Green Bay's growing pains

Originally published on ArenaFan.com

It was an ugly Friday night for the Green Bay Blizzard in front of 7,231 of its fans at the Resch Center.

But as disappointing as the 53-28 loss to the Manchester Wolves was, it was probably just what the young team needed after beating the Tennessee Valley Vipers, the defending ArenaCup champions, two weeks ago.

Why? Because you learn more from a tough loss than a big win, and Friday’s contest was about as tough a loss as there is to swallow.

The Blizzard turned the ball over four times and scored only one touchdown in the second half, which happened with only 3 minutes, 30 seconds left in the game, and after quarterback Gino Guidugli was benched.

“We didn’t put the ball in the end zone,” Blizzard head coach Bob Landsee said. “Our offense was absolutely pathetic, from top down.”

Guidugli threw three interceptions and completed just 47 percent of his passes. He took a seat midway through the fourth quarter after Manchester’s Jack linebacker Rob Green, who already picked off Guidugli twice in the third quarter, tipped a pass that almost turned into the signal caller’s fourth INT.

Guidugli had time to throw most of the night, but the Blizzard receivers didn’t find any openings in the Wolves’ defense, and the results were Guidugli forcing passes, running from pressure after holding onto the ball and misfiring passes in all directions.

“Everybody has those days,” Blizzard WR/LB Robert Garth said. “It wasn’t just Gino, we had receivers running into each other out there. You can’t put the whole thing on the quarterback.”

The Resch Center crowd, however, did put the blame on Guidugli, booing the QB after not being able to score on a fourth-down play inside the Manchester 10-yardline with 12:08 to play in the fourth quarter and the score 39-20.

Garth, the elder member of the Blizzard having played eight seasons in arenafootball2, has seen a lot of games where teams have comeback from a few scores down late, but his younger teammates haven’t.

“I think by us being young, a lot of guys revert back to the outdoor game when you are down 14-15 points it’s over.”

Garth also said the most disappointing thing was to lose that way at home, but hinted that the loss will serve as a motivational tool the rest of the season.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys. I’ve got more years by myself than everyone else combined.”

The man known as “Superman” was almost right. The Blizzard roster has 20 years of af2 experience;  eight of those years belong to Garth.

The other 12 years belong to eight players, and the team played 11 rookies on Friday night.

Also, years credited to the experienced players don’t account for full af2 seasons played, it simply signifies the player has played in at least one game in a previous season.

Guidugli, who has two years of credited experience, has never played a full season. He started eight games in 2007 before signing with the CFL’s B.C. Lions and came back last season to start the team’s final three games.

In those games, however, he looked like an unflappable veteran of 10 years, which is why his performance on Friday night was so surprising.

Despite the youthfulness of the Blizzard, Garth thinks this is probably the most talented team he’s been around.

Blizzard defensive tackle Zarnell Fitch, who spent time with three NFL teams, is one of the talented rookies on the team, and may not know everything about the Arena game yet, but does know what it’s not.

“We know this is not Green Bay Blizzard football. This is not what coach Landsee is teaching,” Fitch said.

The game played by the Blizzard on Friday night isn’t what Landsee is  teaching, but the pain felt from the lopsided loss will serve as a reminder as to what happens when you don’t follow the coach’s lessons.


Getting a little bit of redemption

Coming into the game, the Blizzard was hoping to get a little payback after Manchester knocked Green Bay out of the playoffs last season at the Resch Center by pulling out a 55-54 win.

But it was Manchester WR Steve Savoy who ended up getting some revenge instead. Last season, in the teams’ regular-season meeting in Week 3, which the Blizzard won 72-31, Savoy was knocked out of the game after receiving a hard hit while going over the middle.

Savoy didn’t play in the teams’ postseason contest, but was able to get some redemption on Friday night. The former Utah Ute caught 10 passes for 156 yards and two TDs.

He set the tone early, catching a 45-yard TD pass from James Pinkney on the first play from scrimmage. Then, on the 2-point conversion, Savoy was the holder and took the ball in what looked like a designed play instead of a bobbled snap, and plowed over Fitch, who is 6-foot-3, 323 pounds, to give the Wolves the 8-0 advantage.

Another season in the af2, but the same goal in mind

Originally published on ArenaFan.com

Gino Guidugli thought he was going to be throwing touchdown passes for the Cleveland Gladiators this season.

Bradley Chavez expected to catch his first TD of 2009 in a New York Dragons’ uniform.

Instead, both were on opposite sides of the field Saturday night in front of 5,596 fans at the Resch Center in the Green Bay Blizzard’s season-opening 53-40 win over the Tennessee Valley Vipers, the defending ArenaCup champions.

Guidugli, Chavez and many others playing in arenafootball2 this season had plans of making the jump to the Arena Football League before the cancellation of the 2009 season. But that’s in the past, along with the honeymoon period for the 2008 champs, whose title defense got off to a rough start from the get go.

