Imagine standing under a waterfall with a cup, hoping to catch only one drop. Or bumping into a cactus intent on feeling only one prick.
That is what it is like playing defense in the Arena Football League. Defensive hopes and intentions in the AFL often end soaked and punctured.
In a league in which the field is small, the angles are tight, the quarterbacks are accurate and the rules promote offense and scoring aplenty, defenses are reduced to finding any shred of pride obtainable.
The Colorado Crush can bear witness.
It allowed 89 points to San Jose this season and then beat that bunch in the playoffs here Sunday by allowing, ahem, 48. The Crush meets Chicago here Sunday to see which team gains an ArenaBowl XIX berth. The Rush has beaten the Crush twice, scorching Colorado the second time around by scoring 75 points.
The Crush allowed the most yards in league history this season. There was a 2 1/2-game stretch this season in which it did not gain a defensive stop. The Crush won 10-of-16 games in the regular season yet scored 873 points and allowed 871.
This is how funky defense is in the AFL: Four teams remain viable for the championship and the Crush lead them all in turnover margin, interceptions returned for touchdowns and sacks.
As feeble as the Crush has often looked defensively, it has picked the best time to present its best defense. Because in the AFL, as in all of football, defense wins championships (heh-heh).
No. Really.
For two straight years the teams that led the AFL in scoring during the regular season have been bounced in the first round of the playoffs. It has happened in three of the past five years. And in the past six years, only one team that was the highest scoring won more than one playoff game.
The Crush ensured its victory over San Jose when it gained two defensive stops inside the 10-yard line in the final quarter.
That was epic when considering that a splendid AFL defensive game is a defense stopping an offense two or three times out of an average of 16 to 18 offensive possessions per game.
Every team in the AFL believes it can score on every offensive possession. No team in the AFL believes it has a defense that can prevent a score on every possession.
“Our goal is to hold a team to 45 points,” Crush safety Rashad Floyd said. “You are going against tremendous odds. You are going to get beat. You have to have a short memory. The defense that can remain strong through the ups and downs is going to prevail.”
The games are stacked against defenses, including stringent restrictions in blitzes and pass coverages. Receivers are allowed to run full speed toward the line of scrimmage before the snap. Little wonder that allowing only a field goal is considered a defensive stop. Amazing that Ernesto Purnsley, the Crush defensive coordinator, is actually a pleasant, sane man.
The defensive player takes on the thought process of a hitter in baseball, who if successful three times against pitching and a failure seven times is considered a great hitter. However, the percentages for success are even lower for AFL defenses.
That is no excuse, Floyd insists.
“A lot of players in this league accept getting beat because it is supposed to happen,” he said. “All I know is we just beat the defending champion last week with defense. And if the offense is supposed to score every time in the AFL, the team that does not lose, why didn’t they? They stopped somebody.”
This high-energy, fast-paced, quick-scoring game will never fly with some football purists. It assaults the senses, they say. It does not allow for the art of defense.
Oh, it is there. You just have to sift through the scoring spectacle.
“We grow up with the outdoor game and we understand that better,” Crush coach Mike Dailey said. “The outdoor game is played in high school and college. The indoor game, the AFL, is only played at the pro level. You can have a sub-par offense and win in the NFL. You can’t in the AFL. It is not about field position, it is about possessions.”
The more you have, the more likely you score.
“Ninety percent of our games come down to the fourth quarter,” fullback-linebacker Rich Young said. “It often is not who has the ball first but who has it last. How do you grasp that concept?”
Some never will.
But the Crush does. Colorado is one victory away from the championship game because its offense long ago joined the AFL crowd while its defense recently has decided to veer from the pack.
Inch by inch, without much room for finesse.
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
