Rush Win a Close Match in Des Moines

My main concern last week was that Chicago could shoot themselves in the foot and lose the game to Iowa.  Unfortunately, I missed most of the game, coming in during the final minutes of regulation, and then watching the game through over-time.  From what I could figure out from listening to the announcer for Chicago, the team struggled during the first half.  However, Chicago managed to fight their way back and tie the game in the final seconds.

In overtime, Iowa marched down the field and scored, drawing first blood, but their kicker failed to score the extra point, leaving the door open for Chicago to come back and win.  Chicago took the ball and worked their way into the end zone, tying the game until the Rush kicked the point after to take sudden death and win the game.

So, what's next?  Chicago should be able to handle the Kansas City Command, as I stated in my review of the Kansas City Command Game.  The Barnstormers will be taking on the Pittsburgh Power.  Here are two teams that are sitting with only one win.  So, the question is, can Iowa beat the Power on the road?  I am going to base my prediction on the fact that the Barnstormers seem to be able to rise to the occasion, and give them the benefit of the doubt.   That's right, I'm simply going with the local team.

So, Chicago over KC ... Iowa over Pittsburgh.

Command Drop Game Three

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the Kansas City Command dropped their third game to the Arizona Rattlers.  And it shouldn't be a surprise that the Rattler's won the game by twice the score.  Kansas City isn't going to be much to talk about this year.  Simply put, if the AFL fans in Kansas City want to get behind a team, they  might want to consider someone like the Barnstormers who seem to be able to surprise people with their performances.

As for the fans.  The attendance reports should be dismal.  The poor performance by the Command isn't going to be the main problem.  Kansas tipped off against Ohio State at eight o'clock, thirty minutes after the Command game was scheduled to start.  It would be a safe bet to say that Allen Field House has more people in attendance than the Sprint Center.

Update:  The attendance at the KC Command Game was beyond dismal.  Its is clear where the priorities lay for Arena Football Fans in Kansas City.  The attendance for this game, as reported to Arenafan.com?  2,833 in the seats.  Strangely enough, attendance across the league was up for this particular week.

Next Week?  The Command take on the Chicago Rush, and while Kansas City has been known to surprise the Rush - see last season - I doubt that Kansas City is going to win in Chicago.  So, Chicago over Kansas City.

Command Drop Game Two

While the Command seemed to be able to get the scores they needed to stay close in the game, but they couldn't pull it together enough to develop a win.  Again, I caught the game on Ustream, and I sat back and watched another AFL game that never came close to reminding me of the level of play that we were all accustom to back before the original AFL collapsed in 2008.

The Kansas City Command currently hold the lowest average for number of points scored per game in the entire league at 33.5, and have the second highest number of points allowed per game at 50.5.  They are failing to convert third downs and actually gave the ball up on downs in their game against Cleveland.  Kansas City is suffering the same disgrace that the rest of the league is suffering, and it's not showing any signs of getting better.  In fact, unless the Command start to show something to the fans, attendance is going to become even more dismal than it already is, and AEG is not going to allot the Command use of the Sprint Center if they cannot show a respectable profit.  And let's face facts, its far less about the sport and fans with the new AFL than it is about making a good solid profit for the owners and the league.

But let's look ahead now.

The Arizona Rattlers come to Kansas City in week four.  Arizona is currently in second place in their division and averaging 70 points per game in offense.  They lost against the Sabercats by one point in Week One, and in Week Two collected their first win against the Milwaukee Mustangs at home.

With the dismal showing that the Command has given over first three weeks of the season, I find no reason to believe that anything is going to change, and the Command will drop game two ... at home ... against a team that managed to make it to the Arenabowl last year and despite the fact that there is now a major turnover in players within the teams of the AFL.

Arizona over Kansas City

Rush Go 2 & 0

It wasn't pretty, and the Rush almost gave it away in the final seconds of the game, but them managed to become the only team to go 2 and 0 so far this season.  Up by as much as two scores, and coming back from a 14 point deficit, the Chicago Rush pulled out a win against the Orlando Predators with a score of 51-49.

