Our week 17 matchup with Honolulu (11-3-1) presents us with all kinds of motivation to win. First, we need a win to stay alive for the final Wild Card spot (we also need Settle to lose to Anchorage). Second, Honolulu thrashed us something fierce back in week 7 by the score of 28-0. We'd like to redeem ourselves by returning the favor. Third, this game is still meaningful to Honolulu, as a win here would keep them alive in the race for the #1 playoff seeding. If nothing else, it would be fun to play spoiler there. Fourth, SkyDog has promised to
consider changing the "Bloodthirsty Beagles" name if Randolph Kranz does not set the league single-season record for QB Rating. Going into the game he is poised to do so, but two other QBs are right behind him and are also poised to set the record. Beating the snot out of Kranz would at least give the CFL the chance to rid itself of the worst team nickname in league history. And finally, this is a game against our longtime rival Honolulu, which is really all the motivation we need. The head-to-head tally currently stands 10-6 in their favor, but we've made great strides in the last several seasons (if I recall correctly we once had a 9-2 deficit against them).
We're optimistic about this game because some injured players are finally starting to come back. Our entire starting defense is now playable, and we'll only be missing one of our offensive linemen. Both of those are huge changes compared to our last few months of league play, in which we always seemed to be missing
at least two (and often more) key contributors for each game. Today we will be without #1 WR Sydney Armitage, which will be a liability against a secondary as strong as Honolulu's, but Brent Garcia has been playing well in his stead and we're hopeful he'll continue to pick up the slack.
On to the game!
Code:
Box Score: Honolulu at Tucson
Tucson, AZ.
Week 17, 2010
Attendance: 67,100 (69,800).
Weather: 37 degrees, fair.
1Q: 09:21 TUC - Corwin Jeffries 8 pass from Milan "Colonel" Hogan.
1Q: 09:21 TUC - Rubin Castorena extra point.
1Q: 01:03 TUC - Corwin Jeffries 6 pass from Milan "Colonel" Hogan.
1Q: 01:03 TUC - Rubin Castorena extra point.
2Q: 14:14 HON - Glenn Hale 48 field goal.
2Q: 10:49 HON - Glenn Hale 45 field goal.
2Q: 02:54 TUC - Drew Holliday 13 run.
2Q: 02:54 TUC - Rubin Castorena extra point.
2Q: 00:15 TUC - Rubin Castorena 39 field goal.
3Q: 12:13 HON - Jody Beech 31 pass from Randolph Kranz.
3Q: 12:13 HON - Patrick Benton run for conversion failed.
3Q: 10:56 TUC - Brent Garcia 11 pass from Milan "Colonel" Hogan.
3Q: 10:56 TUC - Rubin Castorena extra point.
3Q: 09:43 TUC - Keven Biggs 67 interception return.
3Q: 09:43 TUC - Rubin Castorena extra point.
3Q: 01:53 TUC - Rubin Castorena 31 field goal.
4Q: 00:12 TUC - Rubin Castorena 48 field goal.
Game MVP: TUC 4 Milan "Colonel" Hogan
Honolulu 0 6 6 0 - 12
Tucson 14 10 17 3 - 44
Team Statistics HON TUC
First Downs 15 29
Total Rushes 12 36
Rushing Yards 46 229
Yards Per Carry 3.8 6.3
Pass Attempts 39 33
Completions 14 25
Passing Yards 255 240
Yards Per Attempt 6.5 7.2
Sacked 4 2
Yards Lost 20 14
Interceptions 3 0
Fumbles/Lost 0/0 0/0
Total Plays 55 71
Total Yards 281 455
Yards Per Play 5.1 6.4
3rd Down Plays 4/12 5/12
Avg. YTG on 3rd 10.3 7.1
4th Down Plays 0/0 0/0
Penalties 6 8
Penalty Yards 40 55
Avg. Drive Start OWN 26 OWN 31
Time Of Possession 22:46 37:14
Tucson Individual Statistics
Rushing Att Yards Avg Long TD
42 Holliday 20 169 8.4 54 1
22 Bradley 12 36 3.0 6 0
4 Hogan 1 10 10.0 10 0
43 Jenkins 1 0 0.0 0 0
