Thursday 25th February, 2010
Thunder Rally Fails to Overcome Surge

By Jason Compton
FWL.org.uk

ORLANDO (AP) – The Orlando Thunder suffered their first loss of the season this week, falling to the Sacramento Surge 31-24. It was the team's first away game, and fatigue may have been a factor as both offense and defense failed to show for the third quarter, letting Surge tailback Kory Chapman run wild.

The Thunder defense had no answer for Chapman, who carried 24 times for
132 yards and a touchdown, and caught nine passes from Drew Olson.
Chapman was virtually the entire Surge offense—Olson completed only five other passes on the day.

The Thunder were off their game in the first two periods, going to halftime with the Surge leading 17-10. The Surge dominated the third quarter, running the score up to 31-10. But the Thunder did not fold.
The defense woke up in the fourth quarter and kept the Surge from widening the lead. An 80-yard drive, aided by a fourth down encroachment penalty on defensive tackle Kevin Emanuel, culminated in a risky throw on 4^th -and-4 from the Surge 6 to Dee Brown for the touchdown. With just 3:04 left in the game but all three timeouts, the Thunder elected to kick deep and trust in the defense. The Surge complied with a three-and-out, punting back to Orlando which took over on their own 29 with 1:54 to go.

Facing a game-threatening 4^th -and-6 on Sacramento's 29 and needing two touchdowns, quarterback Kliff Kingsbury rediscovered his Week 1 legs and scampered 23 yards, setting up a six yard pass to tight end Chris Patrick. With 30 seconds left and the score 31-24, the time had come for the onside kick, which was scooped up neatly by kickoff return specialist John Booth after a fight for the ball at midfield. With 29 seconds left on the clock and just 51 yards to go, it looked like the Thunder might go to 3-0 for the first time in ages.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. On the second play from scrimmage at the 38, with just 13 seconds left, Kingsbury found his downfield receivers blanketed. Rather than throw the ball away and try again, he dumped off to Brown, hoping Brown could get out of bounds after a short gain. But Surge cornerback Art Thomas had other plans, wrestling Brown to the ground in-bounds and cementing the victory.

Deficiencies in gameplanning were obvious. The Thunder had hoped to repeat last week's performance, shutting down the Thunder with a blistering blitz package and creating turnovers. But Chapman's running dominance meant that Olson dropped back only infrequently, and when he did, the Surge generally kept a tight end in to block. The Thunder's overmatched linebackers had difficulty shutting down Chapman's pass-catching threat. With the Thunder unable to dislodge the ball or intercept Olson's safe throws, the Surge were able to hold serve often enough to run out winners.