After Green Bay scored a TD on its first drive, quarterback Kevin Eakin fumbled the first snap for the Vipers, which the Blizzard recovered, and four plays later, a one-yard TD run by Rod Olds gave Green Bay the early 14-0 lead.

Chavez, who was the af2’s Ironman of the Year last year and helped knock the Blizzard out of the playoffs as a member of the Manchester Wolves, got Tennessee Valley on the scoreboard with a three-yard TD catch from Eakin to pull the Vipers to within a TD, but that’s as close as they would get the rest of the night.

The Vipers had a chance to go into halftime down only eight points after Guidugli threw an interception to Travis Blanchard, however, Chavez couldn’t get a handle on a hold for a field-goal attempt and the Vipers went into the half down 24-13.

The errant pass was Guidugli’s only mistake of the night. The Blizzard QB was calm in the pocket, throwing away passes if receivers were covered, and finished with 223 yards and four TDs.

He didn’t see a lot of pressure from Eric Scott either. Scott, who was second in the af2 last season with 17.5 sacks, was held in check for the most part by two impressive rookies, Bill Bourdlais and Brandon Barnes.

“They did a great job,” Guidugli said. “I think I only got hit three or four times, and hopefully that continues throughout the season.”

The defensive end from Southern Mississippi did get his first sack of the young season, however, when a breakdown in protection left Scott one-on-one with fullback Orlando Medlock, who was no match for the 6-foot-2, 285-pounder.

Medlock fared better with the ball in his hands though, carrying the rock 15 times for 55 yards and found the end zone once.

The first play of the second half resulted in another turnover by Eakin. The Viper QB didn’t see Green Bay’s Robert Garth and threw it directly to the Jack linebacker waiting in the flats.

"In Arena Football, you can't turn the ball over and expect to win," Tennessee Valley head coach Dean Cokinos said. "We just turned the ball over too many times. We let the game slip away."

After a 36-yard field goal by Blizzard kicker Bob Forstrom, Vipers’ backup QB Tony Colston, last year’s ArenaCup hero, got a chance to rekindle the magic that helped the Vipers stun the Spokane Shock 56-55 in overtime to win the title.

Colston’s entrance into the game only seemed to spark the Blizzard’s pass rush, which was nonexistent in the first half. Colston nearly got sacked by Mac linebacker Craig Wilson on his first snap under center, and then threw away a pass before DE Byron Tinker came free on his blind side.

The lefty was called for intentional grounding and Tinker was awarded a safety on the play, which gave the Blizzard a 29-13 lead with 10 minutes, 33 seconds left in the third quarter.

Green Bay put the game away on the following possession when Guidugli hooked up with Nate Forse for an 11-yard score. Forse, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound WR, finished with nine catches for 109 yards and three TDs.

Eakin returned to the game after Colston’s safety and finished with 166 yards and two TDs, hitting 17-of-23 passes, but had two interceptions.

“It’s a new year,” Blizzard head coach Bob Landsee said.

“We beat them the second game last year. (Then) they went out and won the championship. We need to continue to get better every game. We can’t live on a big win early.”

The Vipers started last season 0-3, which included a 37-35 loss at home to Green Bay in Week 2, before winning 14 of their next 17 games to win ArenaCup9.

It was Green Bay’s first season-opening win since 2005, Landsee’s first year as head coach, when it beat the Albany Conquest 49-41. The fast start for this year’s Blizzard team can be credited largely to Guidugli’s return.

“It was nice not having to teach a quarterback how to play the Arena game,” Landsee said.

In each of the Blizzards’ previous six seasons, the team started with a new QB, and after starting six different QBs last season (Guidugli started the last three), it was a defiant boost to have a veteran under center.

For as good as Guidugli’s night went, it didn’t go as well for his fellow AFL-hopeful on the opposite side of the field, who watched the end of the game from the bench with his shoulder pads off after being injured. Chavez finished with five catches for 44 yards and the touchdown from the first quarter.

Still, Guidugli and Chavez both have the same destinations in mind, winning ArenaCup10 this season and then proceeding with their original plans of joining the AFL when it opens up again in 2010.

“We don’t have to be stars,” said Landsee about his players. “We all have to just get better and we will win, and when we win, everyone will get the accolades at the end of the year.”

Much more than a team

Originally published on ArenaFan.com

With 1:42 left in the third quarter it happened.

Manchester Wolves kicker Connor McCormick just made a routine extra point making the score 41-41, but I knew what the extra point really meant.

If you’ve read my articles in the past you already know what I’m getting at, and it’s a simple statistic that has determined the outcome of every Green Bay Blizzard game this season.

Coming into the second-round game with the Wolves, the Blizzard was 12-0 when holding a team to 40 points or less, and 0-5 when allowing 41 points or more.

So, as I sat and glared at the scoreboard in the Resch Center on Saturday night, I realized this was the moment that would determine the story of the Blizzard this season.

The statistic and tempo of the game had me feeling this would be the end to the run at an ArenaCup for the Blizzard, but I also knew this was a team that had come so far in 2008.

