A bad week to be a #1 seed as both Seattle and Boston fall in the Divisional Round, bringing cries about over-resting starters and teams being rusty after 2 weeks of “rest”. A much better week for #2 seeds as both Ohio and Memphis move on to become hosts for the Conference Championships. What we as fans got this week were 4 playoff games all decided by a touchdown or less, as all 8 clubs fought until the final whistle. And what we get next week is a battle of dynamic offenses in the East and a clash of divisional rivals in the West. Let’s start by looking at just how the Bulls, Showboats, Machine and Glory took one more step towards Summer Bowl 2007 in Glendale, Arizona.
ORLANDO 31 MEMPHIS 34
Once again the week of playoff action opened with its best game, a shootout between two of the league’s hottest QBs as Brett Favre and Drew Brees went head to head in Memphis. This one would come down to the wire, with the Showboats mounting a final minute drive to field goal range to keep the game from heading to overtime. The two teams traded scores all afternoon long as both defenses struggled to keep up with the offensive production of their opponents.
Brees hit Justin McCaerins with the opening salvo of the game, only to have Memphis respond with a Cadillac Williams TD run 3 minutes later. Then, after Maurice Smith gave the edge to the home team, Brees hit Michael Jenkins to tie it up again. Memphis responded with a Lionel Gates TD, and as time ran down in the 2nd quarter, Brees hit on his third TD of the day, connecting with Greg Olsen to even things up at 21 going into the break.
The defenses fared a little better in the second half, with both clubs connecting on field goals in the third, but it heated right back up in the final period, where Memphis again took the lead, this time with Favre connected with Robert Ferguson on a fade route to go up 31-24. Memphis would come right back, and with 1:46 left to play, Drew Brees landed his 4th TD pass, back to his rookie TE Olsen to again tie the game, 31-31 with just under 2 minutes to play. But, as we all saw coming, 2 minutes with Brett Favre at the helm was just too much time. Favre guided the Showboats all the way to the 6-yard line of the Renegades, calling time out with 4 seconds left on the clock. The rest was cake for veteran kicker Jeff Hall, who put up the easy 3 and gave the win to the homestanding Showboats, who now move on to host the Eastern Conference finals right back at the Liberty Bowl in one week’s time.
CHICAGO 17 SEATTLE 13
In a very different, but equally intense game at Seattle’s Qwest Field, Chicago survived an early 10-0 hole and slowly fought their way back, holding the Dragon offense to only 13 points and taking a 17-13 victory. Seattle struggled the entire game to find an offensive rhythm against Chicago’s aggressive scheme. Byron Leftwich was pressured regularly, resulting in 5 sacks and a pick. Rookie Brady Quinn threw 2 picks in the game, but the Chicago offense found its focal point with Michael Turner’s 104 yards rushing.
After a scoreless first quarter, Seattle got on the board first with a Corey Dillon goal line run. They would add a Dave Raymer field goal to open a 10-point lead, but Chicago would score just before the half, Quinn connecting on his only TD of the day, a 10 yard pass to TE Aaron Shea. In the third, Seattle would get the only points, another Rayner kick to go up 6, but the 4th quarter saw Chicago take the lead and hold it.
Midway through the final period, the Machine took advantage of a fumble by Seattle TE Visante Shiancoe, and with a short field they would take the lead when backup HB Derrick Blaylock, in for the injured Maurice Clarett, hit on a counter run from the 7. Seattle could not return with a scoring drive, and when Chicago got a Tim Seder kick to go up 4, it meant that the Dragons would need a TD as time wound down. That score would not come as the Machine got a pass break up from SS Sammy Knight on a 4th and 4 attempt to force a turnover on downs and salt the game away. The win means that Chicago heads to their second Conference Championship in three years.
JACKSONVILLE 32 BOSTON 30
The Boston Cannons could only muster 37 yards on the ground without Tiki Barber available, while Jacksonville got 105 from Antowain Smith. That, paired with a pretty even duel between Bledsoe and Delhomme, gave the slight edge to the Jacksonville Bulls, who used scores from TE Jeb Putzier, and receivers Hayes and Woods, to edge the Cannons in Boston, ending their hopes for a title in what could be Drew Bledsoe’s final season.
