Week 5 - Dallas

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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Onto that O-Line. Not too shabby guys...or so I thought. In the early goings of this game, the line was looking pretty solid. Garcia had time, and although he used the time poorly, there definitely was a better look to the whole thing. As the game progressed, though, they started to weaken and by the fourth quarter they could not keep up with the game anymore. A friend and I closely examined the line, trying to see where the real issue was once more. On previous examinations of sacks and offensive line struggles, we found that Joe Laudano was the true weak link in the line. Under further examination, I can once again confirm that Laudano is almost the sole reason for the line break downs. What a surprise!

They say there is no such thing as a good loss - but this game revealed a lot about this team, good and bad. While the D played their best, Glassia played his worst. Very interesting, and the Dragons only lost by a safety from a blocked kick.

On some other notes, the Dragons traded Damien Groce this week for o-lineman Steven Franklin of the Georgia Force. O-Line help? I'll take it. With the surplus of good receivers that the Dragons have, Groce wasn't much of a loss. This lineman can play guard and center as well. Have the Dragons realized that Laudano is terrible? Mayyybe.

Don't forget to check out my youtube show this Wednesday as I talk about this past week vs. Dallas, next week vs. Grand Rapids, and many other Dragons tidbits. My youtube profile can be seen here: http://youtube.com/user/SchwartzVideo

Feel free to look at past editions as well.

Well that wraps up another week, thanks for reading and I'll see you vs. GR!

Week 4 - Arizona

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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Now onto next week in Dallas. With Garcia (probably) back under center, I don't see us scoring 7 or 13 points like we did in 2007, but I don't see a win coming out of this game either. The fact is, Dallas is a powerhouse with a great d-fense, a killer o-line, and an NFL level receiving core (literally). Even with their backup quarterback in they haven't missed a step and I see them outplaying us Sunday. A few teams in the AFL are on a different level than the rest, and lucky for us two of them are in our division (Philly and Dallas). Many have Dallas going undefeated, I would love for us to pull off a miracle this Sunday!

I will be at this game, come find me! I am always happy to talk Dragons and such, I have already met some of you at the first home opener. Come and stop by, I am in section 117, Row E, seats 11-12. I will be wearing a custom Chris Anthony jersey! See ya there, and don't forget to listen to my radio show which came out yesterday on youtube!

Week 3 - Soul

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

Week Two - Brigade

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 the "sack", but just needs to finish the job. Often after getting by the o-line, the defenders would kind of try to sack Fitzgerald in a round about way, trip over themselves, run back into o-linemen, and just make overall sloppy attempts at sacks. The great thing about that is those things can be fixed and perfected, while the things they actually do correctly would be harder to teach.
On the topic of defense, the real excitement came from behind the line. I have never in my AFL fanship seen such a meshed, connected, excited, and exuberant bunch of defensive backs/linebackers. John Walker, Billy Parker, Ronnie Amadi, and Levy Brown have extremely good chemistry and they take the best facets of the Arena Football league and run with it. Often times out of no where Levy Brown would circle the field pumping up the crowd, raising his hands in the air to get the crowd louder. Any time one of them succeeded, they would jump at each other, high five, scream in excitement, and point to the fans all around. This seems like a normal thing, but it was definitely a more excited squad than one I had ever seen. It also helped that they were amazing...Levy Brown had 2 interceptions, Billy Parker was alright, Walker did his weekly fumble show, this time scoring his first touchdown in the AFL after picking up his forced fumble and scoring, and Amadi was solid overall. If I wanted anyone to watch an AFL defense for the first time, I would have them watch these guys. On a side note, Levy has quite an arm: after intercepting his first pass, he sprinted forward and heaved the ball into the upper section of the stand. Pretty far.

Now back to the offense with Davey and crew. Jason Willis had a breakout game with four touchdowns, Keron Henry got in there with a long touchdown catch, and Chris Anthony caught one as well. You may be wondering, what about Kevin Swayne? Well, I am wondering the same thing. Swayne did not appear on the field once during this game - and how ironic is that. You take out the two guys the Dragons think are "most marketable" players on the team (Garcia and Swayne), and you get a victory. Go figure. Davey was, for the second consecutive game, great. He threw a pick or two, but he got them out of the way in the first quarter rather than on the last drive like he would of last year. This guy, week by week, can shut up doubters like no other - he just needs the chance. With Garcia supposedly healthy for next week against the Soul, Davey will once again be parked on the bench - forced to watch glass (Aaron Garcia) throw the football. If it ain't broke don't fix it, give Garcia that extra week he really needs to heal, and give Davey a shot to prove that he can win against one of the best teams in the AFL (or maybe lose to them). Watching Davey like this makes me uncontrollably happy, as I was an obsessed fan of his before the season even started LAST year. Yeah, I'm that good.
Well, now some extra stuff. Seeing Horacek and Holder on another team was sad at first, but after a while I started to dislike them both. First, Holder makes an interception. Then, on the NEXT play, a touchdown pass to Horacek. What a nice homecoming for them. Surprisingly, Horacek was booed in his introduction to start the game. I would have bet that we all would have cheered. Only a few did.

