With the Dragons getting their new colors and the blog changing its appearance, I am now selling some things with the blog logo. Scroll down and click on the graphic on the right side of this page to go to it. I'm not doing it for a profit (almost all the money goes to Cafe Press), but just doing it to get the colors and logo out there. Enjoy!
The league announced today that the Dallas Desperados are leaving our Eastern division to go to the south. It is a surprising move being that the league so heavily publicized the Dallas/Philly rivalry, but geographically it makes the most sense. This change comes after the VooDoo folded leaving a void in the south. The Dragons schedule just got a tad easier!
Well with the Dragons shaking things up, some things on the blog have changed. Aside from the colors which have obviously changed, I have moved some things around. The featured poll will be at the top of the page, with the new posts/shows underneath. The archived polls are in the black column lower down on the page with the picture of the week and the blog archive. The off-season tracker does of course still exist. It is under the On Notice Board.
The On Notice Board is something that was inspired from Stephen Colbert's show where he featured random people or thoughts he had his eye on. Much like his board, mine will have players, concepts, teams, and other things that I find particularly intriguing or am watching out for. Being On Notice isn't always a bad thing, but occasionally it will mean that the "noticee" has to watch out or that they are in a bad place/on the edge of disdain. Trust me though, you will be able to tell. During the season I will be updating it weekly, but here during the off-season I will just be changing it occasionally. I may be able to build one that I can use in the Review and Preview Show during the season. Let me know what you think!
For this off-season, there will be an "Off-season Tracker" on the right side of the page. When the season begins again, the transactions column will return. Keep coming back for new transactions and Dragons events!
Well people - the offseason has begun after a Philly Soul ArenaBowl victory, and a new season is in the works.
With a new comish, new owners, and a new Dragons outlook, this offseason should be an active one. Stay tuned on the AFL Message Boards for possible offseason video posts and written updates as I attempt to give you inside information about the Dragons offseason. I can't guarantee a certain amount of videos in the upcoming 6 months, but if I do make one - I will make a post on the Arena Football message boards about it (www.boards.arenafootball.com).
So, have a good one - and stay posted.
The show is on its way, will take a while to edit and save, so check back tomorrow morning!
Don't forget, your next Review and Preview Show will be online no later than 2 hours after Saturday night's game against Philadelphia, GO DRAGONS!
Now, instead of typing out that stupid blogspot URL, you can just go to www.F4blog.com to access this site! It is a really simple URL that I think it much easier to tell everyone about, thanks for everyone who has visited so far and I hope to have even more success in the future!
Got lots to talk about, come check out the show tomorrow (6/10) night right here on the furry4blog!
Due to lack of material and the fact that we just had a bye week - no show this week. Next week will be a jam packed show, though - come back next Thursday for the week 11 program!
Now, for the LATEST updates in transactions, you can now check back here. Instead of scrambling around arenafootball.com and not getting all the info at once, the most recent three day period of transactions can be found on this blog in the top right column. Obviously some days there are no transactions, which is why there will sometimes be gaps or no real recent transactions every time you check. That being said, I GUARANTEE you that the transactions will be up to date by the minute - ALWAYS.
Thanks!
This game was the most dominant overall performance I have seen from this Dragons team in a LONG TIME. Talk about giving another team a taste of their own medicine! Grand Rapids' record scoring run stopped here.
Honestly, how much is there is to say? The offense and the defense was about as good as it could have possibly been (in the first half at least). The Dragons took their shutout (and 49 point lead) into the third quarter when they gave up their first TD, and the team got a bit lazy from there. New York scored 35 points in the first half, and allowed that much in the second. It ended up not mattering, though, as the Dragons capitalized on the defensive dominance - scoring 63 points in the entire game.
Defense was once again extremely impressive. The d-player of the game was John Walker with his three interceptions and a touchdown. Parker played well with his three pass breakups, Brown with his interception, and Estrada did not make much noise through out this one (but apparently did alright). The defensive line also was extremely impressive once again. Farouk Adelekan, Henry Taylor, and Jason Hardee all put LOADS of pressure on James MACpherson - forcing fumbles - rushed passes - and all of the stuff we love to see out of a d-line. The common saying every year is that if your team sucks, but may squeak into the playoffs luckily - fans will state, "You don't want to take this team in the playoffs." This saying may apply to this season as the Dragons attempt to slither into the playoffs - but I disagree with the cliche here. I would LOVE to take this team into the playoffs - even if we are this inconsistent. Why? On any given day this defense could COMPLETELY shut down the opposition. With a healthy Garcia the O is not too bad either.
