Utah Blaze: 0-fer ball — Offense falters down the stretch as Utah remains winless on season
After a complete collapse in the second half of the Blaze's 61-40 loss Friday to San Jose, it would be easy to think that even the effort isn't immune from criticism.
"It would be very understandable to see a letdown on the effort," White said. "But I still have not seen a drop-off in effort — on the practice field or in the games."
Instead, White was left to scratch his head over a disastrous stretch that saw his team turn the ball over at critical times.
"That's how fragile this game is," White said.
Now the Blaze are left to stare at an 0-8 record as the season reaches its midway point. While making the playoffs is still a realistic goal, winning a single game is proving to be a challenge the Blaze never expected.
Against San Jose, the Blaze actually started the game with a nice level of emotion and effort — especially on the defensive side.
Utah's Kelvin Morris scooped up a San Jose fumble and scampered 45 yards for a touchdown on the first possession of the game. He later intercepted a pass and broke up three others.
Quarterback Joe Germaine struggled for most of the night, completing just 21 of 35 passes for 189 yards and three touchdowns.
"It's tough," Germaine said, trying to explain why the team is unable to put a complete game together. "If we had the answer, we wouldn't be where we are right now."
The second half started well enough as Germaine connected with JJ McKelvey for a 15-yard touchdown to open the second half — making the score 34-33 for the SabreCats. But after that, very little went right for the Blaze.
Steve Azar missed the point after attempt that would have tied the score and Utah never saw the end zone again until the final play of the game when McKelvey snagged a mostly-meaningless touchdown with no time left to make the score a little less lopsided.
Germaine, who completed only three of his first 11 passes to start the game, fumbled the ball away twice in the fourth quarter before finally getting pulled from the game. His replacement, Jason Gesser, didn't have much better luck, though, and threw an interception while scrambling to avoid a sack.
"The defense kept us in the game for three quarters," White said. "But the offense couldn't get it done."
The Blaze lost three fumbles, had the interception and saw three drives stall out with field-goal attempts — one of which failed — to waste scoring opportunities. More aggravating, from White's point of view especially, was the inability to put points on the board after forcing a stop on a San Jose offensive possession.
The result was San Jose turning a close game into a rout with 27 unanswered points.
The SabreCats, the defending AFL champions, were paced by Mark Grieb's 311 yards and five touchdowns on 21-of-33 passing.
Keeping their chins up and staying positive, Germaine said, is crucial as Utah enters the second half of the season.
Losing confidence "is kind of the natural thing to do when things go against you," Germaine said. "But I'll never say we gave up tonight by any means. We never gave up. But things didn't go our way at all."
Next up for the Blaze is a trip to New Orleans on Friday for a date with the VooDoo.
E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com
Recent comments
Maybe the Blaze need to get some BYU players. That may help them...
RSL Fan | April 23, 2008 at 12:43 p.m.
This games was very fun to attend, even though we lost badly. I...
Herm F | April 21, 2008 at 11:13 a.m.
Come on Blaze, lets get a "W" for Utah!
Real Fan | April 21, 2008 at 8:59 a.m.
