Where did it start?
John Dutton said it starts with him, the quarterback. Lineman Hugh Hunter said it starts up front where he plays with the others on the forward wall.
It didn’t matter who was right because the Colorado Crush wasn’t ready for the onslaught brought on by the Columbus Destroyers and a crowd of 17,416 watched the Crush get hammered 65-21 on Saturday night at the Pepsi Center.
Columbus was so dominating that its defense forced a Crush- record seven turnovers and the 21 points represented a franchise low for its four years in the Arena Football League. There was little wonder the Crush couldn’t surpass the 28 points that was the previous low. The seven turnovers produced 38 points for the visitors, who climbed over the .500 mark at 5-4 while the Crush slipped to 6-3.
“Our defense is working hard in practice and I guess it’s paying off,” defensive specialist Brandon Hefflin said of the Columbus defensive performance. “Getting turnovers is big in this league. It changes the momentum of the game.”
There was little question that the turnovers put the Destroyers in the driver’s seat. After Dutton’s 3-yard run and Clay Rush’s extra point tied the game at 7-7 late in the first quarter, the Destroyers scored 24 straight points to lead 31-7 with 50 seconds left in the first half. A fumbled kickoff return by Willis Marshall and a fumble by Damian Harrell after a completed pass led to two of the touchdowns that boosted the Destroyers to a 24-point lead. An oddity in the statistics revealed the 173 total yards by the Destroyers were the fewest allowed by the Crush defense, but the result of the turnovers kept mounting.
“When you play that sloppily and turn the ball over that much, the result is you get it handed to you pretty hard,” Crush coach Mike Dailey said. “Sometime during the course of the game, you hope you can regroup, but we never could.”
Dutton took full responsibility.
“This league starts with the quarterback and 21 points is a reflection on how I played,” Dutton said. “It was embarrassing. We have to stop turning the ball over and it starts with me. We couldn’t stop the bleeding.”
Hunter disagreed.
“It all starts up front,” Hunter said. “We played a bad game and there aren’t any excuses. We have to do a better job blocking up front. We have to step our game up as far as blocking for Dutton.”
Defensive specialist Delvin Hughley tried to find a bright spot.
“Our goal this week was to win the turnover margin,” Hughley said. “It didn’t happen, but there will be better days. The same thing happened to us last year and we bounced back.”
A year ago on the way to the ArenaBowl championship, the Crush lost 89-41 to San Jose.
Columbus 7 27 17 14 – 65
Colorado 7 0 7 7 – 21
FIRST QUARTER
Columbus – Saunders 18 pass from Kaleo (Lewis kick), 8:09.
Colorado – Dutton 3 run (Rush kick), 3:05.
SECOND QUARTER
Columbus – FG Lewis 21, 14:56.
Columbus – Kaleo 1 run (Lewis kick), 5:38.
Columbus – Wells 1 run (Lewis kick), 2:44.
Columbus – Kaleo 1 run (Lewis kick), :50.
Columbus – FG Lewis 53, :00.
THIRD QUARTER
Colorado – Harrell 37 pass from Dutton (Rush kick), 14:35.
Columbus – Bond 8 pass from Kaleo (Lewis kick), 13:50.
Columbus – FG Lewis 22, 9:49.
Columbus – Davis 45 interception return (Lewis kick), 1:49.
FOURTH QUARTER
Colorado – Harrell 5 pass from Dutton (Rush kick), 11:30.
Columbus – Davis 5 pass from Kaleo (Lewis kick), 9:13.
Columbus – Wells 4 run (Lewis kick), 6:05.
Columbus Colorado
First downs 15 16
Rushes-yards 13-18 6-4
Passing yards 155 234
Passes 16-26-0 25-43-3
Total yards 173 238
Penalties-yards 5-34 7-38
Return yards 108 169
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Columbus, Wells 4-9, Barre 2-8, Thomson 3-3, Dicken 1-0, Kaleo 3-(minus-2). Colorado, Patu 2-6, Dutton 2-3, Hawkins 1-0, Hammel 1-(minus-5).
PASSING – Columbus, Kaleo 16-26-0-155. Colorado, Dutton 19-36-3-180, Hammel 6-7-0-54.
RECEIVING – Columbus, Saunders 5-55, Davis 4-43, Knight 2-18, Bond 2-17, Barre 2-8, Wells 1-14. Colorado, Harrell 10-124, McCullough 8-75, Marshall 4-31, Hawkins 2-5, Young 1-(minus-1).
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
