Dragons’ Up and Down Season Ends
Dwayne Smith
Tuesday May 31, 2005
One of New York’s greatest strengths in 2005 has been their ability on defense to take the ball away from opponents, giving Garcia, the Arena League’s all-time leading touchdown passer, the opportunity to generate points. The Dragons had the second most takeaways in Arena Football with 31. However, against QB Joe Hamilton and Orlando, New York was not able to create a single turnover and couldn’t stop the Predators until the end of the first half. After the Predators recovered a fumble on the first New York play in the second half, the Dragons found themselves behind 37-21.
To the credit of the Dragons, especially Garcia and Head Coach Weylon Harding, New York would not go down without a fight. New York’s defense held Orlando to 10 points for the remainder of the game and eventually Garcia brought the Dragons to within 5 points. Regrettably for New York, it was all too late, as they needed to recover an onside kick just to get a chance at a desperation attempt to win the game. When Orlando recovered the kick and then ran out the clock, the inaugural season in the coaching career of Harding came to an end.
For the Dragons the last 12 months have been a long and strange trip that have been a series of peaks and valleys. At this time last year, New York had to deal with the hollow victory of a division championship that awarded them a nice banner, but no playoff birth. Then, their head coach, Todd Shell left the team in order to return to the organization with which he had been associated for so long, the Arizona Rattlers. Shell’s strong leadership and will to win was a major reason why the Dragons were a legitimate title contender for the first time since moving to Long Island from Iowa.
The Dragons decided to hire a young and fiery leader to continue New York’s ascension to championship status. Harding, the 33 year old first time head coach, had previously been the architect of the top defense in the AFL and was the perfect fit for a team that was already strong offensively. As solid as they were on offense, with OS Kevin Swayne, WR/DB Will Holder and WR/LB Chris Anthony, New York needed to add depth on offense. It’s been no secret that as great as Swayne has been, an injury bug that continues to dog him necessitated a big insurance policy. With this in mind, the Dragons acquired OS Mike Horacek. The former Iowa Barnstormer and Arena Football League Offensive Player of the Year has been every bit the team player and contributor that New York imagined as he not only accepted a move to once again being a two-way player, but excelled at it. This season Horacek earned game awards as Offensive Player, Defensive Player and Ironman and in Week 5 was the League Ironman of the week.
With an offense that continued to click, Harding’s biggest achievement was his defense. As mentioned before, the Dragons had the second most takeaways in the AFL, part of a +8 turnover differential, also second to the Los Angeles Avengers. A few major reasons for this came from two newcomers to New York and an underutilized player that would become the epitome of a team Ironman.
Coming along with Harding from the Columbus Destroyers was DS Chris Angel. A hard-hitter that played for the Oakland Raiders, Angel made many a receiver pay for entering his range. The Dragons also added a rookie from William and Mary, DS Billy Parker who found himself picked on early and often and made opposing quarterbacks pay. In fact, he wound up collecting more interceptions than anyone in the AFL with his 10. Parker admittedly made a few mistakes early on in his professional football career, but clearly is a quick study and already is among the most feared defenders in the league. WR/DB Corey Johnson has been a Dragon since 2003, but has never had the all-around impact as he did this season. Johnson not only tied for second in the Arena League with seven interceptions, but also had 4 receiving, 3 kickoff returns and a rush for touchdowns. The three kickoff returns were a significant part of the AFL single season record, 12 kick return touchdowns New York had in 2005.
If there was a flaw with the Dragons it was their record away from New York and out of division. The Dragons were 4-6 against teams outside of the National Eastern Division and 3-5 on the road. This may be attributed to a young team that has found a certain comfort level against familiar teams and in front of familiar fans. Another year of stability in the coaching staff and experience on defense should be able to give the fans in New York reason to be optimistic.
Another area the Dragons may need to take a look at is the offensive line. In their playoff loss to Orlando, the line allowed Garcia to be sacked four times, symbolic of an up and down season. If the Dragons are going to move beyond being the best in their division and become a League Champion, they will need to consistently provide better protection for the franchise QB against the AFL elite. Although the countless video clips provided by NBC during games of Garcia getting pounded provide a glimpse of his immeasurable toughness, the Dragons will be better served if he has to prove his mettle less often.
With that being said, the Dragons not only defending their division but also winning an additional game from last season is a testament to the strong work done by the organization in recovering from what ordinarily would have been a devastating blow. Without a doubt, the departure of Shell as coach left a leadership void on the field. By taking a chance on a young coach, the Dragons showed vision, which could pay dividends for a long time. If Shell’s message was to win or face his fury, Harding’s was to play for each other and trust the player next to you. In the long run, this type of leadership and continued vigilance by the New York front office should give the strong fan base on Long Island reason to hope for even greater success in 2006.
Dwayne Smith covers Arena Football and the NFL for different web outlets along with providing a fantasy column to FantasyGMs.com. Dwayne has also been a contributor to other online and print outlets, including the Dallas Morning News. In 2003, he covered the NFL Draft from the Headquarters of the New York Jets.