The game was close throughout, with Boston holding a slight 17-16 lead after scores from backup HB Tony Hunt and #1 receiver Chad Ochocinco, but in the second half, Delhomme connected with both of his wideouts and kicker Justin Medlock’s only kick of the half was good, giving the Bulls a 32-23 lead with only 4 minutes left to play. Boston got 7 more, but with a minute left needed to convert on an onside kick to have a shot at a game winning field goal. Failing to claim the ball on the kick meant that Jacksonville would take the W and move on to face Memphis next week.
OAKLAND 17 OHIO 24
Ohio scored the final 10 points of the day to turn a 17-14 deficit into a 24-17 win in the fourth as Kerry Collins threw for 305 and the Glory hold off the surging Invaders, winning the right to host next week’s Western Conference Championships. Oakland relied on Ricky Williams to both possess the ball and shorten the game. The big back got 26 carries on the day, resulting in 115 yards and a score, but in the end, Ohio was able to get two scores in the final 11 minutes of action to take the W.
Ohio got on the board first as Kerry Collins, the game MVP, connected with Reche Caldwell for the only score of the opening period. Williams helped even the score with a 2-yard plunge in the 2nd, but Ohio responded with an Eddie George TD run to take a 14-7 lead into the half. In the third Oakland added a field goal to pull within 4 and then, early in the 4th, they went ahead when backup HB Jerious Norwood took a pitch to the left and found the corner of the endzone for a 4-yard scoring run.
Following the Oakland score, Ohio marched 81 yards in only 7 plays, with Collins finding his big TE, Stephen Alexander on a backbreaking 35-yard strike to retake the lead. When Oakland could not respond on their next drive, Ohio made the difference 7 with a Mike Hollis at the 3-minute mark. Oakland tried to deliver on a final drive, but came up short, forcing kicker Joe Nedney to attempt a 55-yarder at the buzzer to send the game to overtime. The kick was short and to the left and Ohio held on to take the game and set up a divisional rivalry game next week for the Western title.
So, next week it will be a bit of an oddity, with the Eastern Final in Memphis and the Western Final in Columbus, East will actually play further west than the Western title game.
TOP SEEDS STUMBLE
Almost immediately after the weekend’s results were final, the questions began. Did Seattle and Boston actually hurt their chances by resting players in Week 14? Was 2 weeks without action too long, creating rust for both clubs and allowing the hungrier, and less rested Wild Card opponents an advantage. While in the case of Boston the argument could be made that the absence of Tiki Barber, more than a rested Cannon roster, was the most impactful distinction between the Cannons and the Bulls, Seattle’s lackluster 13-point performance against Chicago does seem to argue that the Dragons may have been out of synch after several starters got a 2-week respite before this game.
Yes, we want to credit the Chicago defense for a good scheme, one which largely took David Boston out of the game and contained Corey Dillon, but there have to be lingering doubts in Coach Marvin Lewis’s head about the decision to rest Dillon, Leftwich, Boston, and Stephens in Week 14. The Seattle offense did not look sharp, and Chicago just seemed the hungrier team.
For Boston, with 2 weeks to plan for an offense without Tiki Barber, the Cannons certainly had more going for them on offense, putting up 30 points, and perhaps they expected to be facing #3 seed Philadelphia instead of the #6 seed Jacksonville, which may have caused them to not adequately use the bye week to prepare, but in the end, it may have simply been a matter of Jacksonville having more offensive firepower than the Cannons. Tony Hunt, while he did score this week, rushed for only 31 yards on 17 carries, not exactly balancing the offense for Boston. The Cannons also seemed too reliant on Chad Ochocinco, whose 9 receptions were 5 more than any other receiver on the team.
While both teams have several other potential reasons for their failure to use home field to their advantage, no doubt but that fans of both will continue to wonder aloud (and on Boston radio at least it is very loud) that resting players when you have a bye coming is a formula for failure. Regardless of the reason, both top seeds now find themselves one-and-done, watching the Conference title games from afar.
