Dawgz coming into their own

June 16, 2005 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz News Release


On May 7th the Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz saw themselves sitting at 2-4 and in the midst of a three-game losing streak. One bye week later and the Dawgz were starting a franchise record four-game winning streak and today are still moving towards the top of the National Conference standings.

The Dawgz began the bye week by making a few personnel upgrades and by getting Jarrail Jackson and Brandon Daniels healthy and back into the lineup after the duo was on the injured reserve list the previous two games, both losses against Tulsa and Memphis, the Dawgz were ready to roll and forget about the previous losses.

"We have become a more stable football team since the bye week," said head coach Jeff Jarnigan. "Our biggest objective during the bye week was to identify players that were not playing up to our expectations and we also needed to reassess some of our packages that we were trying to run. We assessed our personnel, made some changes and eliminated some of the negative plays that we had been making and have turned them into positive plays for our team."

The May 21st game versus Bossier-Shreveport, the Dawgz would quickly make that losing streak disappear by dominating the Battlewings 52-17 at the Ford Center and begin their run towards the top of the Midwest Division standings.

"We never lacked confidence in our team during the losing streak," said Jarnigan. "We applied our talents and created some opportunities for ourselves."

The Dawgz have come into their own by utilizing their talents in all aspects of the game. During the four-game winning streak the offense has put up 50+ points in each game culminating with last weeks 74- point output over the Amarillo Dusters. The Dawgz offense was ranked 10th in the af2 averaging 48.6 points per game before the current winning streak and they are now ranked 5th in the league averaging 52.2 points per game and have outscored their opponents this season in the second half by a margin of 289-204.

Jarrail Jackson and Craig Strickland have shown what type of veteran players they are by putting up huge numbers during the winning streak. Jackson has caught 44 passes for 581 yards and twelve touchdowns, while Strickland has completed 83 of 130 passes for 1,091 yards and 23 touchdowns.

"During the bye week, I addressed every player and the consensus was that no one was happy with where the football team was at that point," said Jarnigan. "Everyone knew that they had to pick up their play and our veterans have really stepped up and made plays. Strickland has become more confident in our offense and in Coach Davis."

Not only has the offense increased its production, but the defense and special teams have also stepped up when they have needed to. The defense was ranked 15th before the May 21st Bossier-Shreveport game and they enter this weekend's game ranked 9th in total defense. The Dawgz defense has held their opponents to 168 points over the course of the winning streak.

The defense really stepped up in their May 21st performance versus the Battlewings. They took some scoring pressure off of the offense in that game by forcing five turnovers, three of which were interceptions that were run back for touchdowns.

Another acquisition that has paid huge dividends for the Dawgz has been defensive specialist Jeromy Flowers. Flowers came to the Dawgz before the Bossier-Shreveport game and has been very consistent on defense. Flowers was awarded the af2 ADT Defensive Player of the Week for his performance on June 4th versus the Rio Grande Valley Dorados. In that game he had two interceptions, three pass defenses, and six tackles on the night.

"Going into the bye week, I felt that our defense was playing too passive so we opened up the defense a little more and allowed the players to become more a physical and aggressive team," said Jarnigan.

So with offense and defense increasing their production the special teams unit, the area that sometimes can be the difference between winning and losing in arena football, felt like they could do more to help their team win ball games as well. This was no more evident than in last weekend's performance against the Amarillo Dusters.

In what proved to be the epitome of arena football, offense, offense, and more offense, the Dawgz special teams proved to be the difference maker in the game. Late in the first half, when it looked like Amarillo would hold the Dawgz to a field goal, the attempt would go wide right off the net and the Amarillo returner, Kendrick Walker would fumble the ball allowing Jeromy Flowers to recover the ball in the end zone for a touchdown giving the Dawgz a 40-32 advantage going into the locker room.

When the two teams returned to the field after the first half, it was another special teams play that allowed the Dawgz to increase their lead. The Dawgz would kickoff to begin the second half and once again Kendrick Walker would fumble the return in the end zone and Mike Pruitt would recover it for another Yard Dawgz touchdown, giving the Dawgz the 47-32 lead and eventually leading to a 74-67 victory.

The Dawgz are now sitting near the top of the Midwest Division standing and look to keep climbing upwards. They have long forgotten the three-game losing streak they were once in and look to increase their franchise record winning streak this weekend when they travel to take on the Bossier-Shreveport Battlewings, the team that they began this winning streak against.

"We are starting to play as a team right now," said Yard Dawgz quarterback Craig Strickland. "We are getting the breaks that are needed to win a championship."

Although the 2005 edition of the Yard Dawgz season is far from over, they have come a long way since May 7th and look to continue their hot streak and take great strides towards the ultimate prize in arenafootball2, the ArenaCup trophy.



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