Post by MGB01 on Mar 25, 2023 14:31:21 GMT -5
Rage 38 Bolts 17
BIRMINGHAM, AL--Anything new? No just another day at the office for Damien Harris.
As in his fifth 100-yard game. Put in perspective, five teams--a third of the league, don't have a single 100-yard game from any of their backs. Harris has one in all but one. This he came close to 200, finishing with 192 on 18 carries with two touchdowns as the Orlando Rage toyed around with the host Bolts to the tune of a 38-17 walloping Saturday at Protective Stadium.
Give Ken Dorsey credit, he knew the stakes. Down 7-0 facing a fourth and 1 at his 34 he would go for it, as the Bolts would six times on the day, but it was for naught as Kwon Alexander wrapped up Cameron Artis-Payne short of the marker. Two plays later Harris scored from 16 yards out to put Orlando up 14-0.
The Bolts would respond, with a little help as Lirim Hajrullahu kicked the ball out of bounds, and Birmingham responded in just four plays, capped by a 37-yard Artis-Payne touchdown run to pull wihin 14-7.
Then continiuing the high-stakes mindset, the Bolts tried to sneak an onside kick in, but it was recovered by Corey Linsley. Harris busted loose for 33, although this time the Rage wouldn't make in despite running five plays from inside the 10 thanks to a holding penalty on Keisean Nixon, settling for a short Hajrullahu field goal.
After the Bolts pulled to within 17-10 the Rage would do what they've done pretty much all season and move right down the field with ease, with Brad Kaaya hitting Kerrith Whyte on a wheel route for a nine-yard score with 1:02 left until halftime for a 24-10 lead. Lest you think they were done.
A Birmingham three-and-out gave the Rage the ball back to ostensibly run the clock out, not quite. After a good return by Lynn Bowden, Kaaya completed a pair of short passes to get Orlando to midfield, then after an incomplete pass he heaved one to the endzone that Jalen Tolbert picked out of the sky before it could reach Bolt hands and touched down in the endzone as Orlando went up 31-10 and sent most of the matinee crowd, that had seen the Bolts' first two home games decided on field goals in overtime, to the exits.
Surprisingly the Rage, third in the league with 75 second half points, were scoreless until the final minute, when Kaaya snuck in from a yard out. But the Bolts weren't able to do much. A 24-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Silvers to George Pickens was their only light. The Rage wouldn't score on the next series, as Hajrullahu missed from 35, but they would take off over six minutes of clock, further making things hard for Silvers, who has already struggled to develop a rhythm this season.
But the rushing game, who had out-of-nowhere coming-out party against San Antonio two weeks ago, once again was nowhere to be found, producing only 92 yards--55 outside of Artis Payne's touchdown run.
With two touchdown passes Kaaya ran his TD/INT ratio to 17/0. His 167 passes without an interception continues to rewrite the record book weekly for a start to a season. Even in Case Keenum's record-setting season two years ago his first interception came on his 51st pass.
Dorsey was mum in the postgame as to whether there would be a quarterback change, instead pointing out their inconsistency running the ball. While they have a pretty healthy rushing average, it's largely buttressed by their breakout against San Antonio, while they've failed to rush for 100 yards in any of their five losses.
NEXT WEEK: ORL (5-1) vs. STL 4/2; BIR (1-5) at COL 4/2
BIRMINGHAM, AL--Anything new? No just another day at the office for Damien Harris.
As in his fifth 100-yard game. Put in perspective, five teams--a third of the league, don't have a single 100-yard game from any of their backs. Harris has one in all but one. This he came close to 200, finishing with 192 on 18 carries with two touchdowns as the Orlando Rage toyed around with the host Bolts to the tune of a 38-17 walloping Saturday at Protective Stadium.
Give Ken Dorsey credit, he knew the stakes. Down 7-0 facing a fourth and 1 at his 34 he would go for it, as the Bolts would six times on the day, but it was for naught as Kwon Alexander wrapped up Cameron Artis-Payne short of the marker. Two plays later Harris scored from 16 yards out to put Orlando up 14-0.
The Bolts would respond, with a little help as Lirim Hajrullahu kicked the ball out of bounds, and Birmingham responded in just four plays, capped by a 37-yard Artis-Payne touchdown run to pull wihin 14-7.
Then continiuing the high-stakes mindset, the Bolts tried to sneak an onside kick in, but it was recovered by Corey Linsley. Harris busted loose for 33, although this time the Rage wouldn't make in despite running five plays from inside the 10 thanks to a holding penalty on Keisean Nixon, settling for a short Hajrullahu field goal.
