Utah Blaze: Crushing finish ends season the way it began

Just moments after their roller coaster season had come to a screeching halt — like Space Mountain at Disneyland — the Utah Blaze were having a hard time figuring out if their season had been a success or not.

It sort of depended on whom you talked to — and even some of them were conflicted.

"If you look at the first few games (starting 0-9), how we finished was obviously a success," said Blaze All-Arena wide receiver Huey Whittaker after Colorado downed Utah, 49-44, on Saturday in the first-ever Blaze playoff game at home. "But it's not a success in that we lost in the first round of the playoffs. (The 6-1 end to the regular season) doesn't mean anything, because it's over."

Blaze coach Danny White agreed, calling it "a disappointing season."

But quarterback Joe Germaine and wide receiver Aaron Boone were more positive about what the 2008 Blaze accomplished.

"We need to hold our heads up high," said Germaine. "The easy thing for us to do this year when we started 0-9 was to fold our tents, to give up. That's the natural thing to do when the odds are stacked against you. But we didn't. We fought and made something out of our season."

Boone put it this way: "It was a pretty unbelievable season. To come back from 0-9 and find a way to fight back when so many people counted us out. I mean, 0-9. Who comes back from that?"

Indeed, the Blaze went from being lovable losers through the first nine games to perhaps the hottest team in the AFL during the final seven weeks of the regular season. In doing so, Utah became the first team in league history to make the playoffs after starting so poorly, going so far as earning a home game in the playoffs.

On Saturday, in front of 10,073 fans at EnergySolutions Arena and a national ESPN audience, the lovable losers returned.

"We felt like we were playing from behind all night and we were actually winning most of the night," said Boone. "We kind of went back to the first part of the season in our mentality, which wasn't a good mentality to have."

Utah never trailed in the first half and led most of the second. The Blaze were still up 37-35 with under four minutes remaining.

But Colorado quarterback John Dutton hit Wendall Williams on a four-yard strike, and the ensuing extra point gave the Crush a 42-37 lead with 3:37 to play.

Then came the back-breaker for the Blaze. The ensuing kickoff went off the net, bounced high in the air over Utah kick returner J'Sharlon Jones' head and the live ball was recovered by Colorado on the five-yard line.

"They got a lucky break at the end when the ball came off the net and (Jones) couldn't handle it," said Whittaker.