The San Antonio offense that entered 2013 was nowhere to be found by season's end. The Talons edge out Tampa Bay for the "most injured" award this year. Injuries forced the Talons to have eight different signal-callers, six different starters, and nine different men suit up to catch passes. The whole irony is found on the other side of the ball where the eight-man defense, for the most part, stayed an eight-man defense for the course of eighteen games.
San Antonio got off to a slow start, with John Dutton at quarterback, by losing their first two games by a total of twelve points. A 0-2 start was a big deal but ended up being the least of San Antonio's problems when Dutton suffered a torn Achilles in week three, effectively ending his season. An AFL-veteran in Nick Hill was signed to come in and lead the team. Hill had the most success of any of the quarterbacks this season, statistically and victory-wise. In his six starts he led San Antonio to a 4-2 record, but the fun stopped in a week ten loss vs. Spokane when he suffered a season-ending leg injury. Xavier Lee who is an AFL-journey man and offensive weapon was already on the squad to fill a void at receiver, but as a result of Hill's injury was forced into the role of starting quarterback. Lee did a fine job in guiding the Talons to a critical 42-41 home win vs. Utah in week eleven, but his era as the starter ended the following week when Arizona came to the Alamo and absolutely dominated their way to a 70-21 victory that knocked that Talons to 5-6. The ugly defeat forced Lee Johnson to make another quarterback change, this time calling back Rohan Davey to take over the job.
Rohan Davey made his first start in a huge divisional matchup with Chicago in week thirteen, which San Antonio won 61-54 to get back to .500 and stay in the division race. He would guide San Antonio to two wins in the following weeks to have them positioned for a return to the postseason with an 8-6 record entering July. After dropping a tough game at San Jose, Rohan Davey led the Talons to 68-42 win over Tampa Bay in week seventeen that was good enough to earn him week MVP honors. Unfortunately for both parties Davey had a disastrous five-interception performance the following week at Spokane, which eliminated San Antonio from playoff contention, and to add to it suffered a season-ending ankle injury. A pair of AFL rookies were signed for the season finale, and it was Marcus Jackson who made his debut off the bench and wowed us all with a dynamic performance to spark an upset of Philadelphia to earn a tenth and final victory for San Antonio in 2013.
Beside the constant changes at quarterback, the Talons had their hands full at fielding a starting trio of receivers. Jomo Wilson had a great year, especially for dealing with eight different quarterbacks, but also because he played in a all but one game. D.J. Stephens missed the middle portion of the year, but was a solid number two when he was healthy. A midseason trade brought in Brent Holmes who also had a solid season. As a result of all the faces and struggles of the offense, the Talons top-notch defense was heavily overlooked. San Antonio did a great job of putting this defense together entering 2013 and all eight men played for 18 games; being the strength of the Alamo for this season.
The Good from 2013:- Won ten games despite 17 different guys at quarterback and receiver.
- Put together one of the AFL's best defenses.
- Road record of 6-3.
PLAYER STATS
- Rohan Davey 135-249, 1653 yds, 30 TD, 14 Int; 3 rush TD (7 games--5 starts)
- Nick Hill 108-182, 1197 yds, 21 TD, 9 Int; 64 rush yds, 4 TD (7 games--6 starts)
- Xavier Lee 48-101, 577 yds, 8 TD, 5 Int; 20 rec, 204 yds, 3 TD; 30 rush yds, 5 TD (8 games--4 starts)
- Chad Cook 89 rush, 277 yds, 12 TD (17 games)
- Jomo Wilson 98 rec, 1206 yds, 24 TD (17 games)
- D.J. Stephens 55 rec, 738 yds, 13 TD; 650 kick-ret yds, 4 TD (11 games)
- Brent Holmes 50 rec, 678 yds, 9 TD; Kick-ret TD (8 games)
- Fred Shaw 64.5 tackles, 11 Int, 2 Def TD (18 games)
- Carlton Brown 78 tackles, 8 Int, FR (18 games)
- Jamar Ransom 94 tackles, 2 sacks, 7 Int, 2 FF, 3 FR, 4 Def TD (18 games)
- Andre Jones 85 tackles, 4 Int, FR (18 games)
- Joe Sykes 34.5 tackles (18.5 TFL), 14.5 sacks, 4 FF, Int (18 games)
- Tim McGill 16.5 tackles (8 TFL), 6 sacks, 2 FF, FR (18 games)
TEAM STATS
- 4th rush offense (28.8 ypg)
- 5th in scoring defense (49.1 ppg)
- 4th rush defense (19.0 ypg)
- 5th pass defense (247.0 ypg)
- 5th total defense (266.0 ypg)
- 3rd in defensive pass efficiency (95.9)
- 3rd in opponent 3rd-down conversions (39.6%)
- 3rd in sacks (35)
- 4th in opponent 4th-down conversions (13/38)
- Best red zone defense (61/88)
The Bad from 2013:
- Lost three of first four games.
- Lost three of their four games in July.
- Eight different quarterbacks and nine different receivers.
- Losses to Arizona of 83-40 in week five and 70-21 in week twelve.
- Ugly losses in July to San Jose (62-35) and Spokane (77-30) that ultimately kept them out of the playoffs.
PLAYER STATS
- All the notable stats represent solid seasons, so I am going to list the different players to suit up on offense.
- QB: John Dutton (2 starts), Nick Hill (6 starts), Nick Frazier (1 start), Xavier Lee (3 starts), Rohan Davey (5 starts), Robert Kent (1 start), Nick Fanuzzi (1 game), Marcus Jackson (1 game).
- Wide Receiver: Jomo Wilson, D.J. Stephens, Brent Holmes, Burl Toler, Dwayne Eley Jr, Robert Quiroga, Xavier Lee, Sale Key, and Dallas Baker. -- all nine of these guys caught at least one touchdown this year.
TEAM STATS
- 2nd-worst scoring offense (43.4 ppg)
- Worst pass offense (234.9 ypg) 40 int
- 12th in total offense (263.8 ypg)
- Worst in pass efficiency (72.5)
- 10th in turnover margin (-12)
- 2nd-worst red zone offense (54/79)
The Reason for a Losing Season:
The Talons faults this year were mostly on the offense who ranked near, or at the bottom in most categories. This is understandable with all the changes that injuries caused. The defense for San Antonio was a fantastic unit that was directed by Jamar Ransom and Pierre Turner in the middle, had Joe Sykes, Tim McGill, and Victor DeGrate up front, and boasted a secondary of Fred Shaw, Andre Jones, and Carlton Brown who combined for 23 interceptions. For all the injuries that riddled the offense and caused a top-four defense to be as overlooked as they were, 2013 has to go down as a success for the Talons being able to still win ten games and miss the playoffs via a point-differential tiebreak.
2013 Finish: 10-8 (2-2 in Central), fifth in National Conference; only team with winning record to miss postseason.
For more on the San Antonio Talons:
http://www.arenafootball.com/
http://www.arenafootball.com/teams/afltln/
http://www.sanantoniotalons.com/
http://nicksblogofsports.blogspot.com/2013/03/2013-arena-football-season-kickoff.html
http://nicksblogofsports.blogspot.com/2013/04/2013-afl-season-frist-quarter-anaylsis.html
http://nicksblogofsports.blogspot.com/2013/06/2013-afl-midway-report-central.html
http://nicksblogofsports.blogspot.com/2013/07/afl-turning-into-home-stretch-central.html
http://www.arenafootball.com/sports/a-footbl/stats/2013/CONFSTAT.HTM
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