I'm back from yet another "family trip" and have two weeks worth of exciting CFL action to catch up on here. So let's get right to it, shall we?
Arizona is struggling again this season and sits at 4-5, which puts them in 3rd place in the RoF. They are, however, still a very dangerous team, as demonstrated by their offensive explosion last week vs. Anchorage. They pulled out a 45-38 win, led by Freddie Matthias' career-high 479 passing yards and 5 TDs. Obviously, we'll need to prevent a repeat of that performance to beat the Outlaws.
We'll be without a key starter on the O-line, Matthew Pitman, who suffered a strained back against Vegas. We'll also be without "Cheap Shot" Rosenberry. But on the plus side we're getting Demetrius Higginbotham back, which should in theory help out our passing game a bit. On to the action!
Code:
Box Score: Arizona at Tucson
Tucson, AZ.
Week 11, 2010
Attendance: 67,100 (69,800).
Weather: 44 degrees, fair.
1Q: 08:47 TUC - Sydney Armitage 8 pass from Milan "Colonel" Hogan.
1Q: 08:47 TUC - Rubin Castorena extra point.
1Q: 03:02 ARI - Paul Stephan 38 field goal.
1Q: 00:16 TUC - Ray Minahan 31 fumble return.
1Q: 00:16 TUC - Rubin Castorena extra point.
3Q: 05:34 TUC - Rubin Castorena 44 field goal.
Game MVP: TUC 75 Howie Grier
Arizona 3 0 0 0 - 3
Tucson 14 0 3 0 - 17
Team Statistics ARI TUC
First Downs 13 14
Total Rushes 26 31
Rushing Yards 71 138
Yards Per Carry 2.7 4.4
Pass Attempts 37 26
Completions 19 15
Passing Yards 192 173
Yards Per Attempt 5.1 6.6
Sacked 4 1
Yards Lost 28 8
Interceptions 0 0
Fumbles/Lost 2/1 2/1
Total Plays 67 58
Total Yards 235 303
Yards Per Play 3.5 5.2
3rd Down Plays 4/17 3/13
Avg. YTG on 3rd 7.4 7.1
4th Down Plays 1/2 0/1
Penalties 4 2
Penalty Yards 35 15
Avg. Drive Start OWN 25 OWN 27
Time Of Possession 29:01 30:59
Tucson Individual Statistics
Rushing Att Yards Avg Long TD
42 Holliday 18 66 3.6 20 0
22 Bradley 10 67 6.7 20 0
4 Hogan 2 2 1.0 4 0
26 Jeffries 1 3 3.0 3 0
Passing Att Comp Yards Yd/Att Long TD Int Sckd
4 Hogan 25 14 171 6.8 22 1 0 1
19 Goodwin 1 1 2 2.0 2 0 0 0
Receiving Catch Yards Avg YAC Long TD
82 Torres 4 55 13.7 22 22 0
80 Higginbotham 3 35 11.6 7 17 0
89 Armitage 2 26 13.0 3 18 1
22 Bradley 2 14 7.0 7 9 0
42 Holliday 1 3 3.0 2 3 0
84 Joyner 1 20 20.0 22 20 0
81 Hodges 1 18 18.0 1 18 0
85 Garcia 1 2 2.0 0 2 0
Punt Returns Att Yards Avg TD
22 Bradley 1 20 20.0 0
85 Garcia 1 -1 -1.0 0
Kick Returns Att Yards Avg TD
24 Sinclair 1 17 17.0 0
81 Hodges 1 15 15.0 0
Punting Punts Yards Avg Long In20
15 Winters 8 341 42.6 51 4
Kicking FG FGA Long PAT Att
13 Castorena 1 1 44 2 2
Defense Tackle Assist Sack Int IntYds IntTD
95 Stoltzfus 6 3 0.5 0 0 0
52 Wash 5 2 0.0 0 0 0
58 Watford 5 0 0.0 0 0 0
75 Grier 4 2 2.0 0 0 0
31 Enoch 4 3 0.0 0 0 0
25 Minahan 4 1 0.0 0 0 0
93 King 4 0 0.0 0 0 0
97 Horn 3 1 1.5 0 0 0
40 Biggs 3 2 0.0 0 0 0
55 Trujillo 3 1 0.0 0 0 0
44 Blank 3 0 0.0 0 0 0
27 Ellsworth 3 0 0.0 0 0 0
60 Poplawski 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
32 Hartung 1 2 0.0 0 0 0
70 Neubauer 1 1 0.0 0 0 0
73 Smith 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
71 Franck 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
72 Bernard 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
65 Lyle 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
24 Sinclair 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
Miscellaneous Fumb FForc Recov MiscTD KeyRBlk SckAlwd
54 Reeves 0 0 0 0 1 1
64 Connell 0 0 0 0 4 0
71 Franck 0 0 1 0 2 0
25 Minahan 0 0 1 1 0 0
65 Lyle 0 0 0 0 2 0
4 Hogan 1 0 0 0 0 0
95 Stoltzfus 0 1 0 0 0 0
58 Watford 0 1 0 0 0 0
26 Jeffries 0 0 0 0 1 0
84 Joyner 1 0 0 0 0 0
60 Poplawski 0 0 0 0 1 0
That was a very workmanlike performance, but I'll take it. Both offenses were off their games today, but we managed to get just enough out of ours to secure the win. "Colonel" Hogan was efficient in guiding the offense, but 3 for 13 on 3rd down conversions is not acceptable. And while our running game overall did well, I'm worried about Daryl Bradley getting 10 carries to Drew Holliday's 18. I'd much rather Drew get closer to 23 and Daryl 5. Long-time readers will note that this has periodically been a problem for me in managing this team, and I'm yet again stumped as to a solution. Holliday's PT is set to 9 and he has decent endurance (81/87), so I'm left scratching my head.
It was nice to get a defensive TD (our first of the season), our pass defense did a great job on Matthias (19/37, 192 yds), and our run D held them to just 2.7 ypc. An overall solid effort from the defense, though I would still like to see more than one turnover per game.
And for once we managed to get through a game relatively unscathed. No new injuries of significance. Happy happy.
So now we sit at 7-3, 1.5 games behind the 8-1-1 Honolulu Bloodthirsty Beagles, and facing a horrendous stretch of games: vs. Hartford (8-2), at Denver (7-3) and at Boston (7-3). We'll need to win at least two of those three to hang with Honolulu. If we come out of that sequence at 8-5 we're probably looking at a Wild Card berth (at best), and if we lose all three to fall to 7-6, we're probably done.