Post by rkb on Jul 7, 2008 10:58:17 GMT -5
www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=275814&pub=1&div=Sports
JOHN L. PITTS:Cats' win makes for long night
7/7/2008 5:38:22 AM
Daily Journal
TUPELO - There I was, sitting almost in the rafters of BancorpSouth Arena on Saturday night, reluctantly writing an obituary for the Mississippi MudCats.
They looked listless and maybe a little hapless as they stumbled their way to halftime, which found them trailing the Columbus Lions 40-18. Another half like that and the season - and maybe the MudCats entire franchise - would be finished.
I put it off as long as I could, finally starting to write that MudCats obit early in the fourth quarter, when a field goal pushed the Columbus lead to 43-24.
You probably already know the punchline. The MudCats scored four touchdowns in the last 12:16 and won 52-50. Next stop: Casper, Wyo., for the AIFA Western Conference championship on July 18.
Great escapes
This season's version of the MudCats has made an art of improbable escapes that would have put Indiana Jones, if not Houdini, to shame. By my count, it's the fifth time they have had to rally to win in the second half. A couple of other times, like Neo in the Matrix, they've dodged a bullet at the end.
Of course, 22 points is not an impossible margin to overcome in arena-style football - but not if the Lions were going to keep playing the way they had in the first half.
Like Austin Powers, though, the Lions lost their mojo at halftime.
Give a lot of credit for that to the MudCats' defense, which - Emeril-style -kicked it up a few notches when they came back out on the field.
Lions quarterback Joey Conrad and the BCS Arena turf got acquainted on his team's fourth play of the second half, planted for an 11-yard loss by Tim Love.
Conrad felt the Love, alright.
The Columbus QB completed 14 of 23 passes for 147 yards and five TDs before that sack.
After? Conrad was 5-for-15.
And he hit the deck three plays in a row in a crucial sequence with his team clinging to a 43-38 lead and way too much time left for the MudCats to play with. Sam Smith and Jason Clark each took him down once, but in between Conrad once just sorta folded up under the pressure. Give the turf credit for that one, I guess.
"We'd been trying to get to him all night," said Clark. "We finally turned up the heat."
Conrad did manage one more TD strike during a wild sequence in which the lead changed hands three times.
But it was Aries Nelson who got the last word, throwing his seventh TD of the night with 3:16 left.
Remember, until three weeks ago Nelson had thrown five passes as a pro.
I don't know if the MudCats will be back in 2009. But if Saturday's comeback was their farewell appearance here, then it was a great one. And the team's collective goal at the start of the season, to bring a championship trophy back to Northeast Mississippi, still has a good, strong heartbeat.
You gotta believe
For my part, I feel like Jack Buck did when the Dodgers' Kirk Gibson limped out to the plate and drove a stake into the hearts of the Oakland A's in the 1988 World Series.
Remember his call? "I don't believe what I just saw!"
I hear you, Jack, I hear you.
I can't imagine how any MudCats player ever got to sleep Saturday night. I sat around the office until really late, listening to the happy thrum of the press in the back and watching You Tube videos of Cal's wild kickoff return against Stanford, Trinity's 15-lateral pass play against Millsaps and Christian Laettner's turnaround shot that got Duke past Kentucky - all the great comebacks.
William McCarthy, the MudCats' interim head coach, said Sunday afternoon that he had "never been so emotionally and physically tired after a game in my life. I didn't have any trouble falling off, but my mom said she was too excited to sleep."
By the time I got home, the Sunday Journal was already on the porch. I opened it up and took a look, just to make sure.
Yep, 52-50.
John L. Pitts (john.pitts@djournal.com) is sports editor for the Daily Journal.
Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 7/7/2008, section C , page 1
JOHN L. PITTS:Cats' win makes for long night
7/7/2008 5:38:22 AM
Daily Journal
TUPELO - There I was, sitting almost in the rafters of BancorpSouth Arena on Saturday night, reluctantly writing an obituary for the Mississippi MudCats.
They looked listless and maybe a little hapless as they stumbled their way to halftime, which found them trailing the Columbus Lions 40-18. Another half like that and the season - and maybe the MudCats entire franchise - would be finished.
I put it off as long as I could, finally starting to write that MudCats obit early in the fourth quarter, when a field goal pushed the Columbus lead to 43-24.
You probably already know the punchline. The MudCats scored four touchdowns in the last 12:16 and won 52-50. Next stop: Casper, Wyo., for the AIFA Western Conference championship on July 18.
Great escapes
This season's version of the MudCats has made an art of improbable escapes that would have put Indiana Jones, if not Houdini, to shame. By my count, it's the fifth time they have had to rally to win in the second half. A couple of other times, like Neo in the Matrix, they've dodged a bullet at the end.
Of course, 22 points is not an impossible margin to overcome in arena-style football - but not if the Lions were going to keep playing the way they had in the first half.
Like Austin Powers, though, the Lions lost their mojo at halftime.
Give a lot of credit for that to the MudCats' defense, which - Emeril-style -kicked it up a few notches when they came back out on the field.
Lions quarterback Joey Conrad and the BCS Arena turf got acquainted on his team's fourth play of the second half, planted for an 11-yard loss by Tim Love.
Conrad felt the Love, alright.
The Columbus QB completed 14 of 23 passes for 147 yards and five TDs before that sack.
After? Conrad was 5-for-15.
And he hit the deck three plays in a row in a crucial sequence with his team clinging to a 43-38 lead and way too much time left for the MudCats to play with. Sam Smith and Jason Clark each took him down once, but in between Conrad once just sorta folded up under the pressure. Give the turf credit for that one, I guess.
"We'd been trying to get to him all night," said Clark. "We finally turned up the heat."
Conrad did manage one more TD strike during a wild sequence in which the lead changed hands three times.
But it was Aries Nelson who got the last word, throwing his seventh TD of the night with 3:16 left.
Remember, until three weeks ago Nelson had thrown five passes as a pro.
I don't know if the MudCats will be back in 2009. But if Saturday's comeback was their farewell appearance here, then it was a great one. And the team's collective goal at the start of the season, to bring a championship trophy back to Northeast Mississippi, still has a good, strong heartbeat.
You gotta believe
For my part, I feel like Jack Buck did when the Dodgers' Kirk Gibson limped out to the plate and drove a stake into the hearts of the Oakland A's in the 1988 World Series.
Remember his call? "I don't believe what I just saw!"
I hear you, Jack, I hear you.
I can't imagine how any MudCats player ever got to sleep Saturday night. I sat around the office until really late, listening to the happy thrum of the press in the back and watching You Tube videos of Cal's wild kickoff return against Stanford, Trinity's 15-lateral pass play against Millsaps and Christian Laettner's turnaround shot that got Duke past Kentucky - all the great comebacks.
William McCarthy, the MudCats' interim head coach, said Sunday afternoon that he had "never been so emotionally and physically tired after a game in my life. I didn't have any trouble falling off, but my mom said she was too excited to sleep."
By the time I got home, the Sunday Journal was already on the porch. I opened it up and took a look, just to make sure.
Yep, 52-50.
John L. Pitts (john.pitts@djournal.com) is sports editor for the Daily Journal.
Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 7/7/2008, section C , page 1