Getting Defensive
Andy Lopusnak
Wednesday July 16, 2008
Over the last three seasons, the Arena Football League has seen an explosion of offense and points. In the league’s first 19 years, there was just one quarterback with 100 or more passing touchdowns. Three years later, seven times there’s been a gunslinger reaching the century mark. But the growing trend in this seemingly defenseless league has been to hire defensive-minded head coaches.
Both coaches in the upcoming league championship are defense as are the two latest hired since the regular season ended by Utah and Columbus. In fact, six of the last seven AFL Coach of the Year recipients have been defensive coaches, including the last four.
Eleven of the current 16 AFL head coaches (Los Angeles is without a coach right now) are considered defensive in nature. This list includes: Arizona’s Kevin Guy, Cleveland’s Mike Wilpolt, Columbus’ Pat Sperduto, Dallas’ Will McClay, Georgia’s Doug Plank, Kansas City’s Kevin Porter, New York’s Weylan Harding, Philadelphia’s Bret Munsey, San Jose’s Darren Arbet, Tampa Bay’s Tim Marcum and Utah’s Ron James.
The remaining five offensive-minded head coaches are not to be over looked though. This includes two of the last three ArenaBowl champions (Chicago’s Mike Hohensee and Colorado’s Mike Dailey), the 2004 AFL Coach of the Year (New Orleans’ Mike Neu), the league’s first Hall of Fame quarterback (Orlando’s Jay Gruden) and the only offensive head coach in the conference finals (Grand Rapids’ Steve Thonn).
So why are defensive-oriented head coaches in such demand? The cliché is that offense wins game, but defenses win championships. And even in the AFL, this classic saying is just as relevant.
Case in point is the 2008 regular season of the Grand Rapids Rampage. The team’s offense was one of the most explosive in the league putting up the second-most points in the league and even set a league record with four games scoring or more points, but the team was just 6-10 because of its league-worst defense (in terms of total defense and passing defense). The Rampage got hot at the end of the season and advanced to the playoffs, but its defense allowed the second most points (81) in playoff history and offense threw the most interceptions in a non-ArenaBowl playoff game (five) as the SaberCats convincingly beat Grand Rapids 81-55 in the American Conference championship game. Grand Rapids’ offense scored on 17 of 18 playoff drives (94.4%) entering Silicon Valley, but did so only eight of 14 possessions (57.1%) against the stingy SaberCats’ defense.
Of the previous 21 ArenaBowl champions, 15 finished the regular season in the top five in most takeaways. The only ones that weren’t happened to be led by offensive-oriented coaches (2006 Chicago was 14th; 2005 Colorado was eight; 2001 Grand Rapids was dead last; 2000 Albany was 12th; 1998 Orlando was last; and 1994 Arizona was last).
This season, the SaberCats led the league with 45. Philadelphia finished sixth with 32 takeaways, but turned the ball over just 15 times (second least in the AFL). San Jose had the fifth-most giveaways in the league and had its quarterback, Mark Grieb; lead the AFL in intercepted passes. When these two teams played last, Philadelphia turned the ball over three times (tying a season high for the Soul).
Looking at the breakdowns of the ArenaBowl matchup, the SaberCats’ defense is bar none ahead of the Soul in every single defensive category: total defense, rush defense, pass defense, takeaways, interceptions, fumble recoveries, first downs allowed, third-down efficiency, fourth-down efficiency and points allowed.
Defense will set the tone and dictate the outcome of ArenaBowl XXII more so than the two starting ArenaBowl MVP quarterbacks or their respective high-powered offenses that will get all the media attention.
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.