PLAYERS ANNOUNCE RETIREMENT PLANS
Two weeks into the offseason for most of the teams in the league—all but 4 now—and we have seen the wave of retirements begin to impact squads. With an expansion draft on the horizon, as well as free agency, retirements can also force teams to consider significant changes to their strategies regarding the offseason. Looking over the landscape of the league’s 22 non-Conference Title teams, here are what we consider the 10 most impactful retirements already announced (with 1 reserved for announcements we are anticipating but have not seen yet.)
DT Norman Hand, LV: The big man in the middle for the Thunder, Hand retires after 13 years in the USFL. The good news for the Thunder is that young Haloti Ngata is more than ready to be the main man in the middle of the Vegas D-line, backed up by veteran Nick Eason. This was a very solid group for the Thunder this year, so expect that they will add depth but feel no need to bring in a high-priced free agent.
C Olin Kreutz, STL: The Skyhawks lose two veteran leaders this offseason, and while the departure of CB Tyrone Drakeford is problematic, losing the captain of the O-line could be a bigger loss for a team still trying to find itself.
TE Cam Cleeland, WSH: With Bubba Franks already a free agent, the retirement of Cleeland means that the Federals are going to have to prioritize the Tight End position this offseason, replacing their top two reception leaders at the position.
WR Keenan McCardell, NOR: The Breakers are back in the hunt for a true #1 receiver, and now are looking at replacing both McCardell and Hakeem in the same year. Looks like Mike Nolan will be engaged in a full rebuild with the squad after barely holding on to his position after a 1-13 season.
HB Terrell Davis, ATL: We saw this coming. Davis has definitely been through the wars, and his burst is just not what it was. He gave the Fire 1,300 yards this year, but it was not easy. Signing Davis was always a short term premise for the Fire, so it looks like 1 year is all they get and now they have to decide if they are comfortable with Rod Smart as their #1 or not.
LBs Randall Godfrey and Mike Crawford, HOU: The Gamblers have a good, solid LB corps, but losing two starters is never an easy thing to stomach. They are likely to promote either Zac DeOssie or Kevin Burnett into the starting lineup, but will need to find at least one potential starter between free agency and the draft to deal with the dual retirements at the position.
HB Ahman Green, PHI: While not entirely unexpected, the Stars were certainly hoping Green would give it one more go. They have solid depth with Michael Robinson and Cedric Cobbs on the roster, but may still feel the need to seek a quality back in the draft to try to maintain offensive balance.
DE Greg Ellis, MGN: The Panthers were already shallow at the DE position, but the departure of Greg Ellis now immediately boosts the position to the top of their offseason need list. If they are going to compete with Ohio, Chicago, and an improving Pittsburgh team, they are going to need to find answers at the DE spot with Ellis now playing golf.
Two huge hits for New Jersey is our #1 retirement impact. One was anticipated, the departure of wideout Terry Glenn. After 12 years at or near the top of the leader board, it was anticipated that this might be the last year for the speedy wideout. But, what the Generals likely did not anticipate is that Curtis Enis would also step away from the game. Had they known about his decision, they might have fought harder to retain James Jackson, now a free agent. The loss means that they have to replace not only the #1 receiver on the team but both their #1 and #2 halfbacks.
Boston’s fingers are crossed as both Drew Bledsoe and Tiki Barber have been hinting at retirement for a couple of years now. Losing one would be a big blow (as we saw with Barber’s absence this week) but to lose both in the same year would mean Coach Fox all but has to start from scratch on offense. No announcements yet, but all of New England is holding their breath in hopes that by some miracle both Bledsoe and Barber decide to give it one more go in 2008.
FREE AGENTS
After two rounds of playoffs there are 8 teams fewer in the postseason pool and that also means 8 more teams are dealing with unsigned players becoming free agents. Whether the decision of the team to not resisn a player or of the player and his agent to seek alternatives, these free agents are now on the open market, still able to return to their original team if the two can come to an agreement, but in 2 weeks they become potential candidates for some big league wooing from the rest of the league, and just one week later the NFL can come calling.
