Tucson Times
August 12, 2008
Tucson: The Las Vegas Outlaws limped into NightHawks Den on Monday night with only one victory on the season looking for something, anything at all, positive that they could build on in an attempt to salvage their GLB Season 4. Instead they encountered a NightHawks rushing attack that stampeded them for over 400 yards and 7 rushing touchdowns. By the time the last seconds had ticked off the clock the Outlaws had suffered another embarrassing loss, this one 90-7 to the NightHawks.
In the post game press conference a somewhat surprisingly stoic Head Coach Pontiac refused to buy into the belief that his team had gotten past it's inconsistent offensive play with the performance. "You have to perform at a high level over a period of time before you can establish yourself among the leagues top offenses. We haven't done that yet". When asked about the 400 plus yards performance by the NightHawks running game Pontiac conceded "We dominated up front on the line opening up some huge holes. The backs did a solid job of hitting them and getting to the second level more times than not." He wasn't quite as positive regarding the NightHawks passing attack, "To many dropped passes. For ahwile there I thought we had signed 5 Roberto "Hands of Stone" Duran to play receiver. We gave up a couple of picks that hurt momentum as well. Fortunately for us our defense got them back plus some."
Tucson's special teams got the lopsided track meet off to a quick start when return man David Palmer rambled 52 yards for the opening score and an early 7-0 lead for the NightHawks. "The first guy down over ran the kick." said Palmer, "Once I got past the kicker it was clear sailing."
The NightHawks added to their lead after their defense forced the Outlaws to punt from deep within their own territory setting the NightHawks offense up in a perfect scoring opportunity. They wasted little time in taking advantage when two plays later NightHawks receiver Neon Bodeaux ran right past a struggling Outlaws cornerback for a 11 yard touchdown connection with Tucson quarterback Stonewall Gunner.
Tucson's offense failed to take advantage of another golden scoring opportunity after NightHawks corner Kareem "INT" Jackson stepped in front of an Outlaw pass and came away with the interception. NightHawks Quarterback Stonewall Gunner returned the favor on the very next play when he tried to hook up with wideout Shayde Black. Instead the pass was picked off ending Tucson's chances of taking advantage of the Las Vegas miscue.
The defense took no chances on the next turnover when the Outlaws again tried to go to the air. This time it was John McNeeley who did the honors for the NightHawks jumping the pass route and taking it to the house for a 82 yard score putting Tucson up 21-0. The Outlaws could net only 9 yards on their next possession and were again forced to punt the ball back to Tucson. After a 38 yard return by Palmer set the NightHawks up at the Outlaws 47 yard line the Tucson offense made short work of making the score 28-0 when Tucson tailback Blake Cooter rambled off tackle for 35 yards and a touchdown.
The second quarter saw the NightHawks add to their lead when they put together a 10 play 52 yard drive that was capped by another connection between Gunner and Bodeaux when again Bodeaux took advantage of the smaller Outlaws corner on a fade pattern. Already up 28-0 with plenty of time left in the half the NightHawks again put together a drive this one covering 63 yards, all on the ground. All three Tucson tailbacks garnered carries with Blah Dow doing the honors on the touchdown punching it in from 3 yards out. DeadNutzOn missed the extra point leaving the Tucson lead at 41-0.
Just 7 plays later Tucson would again add to its lead when Dow powered his way through the Las Vegas defense breaking 4 tackles on his way to a 45 yard touchdown and a 48-0 NightHawks lead. "Other than the interception there weren't allot of negatives going into the locker room at half time," said NightHawks QB Stonewall Gunner, "we felt like we probably could have had allot more yards through the air but we thought we could fix that in the second half." Tucson OC Rip Urheadoff agreed with his QB adding, "We knew we had some mismatches in the passing game that we should be able to take advantage of if we could hang on to the ball."
Instead the NightHawks opened the second half with Gunner's second interception of the game after Tucson had reached Outlaws territory. Vegas was unable to take advantage though as the Tucson defense again came up with the big play. This time it was Cro Marty who broke on a Outlaws pass picking it off and returning it 18 yards to the Outlaws 31 yard line. It took 5 straight pass attempts before Gunner found See-You-In-The-Endzone for a 3 yard touchdown and a 55-0 Tucson lead.
