Rage looks to stay undefeated at Family Arena

June 1, 2005 - National Indoor Football League (NIFL)
RiverCity Rage News Release


"For us, we have to take the approach that it's just another game on the schedule, regardless of Lincoln's record. But I've told our players, a winless football team gets better as the season wears on. They work harder in practice and you know the Caps will be hungry for a first victory. We'll have to meet the challenge to stay undefeated at home and on top in the division."

That's how Rage Head Football Coach Mike Wyatt plans to get his football team mentally 'up' for Friday nights contest with the winless Lincoln Capitols at the Family Arena. With The Rage leading it's division by two and one half games, and facing a team it defeated handily just a month ago on the road, it might be easy for the team to fall into the trap of taking the Capitols too lightly, or looking past Lincoln to the Cincinnati game next weekend.

No such chance, according to Wyatt, who says "the push for this game comes about in challenging the guys to perform as professionals, to take the attitude that every team comes to us with it's 'A' game, and reminding them that for us, every game is a playoff game." He went on to say that many teams meeting a winless opponent often "play to keep from getting beat, rather than playing to win. The key is to focus on plays and formations you'll be using down the road, to keep the same intensity and drive going game after game, to not let up. That may have been a factor in last week's game, when Lincoln was in the game most of the way and ended up losing by only ten points to a Wyoming team that was 7-2."

Despite Wyatt's warning and his obvious respect for Friday's match-up, the truth is, the Lincoln Capitals will need more than an 'A' game to come away from Family Arena with it's first win of the season. The Capitols defense will be facing a River City Rage offensive machine that has lit up scoreboards around the NIFL since it's opening play from scrimmage 10 games ago. Employing a respectable rushing game to balance one of the top passing attacks in the league, The Rage in 2005 have emerged as a literal scoring machine, ranking second overall in a 22 team league, with 528 non-kick points in the first 10 games of the season.

The Rage are second in the NIFL in the category of Scoring Offense, slamming the opposing defense for 83 touchdowns, 41 P-A-T's, 15 two-point conversions, 2 field goals and one safety for 577 total points, an average of 57.7 points per game!

The team ranks second, as well, in Total Offense with 730 yards rushing, 1,936 yards passing, good for 80 touchdowns and an average of 266.6 yards per game.

The mark of a great team is to be able to get the ball in the end zone from the 'Red-Zone'and The Rage offense has answered the bell at a clip of 77.3% in the first 10 games. And the red zone scoring chances are have been kept alive by drives that have resulted in 203 first downs, which puts the rage in the number one position in that all important offensive category.

It's the passing game that has propelled Wyatt's teams over the years, and this season has been no exception. The Rage rank 5th overall in Pass Offense, with quarterbacks Clay Groefsema and Anthony Fisher combining for 181 completions in 294 pass attempts, throwing for 56 touchdowns and averaging 193.6 yards per game. The solid play of the offensive line has been a huge factor in the team's success, giving up only 10 sacks on the year and providing both Groefsema and Fisher ample time to get the ball in the air.

The Rage is plus 3 on the turnover margin, and so far has been a team not hurting itself with turnovers or penalties. The Rage is the least penalized team in the NIFL with only 56 flags thrown in ten games.

Defensively, The Rage have given up 407 points, an average of 40.7 per game, a plus margin of 17 points per game. The defensive line has been stellar all season, accumulating 27 sacks in ten games, ranking second overall.

Individual leaders include Scott Pingel, first in the league in receptions with 67 for 662 yards and 5th in scoring with 20 touchdowns, 12 x-pts, for 132 points on the year.

Sha-Ron Edwards is 8th in the league in rushing, with 105 attempts for 394 yards, 9 touchdowns and a 49.2 yards per game average.

Quarterback Clay Groefsema is third in both Passing Yards and Total Offense, with 1738 yards passing and 197 yards rushing. Groefsema has thrown for 48 touchdowns and has averaged 193 yards per game passing in 2005. Add his rushing total and Groefsema accounts for 215 yards per game!

It's worth saying again.

'Offense wins football games, defense wins championships.'

