YouTube Tuesday - August 16, 2011

So that happened. The Jacksonville Sharks won the ArenaBowl on a last second TD that rocked the top spot on Sportcenter's Top 10 all week. Check out the play below, and congratulations to former Talons star Jeff Hughley on his championship ring!

ArenaBowl XXIV Features Matchup of Former Talons Stars

Two former Talons stars make big noise elsewhere in the league this year. Odie Armstrong showed the league he more than a blocker for Justin Allgood. Jeff Hughley made a name for himself on a team that was already stacked with WRs. Now each of them are Conference Champions about to face off in the ArenaBowl. In light of this, I wanted to do a little comparison as we prepare for the game here in an hour.

Odie Armstrong

In 2010 Odie rushed for 349 yards on 74 carries for 13 touchdowns. This year with the Rattlers his yards dipped to 295 on 77 carries, but his touchdowns rose to 17.

Jeff Hughley

In 2010 Jeff had 1258 yards on 113 receptions for 28 touchdowns. In addition, Jeff had 91 returns for 1642 yards and two touchdowns. With Jacksonville this year he had 1171 yards on only 89 receptions for 22 touchdowns. On kick returns he had 1447 yards on 69 returns and one touchdown.

Overall, Hughley made the better improvement. However, Odie seems to be on the better team as the Rattlers are heavily favored tonight. It will the first time Hughley and Armstrong have faced off against each other, as Hughley was injured in week one when the teams played.

Kickoff on NFL Network at 7:30 tonight.

Playoffs? You're talking about Playoffs?

Well actually I am. A lot of people have made comments about how much of a disappointment this season has been. Starting out 0-3. Losing on last second plays on back to back weeks. Countless injuries. Losing veteran players.

However, will all that a side. The Talons are just one game out of the playoffs with 7 more games to play. Even more, the game against Utah this week is much more important than we realize. Utah currently is the four seed in the conference. With a win on Saturday Tulsa would be in a three way tie with Utah and San Jose for the four seed. That's pretty exciting!

Also, the Talons are playing good ball right now. We are the only team on the outside looking that is in the top five in scoring defense (we are third). The Offense has been getting better and if Allgood can click with Copeland and McBroom we could be more dangerous that last season's league leading team.

All this combined with a pretty easy remaining schedule (at least according to arenafootball.com) the Talons are poised to make a strong run into the playoffs and face either Chicago or Arizona. I plan to make either trip if we get there!

So get excited Talons nation because the season really is just starting! Bring all your friends out to the BOK center at 7pm on Saturday and lets help push this team in a victory over the Blaze!

Talons get de-winged, Lose to Arizona 69-20

The term "clipped" isn't strong enough for this game. Bobby Reid could not the offense started all game, ending with 4 INTs and only 29 yards rushing. The Talons could not get on the board until the end of the third quarter, well after the game was out of hand at 49-6. But not much more could have been expected with a Talons team that is near the bottom of the league and inexperienced faced one of the best teams in the league.

Arizona QB Nick Davila ended the game 15 for 22, 158 yards, and four touchdowns. Former Talon, Odie Armstrong had 2 touchdowns and 10 yards on the ground.

Through the muck, there were some flashes of hope. Defensive back, and veteran, Fred Shaw was physical all night; with 3 tackles and a highlight reel of hard hits. Linebacker Jamar Ransom came in on offense to score a rushing touchdown followed by another rush for a two-point conversion. Finally, QB Matt Bassuener came in to replace Reid in the fourth quarter and looked impressive, despite some failures on the offensive line.

The Talons travel to Pittsburgh Saturday to take on former Talon Terrance Carter and the Pittsburgh Power.

Live Coverage - Arizona Rattlers at Tulsa Talons - March 28, 2011

YouTube Tuesday - March 22, 2011

For this week's video we have Football Gameplan's preview of this week's matchup against the Arizona Rattlers:

Superman to leave T-Town

Today via Facebook, Talons FB Odie Armstrong (known as Superman) announced he will be signing with the Arizona Rattlers. Armstrong lead the league in rushing last year and was a key part of the Talons pass protection.

Also, it was released that former Talon, James Sadler will be going to the Chicago Rush.

In addition, the Talons picked up another player:

OL/DL Isaiah Thomas 6’3 330 2/3/85 Shaw

Talons President leaves for Arizona

I saw today that Trey Medlock, who was President of the Talons Front Office, will be leaving to be the General Manager for the Arizona Rattlers. This is just another of many departures this offseason, as Donovan Morgan, Carlese Franklin, and Jeff Hughley all announced they will be going to other teams.

Personally, I was not a fan of Medlock. However, it does not look good for the Front Office to have so much shuffling after a successful season.

Edit:

Here is the link for the story: http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2010/09/20/daily69.html

YouTube Tuesday - April 27th 2010

This week we have a video from the end of Friday night's game between the Tulsa Talons and Arizona Rattlers. It's hard to watch again as a fan, but it was definitely the defining moment of this past week of arena football:

Talons at Arizona Quick Reaction

The Tulsa Talons fell to 2-1 after a last second loss to the Arizona Rattlers.

The Talons started off shakey on offense with QB Justin Allgood almost throwing 2 INTs before finally scoring. Shortly thereafter the Rattlers drove down the field and scored, leading to a rumble between Talons and Rattlers players. The final outcome was that Talons Defensive Back B.J. Barre was ejected from the game. Neither team was able to stop the other for the remainder of the game.

While the Talons Defensive Line came up big in the game with three sacks, leading to a total of seven on the year, it was not enough. The Talons forced three fumbles, all of which took good Arizona bounces and were recovered by the Rattlers.

With less than thirty seconds the Talons took the lead in the game, 76-71. The Rattles made a couple of short passes and with little time left it looked like the game was over when the Talons recorded their third sack. However, there were flags on the field. It appears that one of the Talons had facemasked on the sack, giving the Rattlers one final play from scrimage. With that one play the Rattlers made a short ten yard pass, broke a tackle, and ran the additional 15 yards to score and win the game.

It was a hard fought loss for the Talons. Who knows how the game would have ended if B.J. Barre had not been ejected. The real weakness of the Talons showed in the game, which was the defensive secondary. While they did record one INT, that was the only stop they made in the entire game. Every time Tulsa needed a stop the secondary gave up a large play. If the Talons want to really challenge in the league they will need to play stronger in the secondary.

Talons Official Watch Party at Fair Meadows

Tonight the Tulsa Talons take on their first road test against the Arizona Rattlers. The Fair Meadows Sports Bar, 21st and Yale at the Fairgrounds, will be showing the game live. Kickoff is at 9:30PM and they should serve food till halftime.

The Talons have not given up a sack yet all season. Their offensive line is easily one of the best in the league. Arizona on the other hand has not had much of a pass rush. They have yet to record their first sack. Tulsa should easily control the line of scrimmage giving Justin Allgood plenty of time to throw the ball. Expect him to have another outstanding game.

The real matchup is how well Tulsa's defensive backs perform against an Arizona offense that has consistently put up good numbers. Luckily they will have help in the form of the best sacking defense in the league. Expect the Rattlers get to get rattled offensively and make some costly mistakes.

Tulsa should squeak this game out by about a touchdown. However, a few bad plays and that could easily change. It should be a great game and everyone should make plans to watch it tonight live on niftyTV or at Fair Meadows.