Tulsa is a very talented team, but they seem to come up
just shy of expectations every season. They're led by QB Donnie Lowe and 2010 Offensive Rookie of the Year RB "Muddy Waters" Raffo. Raffo was the #14 overall pick in the 2010 draft, and he immediately paid dividends with his 307-1443-12TD rookie season. Tulsa thus has a balanced "pick your poison" offense - we'll do our best to shut down both prongs of their attack, but I doubt we'll be able to truly shut them both down.
On defense the Talons look really good - at least on paper. They signed 14-year vet DE Ralph Crank in the offseason to bolster their pass rush, and their defensive front in general is solid. Their secondary also has some good talent, but they've been a bit dinged up. Surprisingly, this team is 2-5 right now. I wouldn't have thought that possible, but they've had some bad luck in losing three games by 7pts or less. Last week they beat the snot out of Fargo 27-6, so we're hopeful that they've gotten that aggression out of their system and will be nice and compliant today.
We last played Tulsa in 2008, and we beat them 41-10 on the road. We're 3-0 overall against them.
Code:
Box Score: Tulsa at Tucson
Tucson, AZ.
Week 9, 2011
Attendance: 68,400 (69,800).
Weather: 62 degrees, fair.
1Q: 11:42 TUC - Anthony Torres 6 pass from Kent Goodwin.
1Q: 11:42 TUC - Hugo Eckard extra point.
1Q: 09:04 TUC - Sydney Armitage 3 pass from Kent Goodwin.
1Q: 09:04 TUC - Hugo Eckard extra point.
1Q: 01:37 TUL - Craig Schanding 43 field goal.
2Q: 12:40 TUC - Hugo Eckard 34 field goal.
2Q: 06:04 TUC - Hugo Eckard 39 field goal.
2Q: 01:08 TUL - Craig Schanding 36 field goal.
2Q: 00:05 TUC - Hugo Eckard 20 field goal.
3Q: 10:44 TUC - Corwin Jeffries 14 run.
3Q: 10:44 TUC - Hugo Eckard extra point.
3Q: 03:34 TUL - Daniel Cone 7 pass from Donnie Lowe.
3Q: 03:34 TUL - Muddy Waters Raffo run for conversion failed.
3Q: 02:54 TUL - Bob Brandon 32 interception return.
3Q: 02:54 TUL - Donnie Lowe pass for conversion failed.
4Q: 02:58 TUC - Hugo Eckard 33 field goal.
Game MVP: TUC 19 Kent Goodwin
Tulsa 3 3 12 0 - 18
Tucson 14 9 7 3 - 33
Team Statistics TUL TUC
First Downs 17 28
Total Rushes 17 38
Rushing Yards 59 139
Yards Per Carry 3.4 3.6
Pass Attempts 41 38
Completions 14 21
Passing Yards 173 349
Yards Per Attempt 4.2 9.1
Sacked 2 0
Yards Lost 13 0
Interceptions 3 1
Fumbles/Lost 2/1 0/0
Total Plays 60 76
Total Yards 219 488
Yards Per Play 3.6 6.4
3rd Down Plays 3/12 4/14
Avg. YTG on 3rd 11.1 7.7
4th Down Plays 0/0 0/0
Penalties 1 5
Penalty Yards 10 31
Avg. Drive Start OWN 28 OWN 37
Time Of Possession 24:10 35:50
Tucson Individual Statistics
Rushing Att Yards Avg Long TD
42 Holliday 26 97 3.7 13 0
26 Jeffries 9 40 4.4 14 1
19 Goodwin 3 2 0.6 4 0
Passing Att Comp Yards Yd/Att Long TD Int Sckd
19 Goodwin 38 21 349 9.1 37 2 1 0
Receiving Catch Yards Avg YAC Long TD
89 Armitage 5 77 15.4 25 33 1
80 Higginbotham 4 75 18.7 8 31 0
81 Hodges 4 71 17.7 7 23 0
82 Torres 3 57 19.0 16 37 1
85 Garcia 3 52 17.3 5 23 0
26 Jeffries 1 10 10.0 8 10 0
84 Joyner 1 7 7.0 8 7 0
Punt Returns Att Yards Avg TD
Kick Returns Att Yards Avg TD
81 Hodges 2 56 28.0 0
37 Rosenberry 1 14 14.0 0
35 Giles 1 29 29.0 0
Punting Punts Yards Avg Long In20
15 Winters 5 200 40.0 52 2
Kicking FG FGA Long PAT Att
12 Eckard 4 5 39 3 3
Defense Tackle Assist Sack Int IntYds IntTD
55 Trujillo 4 2 0.5 0 0 0
25 Minahan 4 0 0.0 1 0 0
45 Stine 3 2 0.0 1 0 0
35 Giles 3 1 0.0 1 7 0
40 Biggs 3 0 0.0 0 0 0
52 Wash 3 0 0.0 0 0 0
72 Bernard 2 1 1.0 0 0 0
70 Neubauer 2 1 0.0 0 0 0
58 Watford 2 1 0.0 0 0 0
93 King 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
75 Grier 1 2 0.5 0 0 0
31 Enoch 1 5 0.0 0 0 0
97 Horn 1 1 0.0 0 0 0
37 Rosenberry 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
32 Hartung 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
95 Stoltzfus 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
54 Reeves 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
21 Stallings 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
Miscellaneous Fumb FForc Recov MiscTD KeyRBlk SckAlwd
64 Connell 0 0 0 0 3 0
71 Franck 0 0 0 0 2 0
54 Reeves 0 1 0 0 1 0
31 Enoch 0 1 0 0 0 0
82 Torres 0 0 1 0 0 0
60 Poplawski 0 0 0 0 1 0
68 Kudrow 0 0 0 0 1 0
I'm always thrilled to get solid wins over good teams, which is exactly what we got today. In fact, we managed to pretty thoroughly dominate Tulsa - the score shouldn't have been this close, but an ill-timed Goodwin pass got picked off and returned for a TD. Tulsa's offense had a buttload of trouble trying to move against our resurgent defense. Raffo was held to just 23 yards on 11 carries, and Lowe was 14/41 for 173 yds, 1 TD and 3 INTs.
Offensively, Kent Goodwin established a new career-high in yardage (admittedly, it has been a short career) with 349 yards. He was very involved with the offense today (a bit to my surprise, actually), but Holliday managed to do his part with 97 yards rushing. I'll take it.
One frustration: we've occasionally had the computer plop a kick returner down who has absolutely no kick return skills. That's Jeremy "Cheap Shot" Rosenberry, who returned one kick today for 14 yards and one last week for 21 yards. This happened a few times last season as well, and it completely baffles me. I can understand needing to find another returner if your top two are winded or something, but why Rosenberry? He has no kick return abilities, and there are other folks on the roster who actually have some skill in that area. Weird.
The big bummer from this game is that we lost RT Matthew Pitman for the season. He suffered a compound leg fracture that looks to take at least a full calendar year to heal. Ouch. His loss hurts, but at least we've got longtime starter Chris Franck available to step in.
So we hit the halfway mark at 7-1, and hold a two-game lead over rivals Las Vegas and Honolulu.
Next up: a mid-season review of Your Beloved Toros.