Good, No Longer Elite
Matt Eichenblatt
Tuesday March 4, 2008

Judging by their off-and-on performance this past Saturday afternoon in their 51-41 loss to the Dallas Desperados, one thing has been made very clear: the Georgia Force are no longer in the upper echelon of Arena Football teams.

With the game going back and forth for the entire first half, it had seemed as if Georgia knew nothing of the departure of their former receiving standouts, Chris Jackson and Derek Lee. Troy Bergeron was having a standard game-breaking day, and new starter Brett Holmes filled in nicely, finishing with three touchdowns on the day.

But still, something was not quite right.

It seems as if the team knows that they are good, but not ready to compete with the league giant as of yet. While the offense was great at times, the cohesion of last year’s unit is not yet there and may never be. The typical mantra of saying ‘never live in the past’ may be easy to speak, but not necessarily easy to live. The receiving trio of Bergeron, Lee and Jackson caught a record amount of balls last year—a dominance that won’t be seen in the AFL anytime soon.

Saturday marked the first time the Force have lost a season opener under head coach Doug Plank, something that did not escape his mind very easily.

“I place a lot of value on the first game of the season,” remarked Plank.

“It’s a known statistical fact in the Arena Football League, that teams that have won in week one have twice as likely a chance of going into the playoffs. So, I’m not going to try to diminish this, and it’s one I’m not going to take very likely.”

Although losing in week one is something that is very new to this Force football team, there were a few things on Saturday that were not new unfortunately, namely penalties. Defensive End Jermaine Smith continued his overzealous run to the quarterback, accounting for numerous offsides penalties, and the defensive backs continued their rash of untimely downfield penalties when it mattered most, especially on a late fourth quarter drive where penalties accounted for all but seven of Dallas’ eight play scoring drive.

Because the Force don’t have the overpowering offense of a year ago, it is imperative the team learns to play more disciplined football. The Georgia Force are still a good football team and will compete for a second consecutive Southern Division championship because they still have a lot of the talent to do so. But the mental errors that plagued the Force in the National Conference Game last year, reared its ugly head again in 2008.

Interceptions. Penalties. Turnovers. All are characteristics of the Georgia Force, none of an Arena Bowl contender.

The Georgia Force spent all of this past off-season, just seething at the thought of letting a 14-2 regular season and home field advantage in the game before the Arena Bowl go to waste. What they seemed to do apparently was seethe over the loss to the Columbus Destroyers, rather than go back and watch tape of what actually went wrong. The mirror image between that game and what resulted Saturday afternoon on national television is impeccable. The Force offense became too streaky, and left long drives unfinished. The defense would get into many third and fourth down situations, but couldn’t finish the drill. It’s not a lack of talent, but a lack of discipline.

With Dallas out of the way, things don’t get any easier for this Georgia team as they head out to St. Pete Times Forum to take on a very strong and youthful Tampa Bay Storm team, who after an abysmal start to the 2007 season, rallied to make the playoffs at the end of the year.

If the Force come out with the same effort against Dallas, they have a chance to win. But in reality, effort is not the problem—disciplined play is. Chris Greisen has got to make smarter throws and the offense as a whole needs to get over the fact that they lost their offensive coordinator and two superstar free agents, because they still have a great bunch of players on that side of the ball. On defense, the energy is outstanding but the amount of critical mistakes makes me wonder if these guys really understand the concept of what a yellow flag hitting the ground means.

Until the Force figure out that it takes being a smart football team to be a championship football team, the only time they will see New Orleans is when they play the Voodoo late in May.


Matt Eichenblatt is a free-lance writer from the Atlanta area. He has followed Arena Football since 1999 and has been attending Georgia Force games since they moved from Nashville five years ago. As well as being a football enthusiast, he is also looking forward to graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in Finance and Communications

Was he even at the game.........I didn't see him at all.

This guy is a clown...

It's the FIRST game of the season.

If the Desperados were really supposed to go undefeated as I've read a few times, the Force played them pretty damn good.

If that's the case, we can beat anybody.


No longer elite after the first game? Ridiculous!

Geez, did somebody run over his cat or something?

Anybody else noticed that the organization itself has never once wrung its hands over the loss of Jackson, Lee or Thonn? I don't think it has anything to do with denial, and everything to do with turning the page.

It's just the AFL bloggers who can't seem to get over it.

He does have some issues right like mental mistakes however the biggest reason, in my opinion, why we lost was a lack of being fully prepared. I said it once and I'll say it again, three weeks is not enough to be season ready and definitely not Dallas ready. Tampa will provide another tough test. We'll be improved but I don't know if one more week of preparation will be enough for a hyped up Tampa team. I hope it is but the only way we're going to find out is by putting it on the field.

Nah.....He is just still waiting on Joe Hamilton to be signed. :)

I think he's still upset about Hannah Montana. After all he has a crush on her and she's too young for him. (Who else knew she was set to play the Arena's she played?)

And he attends the University of Alabama.

Seriously though, he was pretty pissed when the announcement came the Force were moving back to Gwinnett. If my memory serves me correctly, I think he even stated he would not attend a game there.

Even more reason to slam the team.

Come on, IFFY. Tell us about how he's not a real fan. Oh please, don't disappoint me now...

Hey.....I didn't post that. I got enough chuckles out of his Hamilton deal.

I NEVER said you had to attend the games to be a REAL fan, but it does make you wonder how he can write about a team he doesn't see.

There was a story a few years ago about a sports reporter that was writing articles as if he had been at the game but was in fact, watching on tv...even TiVo'd and watched after it was over.

I think it part of the unwriiten "code" that a writer must actually be at the game...to actually be taken seriously.

Hum.

Don't get me confused with other posters here bud, but Thanks for the comparison.

And since you opened this can of worms, allow me to close it.

Admittedly, I was attempting to be humorus in the first two lines, but the last was directly from HIM, NOT ME. If the OMB hadn't been whipped clean I would dig that thread up to prove my point. (Maybe the real Iffy can shed some light on the subject. He punched Matt's button's plenty over there. And I did love throwing fuel on the fire on the OMB. It was cheap entertainment.)

He was SUPER PISSED about the move back and used the argument that Hannah Montana was the biggest thing that had ever happened at the Gwinnett Arena since the Force moved to the Phil.

He was bent. Big time. He whined more than the cellars at Chateau Elan.

Personally I could give a red rats ass about D-Blatt and if he's a fan or not. Hopefully he'll earn a good living in finance, because his skills as a writer are questionable.

Futhermore where the Force play or doesn't play makes no difference to me.

I've yet to step a foot in the Arena at Gwinnett, (but I'll be at the next game for sure.). But I do know it will take me at least an hour longer to get there over the Phill.

So was the move good for me?

Don't think so,

But like I said, THAT issue isn't important.

Now you know exactly where I stand, and that's out of the way, carry on......

I will say the article had a small amoutn of validity. And now with the release of Holmes by Kubiak, seems to have an interesting spin of how this season may pan out.
I hate to say that the Tampa game is a must win this early in the season, however I feel like fingers are going to be pointing if we go down and loose this one and end up 0-2 out of the gate.

I was kidding, Doc. I was teasing because of all the ribbing that IFFY took over whether or not HE was a real fan because he got so "bent" about it being the other way around.

I never saw him, he said that the was not traveling to Gwinnett so my beat is he watch the game on TV.

No problem bud, sorry I took it the wrong way.... I completely forgot about the "Real Fan" part of that ordeal. 6g65dd

My bad....

It's all good.

<,;