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Crush Can't Linger in Celebration

March 7, 2003 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
Colorado Crush News Release


The celebration was as joyous as it was brief.

With only four days between Sunday's win over the Indiana Firebirds and the Friday night duel with the Dallas Desperados at Reunion Arena, the Crush returned to the practice field on Tuesday -- a day the team normally takes as an off-day. What time the players had off came following the flight home from Indianapolis on Monday morning.

Just two full practices will prepare the team for the Desperados, heightening the necessity of being in the right frame of mind.

"We've got to do a lot of mental preparation," Crush Head Coach Bob Beers said. "We got home yesterday morning, we had practice today, we watched a lot of film yesterday and so a lot of (the preparation is) going to have to be done in the film room."

And that requires going above and beyond.

"Like I told (the players) at the end of practice (Tuesday), you've got to do some of that stuff on your own in the film room with the coaches," Beers said. "You can't make any mistakes in the short week."

TALKING OT: In watching game film of the Desperados, it was impossible to avoid the unusual circumstances of the overtime which allowed Dallas to escape from Arizona with a one-point win on Sunday.

The Rattlers kicked off to start the extra session, with Nelson Garner executing a successful short kick that his team recovered. Arizona ended the drive with a Chris Horn touchdown, and the arena celebrated as if the game was over. But it wasn't, as the Desperados had not touched -- let alone controlled -- the football on the kickoff.

Per Rule 15:3 of the Arena Football League rule book, it is guaranteed that teams get at least one possession. The rule closes with a key sentence: "A muffed kick or successful onside kick will not count as a possession."

Arizona subsequently missed the extra point and kicked off to Dallas, which scored a touchdown and converted the point-after for a 65-64 win.

"The league came out with a policy and said that every team has the opportunity for possession. So I guess if you interpret it that way, Dallas never touched it; they got it back on the on-side kick," Beers said. "I'm sure it was frustrating for (Rattlers) coach (Danny) White, that they take the gamble on the on-side kick.

Beers, who has shown no qualms about attempting on-side kicks at surprising junctures, believes the ruling causes a shift in strategy.

"What it does is maybe it takes that element of surprise out of the overtime (kickoff)," he said. "I thought it took a lot of courage to on-side kick it and they recovered it and scored. We thought the game was over. Apparently it wasn't."

LINE SHIFT: In the latest roster tweak, the odd man out is veteran lineman Otis Moore, one of the Crush's expansion draft selections last autumn. In is former Georgia Force lineman Jeff Chase, who brings a background as an offensive lineman to Colorado.

Beers indicated that it was also a move made in favor of youth; Moore is a nine-season veteran of the league.

"(Moore) was giving us all we had we knew that he was a hard worker and a great person," Beers said. "Those things are not easy to do. But we feel that we needed a pure offensive lineman and we've got younger guys.

"You've got to make a decision if you want to go with youth or veterans, so we decided to go with youth."

Victory! Crush Gets Its First Win, 38-35

The cliché is true -- turnabout really is fair play.

In two losses earlier in the season, the Crush was plagued by the ball slipping out of its quarterback hands. It happened four times -- twice each against the Georgia Force and Grand Rapids Rampage -- three times returned for touchdowns.

But with 39 seconds left against the Indiana Firebirds, the door finally swung in the Crush's direction. With Colorado holding a 3-point lead, Firebirds quarterback Craig Whelihan lost the ball out of his right hand as he prepared to throw. The ensuing chase ended with Colorado defensive specialist Adrian Lunsford fell on the football, allowing the Crush to run out the clock and earn the first win in franchise history, 38-35 over Indiana at a stunned Conseco Fieldhouse.

The Crush's win was of the comeback genre, as it followed a mid-fourth-quarter sequence in which everything went against Colorado. Indiana had scored back-to-back touchdowns to take a 35-31 lead, and following the second touchdown, Crush wide receiver/linebacker Damon Bowers had fumbled, allowing the Firebirds to recover and take over at the Colorado 23.

