Iron Melts in Viper Pit

Charliy Nash
Sunday May 2, 2010

If I told you that the Alabama Vipers were going to give the Milwaukee Iron their first loss, some of you would be surprised.  If I told you that they would do it without Ahmad Hawkins, with only one onside kick, and only small dose of Dan Alexander - well, nobody would believe me.  But the team that has flown under the radar just took a big step toward center stage.

"It was a statement," lineman Aaron McConnell explained, "More than a huge win it was a statement to the league that, everybody's putting Alabama at the bottom - we don't even have a game on TV - hey, Alabama's here to play some football."

The one Vipers' player who does get a lot of attention is fullback Dan Alexander.  The Vipers have had great success scoring in the redzone by handing the ball to "TouchDan".  For this game they mixed things up a bit, throwing and tossing to receivers for the short touchdowns.

"I love spreading it around," said Alexander, "That sets up for the rest of the season; they've got to know that when we're in short yardage situations that we have multiple weapons.  They can't just stack up against me, that can't just follow me around, we have too much talent in our receiver corps."

The was especially evident on the last score of the night.  The Vipers ran a misdirection play, faking a handoff to Alexander, then tossing it to Larry Shipp.  "That was awesome," Alexander exclaimed, "They obviously did their scouting, trying to follow me everywhere, and I'm just glad we were able to do that.  That was just smart play calling, great coaching, great execution."

One of the biggest momentum changes came on a blocked extra point attempt.  The Vipers blocked one attempt, but the ball rolled into the wall making it out of bounds.  The next time the Iron scored the Vipers blocked the attempt again, and this time Vince Hill scooped it up and ran the length of the field to score two points.  This has long been a point of emphasis for the team.

"We're exceptional at blocking PATs," head coach Dean Cokinos explained, "We've been doing it for three years and we don't let our guys take plays off on that because those points change games.  But to score two points, that's a three point swing. Huge point in the game because it really changed the tables for us."

How does something so small make that much difference? Do two points really matter in game in which over 140 points were scored?  "The game's all about momentum swings," Hill observed, "Sometimes you're down, sometimes you're up, but you've got to stay level."  That swing essentially made all the effort of a Milwaukee touchdown drive only worth four points.  The Iron had the score advantage before that play; the Vipers caught them and passed them soon after.

The Vipers are ready for the rest of the league to start taking them seriously, but they're not getting too full of themselves because of this one win.  "It's a step in the ladder," explained McConnell. Still, it was a pretty big step.