SaberCats Advance To Finals
July 7, 2007 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
San Jose SaberCats News Release
SAN JOSE, Calif. (July 7, 2007) - Receiver James Roe caught five of Mark Grieb's nine touchdown passes and linebacker Steve Watson made two key extra point blocks as the San Jose SaberCats overcame a torrid offensive onslaught by the Colorado Crush, 76-67, Saturday in an Arena Football League American Conference semifinal game.
Grieb's nine scores tied the AFL record for touchdowns in a playoff game and the 76 points were the 3rd highest in league history.
The SaberCats (14-3), and winners of 11 in a row, will meet the winner of the Los Angeles Avengers-Chicago Rush game at 1 p.m. (PT) next Saturday in San Jose's HP Pavilion. The Avengers play at Chicago on ESPN2's Monday Night Football at 4:30 (PT).
Greib, who got caught up in a duel with former teammate John Dutton, passed for 316 yards, 100 less than Dutton, but took the SaberCats to paydirt on each of the team's 11 possessions.
Dutton, who led the SaberCats through the 2002 playoffs and their first ArenaBowl title, was near flawless as he connected on all but three passes through three quarters. He ended with eight touchdowns on 29-of-37 passing. Neither quarterback threw an interception.
Roe caught 14 passes for 135 yards and sidekick Ben Nelson, hauled in three of seven Grieb tosses for scores.
Colorado (9-9) led only once in the game, 35-34, at halftime and thanks to Watson's two blocked kicks and a key miss by Crush kicker Jason Ball with 9:01 left, gave San Jose a 62-60 margin in the 4th quarter.
However, it was Roe's 4th TD grab with 1:01 left in the third that gave the SaberCats a lead they never relinquished. It was a 7-yarder that gave San Jose a 55-48 lead.
It was Colorado's Brad Pyatt that teamed with Dutton in the 4th that kept the game tight. Pyatt caught TD passes of 44 and 30 yards and Willie Quinnie' 36-yard catch and run that kept the Crush within two points.
After Quinnie's score with 4:05 left, Grieb directed a 45-yard drive, burning nearly four minutes off the clock that ended with a 25-yarder to Ben Nelson. A.J. Haglund's 10th extra point in 11 attempts gave San Jose a 76-67 lead at the one minute mark of the game.
Dutton took over with 58.9 seconds remaining on the Crush 10-yard line but four incomplete passes, sandwiched between a Phil Glover sack and a pitch fumble by backup quarterback Brandon Kirsch, was a conglomeration of mistakes and time ran out on the Denver-based team that had beaten San Jose on its way to the 2005 ArenaBowl title.
Glover had a pair of rushing touchdowns and also caught a 5-yard flair pass from Grieb for another score as San Jose put together an overall outstanding effort after a first-round bye for winning the Western Division.
NOTES: Mark Grieb becme the 4th player in AFL postseason history to throw for 3,500 career yards and took over 3rd place on the postseason pass TD list with 79 and he also had the most TD passes in team playoff game history with 9 and the 2nd most attempts (41) and completions (30)...Rodney Wright had the second most KOR yards in a team playoff game with 145...James Roe set a team playoff record with 14 receptions also had the 2nd most TD catches (5) and 3rd most receiving yards (135)...Phil Glover tied a team playoff record with 2 rushing TDs and tied a postseason sack record with 2.0...The teams combined for the second-highest point total (143) in an AFL playoff game...Steve Watson set an AFL postseason record with 2 blocked PATs...San Jose set a playoff point total record and scored the 3rd most in an AFL playoff game.
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