Quick hitters: week three

Published on February 20, 2004 under Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I) News Release

0-2 TEAMS AMAZINGLY COMPETITIVE: Four of the six AFL teams with an 0-2 record have an average margin of defeat by six points or fewer. Three of those four teams have had both games decided by eight points or less.

Indiana, Las Vegas, Philadelphia and Orlando are all 0-2 but have been competitive in both of their respective losses. Following is the average margin of defeat for all four teams:

TEAM GAME 1 GAME 2 AVG.
Indiana 6 1 3.5
Las Vegas 1 7 4.0
Philadelphia 8 4 6.0
Orlando 11 1 6.0

Indiana, Las Vegas and Philadelphia have had both of their respective games decided by eight points or less.

GOT THE FIRST DOWN? New Orleans kicks off its inaugural season with a 2-0 record. OS AARON BAILEY for the expansion team leads the league in first downs with a total of 15 in the first two games of this season. In last week's 41-40 victory over Indiana, Bailey caught 8 passes for 140 yards with 2 TDs. Following are the first-down leaders:

2004 FIRST-DOWN LEADERS PLAYER, TEAM RUSH REC TOTAL
Aaron Bailey, New Orleans 0 15 15
Todd Doxzon, Carolina 0 13 13
Freddie Solomon, Tampa Bay 0 13 13
Cory Fleming, Orlando 0 12 12
Marcus Nash, Las Vegas 0 12 12

COMEBACK KIDS: In last week's come-from-behind victory over the Columbus Destroyers, Carolina outscored their opponent 13-3 in the final quarter and 20-3 in the final 16 minutes of the game. It was only the second victory in 35 games in which the team trailed entering the final quarter.

MCMILLEN RUSHING TO 1,000: Chicago Rush FB/LB BOB MC MILLEN's 43 yards rushing ranks him second in the league behind DAN CURRAN of New Orleans (49). McMillen, who led the AFL in rushing in 1999 with Arizona, is just 57 yards away from his sixth-consecutive 100-yard rushing season. McMillen also needs just 97 more rushing yards to become the fifth player in AFL history to rush for 1,000 career yards.

MR. CLUTCH: Los Angeles QB TONY GRAZIANI earned Baby Ruth Real Deal Offensive Player of the Game honors in last week's 62-55 victory over the Las Vegas Gladiators. The former Oregon Duck hit WR/LB JOE DOUGLASS for a 27-yard TD with 1:53 remaining to secure the victory and keep the Western Division lead. Graziani moves to the No. 1 spot of fourth-quarter passing leaders. The following is the Top 5 fourth-quarter passers:

2004 FOURTH-QUARTER PASSING LEADERS
PLAYER, TEAM ATT-COM COMP % YARDS TDs INT PASSER RATING
Tony Graziani, Los Angeles 14-9 64.3 148 3 0 139.3
John Kaleo, Austin 8-6 75.0 65 1 0 138.0
Shane Stafford, Tampa Bay 17-12 70.6 135 4 0 133.6
Aaron Garcia, New York 18-13 72.2 133 5 0 132.6
Matt Nagy, Carolina 22-14 63.6 137 3 0 120.6

WINNING TRADITION: After setting a league record for most regular season wins in 2002 with 13, the SaberCats once again topped the AFL with 12 victories last season and opened the 2004 campaign with a win. San Jose has posted a double-digit regular season win total in each of the last four years - the longest current streak in league history and the second longest ever. Arizona had five straight double-digit win seasons from 1996-00. Since the start of the 2000 season the SaberCats own a league-best 48-11 regular season record. Arizona (41) is the only other team to exceed 40 wins in the same time frame. Below is a look at the records of teams since the 2000 season.

RECORDS SINCE 2000
TEAM RECORD PCT.
San Jose SaberCats 48-11 .814
Arizona Rattlers 41-19 .683
Orlando Predators 38-22 .633
Tampa Bay Storm 37-23 .617
Grand Rapids Rampage 33-27 .550

DUKING IT OUT: Colorado FB/LB CHAD DUKES needs 23 rushing yards to pass Arizona's BO KELLY for third place on the AFL's all-time rushing list. Dukes is already one of only four players in AFL history to rush for 1,000 yards in his career. Following is a glance at the all-time leading rushers:

TOP 5 ALL-TIME RUSHERS
PLAYER YARDS
Les Barley 1,382
*Andre Bowden 1,194
*Bo Kelly 1,063
*Chad Dukes 1,040
*Bob McMillen 903
*ACTIVE

GIVE ME A BREAK: San Jose faces Los Angeles this week after having a 16-day hiatus. San Jose has had a bye week in five of the last nine seasons and the club is 4-1 after an open date.

Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from February 20, 2004

• Solomon, Storm to face Wranglers on NBC - AFL I
• Monday night football - Detroit Fury
• Firebirds ready for some Monday night footbal in Motown - Albany/Indiana Firebirds
• AFL on NBC two-game season average up 19 percent - AFL I
• Must-see matchups: week three - AFL I
• Wranglers Will Call open today for pick up - Austin Wranglers
• Quick hitters: week three - AFL I
• Firebirds' WR/LB Brown placed on IR, McPherson activated - Albany/Indiana Firebirds

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