Fan Blog

Fan Blog: Week 7 - Deja Vu

By Steve Litaker

Last week the Texas Pirates came to Austin, this week the Turfcats head down to Houston to play the Pirates.  There have been some venue complications, but the game will be played in their original venue - Kicks Indoor Soccer Facility in downtown Houston, located at 611 Shepherd Drive. Seating is limited so if you plan on making the trip call now for tickets.

This should be an interesting game, last week I admit the officiating was suspect.  While the Pirates cried foul that it cost them the game, I feel it went both ways.  The T-Cats lost Red Zone position and at least one TD on blown calls, while the Pirates feel the same way.  I was very unhappy at halftime feeling the calls leaned their way, coach Esprit for the Pirates was so upset over the calls that he pulled his team off the field with 43 seconds left in the game.  This was his first game as the head coach of the Pirates and he set a poor precedent with his un-sportsmanship mistake.  But that's all it was, a mistake in the heat of the moment.  Coach Esprit has been fined an undisclosed amount and given an official reprimand by the league front office.

Now that we've played each other last week and have some tape to watch game plans need to be adjusted.  We learned a lot from the game and have found a play that's sure to win the game for us.  Once we get the lead, just grab the ball, leave the field and go get on the bus - haha.

All kidding aside, Coach Troy Esprit is a very good coach and a great guy. Some of you may remember his name from the Copperheads.  He had the team fired up and believing in themselves, they played much better in his first game than they have all season.  Game by game he will improve the Pirates and since we've got to play them three more times this season it could get to become a very good rivalry.

The Pirates defense was better than I had expected, and their run defense for the most part did a great job.  The TurfCats finished with 88 yards rushing, but take out a couple long runs and we were not as strong as usual. Shon Mitchell had 6 carries for 49 yards, but if you take away the 42 yd run that leaves 5 carries for7 yds.  QB Deron Ellis is the leagues leading rusher but only had 25 yds. on 4 carries.  Take away his long of 11 yds. and it becomes 3 for 14, far below his per game average.

The T-Cats also became predictable on first down, 12 runs versus 5 passes. We had been mixing it up more in the past.  Darrick Wallace had a good game receiving,  he was the team leader with 4 catches for 60 yards.  The Pirates only kicked off 4 times which is one of the reasons Wallace had only 32 return yds.  This is only the second time in five games Darrick has been held to under 100 All-Purpose yds., he finished with 92.  Deron had another .5oo passing day with 11 out of 22 for 158 yds. which is pretty good considering he was sacked 4 times and harassed all night long, We recorded 2 sacks.

This was the first game our line work seemed out of sync on both sides of the ball, sure we had some great individual efforts here and there but not the overall domination we had come to expect.  We need to protect our QB better to give the receivers time to run their routes and get after their QB to help the DB's. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying overall they had a bad game.  Just not what we are used to.

I have faith things will be corrected this week in practice and the TurfCats are capable of beating them by more this time around, but all we need is one more point than the opponent for the "W."  So remember guys, once you get the lead grab the ball and run for the bus!

del.icio.us digg facebook Google twitter

IFL Standings

Sponsors