The 1999 New Jersey Red Dogs were indeed a team of change. CEO Jim Leahy was gone. He had crossed Route 120 to take a job with the Metrostars. Beth Colon who had proven to be a success in the New Jersey radio industry, was brought in as the new CEO, but she had never run a sports team. John Hufnagel the Head Coach was lost to the Cleveland Browns and brought in was New Jersey native Frank Mattiace whose only head coaching experience was at Saint Peter’s Boys High School and Bergenfield High School (Bergenfield was 0-8 that one season). Mattiace was also given the General Manager’s job also vacated by Hufnagel. And there too, it was going to be on-the-job training for the rookie GM. The 1998 starting Red Dog QB, Aaron Garcia was traded to the Iowa Barnstormers in the middle of last season. Iowa was 0-5 at the time. Now with Garcia at the helm, Iowa is 11-3 and a favorite to reach the Arena Bowl. And there were more veteran players to be shown the door. Defensive spark plug, Kevin Guy was sent to Orlando for another player to be cut within a week. It should be noted that Orlando is also in the playoffs this year. And perhaps the biggest change of all, the Red Dogs’ star offensive weapon, Larry Ray Willis was traded to Milwaukee for Titus Dixon. Willis’ team joins Orlando and Iowa in the playoffs while Titus Dixon is out of football entirely and never played a down for New Jersey. So with all these changes in the front office, the coaching staff and on the field, who were these new Red Dogs?
Well, with the season now officially over, we can see that the 1999 New Jersey Red Dogs were a team with desire. Except for thirty minutes versus Milwaukee, there was always a fight in these Dogs. They were an aggressive team, almost to a fault because the 1999 Red Dogs were a team that lacked composure. No where else was this better shown than in the amount of the penalties this team had called against them this season. Officially, the 1999 New Jersey Red Dogs set an AFL record with 165 penalties this season. Arizona has only 82 on the year while most teams average about seven penalties per game. The old New Jersey record was 133. The 1999 team shattered that record in embarrassing fashion. When asked back in April about the teams alarming number of penalties (34 in two pre-season games), Head Coach Frank Mattiace laughed off the question by comparing the Red Dogs to the often-penalized Oakland Raiders. The only problem is that the Oakland Raiders are one of the most individually talented teams in the NFL and are a bunch of undisciplined under-achievers that haven’t won a thing in eighteen years. Sorry Coach, we disagree with you here. Penalties are not okay, they do cost you games. And some of the responsibility here has to fall on the players and coaches for lack of discipline. It can’t always be the referee’s fault. The Red Dogs coached and played sloppy football. To be fair, they always have, but in 1999 it just got worse. And lastly, the 1999 New Jersey Red Dogs appeared to be a team that was not a team. Many times this season the players, coaches and management did not seem to be all singing from the same song sheet. And all of these qualities were evident in the Red Dogs’ final game of the 1999 season.
There was no doubt that everyone in the Meadowlands was fired up about the game. The players were ready, the fans were ready, and the play-offs were on the line. We all wanted a home-playoff game, we’ll in effect, that’s what this was for New Jersey. There was that playoff atmosphere in the air. But it only took eight plays for it to quickly unravel. Play One, the Red Dogs kicked off to Nashville... simple enough. Play Two: with the crowd pumped and the chant of "defense-defense" ringing in the player’s ears, Kats QB took the snap from his own 15-yard line and hit wide open Cory Fleming for a 35-yard touchdown. This was not a good sign. How could Fleming, the Kats main target be that open? Everyone in arena football knows that Fleming is Kelly’s main target. Oh well, Play Three: Steve McLaughlin’s extra point is good and before the foam on your beer could settle, the score is already 7-0. Play Four: McLaughlin’s kickoff returned by the Red Dogs’ new golden boy, Dimitrius Stanley to the 3-yard line. Play Five: Rickey Foggie brings the Dog out of the huddle and to everyone’s surprise, Alvin Ashley is NOT in the game. Foggie fires a perfect strike to Stanley in the right flat and Stanley fumbles the ball. Nashville recovers at the 7-yard line and two plays later, Andy Kelly finds Cory Fleming again. Extra point good and just like that, the Red Dogs are down 14-0.
New Jersey cut the lead to 14-7 on a Ron Perry 3-yard run, but then the penalties started. At a point when New Jersey needed to get back in the game, they were jumping offside, lining-up illegally and doing just about everything to give the Kats free yardage. The play-off bound Kats, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, gladly converted New Jersey’s mistakes into Nashville points. So with only one minute into the second quarter, the Dog who played so well in Hartford only four days earlier, had handed their opponents a 28-7 lead.
Now when you’re down and you need production, you put the rookie on the back-burner where they belong and go to the veterans that have proven themselves over the years. And that’s just what New Jersey did and it paid off with back-to-back touchdowns. First Rickey Foggie displayed the heart of a champion when he rolled right, found no daylight and flung his body into the end zone for a TD. The Kats tried to respond, but a beautiful play by Alvin Ashley prevented Nashville from doing so. Ashley read Kelly, crossed over from left to right and stepped in front of Kelly’s pass, intercepted it and returned the ball eleven yards to set up shop for New Jersey. Seven plays later, Ashley finished the drive he started by hauling in a 13-yard strike from Foggie. Unfortunately, kicker Steve Videtich hit the uprights on the PAT and the score sat at 28-20.
