New Jersey opened the scoring on their first drive, which culminated with a 19-yard touchdown pass from Rickey Foggie to, you guessed it, Alvin Ashley. When the Predators got the ball for their first possession, Browning Nagle found out that life in the AFL is not as easy as he thought it would be. Perhaps, the Red Dog defense read Jay Glazer’s obnoxious New York Post article where Nagle snubbed the AFL time after time, citing this league as some sort of purgatory that he had to put up with until the NFL came a-calling for his services. Maybe the defense was pumped up by the fans who screamed "defense, defense" and taunted Nagle every time he touched the football. What ever the reason, the New Jersey defensive line knocked the former Jet signal caller around like a rag doll whether he completed his passes or not. Eventually Nagle did hit Predator WR Antwuan Wyatt for a 9-yard pass to tie the game at 7-7.
Orlando got a break after Rickey Foggie threw his first of two interceptions and Nagle was in business again. But it would last long. A fierce Red Dog blitz slammed Nagle and his shoulder to the turf and that was it. His day was done. But fortunately for Orlando Head Coach, Jay Gruden, he had Pat O’Hara as his back-up QB ready to go waiting on the bench. O’Hara was the QB that lead the Predators to their first World Championship last August and he had just returned from (get this!) filming an Oliver Stone movie. So the actor/quarterback came in and found 5-time AFL Ironman of the Year, Barry Wagner for a 18-yard TD and a 14-7 lead.
The Red Dogs answered right back with a 3-yard run (!) by Ron Perry, but in what turned out to be a huge difference in the game, Steve Videtich missed the extra point. Somebody is going to have to get into the New Jersey kicker’s head because he has now missed four of his last six extra points. Last week, it didn’t cost them the game in Portland, but this was the defending champs they were playing today and mistakes like missed extra points could be the difference between a win and a loss. Perhaps Viditech is still hurting from the big hit he took when New Jersey tried an on-sides kick just five days ago in Portland. Luckily for the Red Dog kicker, teammate Keita Crespina tackled the Orlando kick-off returner in the end zone for a safety. This gave New Jersey a one point 15-14 lead and seemed to have partially made up for the Videtich miss. After the safety, the Doggies got the ball back and drove right down for a score as Foggie threw his second TD, this time to Marvin Bagley. The extra point could have given New Jersey an eight-point lead, but Head Coach Frank Mattiace decided to go for the two point conversion instead. This was a gamble so early in the game, but either Mattiace was feeling lucky or he had seen enough of Videtich’s inaccuracy to warrant the conventional extra point attempt. Regardless, the two-point try failed and the Dogs basically negated the advantage that Crespina’s safety had given them only minutes earlier.
The half could have ended with New Jersey ahead 21-14, but a missed 51-yard field goal by Videtich on the last play of the half resulted in a mad scramble in the end zone for a loose ball that bounced of the nets. A Red Dog recovery would have given New Jersey a big lead and boost going into the half, but Predator Tommy Dorsey pick the ball out of the piled and raced 51 yards for a touchdown. Unfortunately, the score was clearly aided by a blown call when the officials were the only people in the building that didn’t see the Orlando players basically tackle the only two standing Red Dogs who had a chance to bring Dorsey down at mid-field. Following the bad call, several players, the fans and Coach Mattiace protested intensely. In fact, Mattiace was so infuriated at the official, he drew an un-sportsmanlike conduct penalty. But it was all for naught and the score was 21-21 after 30-minutes of play.
The third quarter has been kind to the Red Dogs so far this season and in many Arena Football games, the winner of the game was the team that controlled the third quarter. Orlando knew this and was going for the knock out punch after the advantageous score that tied the game at the half. The Predators managed to keep Foggie and the Dogs off the score board in the third quarter completely and padded their lead by ten points with a 20-yard TD pass from O’Hara to Brett Cooper and an impressive David Cool 49-yard field goal. Videtich answered back with a chip-shot 19 yard FG to start the fourth quarter, but O’Hara found Cooper again from 15 yards out and now New Jersey trailed 38-24 with 11:32 remaining in the game.
The situation didn’t look good for New Jersey, but that changed when Foggie found Alvin Ashley for a 22-yard touchdown in just three plays to cut the Predators lead in half. Now trailing 38-31 and pumped by a Meadowlands Arena crowd that was as loud as it had ever been, the defense dug in and stopped Orlando from moving the ball. New Jersey got the ball back and drove to the Predators 1-yard line. And when Jermain Younger punched it over the goal line for the Dogs, the crowd went wild now that the score was tied. But there were two minutes and six seconds left and plenty of time for Orlando to score. New Jersey used it’s time-outs well in an attempt to get the ball back, but Orlando converted key third down plays and set up a 24-yard game-winning field goal for David Cool with just seven seconds left. Now it really looked bleak for the home team, especially since Cool had nailed a 49-yarder earlier, but the Orlando kicker was wide right and a long mad scramble for the ball, reminiscent of the one that ended the first half, took place in the end zone. Orlando’s Bill Hall recovered, but the Preds were called for a penalty. New Jersey couldn’t decline the penalty and give up the touchdown, so they had to take the call, giving Cool a second chance. Maybe the noise in the Arena got to Cool, but he missed wide right again and Ashley covered up the loose ball to send the game into overtime, 38-38.
New Jersey won the toss and chose to kick-off, and as they were getting ready to start the overtime period, one couldn’t help wonder what would have happened if Videtich not missed the extra point in the second quarter. Would there even be and overtime if the Dogs had gone for one instead of the unsuccessful two point try after Bagley’s touchdown, or had New Jersey recovered the loose ball at the end of the first half. It didn’t matter now, New Jersey just needed to pin Orlando deep. But Videtich kicked off with a knuckler fielded cleanly to an up man and returned to mid-field. Then before you can say "what the heck was that?" Pat O’Hara had his boys ready and on first down hit a wide-open Barry Wagner for the score and a 45-38 lead. But in the AFL, overtime is not sudden death (although this seemed like it). Both teams get at least one offensive possession and if the score is tied after that first possession, then the they play out the 15-minute "fifth" quarter until someone scores. Now New Jersey had to score to keep the game alive. After the Predators kicked-off, the Dogs started deep in their own end and Foggie hit a 6-yard out pattern on first down to Demetrius Stanley for some breathing room. On second-and-four, Foggie took the snap and fumbled it straight up in to the air. It hung up there for what seemed to be an hour, but not for Orlando’s Bill Hall who got his hands on the ball at the four yard line and stepped in for a TD, ending the game.
A stunned crowd walked out of the Arena quietly and wondered how New Jersey had lost. The Red Dogs had moved the ball well. They kept drives alive with 19 first downs (to Orlando’s 14), They held Barry Wagner to four catches and they knocked Browning Nagle out of the game. They did a great job of not getting penalized (only six flags this week compared to 30 over the last two weeks). They ran the ball well. But they couldn’t overcome a fluke TD at the end of the first half, Foggie’s three turnovers or Videtich’s poor kicking. Slice it anyway you’d like, but New Jersey should have won this game. Instead, they now find themselves at 3-2 and they now trail Albany (4-1) who defeated Arizona and New England (4-1) who walloped Buffalo. In fact, if the play-offs started today, they wouldn’t even be in the top four seeds. They will just have to regroup and beat Milwaukee on Friday. But if they miss the play-offs or lose a chance at a home play-off game, fans will be looking back at May 22, 1999 and wondering how this one got away.