(11 February 2001) – The Demons playing without their leading receiver (and fumbler) Brian Roberson lost to the Rage yesterday. Even though Jimmy Cunningham filled the vacant WR spot with 10 catches for 95 yards, the Demons lack their running game came back to bite them in the end.
The Demons started with a long drive. In the drive, there were many short passes by Pawlawski. The drive was capped with a five-yard pass to Roche. The extra point was good with a pass to Cunningham.
After that, disaster strikes. One of the Demons dropped a sure touchdown pass, forcing the Demons to punt. Then the former 49ers QB, Jeff Brohm threw a 49 yard pass to Mario Bailey. It was tied 7-7. But 41 second later, Demon’s Brandin Young, fumbled and Rage’s Omar Brown scooped it and returned it for 20 yard for the XFL’s first defensive touchdown.
After the fluke play, the Demons never got back in track, down by only one touchdown, the Demons didn’t play with the passion and intensity they did when they came back and won against the Xtreme last week. Omar Brown intercepted Demons QB Mike Pawlawski stealing a touchdown reception from Tydus Winans late in the second quarter.
The Orlando Rage scored two more touchdowns, before the Demons finally answer back with a useless TD pass with 12 seconds to go.
NStarz’s thoughts:
The Good
Mike Pawlawski had another great day throwing for 294 yards and two TDs.
Dwayne Harper had a interception keeping the Demons streak of consecutive game with an interception to two.
The Bad
The Demon needs to work on their running game. Dunbar had only 6 rushes for 25 yard and Juan Johnson ran for 8 carries for 24 yards. That is a 3.5 average. which isn’t so bad, but not what I expected from a coach who had Thunder and Lighting in his team (NY Giants’ Tiki Barber and Ron Dayne)
Another thing is the Demon’s not stopping the run. Mike Black has 12 carries for 60 yards. That is just one yard less than the Demons total rushing yards. Total the Demons allowed 136 yards in 26 carries. A whopping 5.2 yard per carry. The Demons will have to get very lucky in their passing game to over come that poor of a running defense.
Fumble! This is a problem that can easily be taken care of with a little practice and some common football sense. First of all, the XFL is smaller than the NFL. This gives the defense more opportunity to strip the small ball out of an offensive player hand. I’m not saying that the Demons are fumbling a lot, but this is the second time they lost the ball more than they have taken. Game one they lost two fumbles and recovered one. Game two, they lost the ball once, which was the turning point of the game, and recovered none.
The Ugly
The Demons main priority is to stop committing penalties. Playing in the XFL doesn’t mean there is no rules. They are! The Demons committed 13 penalties for 103 yards. That is down from last week’s 15 penalties for 121 yards but this is getting pathetic. No team should be getting penalties in the double digits and losing triple digit yardage.