BOS: Cornerback Tyrone Poole (34) is very likely going to get a very good offer or two, most likely for a 1- or 2-year deal. LB Will Witherspoon and FB Justin Green could also be attractive targets.
HOU: Offensive Line is where Houston could lose two quality starters as both center Brad Meester and OT Tra Thomas are now free agents. QB Kris Kershaw and kicker Josh Brown are also now ready to look at offers.
LA: hard to believe that the Express could not come to deals with either DE Jevon Kearse or WR Tory Holt, but with their cap status it just seems like they could not find a way to free up enough room to sign either. Add in WR Arnaz Battle and SS Rich Cody and it could be a bad offseason for the Express.
NSH: The Knights had hoped to resign center Jake Grove, but no such luck. Wideout Bobby Shaw and HB Musa Smith have never really found a home in Nashville, so they now will see what other options they may have.
OAK: DT Jason Fisk could be a bargain for a team looking for a run stuffer, while CB Billy Austin is another underappreciated commodity. Kicker Joe Nedney may still resign, but it looks like SS Torrian Gray is hoping to find a new home after some disputes with the Oakland coaching staff.
ORL: A big one for the Renegades as lead back Sedrick Irvin is taking a bet on himself that he can find a market at 30 years old. Guard Bobbie Williams, TE Ricky Dudley and LB Jeff Gooch are just looking for a playce they can get more on-field time.
PHI: We had a feeling the Stars could not afford to sign both Steve Smith and Amani Toomer. They chose to focus on Smith, so Toomer, the 33-year old vet, will now look for a third team. SS Reggie Tongue and LB Zach Thomas are two more veterans who may finish their career elsewhere. Free Safety Madieu Williams is really the only young pup on Philly’s free agent list.
SEA: The Dragons had expected to have more time to finish up contracts, but their loss this week means that QB Jeff Blake, LB D. D. Lewis, and HB Joe Montgomery are all now free agents.
Three of four teams come in to the Conference Title Games relatively unscathed by their playoff runs. Memphis still lists Lee Evans as doubtful, Chicago may be without Maurice Clarett (Questionable), and Ohio still has Mike Doss as their only reported injury. Jacksonville has not been so lucky. In addition to Jason Whitten, who is out for the year, the win over Boston also cost them center Dominic Raiola (ankle), and both LB Lavar Arrington (knee) and CB Joey Graham (ankle) are now doubtful for the game. Losing two starting defenders when you go up against Brett Favre could be a problem, to be sure.
Birmingham Coaching Search May Require Patience
With both expansion clubs settled on the coach who will build their franchises, and with St. Louis down to four finalists, there remains only one open head coaching search left in the USFL, that of the Birmingham Stallions. We sat down with Stallions GM Bob Gates and talked about the search. Gates, who was Stallions Director of Player Personnel back in 1983 when the club was founded and who spent 10 years with the club before signing on as the GM for the New Orleans Saints and then the Tennessee Copperheads of the NFL, returned to Birmingham two years ago and is now faced with two difficult tasks, finding a coach who can return Birmingham to glory and finding a potential replacement for Jason Campbell, who has struggled since coming to the Stallions from Auburn.
We asked Mr. Gates what his timeline for the search was, and he all but admitted that this may be a search that extends into January, after the upcoming NFL season. “There is no rush to judgement” Gates said. “We want to take our time, and make a decision we all feel is in the best interest of the club.” That all sounds nice and good, but with this being an expansion year, with added losses to the team expected, and with a QB situation that is hardly settled, it would seem that getting a coach in place sooner, rather than later, would be a priority.
To that question, Gates replied: “We feel more than comfortable with our player personnel team of negotiation both free agency and the expansion process without having our coach in place.” He added “Sure, in an ideal world, we would have a coach in place before the College Draft, just to help mesh his style with the players we select, but that is by no means essential.”