After the Bolts pulled to within 17-10 the Rage would do what they've done pretty much all season and move right down the field with ease, with Brad Kaaya hitting Kerrith Whyte on a wheel route for a nine-yard score with 1:02 left until halftime for a 24-10 lead. Lest you think they were done.
A Birmingham three-and-out gave the Rage the ball back to ostensibly run the clock out, not quite. After a good return by Lynn Bowden, Kaaya completed a pair of short passes to get Orlando to midfield, then after an incomplete pass he heaved one to the endzone that Jalen Tolbert picked out of the sky before it could reach Bolt hands and touched down in the endzone as Orlando went up 31-10 and sent most of the matinee crowd, that had seen the Bolts' first two home games decided on field goals in overtime, to the exits.
Surprisingly the Rage, third in the league with 75 second half points, were scoreless until the final minute, when Kaaya snuck in from a yard out. But the Bolts weren't able to do much. A 24-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Silvers to George Pickens was their only light. The Rage wouldn't score on the next series, as Hajrullahu missed from 35, but they would take off over six minutes of clock, further making things hard for Silvers, who has already struggled to develop a rhythm this season.
But the rushing game, who had out-of-nowhere coming-out party against San Antonio two weeks ago, once again was nowhere to be found, producing only 92 yards--55 outside of Artis Payne's touchdown run.
With two touchdown passes Kaaya ran his TD/INT ratio to 17/0. His 167 passes without an interception continues to rewrite the record book weekly for a start to a season. Even in Case Keenum's record-setting season two years ago his first interception came on his 51st pass.
Dorsey was mum in the postgame as to whether there would be a quarterback change, instead pointing out their inconsistency running the ball. While they have a pretty healthy rushing average, it's largely buttressed by their breakout against San Antonio, while they've failed to rush for 100 yards in any of their five losses.
NEXT WEEK: ORL (5-1) vs. STL 4/2; BIR (1-5) at COL 4/2
03-25-2023 Protective Stadium Temp:78 Wind:10-20 Light Rain
1 2 3 4 Tot
2023 Orlando (5-1) 14 17 0 7 38
2023 Birmingham (1-5) 7 3 0 7 17
Scoring Summary
1 6:10 Orlando TD Harris 17 run (Hajrullahu) (8-49-3:50) 7-0
1 4:16 Orlando TD Harris 16 run (Hajrullahu) (2-34-0:53) 14-0
1 2:39 Birmingham TD Artis-Payne 37 run (Aubrey) (4-60-1:37) 14-7
2 14:53 Orlando FG Hajrullahu 25 (8-39-2:36) 17-7
2 5:24 Birmingham FG Aubrey 35 (16-58-9:24) 17-10
2 1:02 Orlando TD Kaaya 10 pass to Whyte (Hajrullahu) (11-75-4:22) 24-10
2 0:00 Orlando TD Kaaya 50 pass to Tolbert (Hajrullahu) (4-67-0:19) 31-10
4 14:12 Birmingham TD Silvers 24 pass to Pickens (Aubrey) (5-41-2:17) 31-17
4 0:46 Orlando TD Kaaya 1 run (Hajrullahu) (10-53-4:45) 38-17