Let's be honest.  If you watched the game on Ustream, you couldn't help but notice the number of people who were yawning during the final half of the game.  This is not the Arena Football that we all loved back before the collapse of the original AFL.  This is not the AFL that we were wanting to see Resurrected, and with the Player's Union put in its place last year, we're not likely to see if get any better at any time in the near future.

Next on the board for the Rush?  Iowa.  Enough said.  Rush will walk away with that one as well, unless this desire to shoot themselves in the foot overwhelms them.

Barnstormers Lose to the Blaze

I will give the Iowa Barnstormers this, they have tenacity.  Down by 20 points shortly after half-time, they scored, then forced a fumble that brought them immediately back within six points.  But they are making mistakes that against a better team could have put the game out of reach quickly.  These mistakes could be even more dangerous to a team who had a dismal road record in 2011.  But still, the team has tenacity.

Now, watching the game on Ustream, I couldn't help but notice that the arena didn't look like it had a good attendance.  But let's be fair.  Its St Patricks Day, and Iowa State is playing Kentucky at the same time in the NCAA tournament (Iowa St lost).  Still, the Iowa Barnstormer reported an attendance of 8,258, which is respectable for the new Arena Football League.

The Barnstormers need to figure out how to stop shooting themselves in the foot.  The strip of J.J. Raterink for a score, then the backward pass that Utah picked up for another touchdown are classic problems that need to be addressed if the Barnstormers are going to become a team to take seriously.

What about next week?  The Barnstormers have a bye.  They come back on March 31st at home against the Chicago Rush.  As it stands right now, barring any disasters, the Rush should be able to handle the Barnstormers in Iowa.

Command Lose Season Opener to Jacksonville at Home

The Kansas City Command open their 2012 Season at home with a loss to the Jacksonville Sharks, 28-52.  But the score wasn't the only loss.  The Command and the owners of the Sprint Center, AEG, have been battling a dwindling interest in the team since the team made the move from Kemper to the new Sprint Center.  The season opener is recorded as having a league low 5,161 in attendance, and to be honest, its hard to get your team inspired when the seats look mostly empty.

So, what's next?  The Command are going to play the Cleveland Gladiators who are coming off a loss to the Georgia Force.  Cleveland was clearly the superior team in 2011, finishing at the top of the division, and with the history of the Command, its a pretty safe statement to say that Kansas City fans need to be ready to look an 0-2 Command when they come back home to Kansas City to suffer another loss against the Arizona Rattlers.  Could this change?  Yes, it could.  Will it?  Unlikely, based on the history of the Command.

Predictions:
Week Three:  Cleveland over Command
Week Four:  Arizona over Command (but we'll re-examine it after the next game)

AFL - Less than Impressive

We love our Arena Football.  We would love it more if the league set pay standards that would attract the better players who are not locked into another Professional Football team.  Prior to the collapse of the AFL in 2009, the average wage of an AFL player was around 85,000 a year.  That's nothing to sneeze at.  However, with the restructuring of the Arena Football League, and the 2010 failure of the newly formed AFL Player's Union, the average Arena Football Player only makes $400 per game.  On a 16 game schedule, that works out to a staggering ... wait for it ... $6,400 per year.  Wow, don't quit your day job.  No seriously, the League has even told them ... keep a day job.

Now I did find a resource that claimed that the top players in the League make around 50,000 per year.  The average income for a team player would depend on the number of higher paid stars and the Salary Cap for the league ... a cap that I've heard about, but can't find any information on.

The toothless Player's Union is not going to make matters any better any time soon.  In 2010, it was made clear by the Team Owners that they will use Union Breaking Tactics to prevent the Player's Union from gaining any real control.  When the Player's decided to boycott the games at the opening of the 2010 season, after the owners and league were not willing to come to terms with the Players Union, the owners locked out their players and brought in people who were willing to cross the line and play for a team that they had originally failed to make the roster for.  This caused the league's players to cross their own picket lines, breaking the attempt of the Player's Union to get back some of the five thousand dollars in "per game" salary cuts.

