SaberCats-Brigade Clash for the First Time
Andy Lopusnak
Saturday March 29, 2008
After playing the league’s presumptive best team thus far in last week’s 59-56 loss to the Dallas Desperados, the San Jose SaberCats head to Kansas City this week to take on the winless Brigade. In its first two games, the Brigade lost by five combined points – losing to Tampa Bay 51-49 in Week One and at New York 50-47 in Week Two, but allowed almost as many points from the first two games combined in the 92-52 loss last Monday to the previously winless Grand Rapids Rampage.
Kansas City (0-3) has had one of the AFL’s top defenses since entering the league in 2006, but allowed the second-most points in league history, which is also the most ever by a road team. San Jose head coach Darren Arbet said that everything “snowballed on them” and referred to the Brigade losing a couple of balls “off the iron” that inflated the score. The SaberCats are no stranger to losing the ball off the iron to the Rampage either. In the Week Two victory at Grand Rapids, San Jose trailed 13-0 after Rampage kicker Brian Gowins ricocheted a ball off the bottom of the net structure into the hands of Kenny Higgins for a score. San Jose had to claw back to beat Grand Rapids 66-58.
Defensively, the Brigade allowed the Rampage quarterbacks (James MacPherson and Adrian McPherson) to complete 25-of-28 passes (89.3%) for a near perfect passer rating of 155.4. This high-completion percentage and extremely-high passer rating bodes well for SaberCats QB Mark Grieb, who is the league’s all-time leader in completion percentage and passer rating among passers with at least 15,000 passing yards.
This will mark the first time the SaberCats have played the Brigade, though the teams did meet in the pre-season for a controlled scrimmage in Stockton little more than a month ago. Kansas City won the scrimmage 58-35 while out gaining San Jose 312-164 in total yards.
“I haven’t slept much this week,” Kansas City Brigade head coach Kevin Porter told the Kansas City Star. “It’s been a difficult week, but we’ve got to play the defending champs. We can’t crawl into a shell.”
INJURIES AND INEFFECTIVE PLAY
The Brigade is without its top two linebackers (Chris Avery and Denario Smalls) on defense and offensively switched from starting quarterback John Fitzgerald for Mat Kohn, who was on the team’s practice squad just a week earlier. Kohn was effective early in the Rampage game. In fact, Kansas City was leading 17-14 at the end of the first quarter, but Kohn’s first interception of the game was the “snowballing” effect that Arbet mentioned. The Brigade scored just four touchdowns after the turnover and overall gave up the ball five times. Additionally, the team placed linebacker Jerry Turner and defensive back Kahlil Carter on recallable waivers after the Rampage game. Carter was a big free-agency acquisition when Kansas City traded former team captain Kenny McEntyre to Orlando.
PIVOTAL GAME FIVE FOR SABERCATS
The fifth game of the season has been a crucial game for the SaberCats the past three seasons. Last year on its run to ArenaBowl XXI, San Jose was 2-2 heading into a Game Five contest against Colorado. The SaberCats won 72-44 that game and finished 14-1 to win their third ArenaBowl in six years. Two years ago, San Jose lost to eventual ArenaBowl champion Chicago in Game Five. With the loss, the SaberCats fell to 1-4 but won nine of its last eleven games to win the Western Division then lost by three points to the Rush in the American Conference championship game. Three years ago, San Jose was 1-3 heading into Game Five. Then after beating Orlando, the SaberCats won five in a row.
NELSON WHO?
The big concern in the offseason was who would replace Ben Nelson, who bolted to Colorado in free agency. After last week’s record-setting performance, second-year receiver Cleannord Saintil may have slipped into that role. He had a career game against Dallas with 18 catches for 218 yards with three touchdowns. His 18 grabs are a franchise record and are tied for the fourth-most in league history. His 218 receiving yards are second most to Steve Papin’s 232 set in 2000. Additionally, Saintil had 95 kickoff return yards which pushed his all-purpose yardage mark to 313. He is just the fourth SaberCats player to ever surpass the 300-yard plateau in team history.
BRIGADE PLAYERS TO WATCH
Jerald Brown, DB
The 2006 AFL Defensive Player of the Year was a free-agent pickup from Columbus in the offseason. He played against the SaberCats in ArenaBowl XXI and posted 5.5 tackles, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery. On the season, he has 13.0 stops, an interception and two pass breakups.
Charles Frederick, WR
The 2007 Co-Rookie of the Year appears to be having a sophomore slump through three games. He has 18 receptions for 184 yards with three touchdowns (less catches and yards than Saintil had last week ALONE). Last season, he compiled 41 touchdowns (27 receiving, 14 rushing) in 14 games played.
John Fitzgerald, QB
Fitzgerald, who started the first two games, is back as the starting quarterback. Last week, Matt Kohn started and completed just 52.8% of his passes for 281 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions; but the Brigade allowed 92 points and turned the ball over five times against Grand Rapids. He injured his thumb in the loss. Fitzgerald has completed 61% of his passes for 534 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions.
Mike Horacek, WR
In eleven AFL season, Horacek ranks eighth in receptions, fifth in receiving yards and fifthin receiving scores. He was signed away from New York in the offseason via free agency. However on the year, he has just 15 catches, but is averaging nearly 17 yards per reception and has six scores.
SABERCATS KEYS TO VICTORY
SCORE FIRST, SCORE OFTEN
Both of the SaberCats losses came when their opponent scored first. San Jose’s two wins also came when the team led after the first quarter, at the half and after the third quarter.
92 IS JUST A NUMBER
Don’t let the Rampage’s 92 points scored get to your head. I’m sure Kansas City head coach Kevin Porter told his players the same thing and that’s what Arbet told me. Nonetheless, if someone scores 92 on you, other teams will deep down be gunning for that number thinking, “If Grand Rapids got 92, then we can too.” That’s a huge mistake. Ninety-two points is an anomaly. Grand Rapids clearly is an improved team, but 92 points is a “lightning in a bottle” event – everything has to fall into place for such a huge number.
MAKE SMALL IMPROVEMENTS FROM LAST WEEK
Aside from Saintil’s late fumble last week in Dallas and a pass breakup on fourth and goal, the SaberCats were flawless in the 59-56 loss to the Desperados. San Jose’s defense did allow scores on all possessions, but did force two field goals and three missed extra points that would have given the SaberCats the win if not for one of those errors. Dallas is the best regular season team the past two-plus seasons. To stay with them the entire game despite two possessions without scores shows that San Jose is still one of the best teams in the league despite its 2-2 record.
Andy Lopusnak is an 11-year AFL front office veteran, spending time with the Tampa Bay Storm, San Diego Riptide and Grand Rapids Rampage. He works as a statistician for NFL and college sports for CBS Sports and is a freelance photographer. Lopusnak received two Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of South Florida and has been a fan of ArenaBall since its inception.
