AFL Playoffs: Conference Championship Games Recap
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by Cobras36
Due to circumstances (work, new grandchild) I'm having to watch the games via DVR and only now getting to the write-ups.
Game 1, #6 Seed 9-9 Columbus Destroyers at #2 Seed 15-2 Georgia Force:
Two freight trains ran into each in the Philips Center this afternoon, the dominant Georgia Force, 15-2 and coming off a thrashing of the Philadelphia Soul churning one way while the playoff Cinderella story Columbus Destroyers fresh off their historic upset of Dallas barreled in full steam ahead. By the time the final gun sounded, the Force were going home and Columbus booking flights to New Orleans on the strength of their 3rd straight playoff road win, 66-56.
Matt Nagy, dumped by the Force after putting up the best QB numbers last year and taking them to the Arena Bowl the year before, was looking for a little satisfaction over the new kid QB Chris Greisen who's now starting for the Force. And if it wasn't for the Force defense stepping up, the Destroyers would have annihilated Georgia on their own field. And even then it wasn't until Columbus was up 48-28 midway through the third quarter that Georgia's defense finally made a game of it. The Force put together 3 straight stops and Greisen turned them into 21 straight points to put the Force up 49-48 with 9:28 left in the game. Less than 2 minutes later, the Destroyers took the lead back for good on a trick play, combined with a 4 and out for the Force on the ensuing drive, which Columbus followed with a 2 play 23 yard TD drive and 2pt conversion to put themselves 2 scores with under 3 minutes to go.
In the end, Georgia dominated the stat page in all areas except 1: the turnover battle/defensive stops, which Columbus won 6-4 and the game by 10 points.
Game 2, #2 Seed 13-4 Chicago Rush at #1 Seed 14-3 San Jose SaberCats:
In what was supposed to be a battle between San Jose’s Number One scoring offense versus Chicago’s Number One scoring defense, it turned out that San Jose’s defense was the story of the first half and gave San Jose it’s 3rd trip to the Arena Bowl in the past 6 years, 61-49.
Five first half turnovers and 6 total defense stops was too much for the Rush to overcome when combined with the loss of QB Matt D’Orazio to injury. With 5:10 left in the second, Chicago’s back up QB was in and while he played well, Chicago was too far behind for the Rush to have a chance. San Jose’s defense, torched for 416 passing yards and only registering 1 one turnover vs Colorado the week before, played up to the regular season standard this game and thoroughly dominated Chicago’s offense. They held Chicago’s offense scoreless for a 20 minute period in the first half, while Mark Grieb took advantage of the multiple turnovers to run the SaberCats out to a 28-7 lead before Chicago put up a touchdown with :22 left in the first half.
Chicago actually won the second half behind Russ Michna 35-33, but the hill to be climbed was higher than that and San Jose is poised to become the 3rd team in league history with more than two Arena Bowl titles (behind Tampa’s 5 and the Detroit Drive’s 4).
[Category: Arena Football League News]