Now, the money stats are based on information available on the Internet.  The story of how the player's boycott was broken by the team owners was a story told by a team rep for the Spokane Shock during the television broadcast streamed via uStream.tv this past Monday night.  What should be a hint of how things are is the fact that he seemed proud of the event and how it turned out.

So, despite the banner that says "25 Years", this is not the Arena Football League that captured the hearts of  fans for over twenty years.  This is a new version, with less of a focus on the fans and more on making big money for the little men who are Arena Football team owners.

Command vs Sharks - Game One in Kansas City

Unless the Command have made some major changes to their team, unless they have put the problems of 2011 behind them, the Kansas City Command will open their 2012 Season with a loss at home against the Jacksonville Sharks.  Now, I know that there are going to be a lot of people who would want to disagree with me.  The Kansas City Command Fans really want this team to step up and have a winning season.  But history is working against them.  The Kansas City Command have not been able to put together a winning season since they moved from Kemper to the Sprint Center, and dwindling attendance makes it hard for the team to afford picking up the better players (as if the league was paying them much to begin with).

So, I am going to make two predictions:  Command will drop one to the Sharks, attendance will be its normal less than 9,500 in attendance, even with the specials they are running.

Barnstormers Beat Spokane in Overtime

The first half of the game was back and forth between the Iowa Barnstormers and the Spokane Shock.  But things seemed to change after half-time as the Spokane Shock seemed to be shooting themselves in the foot.  The Iowa Barnstormers took the lead, and at one point had extended their lead to 56-42, but that lead would dwindle and regulation time would run out with the score tied at 63.

Iowa won the coin toss for overtime and after deferring to Spokane.  On the third play of overtime, Iowa intercepted the ball and that set up the 35 yard pass from Raterink to Marco Thomas that would give Iowa the win.

Spokane didn't look good most of the game.  In fact, if it hadn't been for the vicious hit that took Spokane's Quarterback out of the game, the game would have likely ended with a much more decisive win by Iowa.  Meyer was just not putting it together.  Iowa also needs to take into consideration that incidents like the vicious hit that Mohring put on Spokane's Quarterback, that got him ejected from the game, is going to put a target on their backs and could work against them.  I mean, come on gentlemen, its not like you're out there defending a job that pays millions a year.  This is arena football, you're not making all that much, and with the past success of your player union, its not going to get much better.

So, what's next?

The Iowa Barnstormers host the Utah Blaze on Saturday.  The Blaze lost their first game of the season against Arenabowl Champion Quarterback Aaron Garcia, and the San Antonio Talons who were only 8-10 for 2011.  Utah apparently had a rough game, penalties and miscues being a major part of their loss.  Iowa is normally efficient at home, and coming in with a Win against Spokane, I am going to give Iowa the nod in this match up.

Week Two Prediction:  Iowa over Utah.

Rush Run Over Tampa Bay

First game of the season, and the Chicago Rush are off to a great start.  With a team record eight towndown passes, and two returned interceptions, Russ Michna opened the season with a 70-48 WIN!

I really wanted to sit down and watch the game.  I found a free video feed from the stadium on Ustream TV, but life took me away from my computer and I didn't get back to the computer until after the game was over.  But I'm excited about the win!  Michna with eight touchdown passes, Kevin Morris with two great interceptions for touchdowns.  There is every reason to believe that the Rush have an excellent chance of making a serious bid for the 2012 Arenabowl.

So, what's next?  The Chicago Rush will take a bye in Week Two, then host the Orlando Predators in a Thursday night game for Week Three.  The Orlando Predators suffered a double digit loss in Week One against the Pittsburgh Power, (40-26), on the road, but in 2011 they finished the season with a record of 11-7, with a record of 5-4 (.555) on the road.  Chicago had a strong home record in 2011, and they are off to a great start in 2012.  My prediction for Week Three?  I think I'll take Chicago again.  Both Chicago and Pittsburgh will be coming back from a Bye Week.