If Just the Last Two Minutes Counted It Would Be a Game
Dan Ryan
Sunday July 1, 2001
What else could you call Kenny McEntyre`s midair clothesline of Bernard Edwards on the one-yard line as time expires to preserve an Orlando 46-38 victory? The NFL called its version Super Bowl XXIV.
Dramatic finishes are cool, especially on four o`clock kickoffs, but the rest of the afternoon was just there.
Who can we blame? TNT for all the TV time outs? How many times can you plug a friggin` bass fishing tournament anyhow? Since Eli, John and Ms. Arrington were in the house, we won`t complain.
The officials? By the way, Mike Pereira after you review the film, can you e-mail me and let me know what you think was the exact moment Wes Fritz lost control of this one? Was it the reversal of Pierre Hixon`s touchdown, putting an extra second on the clock before halftime, or looking totally confused when trying to decide if Chris Wallace broke the plane on a two-point conversion? Then there`s the offensive pass interference call that put Tampa Bay 10-yards back and had a major influence in Tim Marcum`s play calling the final seconds. Yeah, you guys are only human, but the last thing this league needs is its
zebras looking indecisive on national television.
The teams? They kinda’ cancelled each other out.
Orlando played good enough to win -- Craig Whelihan threw for 244 yards and 5 TD -- two each to Siaha Burley and Brett Cooper and another to Thomas Bailey. The defense held Tampa Bay to 38 points, thanks to McEntyre and Damon Mason, who recovered from overplaying the first half after engaging in a spirited round of trash talking in the local media regarding their alleged holding during the first meeting. [Note to all coaches and players: feel free to use our humble site for all your trash talk needs in the future.]
Still, the Preds had a 17-point lead in the first half and 16-point lead with four minutes to play, but didn’t put the Storm away.
As for Tampa Bay, the Storm played good enough to keep it close, but boy, do they miss James Bowden.
Case in point: For 37 minutes and 17 seconds, the only Storm player to score a touchdown was Mel Agee, a lineman who the Pred defenders thought they could arm tackle on a goal-line pass play.
Tampa had a shot after John Kaleo hit Gunnard Twyner with 1:13 to play and Orlando botched another chance to ice the game. But on the final play of the game, shouldn`t you be looking in the end zone rather than a crossing pattern where the carpet`s still green?
"It wound up to be a hell of game,`` Marcum said. "But we have a lot of concerns right now.``
That kind of ending. That kind of game.
Dan Ryan has been involved with all forms of arena football since 1988, including writing for ArenaFan when Joe Kauffman and Tim Capper aren’t killing his columns because they don’t get his jokes or perspective. His day job is at Bethune-Cookman University, which has produced both an NFL Hall of Famer (Larry Little) and an Arena Football Hall of Famer (Stevie Thomas) and his hobby is tracking how many f-bombs Adam Markowitz drops in the chat room on game nights.