Tucson's bid for the shutout ended on the next drive when the Outlaws put together a 10 play 61 yard drive to make the score 55-7. Tucson snatched momentum right back though when special teams star David Palmer took the ensuing kickoff and dashed 90 yards for the score making the NightHawks lead 62-7. The NightHawks would add another 3rd quarter score one possession later after mixing the pass and run to perfection to move 60 yards and make the score 69-7.
It took three fourth quarter rushing touchdowns to produce the final tally. First Dow capped a 6 play drive with a three yard touchdown run, his third of the night. After Kareem "INT" Jackson added his second pick of the night Blake Cooter equaled Dow's touchdown output on a 62 yard touchdown run. Not to be shut out of the chance to practice his endzone dance Tucson tailback Flash Rodgers closed the scoring with a 7 yard touchdown run to cap a 7 play 73 yard drive. Rodgers who finished the game with 135 yards rushing and a touchdown couldn't praise his line enough. "You wouldn't believe the size of the holes they were opening out there," said Rodgers adding "and the receivers did a great job blocking on the outside when we ran the sweep."
"There's still a long way to go in the season but I'm fairly pleased with where we are right now both as a team and where we stand in conference play." said Pontiac reservedly. "We still have allot of improvements we need to make on both sides of the ball." Asked about the success of Palmer in the game Pontiac actually broke a rare smile, "Deuce has worked hard to improve his return skills. He watches allot of game film to get ready to do his job and it obviously has payed off this year. He knows right now his playing time is limited to special teams so he's trying to make the most of it. Of course if he keeps up playing the way he did tonight we're going to have to start finding more ways to get the ball in his hands."
***Stat Of The Game***
We could go with.......
0.....the number of times Tucson backs were tackled for a loss.
.....or we could use.......
137....the number of pancakes the NightHawks amassed as opposed to 0, the number of pancakes the Tucson defensive line gave up
....though some people would go with....
33.....the number of tackles Tucson backs broke on the way to scoring 7 touchdowns
.....but I think I'll go with..........
12.......the number of sacks the NightHawks defense came away with. 6 of them by DE Quickly Sacked alone.
August 12, 2008
Tucson: The Las Vegas Outlaws limped into NightHawks Den on Monday night with only one victory on the season looking for something, anything at all, positive that they could build on in an attempt to salvage their GLB Season 4. Instead they encountered a NightHawks rushing attack that stampeded them for over 400 yards and 7 rushing touchdowns. By the time the last seconds had ticked off the clock the Outlaws had suffered another embarrassing loss, this one 90-7 to the NightHawks.
In the post game press conference a somewhat surprisingly stoic Head Coach Pontiac refused to buy into the belief that his team had gotten past it's inconsistent offensive play with the performance. "You have to perform at a high level over a period of time before you can establish yourself among the leagues top offenses. We haven't done that yet". When asked about the 400 plus yards performance by the NightHawks running game Pontiac conceded "We dominated up front on the line opening up some huge holes. The backs did a solid job of hitting them and getting to the second level more times than not." He wasn't quite as positive regarding the NightHawks passing attack, "To many dropped passes. For ahwile there I thought we had signed 5 Roberto "Hands of Stone" Duran to play receiver. We gave up a couple of picks that hurt momentum as well. Fortunately for us our defense got them back plus some."
Tucson's special teams got the lopsided track meet off to a quick start when return man David Palmer rambled 52 yards for the opening score and an early 7-0 lead for the NightHawks. "The first guy down over ran the kick." said Palmer, "Once I got past the kicker it was clear sailing."
The NightHawks added to their lead after their defense forced the Outlaws to punt from deep within their own territory setting the NightHawks offense up in a perfect scoring opportunity. They wasted little time in taking advantage when two plays later NightHawks receiver Neon Bodeaux ran right past a struggling Outlaws cornerback for a 11 yard touchdown connection with Tucson quarterback Stonewall Gunner.
Tucson's offense failed to take advantage of another golden scoring opportunity after NightHawks corner Kareem "INT" Jackson stepped in front of an Outlaw pass and came away with the interception. NightHawks Quarterback Stonewall Gunner returned the favor on the very next play when he tried to hook up with wideout Shayde Black. Instead the pass was picked off ending Tucson's chances of taking advantage of the Las Vegas miscue.
