Don’t Rest on the Texas-Sized Talent in Austin
Adam Markowitz
Tuesday March 20, 2007
Friday night’s slugfest between the Austin Wranglers and Orlando Predators certainly wasn’t one of McPherson’s greatest outings (23/39 for 220 yards, 2 TDs and a career high 3 interceptions), but in a game that could have gotten away from the Wranglers towards the end of the first half, the Austin signal-caller answered the bell.
The Wranglers were faced with a 21-7 deficit and a 4th and 1 play from their own 19 with just 20 seconds left in the 1st half. Had the Wranglers failed on 4th down, the Predators would have had a chance to score last in the 1st half as well as receiving the ball to start the 2nd half. McPherson dropped back to throw, looked left, found nothing, avoided the Predator pass rush by rolling right, then back to the left, and threw a dart on the run, across his body between two Predator defensive backs to find WR Otis Amey for a 31 yard TD pass. Orlando Predators’ play-by-play radio announcer, Tom Morgan was spot on with his call of the play. “Can you believe that?”
Unfortunately for the Wranglers, that was about the only real highlight from their visit to the Jungle, as they were defeated in the Southern Division showdown by the count of 45-30. Many look at the 30 points scored (6 of which came from a net recovery right after the McPherson TD toss to Amey) in shock, but in fairness, they were going up against a defense which allowed 27 points to Tampa Bay in week 1 and 37 in regulation against Los Angeles in week 2. Others point at the fact that the Preds played on 3 nights rest, but forget to account for the fact that the Wranglers played on only one more day of rest, but had to travel home from Atlanta and then to Orlando in their off days.
Looking at the stats for the Wranglers won’t help their case any either. They’ve only scored 46 points per game, 16th in the league (only Orlando and winless New York and Tampa are worse) and down from their 51 ppg last season. McPherson’s 96.6 quarterback rating is amongst the worst in the league. Austin has no receivers in the top 10 in yards, receptions, or touchdowns. The defense only has 3 forced turnovers on the season. The offensive line has conceded the second most sacks in the league (6). Only New York is worse than the Wranglers in red zone TD percentage (53.3% success rate). Mark Lewis is the only kicker in the league to have more points in field goals (18) than in extra points (17).
Why, then, did I look at Austin PR Director, Erin Griffin in the 3rd quarter and tell her that her Wranglers were the better team in on the field and a top five team in the league? She looked at me like I had six heads and asked whether I would actually publish that line. Yes, Erin, I’m publishing that line, and I’ll say it again: The Wranglers are a top five team in the league.
I suppose if you haven’t actually seen an Austin Wranglers game this year, you must think I’m crazy. (You probably think I’m crazy even if you have seen a Wrangler game, come to think of it… look at the argument I just gave against them!)
We’ll start with the schedule. Coming into the season, both Orlando and Georgia were touted as the class of the Southern Division, and neither has really done anything to dispel those thoughts. Despite playing their worst offensive half of the season on Friday, the Wranglers still only found themselves trailing the Predators in the Jungle by one point at the intermission. They held the Preds to 233 yards of offense.
Meanwhile, in their visit to Atlanta, the Wranglers held a Georgia Force offense that appears unstoppable to 60 points, something that neither the Arizona Rattlers nor Tampa Bay Storm could do. Whereas the Storm and Rattlers combined for two stops on the Georgia offense in 8 quarters of play, the Wranglers mustered two stops in 4 quarters. Their 38-37 lead in the 3rd quarter against Georgia was the only time anyone has led against the Force this season past the first quarter and were the only team with a realistic chance of beating the Force well into the 4th quarter.
However, even more impressive to me are the things that aren’t easily classified using basic statistics. Yes, the Wranglers only have 3 sacks on the season, but the pressure that they have gotten on opposing quarterbacks is immense. Rookie DL Mike Williams, who played college ball at the University of Texas in Austin, may only have 3.5 tackles in three games, but has wrecked havoc for opposing offenses. Wranglers Defensive Coordinator, Lee Johnson, on his rookie defensive end, “Mike’s got a high end motor [and] works awfully hard… By the end of the season, he’s going to be a terror.”
The defensive line for the Wranglers as a whole has simply “out-physicalled” all three opposing offensive lines, while DBs Damon Mason (20 tackles) and Nate Coggins (17 tackles) are well-documented physical forces in the secondary. FB Dane Krager leads the team with 2 sacks, and is as solid of a mack linebacker as there is in the AFL. The ‘D’ is doing it when it counts, as the Wranglers are 2nd in the league in defensive 3rd down conversions (29.4%) and have the second most turnovers on downs in the league (4).
The coaching staff in Austin deserves all sorts of credit. As I discussed in my last article, the creativity of the Wranglers is off the charts, and certainly has made their games much more interesting. I asked Coach Partlow about the formation with the kicker in the backfield. He said the formation was devised while he was with the Indiana Firebirds, but never used it until this season. Another sign of a well-coached club? Austin only commits 7.7 penalties for 44 yards a game (both 6th best in the league).
Consider this. The Wranglers are still playing without DB Deveron Harper, who Coach Johnson claims will bring an even higher level of “physicalness” to the secondary. Anthony Hines has also yet to suit up for the Wranglers (124 catches, 1329 yards, and 25 TDs last year). Damon Mason has yet to record an interception (8 last season). Sedrick Robinson has yet to return a kick for a touchdown (7 last season). Derrick Lewis (20 catches, 210 yards, and 4 TDs) has yet to have a break out game (113 catches, 1411 yards, and 23 TDs last season). Adrian McPherson hasn’t quite gotten back into form from his ’04 campaign with the Indiana Firebirds (254 total yards per game and 80 TDs in 14 games in ’04) and has nowhere to go but up following a game in which he threw the most INTs he’s ever thrown in an arena game.
In my conversation after the game with Wranglers’ GM Glyn Milburn, the word “talented” must have come out of his mouth a dozen times. Who can blame him? Lewis, Nickerson, Robinson, Amey, Hines, McPherson, and Dukes on the offense is an insane amount of talent.
The word “close” probably came out of my mouth just as often as “talented” came out of Milburn’s. At 1-2, the Austin Wranglers are hiding under the radar again, right where they were at the start of the 2006 season when they posted a 10-6 record. Others may not be as impressed as I am, but in due time, things will gel. Next up for the Wranglers is a home date with the Nashville Kats, a far cry from road games in Atlanta and Orlando.
I said it to everyone with the Wranglers organization I spoke to on Friday night, and will say it again. No one is going to want to see this 1-2 team on their schedule down the stretch and especially in the playoffs. Once again, deep in the heart of Texas, the Wranglers may be the best kept secret the AFL has to offer.
Adam Markowitz is an accountant living in Orlando. Adam is an old school AFLer, having followed the AFL since 1991. He attended or covered well over 200 games, including 17 ArenaBowls. Adam worked for the Arena Football League for two years as a columnist and historian before retiring in 2017 when the 50-yard indoor war left the Sunshine State. Adam still muses about the AFL on ArenaFan from time to time, and you can follow him on Twitter @adammarkowitzea.