This week we draw division rival Las Vegas in what will be a matchup of two of the league's hottest teams. Vegas (8-5) has won five straight, while we've won eight. The Rounders feature a strong defense (who will probably be without the services of their star DT Mario Ah Yat) and mad-bomber Lenny "Jackpot" Olson at QB. Olson is a weapon to be feared, as he can nail a 50-yarder at any time. This year, however, he's not been too effective, completing just 51% of his passes for 2665 yards, 14 tds and 9 ints. Not bad, but not what we're used to seeing from him. Hopefully he won't turn things around against us today, as we desperately need a win to stay on top of the division. Arizona plays Honolulu in the other division matchup today - if Bug could pull out a win in that tilt it would be much appreciated.
One final note: our defense has played marvelously all year, but we've been suffering key injuries at an alarming rate over the 2nd half of the season. It remains to be seen if we can hold them together long enough to get some players back, but we need to hope for no new injuries in this game.
On to the action!
Code:
Box Score: Las Vegas at Tucson
Tucson, AZ.
Week 15, 2009
Attendance: 67,000 (69,800).
Weather: 56 degrees, fair.
1Q: 11:09 TUC - Rubin Castorena 30 field goal.
1Q: 02:05 LVS - Felix Savoy 36 field goal.
2Q: 07:04 LVS - Ira Saxon 22 interception return.
2Q: 07:04 LVS - Felix Savoy extra point.
2Q: 01:44 TUC - Corwin Jeffries 1 run.
2Q: 01:44 TUC - Rubin Castorena extra point.
2Q: 00:04 LVS - Felix Savoy 49 field goal.
3Q: 11:07 TUC - Rubin Castorena 57 field goal.
3Q: 01:59 TUC - Freddie Housley 6 pass from Milan "Colonel" Hogan.
3Q: 01:59 TUC - Rubin Castorena extra point.
4Q: 06:35 LVS - Felix Savoy 44 field goal.
Game MVP: TUC 4 Milan "Colonel" Hogan
Las Vegas 3 10 0 3 - 16
Tucson 3 7 10 0 - 20
Team Statistics LVS TUC
First Downs 14 20
Total Rushes 23 35
Rushing Yards 58 121
Yards Per Carry 2.5 3.4
Pass Attempts 36 34
Completions 16 17
Passing Yards 232 188
Yards Per Attempt 6.4 5.5
Sacked 3 3
Yards Lost 11 18
Interceptions 0 1
Fumbles/Lost 0/0 1/0
Total Plays 62 72
Total Yards 279 291
Yards Per Play 4.5 4.0
3rd Down Plays 6/17 8/17
Avg. YTG on 3rd 9.2 9.7
4th Down Plays 0/1 0/0
Penalties 7 6
Penalty Yards 50 38
Avg. Drive Start OWN 27 OWN 27
Time Of Possession 27:02 32:58
Las Vegas Individual Statistics
Rushing Att Yards Avg Long TD
22 Jennings 17 31 1.8 8 0
45 Greene 3 15 5.0 7 0
28 Woolridge 3 12 4.0 5 0
Passing Att Comp Yards Yd/Att Long TD Int Sckd
1 Olsen 36 16 232 6.4 49 0 0 3
Receiving Catch Yards Avg YAC Long TD
28 Woolridge 3 29 9.6 6 13 0
83 Poole 3 67 22.3 0 49 0
88 McDonald 2 21 10.5 1 16 0
84 Feeney 2 31 15.5 4 16 0
82 Hopkins 2 14 7.0 1 8 0
45 Greene 1 12 12.0 0 12 0
12 Barrett 1 23 23.0 10 23 0
22 Jennings 1 5 5.0 4 5 0
87 Maxcy 1 30 30.0 11 30 0
Punt Returns Att Yards Avg TD
83 Poole 2 7 3.5 0
21 Lyon 1 1 1.0 0
Kick Returns Att Yards Avg TD
82 Hopkins 2 47 23.5 0
22 Jennings 1 21 21.0 0
Punting Punts Yards Avg Long In20
6 Money 8 287 35.8 47 3
Kicking FG FGA Long PAT Att
18 Savoy 3 3 49 1 1
Defense Tackle Assist Sack Int IntYds IntTD
51 Butler 8 6 0.0 0 0 0
97 Spalding 6 1 1.0 0 0 0
72 Lopez 5 1 1.0 0 0 0
92 Aaron 5 0 1.0 0 0 0
30 Grider 5 4 0.0 0 0 0
55 Saxon 4 3 0.0 1 22 1
98 Fike 4 1 0.0 0 0 0
21 Lyon 4 0 0.0 0 0 0
43 Walton 3 4 0.0 0 0 0
25 Beesley 2 3 0.0 0 0 0
42 Grayvil 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
70 Weaver 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
75 Smalls 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
45 Greene 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
28 Woolridge 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
23 Dowdy 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
33 Brewer 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
95 Rodgers 0 1 0.0 0 0 0
Miscellaneous Fumb FForc Recov MiscTD KeyRBlk SckAlwd
67 Blackburn 0 0 0 0 0 2
56 Baker 0 0 0 0 2 1
75 Smalls 0 0 0 0 2 0
72 Lopez 0 1 0 0 0 0
78 Twisp 0 0 0 0 1 0
87 Maxcy 0 0 0 0 1 0
Tucson Individual Statistics
Rushing Att Yards Avg Long TD
42 Holliday 20 67 3.3 16 0
26 Jeffries 14 55 3.9 10 1
4 Hogan 1 -1 -1.0 -1 0
Passing Att Comp Yards Yd/Att Long TD Int Sckd
4 Hogan 34 17 188 5.5 25 1 1 3
Receiving Catch Yards Avg YAC Long TD
89 Armitage 4 64 16.0 3 25 0
26 Jeffries 4 36 9.0 15 17 0