Some Stallion fans, many of them vocal on regional sports radio, are concerned that once again the Stallions will go for local connections over qualifications. It is true that, more than any other team, the Stallions have often opted for coaches with a local connection, from Gene Stallings to recently fired Dennis Franchione, the number of former Alabama head coaches who moved down the road from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham has been notable. The one time the Stallions went outside of that formula, hiring former NY Giants OC Ron Erhardt, produced the best results, including a league title, for the Stallions.
Will Birmingham wait out the NFL season and try to snag a coordinator on the rise, or a head coach in a contract year? Will they again look for someone with an Auburn Tiger or Crimson Tide connection? Or will the right man appear to them earlier? If our talk with GM Bob Wade is any indication, the Stallions are perfectly willing to play the waiting game, in hopes of finding the right man, not the man right now.
Portland Turns a Duck into the First Stag
The Portland Stags have not waited until USFL free agency kicks off in 17 days, or until October’s Expansion Draft, to sign their first player. The expansion Stags have landed a local star and a potential starter from the dustbin of the NFL roster churn. Former Oregon Duck QB A. J. Feeley has been without a club since the end of the 2006 NFL season, and as he is now more than 8 months without a contract, he is no longer confined to the NFL-USFL transfer window and can be signed by a club in either league. Portland has become that club and Feeley has become the first official Stag player.
Feeley, from nearby Ontario, Oregon, played for the Ducks from 1998-2001, a four-year letterman, before being drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 5th round of the 2001 NFL Draft. He would stay with the Eagles through the 2003 season, appearing in several games when starter Donovan McNabb was injured, including a notable run of wins in 2002, helping the club stay playoff eligible. Feeley was released by Philly after the 2003 season and latched on with the Miami Dolphins, where he competed with Jay Fiedler for the starting job. Let go by Miami after the 2005 season, Feeley spent most of the 2006 season on the bench in San Diego but was again let go in mid-November. He was not signed by an NFL team this past spring, and as the Free Agency clock has reached the important 8-month limit that allows a player to bypass the NFL-USFL transfer window, he was available to the Stags, and they jumped on the chance to sign a local product.
Feeley could well take the pressure off Portland to prioritize the QB position in the Expansion Draft, though they almost certainly will address the position at some point in the process. It also means that they can use the collegiate draft to address any of the other 52 spots on the roster. Expect Portland to sign at least 2-3 more quarterbacks between free agency, the expansion process, or the draft, but with a local star on the roster already, this expansion club is off to a good start.
League Format for 2008 Draws Criticism
As more and more details about the 2008 season schedule are released by the USFL, more and more critics are questioning the league’s decisions. We already knew that with the expansion to 28 teams in 2008 the league would be returning to a 16-game schedule, a move largely praised by both fans and players, but two other aspects of the new schedule have not been received as positively. Both fans and many players are unhappy about the decision to retain a 12-team playoff in 2008. They had hoped to see expansion to 7 teams per conference, representing 50% of teams. The league, having cited recent years in which teams with losing records have made the postseason tournament, have opted to retain the 12 team (6 per conference) format despite the addition of 4 new clubs since that format was adopted. The limit of 12 playoff teams means that the odds of a team with a losing record making the postseason, as Seattle famously did in their surprising title run in 2006, are much lower. It also means that some teams could face elimination from playoff contention that much earlier, which is, of course, not great for late season ticket sales.
The other decision is that of keeping the same division vs. extra-divisional format for the league. With 4 of the 6 divisions now having 5 teams, with the remaining two (South and Southwest) having 4 teams, the league is maintaining a format in which all clubs face divisional foes twice. That may sound fair, but what it means, when you expand back to a 16-game schedule, is that only 6 of 16 weeks will be divisional rivalry games for teams in the Southern and Southwestern Divisions, and only half of the season’s games (8 of 16) will be divisional battles for the clubs in the four 5-team divisions. Many fans had hoped the USFL would adopt something we have seen in the Canadian Football league, which is a third match between certain rivals within divisions to retain a majority-division schedule.
