Beef Ambush Bandits
April 3, 2004 - National Indoor Football League (NIFL)
Omaha Beef News Release
Omaha, NE â Saturday night's game at the Slaughterhouse saw a small but vocal crowd of 3,393 Beef fans cheer their team on to victory.
Omaha won the coin toss and elected to receive, but was unable to move the ball on their first offensive possession. Following a Chace Long field goal attempt that was no good, the Bandits promptly went for broke on a 43-yard pass completion from quarterback Oscar Davenport to Lucas Greene. With 11:19 left in the first quarter, running back Fredrick Jackson crawled over the pile for the touchdown. Sioux City kicker Chris Reed made it 7-0 in favor of the Bandits.
The Beefs' second possession was highlighted by kicker Chace Long putting it through the uprights for three to make it a 7-3 Bandit lead.
With Bandits QB Davenport working from the shotgun, Sioux City drove the length of the field to take a 14-3 lead on a 15-yard completion to WR Robert Bailey on the next Sioux City possession.
The third Beef possession turned into the Kevin Brown show. Brown was involved in all six plays of the drive, and capped it off with a 3-yard plunge into the end zone to make it a 14-10 game in favor of the Bandits.
With 11:41 before the half, Sioux City QB Davenport found Lucas Greene in the end zone for his second touchdown of the night, making it a 20-10 ballgame. The extra point attempt was no good due to a bobble by placeholder Tom Campos.
Omaha started the next possession with its best field position of the night following a 34-yard kickoff return by Steve Lovell. Following two James Johnson rushing attempts, Beef QB Troy Travis found Lovell in the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown to make it a 16-20 game. The extra point attempt failed.
Beef DB Justin Comstock made the play of the first half when he picked of a long bomb attempt by Bandit QB Davenport. Omaha wasn't able to move the ball, and following another long field goal attempt by Chace Long, the Bandits took over on their own five.
With 2:07 left in the half, Comstock picked off his second interception of the game from Bandits QB Davenport to give the Beef a shot at taking the lead into the locker room. Unfortunately, the Beef were only able to muster a field goal to make the score 19-20 with :22 seconds left in the half. The Beef went down the tunnel down by one, but Sioux City had a distinct advantage in total yards for the half. (141-84). Davenport was 6 of 17 for 122 yards and two interceptions in the first half. His counterpart for the Beef, QB Troy Travis, was 8 of 17 for 68 yards.
The second half started with Sioux City driving the length of the field, but unable to find the end zone, thanks to a great defensive stand by the Beefense. The Bandits had to settle for three, making the score 19-23 in favor of Sioux City.
The Beef offense marched down the field on their next possession and capped the drive with a one-yard dive into the end zone by QB Troy Travis to take the long-awaited lead. Beef kicker Chace Long split the uprights to make the score 26-23.
The third quarter started out with Bandits kicker Chris Reed booting a long 29-yard shot through the uprights to tie the game 26 all.
Fighting back with determination, the Beef offense marched down the field to the 18-yard line where kicker Chace Long followed up with a field goal to recapture the lead making it 29-26.
The Beef defensive team showed what they were made of when they held the Bandits at the one-yard line to thwart their attempt to regain the lead.
The next set of plays saw Beef WR Doug Bargman snag a 35-yard pass from QB Troy Travis to make the score 35-26. Long followed suit to bump the score by one and regain the lead. (36-26)
With only 1:55 left in the game, the Beef defense beat the Bandits into submission and racked up a safety to gain an extra two points making the score 38-26.
After a long, hard-fought four quarters on the turf the Omaha Beef added one more to their winning record by beating the Sioux City Bandits by 12 (38-26).
National Indoor Football League Stories from April 3, 2004
- FireAnts Top 100 in Win - Tupelo FireAnts
- Beef Ambush Bandits - Omaha Beef
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