82 Torres 4 36 9.0 5 13 0
80 Higginbotham 3 37 12.3 3 22 0
11 Housley 2 15 7.5 2 9 1
Punt Returns Att Yards Avg TD
42 Holliday 2 9 4.5 0
Kick Returns Att Yards Avg TD
85 Garcia 1 22 22.0 0
Punting Punts Yards Avg Long In20
15 Winters 7 290 41.4 48 1
Kicking FG FGA Long PAT Att
13 Castorena 2 2 57 2 2
Defense Tackle Assist Sack Int IntYds IntTD
93 King 8 2 0.0 0 0 0
31 Enoch 7 3 0.0 0 0 0
75 Grier 6 0 1.5 0 0 0
90 Jarrard 4 1 0.0 0 0 0
95 Stoltzfus 3 1 0.5 0 0 0
55 Trujillo 3 3 0.0 0 0 0
37 Rosenberry 3 2 0.0 0 0 0
40 Biggs 3 1 0.0 0 0 0
32 Hartung 2 1 0.0 0 0 0
46 Bloch 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
25 Minahan 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
97 Horn 1 0 1.0 0 0 0
26 Jeffries 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
30 Robbins 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
74 Cochrane 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
33 Mirer 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
73 Smith 0 1 0.0 0 0 0
72 Bernard 0 1 0.0 0 0 0
Miscellaneous Fumb FForc Recov MiscTD KeyRBlk SckAlwd
64 Connell 0 0 0 0 6 2
82 Torres 0 0 0 0 4 0
71 Franck 0 0 0 0 2 1
77 Thiele 0 0 0 0 1 0
42 Holliday 1 0 0 0 0 0
26 Jeffries 0 0 0 0 1 0
59 Buckley 0 0 1 0 0 0
Las Vegas Drive Chart
Quar Began Poss From Plays Yards Result
1 15:00 0:30 OWN 20 3 0 Punt
1 11:09 5:40 OWN 26 10 39 Punt
1 3:58 1:53 OWN 37 4 44 Field Goal
1 0:49 2:22 OWN 32 4 22 Punt
2 9:33 2:10 OWN 35 5 14 Punt
2 1:44 1:40 OWN 22 5 46 Field Goal
3 11:07 1:33 OWN 26 3 0 Punt
3 8:10 1:30 OWN 20 3 -1 Punt
3 1:59 2:15 OWN 20 6 11 Punt
4 13:17 6:42 OWN 2 11 71 Field Goal
4 3:55 0:56 OWN 42 4 13 Punt
4 1:51 0:36 OPP 49 4 0 Downs
Tucson Drive Chart
Quar Began Poss From Plays Yards Result
1 14:30 3:21 OWN 40 6 47 Field Goal
1 5:29 1:31 OWN 20 3 -1 Punt
1 2:05 1:16 OWN 20 3 6 Punt
2 13:27 3:54 OWN 4 7 30 Punt
2 7:23 0:19 OWN 10 2 0 Interception
2 7:04 5:20 OWN 20 11 80 Touchdown
3 15:00 3:53 OWN 20 9 40 Field Goal
3 9:34 1:24 OWN 44 4 13 Punt
3 6:40 4:41 OPP 47 11 47 Touchdown
4 14:44 1:27 OWN 39 5 17 Punt
4 6:35 2:40 OWN 24 3 -10 Punt
4 2:59 1:08 OWN 13 6 0 Punt
4 1:15 1:15 OWN 49 3 9 Game
Las Vegas Red Zone Profile
Visits TDs FGs
1 0 1
Tucson Red Zone Profile
Visits TDs FGs
3 2 1
Not the prettiest of games, but in many ways this wound up being a RoF classic. A loss here would've put us just one game ahead of Vegas, so a tough, tight match was expected, and that's exactly what we got. The defenses both did a great job neutralizing the offenses, and our D did an especially good job as Vegas' only TD came on an INT return. That's noteworthy, as we're currently missing three starters on the defensive front. But this one really boiled down to special teams. Rubin Castorena again came up huge for us, making both of his FG attempts including a 57-yarder. We also held the edge in the punting game (again, an area that I think most owners overlook), which helped to level the field position battle. Overall, I'm satisfied with this win, especially considering our limitations on defense.
Unfortunately, my hope for making it through a game injury-free was shattered when we lost starting RCB Jeremy Rosenberry for 8 weeks with a stress fracture in his leg. We've got some depth in the secondary, but we really can't afford to lose anyone else.
On a happier note, MrBug did come through for us and pulled off an upset win at Arizona, 20-17 (thanks Bug! I've asked my secretary to send you a fruit basket). That puts us two games ahead of the Outlaws with two games left to play. In fact, I think we may have clinched our division today, even though FOF doesn't show it. We're 11-3 and Arizona is 9-5, and we've already beaten Arizona once this year. If we both finish 11-5 and they beat us in the season finale, we'd split and the next tiebreaker would be division record, which would be 4-2 for me and 2-4 for Arizona. While I won't count this as a division clincher until I see it in the game, we may have just won our first division title! Allow me to shout out a tentative "woohoo!"
We still have those two games to play though, and at present we have the best record in the Western Conference. It would sure be nice to secure home field advantage through the playoffs, so I don't anticipate letting up too much down the stretch. Our next game is at Albany (3-11). Stay tuned!