Most of the stats were pretty even in a game that was close and not as sloppily played as the officials thought. In this game, the zebras found cause to throw 34 flags at the players. That is absurd. William Fritz’s crew called sixteen penalties at New England (who average about seven per game) and tossed a team-tying record eighteen yellow hankies at New Jersey. This didn’t sit well with the coaches, the fans and Commissioner Baker who was in attendance for the game sitting front row at mid-field in Section 108. If you ever heard the football phrase ‘officials could throw a flag on every play if they want to’ you would have believed it last Friday. Sometimes these over-zealous zebras have to show a bit of retraint and not throw a flag at every hangnail. At some point you have to let the players play. This is football. It ain’t no tea party. At least the calls were evenly bad for both teams, but fans don’t pay good money to see officials take over a game like that. For example, check out the series that gave New England a 20-17 lead in the 3rd quarter:
* New England 1st down at their own 23. Mike Perez over throws Seawolves WR Charles Davidson. A pass interference is called on a clearly un-catchable ball. New England gets 8 yards and a new set of downs.
* On first down George Del Ricco rushes for 2 yards.
* On second down, Perez is sacked for four yards.
* On third down, Perez is sacked again, but illegal defense is called even though the QB was out of the pocket. Another gift-wrapped first down for New England.
* On the next play, Del Ricco runs for 1 yard and although no conflict is seen, another flag is thrown for a personal foul giving New England still another first down deeper into Red Dog territory.
* On the very next play, New Jersey’s Jason Walters is called for a questionable roughing the passer call and New England gets another first down at the Red Dog one yard line.
* Next play, touchdown.
So on this scoring "drive" (penalties aside), New England gained four yards and gave up a four-yard sack for a net of zero yards and a touchdown. That’s a bit too much. But enough of the bad officiating. It’s a league wide problem and the powers-that-be know it. At least it didn’t cost New Jersey a game that they fought hard to win.
And that brings us to the difference of the game. The New Jersey Red Dogs fought hard to win. They played for sixty full minutes and that is what snapped their three game losing streak. The Red Dogs contained the Seawolves for the most part in a tight game in which the lead changed hands eleven times. And although the Red Dog seemed in control, there were some scary plays. Like on third and ten late in the game when Adrian Lunsford misplayed the ball and allowed a short Perez-to-Davidson pass to go for 41 yards or when with one second left. It was just as alarming when Alvin Ashley fumbled a missed 61-yard FG attempt by Mike Black inside the Red Dog five yard line with no time left in the game. Sure there was a lack of Red Dog rushing yardage and the aforementioned eighteen penalties. But we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the Red Dogs won this game by playing for sixty minutes.
In the post-game locker room, New Jersey Head Coach Frank Mattiace looked relieved as he fielded questions from the press about Ashley, Steve Videtich and the state of the team. But the players inside the somber Red Dog locker room did not look relieved. In fact, Chad Lindsey looked as dejected about the way the Red Dogs won on Friday as he did when New Jersey lost to Albany the week before.
"We can’t be playing like this.", said Lindsey.
You gotta like Chad’s lack of complacency and focus on playing better football despite the score. When I was young, my dad once told me that is didn’t matter if you won or lost, it was how you played the game that mattered most. Someone must have taught that to Chad Lindsey as well. And he’s right, the Red Dogs can play a lot better. But at least they got the win.
And now New Jersey gets a healthier look at the play-offs being 4-4 and tied for that final play-off spot. Ironically, four wins and four losses were exactly where the Dogs were after eight weeks last season and they made the play-offs then as well. Friday’s win gets New Jersey pointed back in the right direction, gets them back into the play-off picture and sets up many important games, including a next-to-last week visit to New England to face these Seawolves again.