The defense took no chances on the next turnover when the Outlaws again tried to go to the air. This time it was John McNeeley who did the honors for the NightHawks jumping the pass route and taking it to the house for a 82 yard score putting Tucson up 21-0. The Outlaws could net only 9 yards on their next possession and were again forced to punt the ball back to Tucson. After a 38 yard return by Palmer set the NightHawks up at the Outlaws 47 yard line the Tucson offense made short work of making the score 28-0 when Tucson tailback Blake Cooter rambled off tackle for 35 yards and a touchdown.
The second quarter saw the NightHawks add to their lead when they put together a 10 play 52 yard drive that was capped by another connection between Gunner and Bodeaux when again Bodeaux took advantage of the smaller Outlaws corner on a fade pattern. Already up 28-0 with plenty of time left in the half the NightHawks again put together a drive this one covering 63 yards, all on the ground. All three Tucson tailbacks garnered carries with Blah Dow doing the honors on the touchdown punching it in from 3 yards out. DeadNutzOn missed the extra point leaving the Tucson lead at 41-0.
Just 7 plays later Tucson would again add to its lead when Dow powered his way through the Las Vegas defense breaking 4 tackles on his way to a 45 yard touchdown and a 48-0 NightHawks lead. "Other than the interception there weren't allot of negatives going into the locker room at half time," said NightHawks QB Stonewall Gunner, "we felt like we probably could have had allot more yards through the air but we thought we could fix that in the second half." Tucson OC Rip Urheadoff agreed with his QB adding, "We knew we had some mismatches in the passing game that we should be able to take advantage of if we could hang on to the ball."
Instead the NightHawks opened the second half with Gunner's second interception of the game after Tucson had reached Outlaws territory. Vegas was unable to take advantage though as the Tucson defense again came up with the big play. This time it was Cro Marty who broke on a Outlaws pass picking it off and returning it 18 yards to the Outlaws 31 yard line. It took 5 straight pass attempts before Gunner found See-You-In-The-Endzone for a 3 yard touchdown and a 55-0 Tucson lead.
Tucson's bid for the shutout ended on the next drive when the Outlaws put together a 10 play 61 yard drive to make the score 55-7. Tucson snatched momentum right back though when special teams star David Palmer took the ensuing kickoff and dashed 90 yards for the score making the NightHawks lead 62-7. The NightHawks would add another 3rd quarter score one possession later after mixing the pass and run to perfection to move 60 yards and make the score 69-7.
It took three fourth quarter rushing touchdowns to produce the final tally. First Dow capped a 6 play drive with a three yard touchdown run, his third of the night. After Kareem "INT" Jackson added his second pick of the night Blake Cooter equaled Dow's touchdown output on a 62 yard touchdown run. Not to be shut out of the chance to practice his endzone dance Tucson tailback Flash Rodgers closed the scoring with a 7 yard touchdown run to cap a 7 play 73 yard drive. Rodgers who finished the game with 135 yards rushing and a touchdown couldn't praise his line enough. "You wouldn't believe the size of the holes they were opening out there," said Rodgers adding "and the receivers did a great job blocking on the outside when we ran the sweep."
"There's still a long way to go in the season but I'm fairly pleased with where we are right now both as a team and where we stand in conference play." said Pontiac reservedly. "We still have allot of improvements we need to make on both sides of the ball." Asked about the success of Palmer in the game Pontiac actually broke a rare smile, "Deuce has worked hard to improve his return skills. He watches allot of game film to get ready to do his job and it obviously has payed off this year. He knows right now his playing time is limited to special teams so he's trying to make the most of it. Of course if he keeps up playing the way he did tonight we're going to have to start finding more ways to get the ball in his hands."
***Stat Of The Game***
We could go with.......
0.....the number of times Tucson backs were tackled for a loss.
.....or we could use.......
137....the number of pancakes the NightHawks amassed as opposed to 0, the number of pancakes the Tucson defensive line gave up
....though some people would go with....
33.....the number of tackles Tucson backs broke on the way to scoring 7 touchdowns
.....but I think I'll go with..........
12.......the number of sacks the NightHawks defense came away with. 6 of them by DE Quickly Sacked alone.