On another note - last night was suppose to be Latin Night. I do not know the relevance of this day or who put it together, but you would not know it was Latin Night by anything through out the entire game. Weylan Harding promised that if they won, he would do a salsa dance after the game on the field - did not happen. The program said that the halftime band would play latin music - they played American Punk such as "All the Small Things" by Blink 182. They said that the cheerleaders would be dancing to latin music - they danced to Soulja Boy. So....that failed.
Back to the game, the offense: Kevin Swayne was OUT today - and a we won! Are you seeing a pattern? Hm, he was out in week 2 as well, huh, we won that game too. Maybe, just maybe - throwing it out there - when Swayne plays Garcia (and Davey at the time) looked to him as the #1 receiver. While trying to force the ball to him, they missed our wide open receivers. With him out - virtually all receivers on the field are equal and the field becomes easier to read in a less forced nature. Think about it. Anyways, Terry Moss took Swaynes spot - this was Moss' first game after being on the practice squad since the initial signings: He was pretty good. He only got 2 passes, but they were pretty big catches and he got his first touchdown in the AFL. Chris Anthony proved to be the best of the group with 4 touchdowns. Basically he seems to be the go to receiver on the goal line - with less yards than Willis, but four times the amount of touchdowns.
The offensive line.........was awesome. Garcia only got sacked once and it was because of a bad decision of his part (surprised?) and he had loads of time back their in the pocket. Tuck, Laud, and Big Randall played their best games of the season by far - it showed on the scoreboard. Garcia was much better than last week, doing exactly what I said he should have done. On the goal line we saw him run it in! Bravo! Also some nice passes from him - a definite improvement. With the rout locked up at the end of the game, Juston Wood came in and was pretty good himself. In my opinion we should really have Vena as the backup, why you ask...well, imagine it this way: Vena is a bit stocky with good running ability. Garcia is slim with next to no running ability. On fourth and short or goal line situations we could have a pounder out there at QB in Vena. He could do sneaks or roll out screens - it could work.
So don't forget - my youtube show is now on Wednesdays. My youtube profile is at: http://youtube.com/user/SchwartzVideo. Check there every Wednesday night for a new program! See you next week at Nassau!
One last thing, a friend of mine: Madhatterl7. made this graphic that you guys should check out - very cool.
In a sport oriented around the excitement of offense, this game "should" have been boring, right? No no no, defense can be even more exciting than offense - we learned that today.
First I will admit that I was half wrong in my prediction that the Dragons would be crushed in a loss. While they did lose, they most certainly were not crushed at all. For almost the entire game the Dragons led one of, if not the best teams in the Arena Football League. Just as I saw in the home opener, the excitement from the individual defenders lit a fire under the defense as a whole - and it was quite a sight to see. Henry Taylor was an absolute monster with two and a half sacks and a fumble recovery. His sacks accounted for negative 17 yards total for Dallas, and he played like I had never seen before. If only he had played like this the whole season - THIS is the real guy we got for Horacek - not the weak d-linemen we saw in the first four games. The D-Line had four sacks total and is really looking better after multiple weeks of mediocrity. It wasn't a solo effort from Taylor - as Jason Hardee played a solid game as well. The others were not so great - but I will take that overall performance every game if we can get it.
Also on defense - the secondary played very well too. I stood up and danced as I sang "Welcome back, welcome back, weeelllcome backkk" when Angel Estrada returned his interception for a touchdown. A great return to New York for him. John Walker AGAIN recovered a fumble, something he does EVERY week. Seriously, this guy has a specialty. Otherwise, Levy didn't pick one for the first time this season, but he played an overall ok game - he did get beat a few times. Billy Parker got beat as well, but he got lucky as much of the time the passes were either errant or there was a penalty somewhere on the field. On the topic of penalties - there were MANY from Dallas. I did not expect that from this team, but the Dragons got a couple of big breaks during this game via the yellow flag.
