Playoff ponderings

La’Run Council

La’Ron Council broke the IFL single-season rushing records for yards (1,040), attempts (256) and touchdowns (32) in a 72-41 victory against Wichita on June 16 by rushing for 148 yards on 30 carries and five TDs.

Council became the eighth player in any indoor league to reach the 1,000-yard plateau (See the list). Marquette Smith of the Green Bay Bombers in 2000 was the first. The last player before Council to accomplish the feat? Fred Jackson, who is now with the Buffalo Bills. That’s a pretty good omen for Council’s future.

Council needed only 45 yards to break the IFL record, which he accomplished midway through the second quarter. However, he was able to get to a 1,000 and break the TD record because Andrew Verboncouer sustained an injury in the team’s walk-through and was held out.

All-IFL teams

With the league downsizing this season, earning a spot on the all-IFL squad was a lot tougher this season with only 16 squads.

Council was an obvious first team choice at running back. Other Blizzard players getting recognized were offensive lineman Seth Smalls and defensive back/kick returner B.J. Hill on the second team.

Hill, the special teams player of the year last season, had limited return opportunities this season. He still returned four kicks and one missed field goal for scores, while also setting a league record for kick return average in a season (23.3 yards).

Getting an Edge

The Blizzard’s playoff opponent on Saturday is a familiar one.

The Blizzard defeated Bloomington twice in a seven-day span this season. It won 69-56 at the Resch Center on April 28 and 34-21 at Bloomington on May 5.

The Edge is led by veteran quarterback Dusty Burk, who came out of retirement this season at age 32 and surpassed the 10,000-yard mark for his career. Burk was third in passing yards (2,849) and fourth in TDs (57) this season in the IFL.

Bloomington also has a dominant defense, which led the league in sacks (40) and forced fumbles (14) in addition to be third with 24 interceptions. However, half of those picks belonged to James Temple, who was released last week (Bloomington Pantagraph article).

The Edge still has three players left on its defense who earned league honors, including defensive end Jeff Sobol, linebacker Ameer Ismail and defensive lineman Antonio Ficklin, a former Blizzard player. Ismail led the league with 167 tackles this season.

The interesting thing about Bloomington is it only played a total of six teams over the course of a 14-game season. Only three of those games were against teams who finished with a winning record and all three resulted in losses (two against Green Bay, one against Wichita).

Receiving help

The Blizzard has run into a rash of injuries at wide receiver. After Desmond Tardy was placed on season-ending IR two weeks ago, Bryan Pray sustained a separated shoulder late in the game against Wichita that ends his season.

With Pray being placed on IR, the Blizzard signed Daryl Robinson out of Temple this week. Robinson was briefly with the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks at the start of the season.

Playoff history

The Blizzard is 8-7 in the playoffs, including 4-2 at home. It would advance to its fifth conference championship game in its 10-year history with a victory against Bloomington, who is 0-3 in its previous trips to Green Bay.

The Edge (formerly known as the Extreme) is 2-5 all-time in the playoffs, including 0-3 since the inception of the IFL in 2009.

Playing in the old barn

This will be the first playoff game the Blizzard has hosted at the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena. The Resch Center is being used by the Green Bay Gamblers junior hockey team for tryouts this week.

The Blizzard played its first game in team history at the BCA in its home opener this season, which it won 64-12 against Cedar Rapids on March 9. The last indoor football game played at the BCA prior to that was the Green Bay Bombers’ final home game in 2000 against the Dayton Skyhawks in the playoffs.

The BCA holds about 3,000 less people for indoor football compared to the Resch, so it should seem like a more intimate feel and make things a little bit louder. The scoreboard hanging a little lower and a different backdrop might also give B.J. Hill a chance for a return against veteran kicker Peter Christofilakos.

Council's record night stokes Blizzard's rout

ASHWAUBENON — It was tough to tell which team was playing for the right to host a playoff game and which one had nothing to gain in postseason seeding on Saturday.

With the No. 2 seed in the United Conference and a home game locked up, the Green Bay Blizzard (11-3) tuned up for the Indoor Football League playoffs with a 72-41 pounding of the Wichita Wild in front of 3,037 fans at the Resch Center in the regular-season finale.

"We wanted to finish strong and put an exclamation mark on the regular season," said Blizzard coach Robert Fuller, whose team will host the Bloomington Edge at Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena at 7 p.m. Saturday.

La'Ron Council provided that exclamation mark by playing his way into the IFL record books.

