Shock and awe in Utah

Spokane Shock fans can rest easy after the team redeemed their opening weekend loss with a drubbing tonight of the Utah Blaze. This one wasn't even close, 68-34, and all of a sudden the Shock look to have one heck of a high-powered offense.

Rowley looked much better under center, and the play-calling was wide open, throwing numerous times down the field and stretching the defense. The ball-hawking Shock defense was stubborn and held tight, if they can continue this sort of dominance, we're looking at some very good things for Spokane this season.

Now granted, Utah could just be very, very bad, but if there's anyway to bounce back from a loss, this is a way to do it. And since this was against a divisional opponent, the win has a little more significance. Players and fans should have much more confidence going into the April 17th matchup against Bossier-Shreveport Battlewings.

The crowd was unimpressive at Utah, as the 10,000-seat E-Center looked fairly empty. Now I havent seen the other arenas but it looks like Spokane has one hell of a home-field advantage compared to the other barns in the league. That is if the fans show up and don't sit on their hands (like they did in the first game until the first quarter).

Hopefully the first game was a hiccup, and the coaching staff was able to make the necessary adjustments (the Blaze can't be that bad, they have a slew of AFL veterans and were a member of the AFL before it went under) and we'll see more consistent play from the team. What a difference a week makes.

Shock need "trust"

Jim Meehan released his Shock notebook on the Spokesman's blog today. Here's what he had to say about the team...

Spokane first-year head coach Rob Keefe is often a man of many words, but he needed only one to describe what happened in the Shock’s 74-62 season-opening Arena Football League loss to Milwaukee.

“Trust,” Keefe said. “There were too many guys not trusting the man next to them, therefore they were doing too much. People were in places they shouldn’t have been because they were worried about somebody else: A defensive end being in a place where a defensive end shouldn’t be, a quarterback rolling out when he didn’t have to roll. So trust your guys. Don’t worry about the guy next to you, just do your responsibility.”

The Shock, who visit the Utah Blaze on Friday, sputtered on both sides of the ball. Offensively, as Keefe suggested after the game, Spokane didn’t stretch the field enough. There were some protection issues, but that wasn’t totally unexpected with two linemen on injured-reserve (Chris Pino, right wrist; Ed Ta’amu, back).

The team certianly played out of place sometimes during their game against the Iron, but it should only get better as the season progresses. I think that perhaps fans are a little too freaked out over this team losing one game. However, all of a sudden this Utah game becomes a must-win because we all know how tough it is to make the playoffs once you start 0-2.