This was a team with the No. 1 defense in arenafootball2, which was capable, and often did, shutdown an opponent’s offense.

This was a team that went through three quarterbacks before finding a leader in Collin Drafts, and a playmaker in Gino Guidugli.

This was a team that became only the sixth franchise in af2 history to record 50 sacks in a season, and was led by the lineman of the year Joe Sykes.

This was a team that had the first player in arena football history to score 10 touchdowns and record 10 sacks in ironman Gus Tyson.

This was a team that had the face of the franchise, ‘Superman’ Robert Garth, come back to Green Bay where he belongs.

This was a team that won in my opinion the toughest division in af2 from top to bottom, the Midwest Division.

This was a team that led the af2 with eight players on the All-af2 team.

Lastly, this was a team, but I started to realize in the fourth quarter it was something more than that.

At the end of the game on Saturday night when I watched Wolves quarterback Brian Jones run into the end zone for the two-point conversion, and ultimately the 55-54 win, I knew what the loss meant and began to understand what I was watching all season.

It meant there wouldn’t be a third-straight trip to the American Conference Championship game, and the Blizzard was 0-6 when an opponent scored 41 points or more.

Yes, a simple statistic could tell you the outcome of every Blizzard game this season, but it doesn’t tell you the story of this team.

Because as I leaned against the boards and said my goodbyes to the team I had gotten to know so well, I realized I wasn’t watching a team all season, the 2008 Green Bay Blizzard was a family.

A family that opened its doors for me to be a part of it.

Green Bay welcomes back quarterback

Originally published on ArenaFan.com

You’re probably sick of hearing about Green Bay quarterbacks, but it’s been a popular story for media publications across the country, so why not stick with that theme here at ArenaFan.

Recently a former Green Bay quarterback asked the franchise if he could return to the team after deciding to leave, but was told by management and the head coach that the team had moved on.

But when another former Green Bay signal caller did the same thing a few weeks ago, he got a different response from the team.

Ok, maybe comparing Gino Guidugli to Brett Favre is a bit of a stretch, but when you are in a position to win a championship, a smart franchise would allow the quarterback that gives it the best chance to win play if he wants to.

That’s what the Green Bay Blizzard has done, unlike the team that plays across the street.

Guidugli was the Blizzard’s starter for most of the regular season last year. In his last three starts the offense scored 69, 77 and 74 points, and he had the team in position to win the Midwest Division with a win in the regular season finale against the Mahoning Valley Thunder.

Guidugli never played in the game because the Canadian Football League’s British Columbia Lions signed him.

The Blizzard lost to Mahoning Valley 70-50 without Guidugli, but would win two playoff games before losing in the American Conference championship against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers.

Even in the two-playoff wins, however, you could tell Guidugli’s presence was missed as the Blizzard scored only 39 and 37 points.

This season the Blizzard has relied on a dominating defense, which finished the regular season number one overall in arenafootball2, while the team searched for a signal caller.

Meanwhile, Guidugli was released from the B.C. Lions and signed with the New York Dragons of the Arena Football League to backup Aaron Garcia in the playoffs.

After the eventual ArenaBowl champions, the Philadelphia Soul, knocked the Dragons out of the playoffs Guidugli decided to not sign a deal for next season to be a backup because he felt he could start in the AFL with more experience at the af2 level.

This led him back to Green Bay after he made the call to Blizzard owner Brian Noble, who was happy to welcome him back to compete for the starting job.

Guidugli joined the team with one week left in the regular season, and impressed the coaching staff enough to give him the job over Collin Drafts, who was 6-3 in games that he appeared in.

In the nine games with Drafts at the helm, however, the offense scored 50 points only three times, and lost twice to the Lexington Horsemen by one point.

So, one year after leaving the Blizzard for the CFL, Guidugli found himself back with the Blizzard in the same situation he was in a year ago, a chance to win the Midwest Division by beating the Mahoning Valley Thunder.

Guidugli helped the Blizzard do that by beating the Thunder 61-13, but the Thunder wasn’t the toughest opponent either considering it finished the season 3-13 and its quarterback, Ray Marrow, was making his first af2 start.

The true test to find out if Guidugli could get the Blizzard offense on track came last Friday in the opening round of the af2 playoffs against the Lexington Horsemen.

It’s safe to say Guidugli and the offense passed the test.

Guidugli was 14-of-19 for 206 yards passing for five touchdowns and rushing for another leading the Blizzard to a 65-37 win over the Horsemen.

The Blizzard defense remained dominant as well, collecting a franchise-record 10 sacks.

The Blizzard appears to be peaking at the right time, and with Guidugli back, has a full arsenal of weapons to continue its push for an ArenaCup title.

The Blizzard will host the Manchester Wolves this Saturday at the Resch Center, which is located across the street from Lambeau Field.

When you cross Oneida Street in Green Bay you’ll find a professional football team on each side of the street.

One team is struggling to make a decision about a quarterback because it is more concerned about the future, and another that is trying to win a championship now.