But with five minutes left, Lunsford wrested the momentum back in the Crush's favor, as he intercepted a pass intended for Indiana offensive specialist Eddie Brown. John Dutton and the Colorado offense took over at the Crush 1-yard-line, commencing the finest drive in the franchise's brief history -- a 49-yard march into franchise history, the kind of significant drive that team president John Elway knows quite well.

Dutton completed five of six passes on the drive, spreading the ball around to four different receivers. Three times on the march, the Crush's receivers fought through tackles for extra yardage; more than 10 of the yards came by virtue of Bowers and Ahmad Hawkins' ability to fight and slog through Indiana's attempts at tackles.

Then, on the first play following the one-minute warning, Dutton connected with Charlie Davidson in the back of the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown pass. The extra point that followed gave the Crush the 38-35 lead, engendering the last-minute drama of a bouncing ball that finally went the Crush's way.

GAME TRACK

FIRST HALF

Colorado kicked away to begin the game, with Geoff Groshelle's first kick in a Crush uniform bouncing off the net.

On third-and-10, Whelihan connected with Terrance Blackwell on a crossing pattern to the right side. However, the play only gained seven yards, as Delvin Hughley stepped forward and slammed Blackwell into the boards three yards shy of the needed distance. Indiana settled for a 20-yard field goal by Clay Rush and took a 3-0 lead. The drive took 10 plays and consumed 6:44 of the first quarter.

Joe Douglass fielded the ensuing kickoff cleanly off the nets and returned it to the Crush 16, giving the team solid field position to begin its first drive. But on the second play of the drive, the problems from last week -- turnovers, six in all against the San Jose SaberCats -- returned when Dutton's end-zone toss for Charlie Davidson was picked off by Firebirds defensive specialist Del Lee. The touchback gave Indiana the ball once again at its own 5.

But the Crush defense held the Firebirds out of the end zone for a second consecutive possession. Aided by a pass-interference call against Adrian Lunsford, the Firebirds moved to the Colorado 16, but no further, as Saul Patu sacked Whelihan for an 8-yard loss on third-and-10. Rush again cleaned up the drive by nailing a 40-yard field goal, extending Indiana's lead to 6-0 with 3:46 left in the quarter.

Damon Bowers returned the ensuing kickoff to the Crush 12-yard line, losing his shoe in the process. But he was called for a personal foul after the return, forcing the Crush to start at its own 6. One snap later, the Crush got its initial first down of the game on an 12-yard toss from Dutton to Damian Harrell. Three plays later, the Crush scored for the first time, as Bowers completed what he began by scoring on a 20-yard touchdown catch that saw him break two tackles -- and again lose a shoe -- en route to the end zone. Groshelle hit his first extra point in a Crush uniform, and Colorado carried a 7-6 lead into the end of the first quarter.

Colorado's defense began the second quarter the same way it played the first -- providing a third-down stop inside the red zone. The defense coaxed Whelihan into an incomplete pass on third-and-5 from the Colorado 9, forcing the Firebirds to again settle for a Rush field goal. The successful 20-yard kick put Indiana back in front 9-7 with 12:23 left in the first half.

Two plays later, Colorado re-claimed the lead. After Douglass returned the kickoff to the Crush 24, Dutton found Harrell for 22 yards and then Douglass for four more and a touchdown. Groshelle made his second extra point to put Colorado in front 14-9.

Again, Indiana moved downfield on its next possession, and once again, the Crush forced the Firebirds into a third-down situation in the red zone -- third-and-goal from the 1-yard-line. This time, the Crush couldn't hold off Indiana, as Blackwell scored on an end around, allowing the Firebirds to reclaim the lead. But the edge was only one point, as Rush's first extra-point try of the game hit the right upright.

