The Alliance in review: Week 8
By Howard Balzer / The Alliance
As Week 8 concluded in The Alliance of American Football, everything was set in the Eastern Conference while drama remains in the Western Conference.
With two weeks remaining in the regular season, we now know that that the Orlando Apollos (7-1) will host the Birmingham Iron (5-3) in one of the two conference championship games the weekend of April 20-21. That was decided when Orlando clinched first place Saturday with a 34-31 victory over Memphis that eliminated the Express from the playoffs.
Sunday afternoon, the Iron eliminated the Atlanta Legends to secure second place with a 17-9 win. Both Memphis and Atlanta are 2-6.
Little is clear in the west, where the San Antonio Commanders and Arizona Hotshots are both 5-3, two games ahead of the San Diego Fleet and Salt Lake Stallions. Those latter two teams still remain alive for a playoff spot.
How chaotic might the wild, wild west be in the final two weeks? Consider this: if San Antonio and Arizona lose their last two games while San Diego and Salt Lake win their final two, the regular season would end with all four teams tied at 5-5. Have fun with the tiebreakers if that unlikely scenario occurs.
For the record, San Antonio is at home against Memphis on Saturday and visits Salt Lake on Friday, April 12, while Arizona hosts Birmingham Sunday and travels to San Diego April 14. San Diego plays at Orlando next Saturday and Salt Lake is at Atlanta next Sunday.
Apollos Win Amid Controversy
The biggest sequence that went against the Express came when the play clock appeared to expire late in the fourth quarter and the Apollos then converted a third-and-4 play for 17 yards that led to the winning touchdown.
Orlando scored the final 12 points of the game in the final 4:59 to overcome a 31-22 deficit to win 34-31.
For the Express, in his one series, quarterback Johnny Manziel completed 2 of 3 passes for 13 yards with an interception and rushed three times for 18 yards. On the interception, he suffered a head injury and wasn’t able to return.
Hotshots Still Hot
Arizona continued its winning ways with a 23-6 win in San Antonio on Sunday night, and it has been quarterback John Wolford that has ignited the Hotshots’ hot streak.
After completing 19-of-33 passes with three interceptions in a Week 5 loss to the Commanders, Wolford is 48-for-69 (69.6 percent) for 590 yards, four touchdown passes and just one interception in his team’s three-game winning streak.
Sunday, he was 17 of 23 for 216 yards and a touchdown with a passer rating of 117.3 following his 126.3 rating in Week 7 against San Diego.
San Antonio was in Arizona territory six times, but managed just six points thanks to two turnovers (Arizona had none) and converting 3 of 17 third-down plays.
San Antonio ran 74 plays to Arizona’s 42, but averaged 4.1 yards per play while Arizona was at 7.1 and controlled the ball for 38:03.
Richardson Scores Again
Birmingham’s playoff-clinching win over Atlanta didn’t feature a lot of offense. The Iron totaled just 177 yards and averaged 2.9 yards per play, and the Legends gained 266 yards.
The difference was four turnovers by Atlanta to one for Birmingham, and each team was in the red zone four times, but only the Iron scored a touchdown on one of those eight trips.
Each team kicked three field goals and combined to be 6-of-28 on third down with Birmingham 3-for-15.
Not surprisingly, running back Trent Richardson had the only touchdown of the game, his 11th rushing score.
Richardson has his best overall running success of the season with 18 carries for 83 yards (4.6 average). He entered the game with 284 yards on 107 attempts (2.7 average).
Stallions Stop Fleet In Defensive Slugfest
After seeing his team manage just one field goal in an 8-3 loss to the Salt Lake Stallions, San Diego Fleet head coach Mike Martz said, “What I watched out there today makes me angry.”
The 11 points were the fewest scored in an Alliance game this season. The loss, San Diego’s third straight, severely damaged the team’s playoff hopes and kept the Stallions alive.
Salt Lake’s one red-zone touchdown in two trips, a 2-yard run by Joel Bouagnon, was the difference as the Fleet scored just one field goal in their two red-zone chances and kicker Donny Hageman missed a 25-yard field goal.
San Diego quarterback Mike Bercovici, who entered the game completing 52.4 percent of his passes, was under 50 percent Saturday, with a 22-for-47 night (46.8) putting him at 51.0 for the season.
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Howard Balzer is a national writer for The Alliance of American Football. He is in his 43rd year covering professional football and is a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Super Bowl LIII was his 39th. Follow him on Twitter @HBalzer721.