I guess it is time to talk about the offense. All ignorant Garcia lovers can stop reading after this beep - "beep" - ok, now I can justifiably rip into this guy! WOW, what a terrible game from Garcia. His one interception isn't that bad, but the three touchdowns and many missed plays ARE. I am convinced that not only is Garcia's body no longer in the game, but his head isn't either. He made an extraordinary amount of errors - most likely mental and not physical this time around. In the early quarters with the o-line looking surprisingly able (more on that later), Garcia threw errant pass after errant pass - continually missing players and reading plays poorly. From overthrows to underthrows to missing wide open men - Garcia hit the trio of mediocrity in this one. He is showing signs of an early Rohan Davey - and I know how much you guys dislike THAT type of a quarterback. If anyone tries to defend Garcia at all, I will laugh hysterically. Sure, the coverage was pretty good, but the amount of errors were no result of the coverage. One play had me sitting on the edge of my seat as Garcia shed a would-be sacker and dropped even further back. We were all yelling throw it away, but no, an overcompensating Garcia decided to hold onto the damn thing and take the huge loss. On another play on 3rd and goal, Garcia dropped back and the coverage was tight. He stepped up and there was an enormous running hole. On a play where the o-line could not have opened up a bigger opportunity for Garcia to make a game changing run - he decided to throw into coverage and had the ball batted away. If we had a competent QB running our offense today - we would have won. End of story.
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Honestly, I cannot sit here and dish out an accurate game review. Like the Cleveland game, this was on the radio and I couldn't even hear most of the actions. I do, however, have some thoughts.
First of all, if you haven't already, check out my radio show on youtube, my profile can be found at this link. If you read this and listen to the radio show it may sound a bit repetitive, but I will try to diversify both.
Second, the QB situation. Rohan Davey was terrible in the Arizona game, and we can't afford to have that kind of breakdown against the worst team in the AFL. We also literally can't afford to pay Garcia a bunch of money every year so that he can get injured and sit on the bench while the Dragons squander on the field because they have to force a new quarterback in to replace him! At 37 it is apparent that Aaron can't withstand the rough and tough nature of the Arena Football League. Wang and our coaching staff would never release him, though - they are clearly waiting for Garcia to retire. While we wait, we lose - it is as simple as that. Through my calculations the Dragons would have to finish at, at least 8-8 to make the playoffs. While I do think we have 8-8 level players, I do not think we have an 8-8 coaching staff. As well as getting Garcia out, we need to get the coaches out! We have thrown many talented players onto the field and without proper coaching and preparation it isn't worth jack. Even Harding in a Dragons interview blamed it on himself, saying that they "weren't prepared early and as a head coach that falls squarely on my shoulders." He is right, it is his fault. It isn't just preparation either, his play calling is a joke.
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This game can be described in one word - heated. For two and a half hours I watched men going at each others legs, pushing, shoving, tripping, and brawling. It was quite a game indeed, one of much controversy as well.
The contest was far closer than it may appear if you had just looked at the score. The 21 point victory by the Soul makes it seem like an easy blowout - quite the contrary. From play one both teams were trading touchdowns in an offensive frenzy that became very nerve racking - for a Dragons fan at least. During the game I continually repeated "I know the Dragons cannot sustain this type of offense. The D is what is going to win this game." I was pretty much right. Though the Dragons got the first turnover - another Levy Brown interception - they failed to capitalize. In subsequent turnovers by the Soul, the Dragons would fail to capitalize as well. This was the main factor in the loss.
The game was far more competitive than I initially anticipated. For the majority of the game, I believed the Dragons had a serious shot at winning (though my faith in them actually doing so was thin). Unlike almost every prediction, New York fought and fought hard in a legitimate attempt at the win. I imagined a game like the one in Dallas last year (the 13 point one), but the Dragons impressed me with their resiliency. I was disappointed that Garcia got the start, and I left the game disappointed as well. I am not saying Davey would have done better, but Garcia's failure when it counted confirmed my belief in his decreasing skill. If we had the Garcia of five years ago, we would have won this game no question (no one would really doubt this, though).
Now to what everyone REALLY cares about - John Nix. This Dragons D-Lineman got A BIT carried away in this game. And when I say a bit, I really mean he was off his rocker - near insanity some would say. Though pretty much every Dragon and Soul player was physical, Nix especially found it necessary to fight. On many near sacks or just plain blocks, Nix would get dumb penalties for fighting and such, so much so that they pulled him out of the game. They put him back in however later on....big mistake. As most of you already know, on a player where Tony Graziani threw a touchdown pass, Nix came in from underneath and totally chopped Graz head first at his left knee. The hit was way late, and was a hit that could have easily ended Graziani's career. This took Graz out and Matt D'Orazio, the best backup by far in the AFL - came to the rescue and did great for the remainder of the game. With all that went on to that point you would think that this hit would have gotten Nix finally ejected right? NO, not right. The Dragons did their thing and when the Soul came back on the field for offense Nix shoved a player as they were walking side by side, and while the player did quite an acting job, flopping around as if he had been punched in the face, Nix finally got ejected. Why they waited so long? We'll never know. As Nix was escorted out, he raised his hands in the air and smiled - what a jackass. He WAS NOT cut or suspended today.