And in the beginning of the season, Rage Head Football Coach Mike Wyatt stated that nothing short of a championship would be sufficient for The River City Rage in 2005.

Revamping and re-structuring the "D" after the forth game loss to Tri-Cities, Wyatt has created defensive schemes and motivated his players in such a way as to create a virtual stone wall that shuts down the deep passing game, heads off the rushing game, and finds at least one of his players in the top ten in every major defensive category in the NIFL.

Defensive End Bruce Blue ranks 2nd in sacks, recording 9 so far this season. His counterpart, James Green is 10th with 6 on the year. Other Rage players making an impact on opposing QB's are Lenny Williams with 4 sacks, Terrell Washington with 3 and Jay Carmack, Joe Bevis and Andy Peterson each have 2 sacks on the year.

Defensive Back Andy Peterson has earned his nickname 'pick-em-off' by hauling in 7 interceptions on the season, good for 39 return yards and ranking 7th in the league.

And finally, The Rage get the guy with the football! Terrell Washington is second in the NIFL in Tackles, recording 40 un-assisted and 69 un-assisted so far. D-Back teammate Clarence 'CJ' Jones is 3rd with 39 unassisted and 57 pull downs on the season.

The Rage lead the Atlantic Division of the NIFL with a record of 8-2. Dayton is second at 6-5, Cincinnati is three full games behind The Rage with a record of 4- 5, and New Jersey continued it's winless ways with a loss last Sunday night to The Rage. The X-Treme are 0-9 in 2005.

Kick-Off Friday night is slated for 7 PM at The Family Arena. Tickets can be purchased at The Family Arena box office, or by calling Metro-Tix at 314-534-1111. The game can be heard on 1380 ESPN with pre-game beginning at 6:45pm. Friday's game will also be audio- streamed on both the ESPN and ragefootball.com websites.

UPDATES ON:

Robert Reeves: The Rage Offensive lineman was leg-whipped from behind in the second half of the New Jersey game on Sunday night and left the game. He is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Thursday and will miss the game against Lincoln on Friday. His status for the remainder of the season will be determined after the MRI results are examined by the team physician.

Hurtis Chinn: Chinn will not be available to the team on Friday night as well, but for a much more positive reason. Hurtis will fly out to the West Coast on Thursday morning for an NFL combine workout. A number of scouts and other personnel from the National Football League will be looking over prospects for 2005 in hopes of signing various players to individual teams. Needless to say, The Rage, Coach Wyatt and everyone in the organization wish him the best of luck!!

2 MINUTE DRILL

QUOTES FROM RAGE HEAD FOOTBALL COACH MIKE WYATT

(On his players performance overall so far this season)

"Well, you have to realize, success basically comes from the bottom up. That means our second line players, bottom players have been better for us this year than in the past. The overall effort has been good to see. A good example of that is Corey Bethany, who dressed for two, maybe three games last season, but this year has been a great swing player for us. He's performed when called upon on both offense and defense, doing the job on special teams, and even catching a few touchdown passes. It's players like him on our team that give us the depth good teams need to be great."

(On the improved play on the Offensive Line)

'They stepped it up. Jay Carmack, for example, stepped in on the 'O' line when Robert (Reeves) went down and did a fine job. You know, you can talk about this or that all you want, but when it comes down to it, you've gotta go out and play the game and Jay did just that. Hey, when Clay has a 70% pass completion rate, somebody's looking out for him."

TEAM CAPTAIN CARMACK PULLS DOUBLE DUTY

Veteran Defensive Lineman Jay Carmack who was elected by his teammates as one of the Rage's four co-captians for 2005 was forced into duty on the other side of the ball last week in the 2nd quarter when Robert Reeves was felled with an injury. Carmack went on to perform flawlessly as an offensive lineman prompting Rage owner Scott Wilson to say, " I like that Carmack. He jumped in there on the O Line and we didn't miss a beat. On his first play, I watched that opposing D Linemen's head snap back and new that Jay had stuck him and was using great technique."



National Indoor Football League Stories from June 1, 2005


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