Well both teams were 0-2 so someone had to win this game. We were playing at home for the 3rd game in a row. I think we were ready to win this game; we had enough game experience that we were ready to go ahead and win. Both of our teams are playing with a lot of rookies so I knew that their team was on the verge of winning as well.
Our offense and defense both started off hot and we were up quickly 21-0, but then the Guard (yes, their mascot is the Guard, which is like National Guard I guess. They had camouflage on the top of their shoulder pads). Anyway, the Guard came back and ended up scoring touchdowns on 8 of their next 9 drives that went late into the 4th quarter.
Something we were not able to grasp yet is the time management. In the outdoor game, you need to start your hurry up offense at about 2 minutes and that is why they call it the 2-minute drill. In the indoor game you don't need to start your hurry up offense until under a minute. So with a little over 2 minutes to go in the 1st half we started our hurry up offense and that messed our offensive flow up and we were unable to score and then we missed a last second FG from 38 yards.
At halftime the score was 27-21 in favor of the Marshals but the momentum was on the Guard's side. Fayetteville scored on their first possession of the second half but missed their opportunity to go up one point when their kicker missed the extra point. Then our offense kicked it back and answered right back finished by my first ever indoor rushing Touchdown on a QB sneak and that put us back up 34-27.
Then our defense came up big and our 6'6" safety Tim Wilkins got his 3rd interception of the season, and our offense scored within 4 plays to give us a 13 point lead cause we missed the extra point. Then Fayetteville scored a TD but missed the extra point again and then we answered with a 47-yard FG, leaving the score at 43-33 good guys.
Starting the 4th quarter, both teams traded TDs and then the Guard scored again. Then I scored my second rushing TD on a bootleg from 5 yards out giving us an 11 point lead with just over 2 minutes to play. But that is still a lot of time for indoor ball. Then we kicked off the Guard and pinned them deep. Our defense was in prevent so they caught a pass about midfield with 1:55 left to go in the game.
The next play was the longest play I have ever witnessed. Our defense was playing a zone in which we were only rushing 1 lineman and dropped the other two off in pass coverage. The QB dropped back to pass for (and I'm not exaggerating) 25 seconds!!!! He dropped back went to the right and then to the left it was quite humorous. He ended up throwing a TD pass on it but it got called back for an illegal man downfield. Haha. So he actually did us a favor by wasting 25 seconds when they were down 11. They ended up scoring eventually and converted the 2-point conversion.
With the Guard down 3 points, they tried an onside kick, but our receiver Dan Fry recovered. They still had 2 timeouts left and used them after we ran two straight running plays. We didn't quite handle the situation properly and we ended up turning the ball over on downs, so the Guard actually had one more shot with 8 seconds left to go in the game and they completed the pass at midfield but one guy tried to lateral it to his teammate and he fumbled and Hamblen recovered for us to give the Marshals their first win.
Overall this was my best game yet. I was 18-25 for 173 yards, no interceptions and 3 TDs. Also 2 rushing TDs to go on top of that. The main stat though was that we got the win. I think this was a big hump that we just got over and now the wins should come a bit easier. Our next opponent this Saturday is Beaumont Drillers. We played them in week 1 and beat us but we are a much better football team now then we were in Week 1. I'm looking forward to our first road trip; however, I just found out that we won't be flying but instead taking a bus. Apparently if we fly to Beaumont we won't be able to get back to Cincinnati until just before midnight on Monday, so Coach decided that we are making the 16-hour trip on a bumpy bus. Awesome.
The new schedule is out with Dayton on there now. So we got two closer away games, however, if you take a look we play Dayton 3 times in 5 weeks, which is a little ridiculous. Now I know they are trying to start a rivalry between us, but that's a little overkill don't you think?