San Jose SaberCats Sneak By Colorado
“I’ve got a lot of faith in our offense,”--Coach Darren Arbet

San Jose a 76-67 over Colorado Crush

By Barbara Mason
Bay Area Sports/Raiderdrive.com

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They were undefeated at home; they were on a ten-game winning streak and Saturday,   7-7-2007 proved to be the San Jose SaberCats lucky day. While Las Vegas was ripping with superstition regarding this notoriously lucky number, the SaberCats knew full well that luck has absolutely nothing to do with this game and it was going take a solid team effort to send Colorado back home on the losing end of the ball.

The Colorado Crush came into HP Pavilion off an upset win over the third-seeded Kansas City Brigade and were looking for yet another upset here in San Jose.  While the SaberCats were 6-1 against the Crush, the 72-44 drubbing they celebrated back in April didn’t mean a whole lot at this juncture.  Colorado came into this game with a lot of confidence and momentum on their side and San Jose had not played for two weeks.

As it turned out, the SaberCats were challenged more than they had been all season.

James Roe Rolls over Colorado Crush.  Mark Grieve and Roe hug in jubilation after they defeat the Crush.

Taking the opening kickoff, the Crush moved the ball downfield and came within five yards of scoring the first touchdown of the game.  The San Jose defense had other ideas for Colorado recovering a loose ball inside the five and the SaberCat offense went to work driving downfield culminating with a touchdown catch by #9 James Roe.  This catch came on a beautifully orchestrated fourth down play and put San Jose into the lead 7-0.    The first quarter ended with the score deadlocked at 7 when Colorado’s Quinnie scored with 2:32 remaining. 

At 13:16 in the second quarter,  #80 Ben Nelson scored his first touchdown of the game and the lethal SaberCat receiving core put the team back into the lead 14-7.  While the Crush answered, San Jose had a slight edge with the opening turnover as well as the fact that they would be receiving the second half kickoff.  The SaberCats third score of the afternoon came on a reception by Phil Glover and a 21-14 San Jose lead.  With 1:46 left in the first half, the score was all tied up at 21-21.   The Crush attempted an on-side kick that San Jose caught giving the SaberCats the opportunity to leave the field with the final scored of the half.  With 56 seconds left, James Roe scored his second touchdown of the game giving the Cats a 28-21 lead.  San Jose’s attempted on side kick failed them and Colorado cashed in 6 seconds later to tie it up once again 28-28 when quarterback John Dutton completed a 12-yd pass to Harrell.  On side kick number three was covered by San Jose’s Marquis Floyd who very nearly ran it into the end zone stopped on the one yard line.  #27 Brian Johnson waltzed in untouched the very next play and the San Jose lead became 34-28 when A.J. Haglund’s kick missed.  With 39 seconds left in the half Colorado was looking at taking a one point lead into the locker room.  With only 3.6 seconds on the clock that scenario became reality as the Crush scored and successfully converted the extra point leading 35-34 at the conclusion of an extremely heated first half.  There were four touchdowns scored in that final minute of the second quarter.

Where would the break come in the second half of a game that from all appearances would stay close the entire afternoon?  As it turned out missed extra points and clock management would have a lot to do with it.  San Jose took back the lead 41-35 in the third quarter when Phil Glover scored his third touchdown of the day.  The Crush came back to tie the game however missing the point after on a block, giving San Jose back their missed point in the first half.  Touchdown number three came for James Roe less than six minutes into the third quarter in this see-saw game that had every appearance of coming down to the final possession.  For every strike that the SaberCats saw, the Crush had the answer.  After three quarters the score stood at 55-48 in San Jose’s favor. 

With nine minutes left in the final quarter, and the score 62-60, the only sign of faltering was on the part of Colorado having missed three extra points.  The pressure was on both teams to score with every possession, and the team that failed would be going home until next season. 

With 6:24 left in the game, San Jose stubbornly clung to a 69-60 lead.  One thing that became very evident was the fact that in the second half, Colorado quarterback John Dutton was executing long precise passes that found their mark in the end zone as the Crush continued to breath down San Jose’s throat. With 1:12 left in the game, Ben Nelson caught touchdown number three giving San Jose a 76-67 lead, those 76 points being an AFL playoff record.  The Colorado Crush had less than a minute to work with; as it became apparent that time was not on their side. It was then that the San Jose defense got to Dutton for the second time sacking him and eating up precious seconds.  The Crush had just run out of time as the final seconds ticked away and San Jose was on to the conference finals.  It was a nail biter from the opening kickoff to the final seconds, and it was a real test for the SaberCats, a test that they passed with flying colors.

Although there will be issues to be addressed as the team prepares for the conference finals, Coach Darren Arbet was pleased with the tenacity that the team played with.  “The offense did a tremendous job tonight scoring a lot of points,” he said.   “I’ve got a lot of faith in our defense” he added.  He had told the team at half-time to keep their composure, to just relax and play.  “You can’t flinch in the playoffs.  You’ve got to come and play solid, error-free football and you’ve got to score when you can and you’ve got to get some stops when you can,” he said.  “

Veteran quarterback Mark Grieb finished the game with 9 touchdowns.  He was 30 for 41 attempted passes accumulating 316 yards.   He converted several crucial 4^th downs resulting in scores.  Grieb gave a lot of credit to the Crush and especially to quarterback John Dutton.  “I thought that John played as good of a game as you can play as a quarterback in this league in a playoff game and lose,” he said.  “Their defense made us earn it.  There were a couple of fourth down plays where we had to come up big,” said Grieb.  He did admit that going into this game he had some concern since the team had not played a lot of close games.  “How would we respond,” said Grieb.  “I was really happy with the way we responded.  It would have been really easy to get excited and get disappointed at them answering every time.  You’ve got to realize that teams that get to this point are good teams and they are here for a reason.  We are happy to be moving on.” 

Wide receiver James Roe caught five touchdowns racking up 135 yards on 14 catches.  “I thank God for today’s victory.  This just shows how much togetherness and confidence that this team has.  We were down like this in Chicago and Georgia and weren’t able to pull it out,” he said in reference to games played early in the season.  “We found ourselves in another tight situation and at any time, it could have gone the other way,” he said.  “We kept on fighting and were able to get the victory.  We had to come out in the second half and finish.  We knew that Colorado was not going to lay down.  They played one of their best games, they were clicking.”  Roe feels that the team just has to tighten a few things and they will be ready for next Saturday’s game.  “A game like this keeps us humble and keeps us willing and eager to work to get better, to fight even more,” he said.

This was a heated contest, which Roe feels is good for the league.  “It just shows that guys in the AFL come to play hard.  There are some great athletes in this league and we’re out there to compete and we give it our all.  It showed that this game is very exciting,” he said.

San Jose now waits to see if they will be playing Chicago or Los Angeles at HP Pavilion in the conference finals next Saturday.  Kickoff is slated for 1:00 PT.