Well, as a way to get back at the Dragons, a Soul lineman completely speared Garcia in a huge hit on the following drive. This left Garcia on the ground writhing in pain, obviously. You could flick an eraser at the back of Garcia's head and he would probably collapse in pain, but this hit was legitimate. On the topic of sacks, our offensive line sucked again. As I watch the Desperados play the Crush on ESPN, it amazes me how much the Dragons suck in this perspective. Neither team I am watching has this problem - yet the Dragons have it year in and year out. I found the culprit! Our center, Joe Laudano. After intensely studying our line, I discovered that he has been the true weak link in our O-Line. This guy literally just falls backward once ever three plays. The other two on the line, Shack and Randall (or the others), are forced to compensate for Laudano's failure, but cannot handle the pressure. I do not know why we have stuck with him over the past 2+ years, but he is absolutely terrible, one of the worst centers in the AFL. Get him out of there and get Owen back or something.
Well, that is all I have to say about this game. It was very disappointing losing like we did, but I am happy with the fight we put up and the defensive efforts we made.
-Ben
Wow, what a game. It had defense, offense, big hits, fights, blocked kicks, drilled kicks, onside kicks, deep passes, short passes, booing, cheering, oh yeah, and a great final minute.
When I first arrived at Nassau Coliseum with my friend Jeff, our first objective was to rack up pictures - that we did. I took 140 photographs today, chronicalling this great home opener. The team was great to watch live for the first time. I watched the rookies warm up, looked around, met some fans, and took it all in - this is what I had waited eight months for. Once the warm ups were done we took our seats...or did we. Confused by the flawed numbering on the seats, we were moved three times until we finally realized a man with his kids had occupied our real seats all along. Anyways, the turnout was great, and it felt more like a college game than Arena Ball. Why? Well two high school champion teams were in attendance and the full marching band of one of the schools played songs all night. This frustrated the many fans who traditionally liked to dance to "We Like to Party" after touchdowns. Instead, trumpets would sound and drums would be struck. The absence of the "Crazy Pickles", or whatever they are called, changed the atmosphere as well. No more loud drumming, can't complain.
Now to the real stuff! The first half was VERY low scoring, with not much going on in the way of offense. Special teams, however, was very interesting. Peter Martinez, the Brigade kicker and former Columbus boot, was absolutely terrible. He missed something like 3 extra points during this game and a missed field goal or two as well. While the thrashing by the fans was hilarious, we had special teams difficulties of our own. The abysmal offensive line brought itself over to special teams as two kicks were tipped today, one completely blocked. This could have cost us the game very easily, more on that later. Onorato, the Dragons kicker, was for the most part solid. Aside from the blocks (which were not his fault), he kicked some nice balls, but did miss an extra point (maybe two). One was at the very end of the game which could have screwed us out of the win.
Onto that offensive line. Well, failure is never fun, but it can be funny. At times our o-line was so bad that it was hilarious. On one play, for example, after the snap all three defensive linemen, hardly touched, came directly at Davey with absolutely no delay. It was a d-lineman's dream, just a flush charge at the quarterback. Anyone who wants to try and blame Rohan Davey for sacks is out of his or her mind. The failure of the line is in no way result of Rohan holding the ball too long, I can tell you that after seeing this garbage in person. It did calm down though, as the game progressed the line got better, which is actually slightly reassuring. I want to now talk about a very weird play involving this line. On a very random play on about the Brigades 12 yard line, Davey lined up in a SHOTGUN formation. If you don't know, the shotgun is never used in the AFL. In week one it was used by one team occasionally, but that was considered the first time in many years. So, to my surprise Davey lined up a few yards behind center and hiked it. The ball, however, did not get snapped near his area code and was fumbled about 15 yards down field. Davey did fall on it, but this was a very obscure play worth noting, I wonder what the plan was on that one.
On the subject of lines, now the defensive line. The group of Taylor, Nix, Hardee, and Adelekan did seem pretty good, but it was kind of like a cereal box with no prize inside. While the d-line DID pressure Fitzgerald and the Brigade, they never ACTUALLY seemed to sack him. This is not completely negative, because pressure on the QB, regardless of whether the result is a sack, will often create bad passes and poor decisions. Plus, it shows that the line can do the hard part of
