Morris Hopes Third Time the Charm in Conference Title Game

Adam Markowitz
Thursday August 7, 2014

ORLANDO -- There are four teams that are going to be playing on Sunday, and all four of them want to reach the ArenaBowl more than anything else. However, if there is one player that has more on the line than any other, it is Bernard Morris. Morris is back at the penultimate game leading into the ArenaBowl for the third straight season, but this time, he is going to be leading the Orlando Predators into battle against the Cleveland Gladiators.

Morris might know what it is like to reach this level, but he also knows what it is like to fail at this level as well. He was with the Jacksonville Sharks for each of the last two seasons when they were in the American Conference Championship Game, but in both cases, they were blown away by the Philadelphia Soul on the doorstep of the ArenaBowl.

Statistically speaking, Morris has been a train wreck at this level. Last year, he threw for eight touchdowns against Philly, but his two interceptions were the reason why the Sharks were down 47-21 early in the third quarter of that game. From that point on, Morris did throw four more touchdowns, but that just wasn't good enough against a Philly team that was impossible to stop. The game he played two seasons ago in Philly was the worst. Morris went 17-of-29 for 199 yards with three TDs and three interceptions. Jacksonville turned the ball over six times that day, and it suffered its worst defeat in franchise history, 89-34.

In fact, the argument could be made that Morris has really never had a good playoff game of his five that he has played in his career. Against the Georgia Force in his first playoff game in 2012, it took a 51-yard field goal by Marco Capozzoli at the gun to avoid losing a game in which the Sharks were up 48-21 in the third quarter. Against the Tampa Bay Storm last season, he and his mates were down 41-20 halfway through the third quarter before the rally to win. Even last week against the Pittsburgh Power, Morris only threw for four touchdowns, though he did tie the record for the most rushing touchdowns in a playoff game in league history as well with four.

For his career, Morris has completed 60.6 percent of his passes for 1,295 yards with 26 TDs against eight picks. That's only good enough for a 98.2 QB Rating, and that, at least theoretically, shouldn't be good enough to win games at this level.

Morris is going to have a really tough time this time around against a Cleveland defense which just found a way to win a game in spite of the fact that QB Shane Austin tossed five picks against Philadelphia. The Glads have posted stops in 17 of their last 32 drives, including picking off five passes and forcing a total of seven turnovers. If Morris is going to turn the ball over two or three times in this one, as he has averaged in his entire career in the playoffs, it could be a long day for the Preds.

If there is a knock on Orlando, it is that the team just doesn't manage much of a pass rush whatsoever. The Predators have only amassed 13 sacks in 19 games this season, and that isn't going to be good enough to beat the Gladiators. Part of the reason that Austin threw those five picks last week is because he was under constant duress. He wasn't sacked, but he was forced into holding onto the ball longer than he would have wanted against one of the best secondaries in the league. Orlando's secondary is good, but it isn't as good as the secondary that Philly brought to the table.

And that puts the pressure back on Morris to play a virtually flawless games. In his starts for Orlando this year, Morris averaged putting 57.6 points per game on the board. On top of that, he led the team to 34 points in less than a half of football against the Iowa Barnstormers off of the bench as well. He has led the team to at least 56 points in all but one of his starts, that coming against the Tampa Bay Storm back on June 21, a stinker in which he led the club to just 34 points.

Cleveland hasn't allowed more than 49 points in a game in almost two months. Orlando hasn't won a game all season long in which it scored fewer than 49 points.

The last factor that very well could play into the hands of the Preds on Sunday is the fact that they, of all the teams in the AFL, might be the one to figure out how to beat Cleveland in a close encounter. For all of the talk of how "lucky" the Gladiators have been to win six games on the last play this year, four of which came with the team trailing going into that last play, Orlando has had its share of breaks as well. The team has recovered 10 onside kicks this season, and it has won five games this season by making a play on either offense, defense, or special teams that swung the tide in the last 10 seconds of the game.

Orlando was last in the ArenaBowl in 2006 when it was beaten by the Chicago Rush. It hasn't reached this point in the season since 2010 when it was beaten by Tampa Bay at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. That was also the same year when the Predators last won a playoff game on the road, as they beat Jacksonville the week before losing to Tampa Bay.

The Predators are 7-6 all-time in conference finals/ArenaBowl semifinals in their history, and five of those seven wins have come on the road.

These two teams did meet in the 2008 playoffs here at the Q. Cleveland walked away with a 69-66 victory.