The wild-card round gets underway this weekend in the Arena Football League playoffs, and Colorado Crush coach Mike Dailey’s attention is likely to be focused on U.S. Airways Arena in Phoenix.
The Arizona Rattlers host the expansion Utah Blaze on Saturday and if the Blaze wins, it will face Colorado on May 27 or 28 at the Pepsi Center. If Arizona wins, the Crush’s playoff opponent would be the winner of Sunday’s Nashville Kats-Chicago Rush matchup in Nashville, Tenn.
Dailey gave his team the week off after clinching the American Conference’s top seed with a 59-35 victory over Arizona in the regular-season finale.
“With our small roster and the number of injuries we’ve had, I thought with our veteran group it was best suited to give our players the week off,” Dailey said. “We don’t have any control over who we play, so we have to wait and see how all of that works itself out. Until we know exactly who we play, it’s tough to do any preparation work.”
Dailey intends to keep his roster at 20 for the playoffs instead of 18 as he had for most of the regular season.
The Crush lost to Utah in the regular season, beat Chicago and split with Nashville.
Dailey was optimistic that players who have been bothered by bumps and bruises the last few weeks of the season will be at full strength when the team resumes practice Monday. However, lineman Chris Berg probably is out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
Rookie play
Fullback-linebacker Anthony Dunn was named to the league’s all-rookie team. Dunn became a starter for the Crush when veteran Rich Young was out with a knee injury. The New York Dragons and Orlando Predators had two players on the team: Dragons lineman Delbert Cowsette and defensive specialist Dahnel Singfield and Predators lineman Greg White and receiver-defensive back Javarus Dudley.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