Read the rest

Blizzard breaks franchise-scoring mark

ASHWAUBENON — The Green Bay Blizzard will be at home when it starts the playoffs for a third straight season.

The Blizzard's 89-27 victory over the Reading Express on Friday in front of 2,532 fans at the Resch Center made sure of that.

Green Bay (10-3) broke a franchise record for points scored to secure the No. 2 seed in the United Conference and will host the Bloomington Edge when the Indoor Football League's postseason begins in two weeks.

Read the rest

Just a few additional items to mention that I didn't put in the P-G game article.

-The Blizzard rushed for 168 yards a week after rushing for a franchise-record 177 at Lehigh Valley. Andrew Verboncouer had 73 yards on eight carries, with Council tallying his 77 yards on 15 attempts. Green Bay now has 1,302 rushing yards on the season and can move into third all-time in IFL history with 62 yards next week. The top two teams (Billings in 2009 and Siux Falls in 2011) both had Chris Dixon at quarterback.

-Council now has 892 rushing yards on the season and can break the IFL single-season record with 45 yards against the Wichita Wild in the regular-season finale. His franchise-record five touchdown runs puts him at 27 on the season, which moved him into second in a single season in IFL history , where the league record in is 31. Council is also 16 carries away from breaking that IFL record.

-The Blizzard has yet to have a 100-yard receiver in a game this season, as John Halman had 83 yards, Bryan Pray had 79, Scott Burnoski 45 and Desmond Tardy 28. Those four guys are really unselfish and great blockers in the run game.

Running wild

This article for the P-G wasn't posted on its site for some reason and it was cut in half due to space issues of the hard copy version of the paper.

Seth Smalls figured he would need to work on his pass-blocking skills when he decided to give indoor football a try.

After playing in a triple-option offense in high school and a run-oriented attack at Coastal Carolina University, the offensive lineman assumed his experience as a run blocker wouldn’t be utilized much in the 50-yard game.

That was until he met Green Bay Blizzard coach Robert Fuller.

“I thought the indoor game was nothing but passing,” Smalls said. “I get here and coach Fuller tells me I need to work on my run blocking if I’m going to play for him.”

Following a 41-33 victory at Lehigh Valley last Saturday where the Blizzard set franchise rushing records for attempts (41) and yards (177), it’s easy to understand why Fuller placed an emphasis on the ground game at the start of the season.

Powered by a rushing attack that averages 94.5 yards per game and features the Indoor Football League’s leading rusher in La’Ron Council, Green Bay (9-3) finds itself in position to clinch a home playoff game tonight when it hosts the Reading Express (2-11) at the Resch Center.

“With coach Fuller being a former offensive lineman, I knew it would be a fun offense to play in,” Blizzard center Shannon Breen said. “Being able to run the ball is huge to show scouts and teams different stuff that you wouldn’t get to do with other teams.”

The Blizzard has a run-to-pass ratio of 58-42 this season and with two games remaining in the regular season has gained 1,134 rushing yards to eclipse the previous franchise record of 953 set in 2010.

“When I first came here I honestly wondered what the fans would think of our offense and how they would receive a balanced attack or a little bit of a run-first type of approach,” Fuller said.

“But I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of people that come up to me after a game and tell me how much they enjoy seeing the running game in indoor football.”

With 815 yards on the season, Council is 122 shy of breaking the IFL record. He rushed for 119 yards last week to break the Blizzard’s single-game record for a third time this season and his 26 carries was a league high this year.

“He is an NFL talent, and I’d be awfully disappointed if he didn’t get a look from somebody,” said Fuller, who compared Council to Fred Jackson of the Buffalo Bills.

Fuller coached against Jackson when he played for the Sioux City Bandits in 2004 and 2005. He said one of the things Council shares with Jackson is a willingness to cover kicks and block on special teams.

“That sets La’Ron apart from the pack,”Fuller said. “There are a lot of great running backs out there. But he’ll do whatever is asked of him and do it to the best of his ability.”

Council has also made an impact in the run game when he reverses roles and acts a lead blocker for Andrew Verboncouer, like he did last week in order to allow Verboncouer to cap a drive with a TD.

“He deserved it because he was the workhorse on that drive,” Council said. “Whatever I can do to help my teammates, I’ll do it.”

Smalls feels unselfish plays like that is why Fuller’s running philosophy is successful.

“Everyone is involved in it,” he said. “It’s the wide receivers out there blocking their behinds off to get us those tough yards down the field and ultimately winning games. I just enjoy being here and playing in this scheme.”