The teams exchanged scores at the end of the half, Nashville on a 6-yard pass to Tyrone Jones and the Dogs with a spectacular zigzagging 54-yard kick-off return for a touchdown by Adrian Lunsford. The half ended with the Dog trailing 35-27 and they were getting the ball back first. They hadn’t dug themselves completely out of the hold that the first three minutes of the game put them in, but they were close. During half time, the fans were regaining hope.
New Jersey took the kickoff to open the third quarter and Foggie threw a pass in the right flat to Ashley. Then... déjà vu all over again. It was the same pass Foggie had thrown to Stanley to open the game. And ironically, at the exact same spot on the field, Ashley got hit, fumbled the ball and the Kats recovered. And just like before, Kelly took one play of find Cory Fleming again for the score. So just like that, Nashville negated the Red Dogs’ first half efforts by opening up a 42-27 lead.
But the Dogs dug in again by turning up the heat on defense and turning over the game to the veterans of offensive. The next three Nashville drives produced only a mere three points, while Foggie found Ashley and Chad Lindsey for scores. So with 14:15 left in the game, New Jersey survived the fumbles, cut the score to 45-41 and had the ball at their own 10-yard line. They now had their fate in their own hands. It was simple: keep scoring, manage the clock well, and they would win.
First down: Nashville puts heavy heat on Foggie, incomplete. Second down: pass to Willie Latta, dropped. Third down: the Nashville defensive line again beats the Dogs’ front three. More heat on Foggie, incomplete. When they needed a touchdown, they had to settle for a field goal. And this was no chip-shot, not even by NFL standards. Steve Videtich, who had missed an extra point try earlier, split the uprights and nailed a 47-yard FG from his own 10-yard line. New Jersey had pulled the score to 45-44 with 11:31 left in the game. But the Kats defensive stand had taken back the momentum.
Okay, it’s crunch time, and everyone in the building knows Kelly is looking for Fleming again. Well, almost everyone... Kelly hit Fleming for the score, but the Red Dogs came right back with an eye-popping 17-yard run up the gut by Willie Latta. To really appreciate this run, you had to see it. But even without the aid of sight, you can put this run in perspective by knowing that the Red Dog were averaging about 3-yards rushing per game all season long. This was 17-yards and beautifully executed. It was like watching Terrell Davis. It was sweet. Now New Jersey had cut the lead to 52-51 with 5:12 to play.
Nashville’s next drive ran almost four minutes off of the game clock. Surprisingly, the Red Dogs, armed with all three time outs, did not call any for some reason. The Red Dogs had the Kats looking at a 3rd and 10 play about midfield. Here was the next great moment in the game. A stop here would force a FG and give New Jersey the chance for the win. It’s times like this where someone steps up. And someone did. It was at this point, Kats TE/DL James Baron took over the game. Baron caught a 14-yard screen pass on third down and broke tackles for the crucial first down for Nashville. Then the from the 12-yard line, the Kats called for the screen to Baron again and he barreled over New Jersey defenders for the score that put Nashville up 59-51 with 1:04 left.
Still, if you watched the Red Dogs - Seawolves game last Monday, you knew that sixty-four seconds was plenty of time to score once, maybe even twice. But James Baron was not finished. After New Jersey took the ensuing kick-off to the 15-yard line. Baron sacked Foggie for a nine-yard loss on first down. New Jersey spent second and third down gaining back those nine yards. So here it was, fourth down, twenty seconds left. Without a first down here, the Red Dogs season was over. Foggie stepped back to pass, felt pressure and fired to Ashley for the first down. But James Baron got his meaty paw up in the air to knock down the pass and end the Red Dogs’ 1999 season.
For the stat-heads, there was another Kats TD and a subsequent New Jersey fumble with about ten seconds left, but it was in garbage time and the Red Dogs were just trying to knock the ball loose in desperation. The season was over and for the first time in their three-year history, the New Jersey Red Dogs we not going to the play-offs. As the fans left the arena, they wondered what changes the team would make in the off-season.
The 1999 Red Dogs were a physical, defensive team that made too many mistakes. It was a team that decided to get young when it parted ways with Larry Ray Willis and Kevin Guy. It went with youth while Alvin Ashley and Manny Pina sat on the bench. It was a young team with a rookie head coach and front office. On the positive side, it was an extremely exciting season that attracted more fans than ever before and they did have a shot at the playoffs right up until the last twenty seconds of the season. Robert Stewart had a career year. But this was not a harmonious team. Players argued with coaches and coaches failed to get the players to believe in the system. There is a solid core here and they need to unite in the off-season. The last thing they need to do is make any abrupt changes. But after watching the New Jersey Red Dogs basically give away Aaron Garcia, Larry Ray Willis and Kevin Guy over the last fourteen months, well... Let’s just say that we fans are keeping our fingers crossed in the hopes that the team, as a whole, from the owner to the ball-boy all do the right things between now and next April.
Scoop out.