26 Jeffries 1 3 3.0 3 0
85 Garcia 1 11 11.0 11 0
Passing Att Comp Yards Yd/Att Long TD Int Sckd
4 Hogan 33 25 240 7.2 19 3 0 2
Receiving Catch Yards Avg YAC Long TD
82 Torres 6 50 8.3 23 13 0
26 Jeffries 4 22 5.5 26 8 2
85 Garcia 4 48 12.0 18 19 1
80 Higginbotham 3 39 13.0 5 18 0
88 Ramirez 3 33 11.0 0 12 0
22 Bradley 2 10 5.0 5 7 0
81 Hodges 2 27 13.5 6 19 0
83 Chandler 1 11 11.0 1 11 0
Punt Returns Att Yards Avg TD
42 Holliday 1 8 8.0 0
Kick Returns Att Yards Avg TD
81 Hodges 2 32 16.0 0
85 Garcia 1 22 22.0 0
Punting Punts Yards Avg Long In20
15 Winters 5 215 43.0 61 2
Kicking FG FGA Long PAT Att
13 Castorena 3 3 48 5 5
Defense Tackle Assist Sack Int IntYds IntTD
70 Neubauer 5 1 1.0 0 0 0
40 Biggs 3 0 0.0 1 67 1
31 Enoch 3 0 0.0 0 0 0
95 Stoltzfus 2 0 1.0 0 0 0
97 Horn 2 0 1.0 0 0 0
55 Trujillo 2 1 0.0 1 24 0
58 Watford 2 2 0.0 0 0 0
52 Wash 2 0 0.0 1 0 0
22 Bradley 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
25 Minahan 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
26 Jeffries 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
24 Sinclair 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
45 Bennett 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
72 Bernard 1 0 1.0 0 0 0
37 Rosenberry 1 1 0.0 0 0 0
90 Jarrard 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
75 Grier 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
Miscellaneous Fumb FForc Recov MiscTD KeyRBlk SckAlwd
65 Lyle 0 0 0 0 5 1
64 Connell 0 0 0 0 3 0
54 Reeves 0 0 0 0 3 0
60 Poplawski 0 0 0 0 2 0
43 Jenkins 0 0 0 0 0 1
63 Pitman 0 0 0 0 2 0
26 Jeffries 0 0 0 0 1 0
59 Buckley 0 0 0 0 1 0
83 Chandler 0 0 0 0 1 0
WOW.
That was exactly the kind of performance we needed. What a difference an offensive line makes! We only gave up two sacks and nailed 18 KRBs for Drew Holliday, who ran wild over Honolulu's suspect Run D. Hogan had plenty of time to throw against a superb Honolulu secondary, and was very unexpectedly able to pick them apart. And Brent Garcia had another solid game for us filling in for Armitage - in fact, his three game total filling in for Armitage (20 of 25 passes caught, 222 yds, 2 TDs) was better than any three consecutive game outputs by Armitage this year. Hmmm...
Our defense was terrific against Honolulu's dangerous passing game. Words really can't do their effort justice, but look at this drive chart:
Code:
Honolulu Drive Chart
Quar Began Poss From Plays Yards Result
1 9:21 3:56 OWN 24 8 51 Missed FG
1 1:03 1:49 OWN 33 5 36 Field Goal
2 12:14 1:25 OPP 35 3 7 Field Goal
2 7:25 1:39 OWN 27 3 -4 Punt
2 2:54 0:57 OWN 20 3 -4 Punt
2 0:15 0:15 OWN 20 1 -2 Half
3 15:00 2:47 OWN 28 5 72 Touchdown
3 10:56 1:13 OWN 32 2 16 Interception
3 9:43 0:43 OWN 20 2 10 Interception
3 7:07 2:19 OWN 9 5 20 Interception
3 1:53 1:41 OWN 30 4 35 Punt
4 13:55 2:45 OWN 20 10 41 Punt
4 7:58 1:42 OWN 23 3 3 Punt
4 0:12 0:12 OWN 17 1 0 Game
Just look at that
beautiful third quarter. Kranz looked absolutely lost out there in what was easily his worst game of the year. He was 14 for 39 passing for 255 yds, 1 TD and 3 INTs, and that was enough to dislodge him from the top of the QB Rating standings. As I noted above, SkyDog indicated that he'd consider changing his team name to something less terrible than "Bloodthirsty Beagles" if that happened. And here is what he subsequently had to say on the subject of changing his team name:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by SkyDog
OK. Thought about it.
No.
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Alas.