Oh yeah, and Dartangon Shack is awesome.

See ya next week,
Ben.

Week One - Gladiators

Opening day Monday was not nearly as bad as opening day in 2007, but it wasn't that great either.

First, how I saw the game: ESPN 1050 radio had just joined forces with the Dragons to "broadcast" all 16 games in the season. This, however, hardly was the case in this game. This was for sure the worst broadcast of any sporting event I have ever seen. It was bad enough that I couldn't see the game on TV, but ESPN felt the need to cut off the best parts of the game with COMMERCIALS. That is all this game was, a load of commercials and only some game. Almost every single touchdown call was cut off by an advertisement for Mike & Mike, and at some points commercials would be running for five minutes, cutting off the play by play entirely. And no, that was not all. At multiple points during the game ESPN would play footage from earlier in the game by accident which tricked many who were listening (I was in a chatroom). At one point, everyone was getting their updates from ONE GUY, unable to get any game stats or play by play for themselves. It was a complete joke and a corporation such as ESPN should be ashamed to be putting such crap on their radio. A high school run radio program would have done a better job at playing the game than this, this was hardly a radio program at all.

As if that was not bad enough the game was worse (ok maybe not that bad). I am starting to get seriously pissed off at Aaron Garcia. This guy is NOT A DRAGON, he is hardly even a fan. This chump is never playing and always injured, it is the same old story every game - every season. In the first quarter, Garcia threw a pick, and then he was "rattled" so he couldn't continue for the rest of the game. I do not want him on this team anymore, lets get D'Orazio from the Soul or someone else from anywhere - EVEN STICK WITH DAVEY. By the way, Garcia's new nickname is "Glassia". I could withstand hits without pads better than he can with them, this guy is seriously a girl. Now onto Davey, he....was......AWESOME! The announcers said that he looked totally different from last year, and he stepped up big time. He threw 5 touchdowns, and one interception. He should have had more TDs, but Swayne and crew could not catch the damn ball. Supposedly he was also many pounds lighter and more in shape. This is a good sign for the rest of the season if Glassia breaks a finger nail again. Davey was money too, completing almost every pass that wasn't simply dropped (AKA no completely bad throws like last year). Davey partially credited this change to Garcia being in the camp this season. Well, Rohan, if you follow that guy, you will be out of the next game with "a severely bruised eyelash".
The amount of drops in this game was incredible, totally unacceptable coming from this touted crew of receivers. They were simply misused, with Groce and Keron Henry hardly playing. Much of this game can be blamed on Weylan Harding. With a penalty almost every play, the Dragons were NOT PREPARED to play. From the oldest vets to the youngest rooks, penalty flags were flying everywhere. From roughing the kicker on Idris Price, to tripping on Dartangon Shack, the mistakes made were a clear lack of preparation and this is on the shoulders of Weylan. In the post game report, Harding said that "these mistakes are fixable", and while that is all good and true, Weylan himself has to step up and actually fix the issue. The problem is, from past history, he hardly ever does.

Another huge issue was defense. Davey being amazing can't win us the game if the Gladiators are scoring on every drive. When Davey would throw a touchdown, the D would go right out and allow one themselves. Levy Brown was ok, with an interception to his name, but there was one serious issue. Thats right, the other overrated veteran....BILLY PARKER! Wow this guy must have third degree burns from the amount of times receivers run by him. It isn't just this first game either, it was also EVERY game last year. Maybe this guy was good once, but he certainly isn't good anymore. And again, penalties were also a huge issue on defense.

Special teams: Well, it sucked. Seemingly every drive was started from the 5 yard line or less, which was terrible field position for Davey. So kickoffs receiving sucked, and so did out kickoffs themselves. Onorato lacks the Warley golden leg, which just reminded me of how awesome our kicker was last year. I hope the only reason Warley isn't on the team now is because he is going to the NFL, because any other reason is a load of crap. That guy had the best right foot in the AFL, mark my words. He was tough too, never afraid of a long kick or a tackle of a returner. He would sprint down the field to tackle a man and get there before the rest of the guys on the special teams unit, always. Also, when he goes to bed at night and he turns of the lights, he is in his bed before it gets dark.

So, now the outlook. This was suppose to be the easiest game of the year, so that kind of puts into perspective how things might go for the rest of 2008. I can only hope the Dragons fix their issues this week, and I hope the home opener is a good time, I'll be there. Section 102, Row F, Rodney Filer authentic away jersey - find me.