will be going up against his former Offensive Coordinator and current Head Coach of the Wildcats, Chris Siegfried, “We’ve got a big one next week. They [Cape Fear] lost [62-61 to Bossier City] so they’re going to be ready to play. It’s also a big game playing against Chris. It’ll be the first time I get the chance to play against him so it should be a lot of fun.”
Birmingham falls to 2 and 1 and is also on the road, traveling to Charleston to take on the Swamp Foxes. Coach Humphrey says that the Steeldogs have to forget this one and “start concentrating on Charleston. We’ll go over the film and break it down and see what we need to do. I know we need to score some points in the first half.”
Dr. Murphy has nearly 20 years of media experience ranging from radio to the Internet. He has served as webmaster for two AF2 teams and the football team at Fort Valley State University. He is a professor at FVSU and directs www.bunniwerks.org, a non-profit rabbit rescue organization. He has been commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel. Murphy is also serving as a first party editor of af2 stories for ArenaFfan. For more information about Dr. Murphy see: www.keithmurphy.info
