Blizzard rout Manchester, 72-31

Originally published on ArenaFan.com

Usually if a little mistake doesn’t get corrected it will lead to bigger mistakes over time, or take a lot of time to get sorted out.

That was the story for the Manchester Wolves as they listed fullback Dan Crozier as number 36 instead of his jersey number 39 in the roster that has to be submitted an hour before the game to the officials and the opposing team. By rule in arenafootball2 if the name and the jersey doesn’t match up that player is ineligible.

After a 15-minute delay to the start of the game and a call to the league offices, Crozier was allowed to play, but the Wolves had to change the sixes on his jersey with duct tape to look like nines, but the Wolves probably wish they could have changed the final score of the 72-31 loss they suffered at the hands of the Green Bay Blizzard at the Resch Center on Friday night.

The Blizzard (2-1) offense started off fast as quarterback Shane Adler, who earlier in the week was given the job after the Blizzard had used three different quarterbacks in its first two games, connected on an 18-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Steve Gonzalez on the first drive of the game.

On Manchester’s first possession quarterback Justin Rummel also threw a touchdown pass, but it was to Green Bay’s Jack linebacker Anthony Crissinger-Hill.

The rest of the game would be similar. Green Bay would make plays, and Manchester would make mistakes.

The Blizzard offense, which struggled in its first two games, produced eight touchdowns. Six of those were passes from Adler, who looked like he was more comfortable in the pocket compared to his previous outings.

“Our timing is coming around,” said Blizzard wide receiver Scott Burnoski, who had six catches for 115 yards and four touchdowns. “We’re comfortable and he kind of knows when we’re going to make our breaks and he’s putting the ball right there. There’s improvements that need to be made defiantly, but we’re defiantly coming around.”

Gonzalez, who played for the Wolves in 2006, said Manchester was playing a lot of man-coverage in the game, which meant he wasn’t double-teamed for the first time this season and it allowed him to catch 10 passes for 104 yards and two touchdowns.

“The offense really needed to pick it up and make a statement and say hey the offense is here too,” Burnoski said. “The defense can’t win all the games for us.”

Maybe not, but it sure looked like it could in this game.

The defense added two touchdowns of its own and forced a safety. The defensive line, which consisted of Kory Lothe, Quartez Vickerson and Joe Sykes, and Mac linebacker Tim Daniels provided consistent pressure all night.

“All three of those defensive lineman can be in arena one next year,” said Blizzard head coach Bob Landsee. “Those are three really, really good kids, not only on the field, but off the field and I think it’s really neat to see them grow.”

On a few occasions Daniels was untouched in getting to Rummel, and Sykes said that was because he picked up on which way the Wolves offensive line was sliding their protection based on their hand placement before the snap.

“He was holding onto the ball and padding it,” Sykes said of Rummel in the first half.

“My hats go off to the defensive backs, they’ve been doing good all year.”

The defense tallied four fumble recoveries and one interception, and totaled seven stops in the game.

“They were getting confused by the way we were rushing them,” Landsee said. “We kept changing it up, and a lot times they ended up having two guys blocking one...and that poor quarterback ended up having a long day.”

As for the Wolves (1-1), it’s never a good thing when arguably your two best players don’t finish the game.

In the second quarter, Wolves wide receiver Steven Savoy attempted to catch a pass on a slant route, but Blizzard defensive back Edward Kwaku was there to break it up, and Savoy would remain motionless on the turf after the play.

Thankfully, after a couple of minutes Savoy started to move his legs rapidly and squirm as the trainers tried to relax him to stabilize his head and neck as a precaution. After the game Wolves officials said Savoy suffered a concussion that temporarily knocked him unconscious.

The other player that didn’t finish the game for the Wolves was defensive back Dahn Singfield, who was the defensive player of the year in the af2 for the Memphis Xplorers in 2005, because he was ejected along with Blizzard defensive back Nate Green.

The two got in a scuffle after a kick off in the fourth quarter, but the score was 56-31, and the Wolves needed Singfield more than the Blizzard needed Green at that point in the game.

The Wolves were also without veteran wide receiver/defensive back David Bailey, who didn’t make the trip because of an ankle injury and after Savoy was injured it forced Manchester to play Will Evans, who primarily is a defensive back.

Evans did have a 48-yard touchdown catch to start the fourth quarter to make the score 50-31, but the Wolves could not overcome the pass rush of the Blizzard in the second half.

Even though the Blizzard played its most complete game of the season, Landsee said there are still mistakes that need to be fixed.

These include the snaps and holds on extra points, quarterback protection and keeping focused after gaining a large lead.

The biggest thing Landsee will take away from this game, however, is confidence.

“They quit thinking,” Landsee said. “If you think about things you’re a step slow...I think tonight they finally got to the point where things started to click and they saw the things we were talking about and they reacted and didn’t think about it.”

The Blizzard plays at South Georgia next Saturday in the team’s longest road game of the year.