Not sure about you, but I haven’t had the greatest week in dealing with the first ever lost by OUR Arizona Hot Shots. The air has been different, food has tasted funny, I feel like everyone is just staring at me laughing that Arizona allowed the Salt Lake Stallions to gain their first ever win. I’ve kept my head up, but I’d be lying if I said that it’s been an easy week. But the reason we fall is to figure out how to pick ourselves up. That’s what we and the Arizona Hot Shots will have to do this week, and with the squad returning to the desert with winless Atlanta Legends coming, there’s no better week to put the train back on the track and get refocused.
I’m sure y’all have read the power rankings and seen all the talk that’s out there about how the Hot Shots have been figured out. To that I say, shut up and only pay attention to what’s going on the field. Yes, the offense has sort of hit a snag the last few quarters, but two of those were without their professional gunslinger, John Wolford. As of right now, we aren’t very sure what the status of John Wolford is. He took a nasty hit on an INT on the first play of the 3rd quarter last week and injured his back. The way I can tell from how the AAF rolls when it comes to injuries is that no one really knows if guys are playing or not until the game actually starts. I wish I had a better answer and I wish the answer was that Wolford was a go for Sunday, but as of this writing, your guess is as good as mine.
If Wolford can’t go, it will be Trevor Knight commanding the offense, which means expect a bit of running out of the QB position. Knight has that kind of athleticism to carry the ball, so by all means, run him. Where he struggles is throwing the ball, and the last time I checked, throwing the ball is a pretty important quality of a QB. Knight played the whole 2nd half last week and went 8-17 for 95 yards. That’s not going to get it done in the Awesome As Fuck league. I know it, you know it, and I’m sure coach Neuheisel knows it. Hopefully, a game plan that highlights the particular set of skills that Knight has acquired over his short career will make him a nightmare for the Legends.
What will really help, whoever is the signal caller for the Hot Shots, will be a strong run game from Jhurell Pressley, Tim Cooks and Justin Stockton. I’m going to break some serious ground here, but in order for that triumphant of backs to be successful, the offensive line is going to have to step up their game, no matter who is out there. It be nice if we can maul our way to a victory and control the trenches.
Control the trenches and then let Rashad Ross and company go to work. Ross has been our most consistent player this season and needs to continue to be the “the guy” that defenses need to worry about. Ross is a difference maker and a guy I think will have a legit opportunity to head back to the NFL.
I also would like for the Hot Shots to include more passing to the running backs. In week 1, the Hot Shots took advantage of a mismatch of Pressley on a LB that resulted in a TD. The same thing happened in week 2 when Tim Cooks scored a TD. This league is not much different than the NFL where LBs aren’t that capable of keeping up with guys out of the backfield. Create that matchup and exploit it because it’s there for the taking.
I don’t have to much to say about the defense other than get off the field on 3rd down. To many times last week, we had the Stallions on a 3rd down and it felt like Arizona were going to get the ball back only for them to somehow convert a first down. It was infuriating to watch. Get off the field and this game will be ours. What I really want to hear is the sound of that fierce chainsaw on 3rd down. I want to see all the Legend’s players hear it and instantly feel the fear come over them. The Hot Shots need to hear it and envision that their hands are chainsaws and they’re about to cut through the offensive line like a hot chainsaw through people.
The Legends will be trotting out Matt Simms as their QB and that’s a good thing because he’s served up 6 INTs so far in 3 games. The Hot Shots secondary are talented enough to smother the Legend’s receivers and let Simms come to them. Look for Simms to check the ball down a lot, so wrapping up backs and TEs will be clutch.
I hate to say it, but Nick Folk needs to stay the course and keep delivering. It be great if he’d eliminate miss kicks from his repertoire. That be the best thing he could do.
The Legends are in a state of flux, which is to say that they don’t know what the hell is happening with them. They’ve had about 42 coaches so far this year meaning you can say that maybe they have no direction. Bad for them, perfect for the Hot Shots. Let them keep imploding like they want and let us pick up the pieces.
The last thing we can afford to do is to give this rag tag crew from Atlanta hope. I said the same thing last week about the winless Stallions. If you let a bad team hang around, you give them the idea they belong. Atlanta doesn’t belong with the Hot Shots and the Hot Shots have to play like that and dictate the pace of the game to them. Let Atlanta know that they shouldn’t of ever got off the plane right from the get go.
Let last week be the past and let this week be the week where OUR Arizona Hot Shots decide that the time to screw around is over. It’s time to let everyone know that the championship of the AAF still goes through the desert. I don’t care what the Apollos or the Iron are doing. We’ll not worry about them later. This week is the Legends and it’s the biggest game of the year.
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