The hope expressed by many on the various “talking head” shows on ESPN and across sports radio, is a format that has each team play 9 divisional games (which would mean 3 games against each opponent in the division for the clubs in the South and Southwest, but only 1 additional divisional game for the other divisions). The theory is that by having all teams with an equal number of divisional games, you increase fan interest, but also increase competitiveness across all 6 divisions. Whether that is true or not is unknown, but we will not be finding out in 2008 as the schedule structure is set for the year. The matchups have yet to be released, as we typically see this come out in October, and this year it may be even later as the league focuses on the expansion process, but we do know that it will be 2 games against each division opponent for all 28 clubs, meaning some will have 6 divisional games and 10 inter-divisional matchups, while most teams will have 8 divisional and 8 inter-divisonal games in the revived 16-week schedule.
Two matchups of Wild Card teams on a roll against the #2 seed in each conference, that is what awaits us in the USFL Conference Championships. Can Chicago’s defense hold up against the offensive talent of the Ohio Glory? Will Jacksonville or Memphis prove more explosive on offense as veterans Jake Delhomme and Brett Favre face off? Two intriguing matchups as the #1 offense in the league, Jacksonville, face off against one of the league’s legendary quarterbacks. In the West, it is a rivalry as good as any in the league as Chicago takes their high-pressure, high-intensity defense into Columbus to face a very familiar foe. Can Kerry Collins once again lead his Glory squad back to the Summer Bowl? We will find out in just 4 days as the USFL Conference Championships decide who will be facing off in Summer Bowl 2007.
EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP
Sunday, July 15 @ 2pm ET
Liberty Bowl Stadium, Memphis, TN
Showboats favored by 3
This could be another shootout, as we saw in both the Orlando-Memphis and Jacksonville-Boston games. Offense should be the name of the game as both clubs got here on the strength of their offensive prowess. That said, the key could well be the ability of the defenses to either contain their opponent or to force takeaways. Normally we would look to Jacksonville’s Lavar Arrington to be a disruptor in this game, but he is likely forced out of this one by injury, which could hurt Jacksonville’s ability to force takeaways. The Bulls still have some major defensive talent in the form of LB Mike Vrabel, DT Marcus Stroud, and DE David Bowens, but the defense definitely loses aggressiveness without Arrington on the field.
For Memphis the key player on defense has to be LB Hannibal Navies. Rookie Patrick Willis has been outstanding, but it is Navies who tends to be the biggest headache for opposing offenses. Navies is always around the ball and always trying to turn a stop into a takeaway. If he is successful, Memphis could have enough to outgun the Bulls.
OUR PICK: This is a tough one, because we love what both teams do on offense, but we are going to go with the Showboats, if for no other reason the loud support they will have from the fans in Liberty Bowl Stadium. Showboats 33 Bulls 31
WESTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP
Sunday, July 15 @ 6pm ET
Ohio Stadium, Columbus, OH
Glory favored by 4 ½
These two teams are like two bad neighbors. They know each other well, cannot stand each other, but cannot get away from each other either. The Chicago-Ohio rivalry has become one of the league’s best over the course of the new century, with Ohio often having the upper hand, but the wins never coming easy. We all know what storylines to expect. Ohio will try to use their trio of Collins, George, and Galloway to overpower the Machine defense, while Chicago will rely on Urlacher and the D to disrupt the Ohio offensive schemes, get to Collins early, and contain George.
Who wins will likely depend on who takes advantage of rare, missed plays and errors. Ohio can be vulnerable against the run, something Chicago is well aware of after their Week 7 clash in which Chicago rode Michel Turner’s 100-yard game to a 17-point victory. But, Chicago also has some weak spots, and with a rookie at QB you never know when the pressure will hit a breaking point.
OUR PICK: While the regular season battles between these two has evened out recently, Ohio still has been dominant in playoff matchups, and they certainly have more experience where it counts. We trust Kerry Collins to get the job done against rookie Brady Quinn. Our pick is Ohio. Glory 27 Machine 19.