ORL BIR
First Downs 24 16
Rushes 39-256 22-92
Passes 24-14-215 43-24-239
Sacked 1-6 1-5
Fumble 1 0
Penalties 10-59 3-18
Turnovers 1 0
Missed Tackles 5 5
Dropped Passes 0 6
Bad Passes 3 4
Passes 25+ 2 1
Runs 10+ 9 1
Blitzers 25 13
Challenges 0-0 1-1
Time 30:23 29:37
Third Down 9-13 6-16
Fourth Down 0-0 2-6
Red Att/Td/Fg 6/4/1 5/1/1
Net Offense 465 326
Orlando Rage Birmingham Bolts
Passing Att Cmp Yds 25 In Td Sk Rate Passing Att Cmp Yds 25 In Td Sk Rate
Kaaya 24 14 215 2 0 2 1 115.8 Silvers 43 24 239 1 0 1 1 79.5
Rushing Att Yds Avg FD 10 Lg TD Rushing Att Yds Avg FD 10 Lg TD
Harris 18 192 10.7 10 9 33 2 Artis-Payne 7 48 6.9 1 1 37 1
Sermon 8 26 3.3 1 0 7 0 Edwards,G 10 27 2.7 1 0 8 0
Whyte 7 21 3.0 1 0 8 0 Williams,D 4 12 3.0 1 0 7 0
Samuel 2 11 5.5 0 0 7 0 Silvers 1 5 5.0 0 0 5 0
Kaaya 3 8 2.7 1 0 4 1 22 92 4.2 3 1 37 1
Fleming 1 -2 -2.0 0 0 0 0
39 256 6.6 13 9 33 3
Receiving No Dp Att Yds Avg FD 25 Lg TD Receiving No Dp Att Yds Avg FD 25 Lg TD
Samuel 4 0 6 51 12.8 2 0 18 0 Pickens 6 0 11 80 13.3 4 0 24 1
Tolbert 2 0 2 56 28.0 1 1 50 1 Edwards,G 5 0 6 44 8.8 3 0 13 0
Callaway 2 0 4 39 19.5 2 1 28 0 Bolden 5 1 7 57 11.4 2 1 40 0
Harris 1 0 1 16 16.0 0 0 16 0 Cobbs 3 1 7 19 6.3 1 0 10 0
Williams 1 0 1 9 9.0 1 0 9 0 Sills V 2 1 3 13 6.5 2 0 9 0
Whyte 1 0 1 10 10.0 1 0 10 1 Likely 1 1 4 12 12.0 1 0 12 0
Mitchell 1 0 2 8 8.0 1 0 8 0 Mitchell 1 1 2 9 9.0 0 0 9 0
Mack 1 0 2 13 13.0 1 0 13 0 Sternberger 1 0 1 5 5.0 0 0 5 0
Rogers 1 0 2 13 13.0 1 0 13 0 Artis-Payne 0 1 2 0 0.0 0 0 0 0
Sermon 0 0 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 24 6 0 239 10.0 13 1 40 1
Hurns 0 0 2 0 0.0 0 0 0 0
14 0 0 215 15.4 10 2 50 2
Fumbles No Rec TD Fumbles No Rec TD
Harris 1 0 0 Edwards,S 0 1 0
Kick Returns No Yds Avg Lg TD Kick Returns No Yds Avg Lg TD
Linsley 1 0 0.0 0 0 Nixon 2 46 23.0 32 0
Punt Returns No Fc Yds Avg Lg TD Punt Returns No Fc Yds Avg Lg TD
Bowden 2 0 20 10.0 20 0 Nixon 1 0 9 9.0 9 0
Kicking Fg Lg Xp Pts Kicking Fg Lg Xp Pts
Hajrullahu 1-2 25 5-5 8 Aubrey 1-1 35 2-2 5
Punting No Yds Avg Tb 20 Bk Lg Punting No Yds Avg Tb 20 Bk Lg
Wright 2 99 49.5 0 1 0 52 Pinion 2 94 47.0 0 0 0 52
Defense Tkl Sk Def Stf Hur FF INT Defense Tkl Sk Def Stf Hur FF INT
Bentley 8 0 0 3 1 0 0-0 Schobert 11 0 0 1 0 1 0-0
Whitehead 7 0 0 0 0 0 0-0 Zimmer 7 1 0 0 0 0 0-0
Ford 6 0 0 0 0 0 0-0 Nixon 7 0 0 0 0 0 0-0
Wade 5 0 0 0 0 0 0-0 Edwards,S 6 0 1 0 0 0 0-0
Alexander 4 0 0 0 0 0 0-0 Cross 4 0 0 0 0 0 0-0
Crowder 4 0 0 1 0 0 0-0 Blair III 4 0 0 2 0 0 0-0
Jenkins 3 1 1 0 0 0 0-0 Bell 3 0 1 1 0 0 0-0
Cooper 3 0 0 0 0 0 0-0 Johnson 3 0 1 0 0 0 0-0
Davis,S 3 0 0 0 0 0 0-0 Blankenship 2 0 0 0 0 0 0-0
Godchaux 1 0 0 0 4 0 0-0 Settle 2 0 0 0 0 0 0-0
Davis,R 1 0 0 0 1 0 0-0 Pinion 1 0 0 0 0 0 0-0
Stuard 1 0 0 0 0 0 0-0 Spector 1 0 0 0 0 0 0-0
Armour-Davi 1 0 0 0 0 0 0-0
Watts 1 0 0 0 0 0 0-0
Hansen 1 0 0 0 0 0 0-0
Nelson 0 0 0 0 2 0 0-0
Barno 0 0 0 0 1 0 0-0