By Eric Crocker, Defensive Back
Portland Thunder
Twitter: Eric_Crocker
Instagram: CrockTime2
Here we are, Week 17m and some how at 4-10 we are back in control of our own destiny and are making a playoff run. We have to take it one game at a time and this week the Cleveland Gladiators are in our way. Cleveland has played solid football all season. They have been nicknamed, "The Kardiac Kids" and the name fits them very well. They pulled off two games that both ended with Hail Mary passes. They only have one loss on the season and have been appropriately ranked number 1 in the AFL power rankings. To say that I'm excited to play in this game would be an understatement.
Cleveland is a veteran team. Their quarterback, Shane Austin, doesn't make mistakes. Because I am a frontside corner I studied a lot of film on each of their receivers, especially Dominick Goodman. Goodman is a veteran receiver who runs good routes and has great hands. He and Austin seem to be on the same page and are clicking at the right time. Austin gives Goodman a lot of opportunities to make playmybut by job is to shut all that down and that's what I plan on doing.
As a team we know we can compete with the best teams in the Arena Football League but in order to do so we have to eliminate the stupid mistakes that we've been making this season. We can't keep on blaming our follies on being a young team. I feel like we have some of the best talent in the league and we have only beat ourselves with mental mistakes. We have worked all season to get better and hopefully it shows as we play the biggest game of our season, against the number 1 team in the league, the Cleveland Gladiators