Anthony Derricks entered the game to field the kickoff, but Rush's kickoff hit the top of the rebound nets and bounced over, forcing the Crush to take over at the 5-yard-line. The Crush moved downfield, getting to the Indiana 2, but the drive stalled there, as Douglass ran for a 2-yard loss and Dutton threw an incomplete pass on third-and-goal. Groshelle salvaged the drive by connecting on a 20-yard field goal attempt, giving the Crush a 17-15 lead with 31 seconds left in the half.

The score would remain unchanged for the remainder of the final minute, as Indiana went three-and-out and the Crush were stopped at the Indiana 15 as time expired. Colorado's halftime lead was its third in five games, and its first away from the Pepsi Center.

SECOND HALF

A sustained, 7-play drive that drained 5:42 off the clock helped the Crush take advantage of having the first possession and allowed the team to take a 24-15 lead. The drive began at the Crush 14, and saw the team successfully convert a fourth-and-3 and a third-and-11. The fourth-down play moved the Crush into Firebirds territory, the third-and-11 turned into a 20-yard touchdown pass from Dutton to Douglass. Groshelle hit his third extra point of the afternoon to give Colorado a two-score advantage.

The multi-score lead barely lasted two minutes. Indiana raced downfield, taking just three plays to score. Leroy Thompson's 1-yard plunge capped the drive, which saw Whelihan complete both of his passes for 37 yards. Rush's successful extra-point try narrowed the Crush's lead back to two points once again with 6:28 left in the third quarter.

The bugaboo of the Crush's previous games struck again on the next possession, when a center snap exchange between 70 and Dutton was fumbled, allowing the Firebirds' Blackwell to recover at the Colorado 2-yard-line. But all that did was give the defense a chance for a resounding stand. On first-and-goal, Lunsford helped snuff out a Whelihan bootleg, smothering him for 3-yard loss. Hawkins dove to break up an end-zone toss for Brown on the next play, and Hughley clobbered Brown at the 2-yard-line on third-and-goal.

Indiana elected to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the 2, and the Crush responded, forcing Whelihan into a hurried end-zone throw that skidded incomplete. Taking over at the 2-yard-line, the Crush's offense dashed downfield, moving into Firebirds territory thanks to two tosses to Douglass and one more to Davidson.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Dutton completed the drive by finding Harrell in the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown. Indiana's defense focused on Harrell throughout the game, as the score was just his third catch of the day and his first touchdown. Groshelle again converted the extra point, and with 14:12 left in regulation, Colorado led 31-22.

Four plays later, the edge was again narrowed. A 46-yard Indiana drive culminated in an 11-yard touchdown toss from Whelihan to Thompson -- the first scoring pass of the game for the former San Diego Chargers and Orlando Predators quarterback. But the Crush remained up by three points as Rush missed his second extra point of the day.

Moments later, that lead had evaporated. Colorado was stopped on a fourth-and-8 at its own 8-yard-line on the next drive, and Indiana seized the good field position and took its first lead of the second half, as Whelihan fired his second touchdown pass of the day to give the Firebirds a 35-31 edge. Colorado's lousy fortunes continued on the ensuing kickoff, as Caldwell stripped Bowers of the football at the Crush 7-yard-line. Lee recovered and fell to the turf at the Colorado 23.

One snap later, the pendulum swung back towards the Crush. Whelihan looked for Brown down the right sideline at the goal line, but Lunsford dove in front of the pass and intercepted it, rolling out of bounds at the Crush 1-yard-line. From there, Dutton and the offense began a drive into history that gave the Crush the first win in team annals.

DS Lunsford Named ADT Defensive Player of the Week

The Arena Football League has announced that Defensive Specialist Adrian Lunsford has been named ADT Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Indiana Firebirds on March 2.

Lunsford led the team by recording 3.0 total tackles, a fumble recovery, and an interception that allowed the Crush to secure the franchise's first victory in Sunday's 38-35 win over the Indiana Firebirds. His interception and fumble recovery came on the Firebirds last two possessions of the game. This marks the first time Lunsford has garnered an AFL weekly honor.



Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from March 7, 2003


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