Preds quiet Storm
March 2, 2007 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
Orlando Predators News Release
TAMPA, Fla. (March 2, 2007) -Heading into the 40th "War on I-4," Predators head coach Jay Gruden was anticipating a hard-fought, tight game against Orlando's biggest rivals. Instead he got to see a laugher, as the Predators opened the 2007 season with a more than convincing 52-27 win over the Storm.
"What can I say, it seemed like everyone on this team came up big tonight," Gruden said. "Shane Stafford did a great job in his first game with us, DeAndrew Rubin was big, Javarus Dudley was big, Greg White was big. It goes on and on."
The Predators used two defensive stops and jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the game and never looked back. Thanks to kicking problems by Tampa Bay's Bill Gramatica (four missed extra points) and a tenacious Predators defense, Tampa Bay could never get any closer than nine points in the second half.
In his first game in a Predators uniform, Stafford - who played five years with the Storm - was 24 of 34 for 329 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. It was 20th career 300-yard game.
Coming into the season, Gruden talked about 2007 being a potential break-out year for second-year wide receiver Javarus Dudley, but it was DeAndrew Rubin who took the spot light in the week one. The second-year wide receiver who played college football in Tampa at South Florida, caught eight passes for 141 yards and three scores. Counting 118 yards on kick returns, Rubin accounted for 259 yards in the game.
But Dudley also shined, catching six passes for 81 yards and one score-adding a second touchdown on a run. It was Dudley's incredible second effort on a third goal play with two seconds remaining in the second quarter that allowed the Predators to take a 28-12 lead into the locker room.
On the play, Orlando was holding a nine-point lead and faced with a third and goal with two seconds left, and elected to go for a score. Dudley took a deep pitch from Stafford and was immediately hit at the four-yard line but spun off and avoided a second tackle to score his first touchdown of the game.
About the only offensive negative of the game came from wide receiver Jimmy Fryzel, who tweaked a hamstring in the first quarter. He played the entire game, catching a game-high 10 passes for 107 yards and one touchdown. His injury will be evaluated tomorrow by Predators trainers.
Orlando found heroes on the defensive side of the ball as well. White, as well as rookies Chaz Murphy and Lance Mitchell, all recorded sacks in the game. First-year Preds Ryan Bowers and Rayshun Reed each had interceptions.
The win was the third in the row for the Predators against the Storm and gave them a 20-18 series lead. Although just 17 points had separated the two teams in the all-time series, Orlando has now out-scored Tampa Bay,104-40, in the last two games.
"We need to guard against being too full of ourselves," Gruden added. "They are a very good team and are going to win a lot of games this year. We'll enjoy this one during the weekend, but we'll get back to work on Monday and get ready for Los Angeles."
For a while, it looked like the Predators would run away and hide from the Storm. Winning the toss, Rubin took the opening kickoff out to the 16-yards line and on the first play from scrimmage, Rubin took a screen pass in the left flat, forced one Storm player to miss and then ran 34-yards for a touchdown and a 7-0.
Orlando's defense forced a three and out and two plays later Stafford hooked up with Rubin again on a 42-yard touchdown pass. A forced fumble and 19-yard pass from Stafford to Fryzel made it 21-0 at the 3:50 mark of the first quarter.
But Tampa Bay would score 12 unanswered points to make it 21-12 and had a chance to cut the lead further when the Storm defense made a second consecutive defensive stop. But even with the benefit of a defensive holding penalty, the Storm failed to crack the end zone on eight tries from inside the 10. Bill Gramatica, who missed two extra point earlier, misfired on a 27-yard field goal.
The Predators return to action a week from Monday, taking on the Los Angeles Avengers at Hummer Field. It will be the first Monday Night game in ESPN's new television package with the Arena Football League. Tickets are available by calling 407-44-PREDS.
PREDATORS NOTES: Joey Gruden, the 12-year-old son of Jay Gruden, turned more than a few heads on the field by consistently nailing 30-yard field goals barefoot...his dad Jay-who was one of Arena Football's all-time quarterback greats, said that if young Joey's skills leads to a college scholarship he would have no problem having his son "become a kicker..." Predators veteran lineman Reggie Lee caught the flu bug and lost 12 pounds in the 10-hours leading up to the game...with only 20 players on the active roster, Orlando did not have a substitute to dress in Lee's place...the veteran did not warm-up with the team but managed to gut it out and play several series on both offense and defense...Stafford's rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter was the 29th of his career...Jay Taylor banged home all seven of his extra points and has now made 35 consecutive regular season extra points dating back to the 2006 season...the Predators record is 45 consecutive extra points set by Taylor in the 2003 season.
Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from March 2, 2007
- Storm Fall To Predators In Home Opener, 52-27 - Tampa Bay Storm
- Preds quiet Storm - Orlando Predators
- Avengers in the Community - Los Angeles Avengers
- Champions to host Wranglers Official Post-Game Party - Austin Wranglers
- Wranglers add two former Longhorns to broadcast team - Austin Wranglers
- SaberCats reach TV deal with FSN Bay Area - San Jose SaberCats
- Dallas Desperados Kick Off Season With Annual Community Out Reach Program - Dallas Desperados
- Soul ticket packages now available - Philadelphia Soul
- Preds on TV 11 times - Orlando Predators
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